“Flowering dogwood trees are bisexual... Like us.”
July 21, 2023 11:47 AM Subscribe
The “Unhinged Bisexual Woman” Novel is a critical review of the novels Big Swiss and Milk Fed and the hetereo-gaze in certain #sapphicbooks" in the socialist feminist glossy Lux Magazine. Writes Emma Copley Eisenberg: "The queer relationships in these books are plot devices meant not to say anything new about queer love or intimacy but meant rather to pit the bisexual or straight-proximate characters against themselves." Referenced in the article is a more hopeful write-up on the sapphic literature trend in 2022. Eisenberg previously on MeFi.
I think it's normal that these books are being published, there are plenty of books about being alienated by straight sex and with more sexual freedom, you can now get sexual alienation in many different flavors. Although do men write these books? About how they're sleeping with a man and his penis looks like a strange pink gourd? I guess there's not a market for that. I don't think men are supposed to be as alienated from their own bodies, but what would I know?
(It's also interesting how these books are homophobic and heterophobic at the same time--homosexuality is an all understanding paradise but it isn't real unless you are somehow elected to it by birth, heterosexuality is disgusting and destructive, but anyone capable of it must be destroyed by it.)
posted by kingdead at 12:21 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
(It's also interesting how these books are homophobic and heterophobic at the same time--homosexuality is an all understanding paradise but it isn't real unless you are somehow elected to it by birth, heterosexuality is disgusting and destructive, but anyone capable of it must be destroyed by it.)
posted by kingdead at 12:21 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's also interesting how these books are homophobic and heterophobic at the same time
Gonna link to this series on heteropessimism that was linked by mittens on the other post.
posted by airmail at 12:33 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Gonna link to this series on heteropessimism that was linked by mittens on the other post.
posted by airmail at 12:33 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
I haven't read either of these books and they may well suck on their own terms, but I wince at statements like this, offered as critical evaluation:
Basically, this critique sounds like it's drawing from the "all queer lit must be celebratory!" well, which, well, I'm not going to tell people how to do their politics or what they should choose to spend their time reading, but, as a literary yardstick, it sucks.
posted by praemunire at 2:04 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
In neither book does the female main character desire specific women because she wants to; rather, her sexual desires are mediated by suspicion and fear of her body, her gender, her appetites, and her emotional needs.Do wlw have a switch they can throw? Because this sounds like...ordinary sexual experience for a lot of us heterosexual women. Maybe there's a technique I can learn so that my sexual desire is never mediated by concerns about my body?
Basically, this critique sounds like it's drawing from the "all queer lit must be celebratory!" well, which, well, I'm not going to tell people how to do their politics or what they should choose to spend their time reading, but, as a literary yardstick, it sucks.
posted by praemunire at 2:04 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
(That description of intercourse should be nominated for that yearly award for worst sex in literature, though!)
posted by praemunire at 2:06 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 2:06 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
All I know is I have a beautiful flowering dogwood, but its season is so short! I don't know if this is also a euphemism, but I am talking about the actual tree in my backyard.
posted by atomicstone at 2:23 PM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by atomicstone at 2:23 PM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Oh man that sex scene felt like a test for aphantasia. Now picture a flower! An acorn! A unicorn! Back to the acorn! Two dragonflies!
posted by airmail at 3:03 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by airmail at 3:03 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Now back to me! Anything is possible when you're bisexual!
posted by praemunire at 3:04 PM on July 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 3:04 PM on July 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
I think there's a pretty clear difference between "all queer lit must be celebratory" and "it seems kind of off that the queer lit that is most popular and promoted aligns with these heteronormative narratives about queer women," or, in the words of TA:
What kinds of queer stories get plucked from literary obscurity and sold to mainstream, straight audiences? Those that satisfy straight appetites, of course.
posted by overglow at 3:27 PM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
What kinds of queer stories get plucked from literary obscurity and sold to mainstream, straight audiences? Those that satisfy straight appetites, of course.
posted by overglow at 3:27 PM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
What kinds of queer stories get plucked from literary obscurity and sold to mainstream, straight audiences? Those that satisfy straight appetites, of course.
What exactly is the straight appetite here? To be told that you're going to be miserable? Because I'm not seeing a lot of literary fiction where women experience love with men, either. The vibe is alienation whether it's coochie or cock.
posted by kingdead at 4:22 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
What exactly is the straight appetite here? To be told that you're going to be miserable? Because I'm not seeing a lot of literary fiction where women experience love with men, either. The vibe is alienation whether it's coochie or cock.
posted by kingdead at 4:22 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well. That's her thesis statement. But while I have a number of examples in my head of the history of queer stories being spun to satisfy straight appetites, what exactly this particular author means by that isn't entirely clear. I kept fumbling for her meaning the whole time I was reading the essay.
Are straight audiences (and let's be realistic, here she's largely talking about straight female audiences) clamoring for queer (because that's the necessary qualifier here) "novels [that] suggest that the main character is at best ambivalent about women’s bodies and at worst repulsed by it"? Queer novels which are "the opposite of caring or earnest, [implying] that everything is material for a joke, love is for suckers, and politics, including gay liberation, is a bore"? Queer novels which "share a remarkable commitment to avoiding earnestly expressed emotion and lived, meaningful bisexuality"? Or the passage I quoted above, about the characters' not having the power to will whom they desire, but rather having what I still think is an extremely common relationship for women with their sexuality?
The "unhinged" thing seems to come closest, but the unhinged thing here is not Sharon-Stone-in-Basic Instinct nonsense, it's that...they talk about food? Maybe there's a better version of this argument out there, but this seems lacking to me.
Anyway, this reads a lot to me like a "I don't like these books, I don't enjoy spending time with these characters, but I feel like I have to have a political reason for doing so because I can't just come out and say, 'I don't like these people, they're unpleasant, I wish there were fewer of this type of narrator floating around', can I?" piece.
posted by praemunire at 4:24 PM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Are straight audiences (and let's be realistic, here she's largely talking about straight female audiences) clamoring for queer (because that's the necessary qualifier here) "novels [that] suggest that the main character is at best ambivalent about women’s bodies and at worst repulsed by it"? Queer novels which are "the opposite of caring or earnest, [implying] that everything is material for a joke, love is for suckers, and politics, including gay liberation, is a bore"? Queer novels which "share a remarkable commitment to avoiding earnestly expressed emotion and lived, meaningful bisexuality"? Or the passage I quoted above, about the characters' not having the power to will whom they desire, but rather having what I still think is an extremely common relationship for women with their sexuality?
The "unhinged" thing seems to come closest, but the unhinged thing here is not Sharon-Stone-in-Basic Instinct nonsense, it's that...they talk about food? Maybe there's a better version of this argument out there, but this seems lacking to me.
Anyway, this reads a lot to me like a "I don't like these books, I don't enjoy spending time with these characters, but I feel like I have to have a political reason for doing so because I can't just come out and say, 'I don't like these people, they're unpleasant, I wish there were fewer of this type of narrator floating around', can I?" piece.
posted by praemunire at 4:24 PM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Now back to me! Anything is possible when you're bisexual!
Now I’m on a horse!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:27 PM on July 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
Now I’m on a horse!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:27 PM on July 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
Are we still saying 'cringe'? Because I cringed hard at her description of these books! Yeek!
The review didn't make me want to read them... except for the frequent comparisons to Moshfegh's Eileen, which I loved. So I can't tell if this is just a "different strokes for different folks" question of personal taste, or if these two books really are uniquely bad.
Oh man that sex scene felt like a test for aphantasia. Now picture a flower! An acorn! A unicorn! Back to the acorn! Two dragonflies!
Yeah, that was an exceedingly visual, in the sense of relying entirely on visual metaphors, scene. It's an interesting choice given that it is depicting a situation in which other senses -- smell, touch, taste -- might matter even more. I presume the intent is deliberate, to highlight her sense of separation from what is actually happening, but it's hard to tell without the context.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:34 PM on July 21, 2023
The review didn't make me want to read them... except for the frequent comparisons to Moshfegh's Eileen, which I loved. So I can't tell if this is just a "different strokes for different folks" question of personal taste, or if these two books really are uniquely bad.
Oh man that sex scene felt like a test for aphantasia. Now picture a flower! An acorn! A unicorn! Back to the acorn! Two dragonflies!
Yeah, that was an exceedingly visual, in the sense of relying entirely on visual metaphors, scene. It's an interesting choice given that it is depicting a situation in which other senses -- smell, touch, taste -- might matter even more. I presume the intent is deliberate, to highlight her sense of separation from what is actually happening, but it's hard to tell without the context.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:34 PM on July 21, 2023
I've read Eileen, and I've read Big Swiss, and they are tonally so very different I can't see them as part of the same trend.
The sex scenes in Big Swiss adopt the same comedic voice as the rest of the novel; they are meant to be funny, not tender. The book isn't trying to provide naturalistic sex scenes then failing (which the article kind of acknowledges, in arguing the book is the wrong kind of political project).
I'm bi, and I guess I'm unhinged, because I'm diagnosed with a severe mental illness; my heart sinks at another catchy overgeneralising phrase like Unhinged Bisexual Woman to bundle books together which I'm not really persuaded have much in common. (And perhaps this is my own history/issues, but I think arguments about bisexual characters pandering to straight readerships can accidentally share the rhetoric of assuming bi women are tourists, so the examples should be as airtight as possible).
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 6:00 PM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
The sex scenes in Big Swiss adopt the same comedic voice as the rest of the novel; they are meant to be funny, not tender. The book isn't trying to provide naturalistic sex scenes then failing (which the article kind of acknowledges, in arguing the book is the wrong kind of political project).
I'm bi, and I guess I'm unhinged, because I'm diagnosed with a severe mental illness; my heart sinks at another catchy overgeneralising phrase like Unhinged Bisexual Woman to bundle books together which I'm not really persuaded have much in common. (And perhaps this is my own history/issues, but I think arguments about bisexual characters pandering to straight readerships can accidentally share the rhetoric of assuming bi women are tourists, so the examples should be as airtight as possible).
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 6:00 PM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
Amen, Ballad of Peckham Rye.
posted by Well I never at 8:45 AM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Well I never at 8:45 AM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I had never heard of either of these books, but I remember reading a blog ages ago (like, well over twenty years) by a woman who cleaned homes and I always wondered what happened to her, and I’m fairly certain that it was Jen Beagin!
posted by cakelite at 3:07 PM on July 22, 2023
posted by cakelite at 3:07 PM on July 22, 2023
I had not heard of either of these books before but thank you for this post! It really hit on a vibe? trend? I have been noticing but have not been able to articulate.
I have recently encountered a theme in media where I am excited to finally have access to more queer stories only to find a sort of icky “gay lady stuff is kinda gross but I’m an edgy protagonist so you understand how truly abject my situation is.” Bisexuality as a sort of cry of despair? Bisexuality as proof the kids aren’t alright?
To me this emerging theme in media has a real punching down in disguise feel. It is so rare for queer stories for queer people to get major airplay and there are already decades of media portraying queerness as aberrant and anti-social. Although I would be really interested in whether this these books or this theme resonates with other queer folks.
If you are interested in an excellent summary of recent movie history around the topic of bisexuality as a symbol for mental instability I loved this episode of the film history podcast You Must Remember This focusing on Basic Instinct.
posted by forkisbetter at 9:46 AM on July 23, 2023
I have recently encountered a theme in media where I am excited to finally have access to more queer stories only to find a sort of icky “gay lady stuff is kinda gross but I’m an edgy protagonist so you understand how truly abject my situation is.” Bisexuality as a sort of cry of despair? Bisexuality as proof the kids aren’t alright?
To me this emerging theme in media has a real punching down in disguise feel. It is so rare for queer stories for queer people to get major airplay and there are already decades of media portraying queerness as aberrant and anti-social. Although I would be really interested in whether this these books or this theme resonates with other queer folks.
If you are interested in an excellent summary of recent movie history around the topic of bisexuality as a symbol for mental instability I loved this episode of the film history podcast You Must Remember This focusing on Basic Instinct.
posted by forkisbetter at 9:46 AM on July 23, 2023
Basic Instinct features a sociopathic murderer. Big Swiss features a somewhat shitty person who lives in a house with a bee infestation. Technically they may both be unstable, but if this is the gamut we're running for a trend, then yes most bi characters will fall on that spectrum, and so will most straight characters.
Putting aside whether Big Swiss is a good novel (I liked it ok, it was fine but not amazing) I guess I'm interested in whether people who worry it taps into old negative stereotypes of queerness can give examples of mentally ill bi characters in other texts that they liked, or whether we're supposed to have a morotorium. Because occasionally I hear people say "we have enough of those characters already" which, in the context of saying the existing rep is bad, sends a really interesting message to bi writers and readers with mental health issues who want - or need - to see that intersection explored.
Incidentally, the idea that self hating bi characters are the queer people straight readers are willing to engage with feels incomplete, and possibly specious to me. Queer abjection may be coming up more in literary and upmarket novels, but upbeat romances are seen as more commercial ime, and I think it could be argued the self hating/life affirming split falls along literary/commercial lines for straight characters too. To the extent more queer fiction is being commissioned, I've repeatedly found novels with bi characters a harder sell to editors, and come under pressure to make them gay or straight. The "ambiguity" is treated as a marketing problem, not something that can be exploited for straight reach. I am based in the UK though - there may be local differences.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 12:30 PM on July 23, 2023
Putting aside whether Big Swiss is a good novel (I liked it ok, it was fine but not amazing) I guess I'm interested in whether people who worry it taps into old negative stereotypes of queerness can give examples of mentally ill bi characters in other texts that they liked, or whether we're supposed to have a morotorium. Because occasionally I hear people say "we have enough of those characters already" which, in the context of saying the existing rep is bad, sends a really interesting message to bi writers and readers with mental health issues who want - or need - to see that intersection explored.
Incidentally, the idea that self hating bi characters are the queer people straight readers are willing to engage with feels incomplete, and possibly specious to me. Queer abjection may be coming up more in literary and upmarket novels, but upbeat romances are seen as more commercial ime, and I think it could be argued the self hating/life affirming split falls along literary/commercial lines for straight characters too. To the extent more queer fiction is being commissioned, I've repeatedly found novels with bi characters a harder sell to editors, and come under pressure to make them gay or straight. The "ambiguity" is treated as a marketing problem, not something that can be exploited for straight reach. I am based in the UK though - there may be local differences.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 12:30 PM on July 23, 2023
I never knew trees experienced sexual attraction.
posted by shponglespore at 9:41 AM on July 24, 2023
posted by shponglespore at 9:41 AM on July 24, 2023
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posted by mittens at 12:07 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]