Review: Girls Can Kiss Now

 


Yeahhh this was a bit too much in the string of cis white lesbians for me. I don’t know why precisely but this one in particular just felt incredibly cisgender. I should have flagged some of the particular moments that rubbed me the wrong way and I didn’t, but there were definitely a few instances where it just didn’t feel like the author had ever considered the trans perspective. Similarly, it often seemed that the author was lumping bi and pan people in with lesbians, which…let’s maybe not.

Also, I really struggle with speculation about celebrities’ sexuality. It’s one of my least favorite forms of discourse because a) it inevitably leads to accusations of queerbaiting and b) oh my God you are not entitled to information about anyone’s sexual orientation ever. Even if they seem really super queer. Even if they’re in the public eye. Even if you think it would be really super good for the queer community if someone with that level of influence came out. I. Don’t. Care. It’s not your business. Even famous people deserve the space to explore themselves through art without people jumping down their throats and assigning labels to them.

Anyway obviously this is something I have really strong feelings about and there is literally an entire essay in this book about how the author thinks Taylor Swift is queer. I just. Really disliked it.

I also found a lot of the book absolutely perplexing – for instance, the essay about lesbian canon. I think it was largely satirical, but perhaps because I am not a lesbian, I felt like there were a lot of references I was missing. Which is definitely a me problem, and I’m sure there are plenty of lesbians for whom these essays were immensely entertaining. Once again, I was just not the target audience.



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