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A review by garberdog
Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings by Juana María Rodríguez
4.0
A compelling, interdisciplinary approach to queer sociality which centers the Latina femme as its subject of inquiry. Addressing themes of kinship, community, coloniality, activism, fantasy, art, and embodiment, this text is a powerful and thoroughly enjoyable read. Rodiguez offers an insightful account of the ways in which racial-gender sexual abjection can function as a site of resistance (or more aptly survival and endurance) for racialized feminized sexual subjects.
The book is divided into four main chapters addressing, in turn, kinship formations, queer activism in the face of colonial domination, dance and sex as metaphors/exemplars for new conceptions of queer sociality, and the role of abjection and fantasy for racialized feminized subjects.
As someone who is skeptical of the political potential of sex, I found many of the arguments made productively challenging, and I feel more open-minded and empathetic after having read this. Rodriguez makes some very cool points about not conflating fantasy with material forms of violence (especially when it is the fantasies of marginalized subjects); the power of friendship as a new model for queer sociality; and the productive constraints of social codes.
I did however have to refrain from giving this book a 5-star rating because at many point, Rodriguez makes claims that are, frankly, off-key and disturbing. For example, she decides to re-code butch/femme lesbian sexuality with heteronormative, "butch as he/femme as she" language, and writes an account that seems almost patriarchal at points. This is only for a few pages in the third chapter, but I was left wondering what exactly she was trying to argue here. She also doesn't seem to think sexual violence is prisons is serious concern, until she does, and then doesn't again. This however is a common theme in queer theory texts: bold, broad claims in the name of sexual freedom stuck in the middle of paragraphs and which are never explained or problematized.
I just read "Are the Lips a Grave?" by Lynne Huffer before this, and I recommend reading them in combination. They seem to be attempting similar projects from different perspectives, and they compliment each other well.
The book is divided into four main chapters addressing, in turn, kinship formations, queer activism in the face of colonial domination, dance and sex as metaphors/exemplars for new conceptions of queer sociality, and the role of abjection and fantasy for racialized feminized subjects.
As someone who is skeptical of the political potential of sex, I found many of the arguments made productively challenging, and I feel more open-minded and empathetic after having read this. Rodriguez makes some very cool points about not conflating fantasy with material forms of violence (especially when it is the fantasies of marginalized subjects); the power of friendship as a new model for queer sociality; and the productive constraints of social codes.
I did however have to refrain from giving this book a 5-star rating because at many point, Rodriguez makes claims that are, frankly, off-key and disturbing. For example, she decides to re-code butch/femme lesbian sexuality with heteronormative, "butch as he/femme as she" language, and writes an account that seems almost patriarchal at points. This is only for a few pages in the third chapter, but I was left wondering what exactly she was trying to argue here. She also doesn't seem to think sexual violence is prisons is serious concern, until she does, and then doesn't again. This however is a common theme in queer theory texts: bold, broad claims in the name of sexual freedom stuck in the middle of paragraphs and which are never explained or problematized.
I just read "Are the Lips a Grave?" by Lynne Huffer before this, and I recommend reading them in combination. They seem to be attempting similar projects from different perspectives, and they compliment each other well.