Saturday, March 27, 2010

Not Everyone in the Gurlesque Anthology Is Straight!

I want to clear up a misconception several people seem to have about the Gurlesque anthology: not all of the poets and visual artists in the Gurlesque anthology are straight. That's a fact.

I've hesitated to say this because I don't want to start making lists of who fucks who, but I do want to point this out.

There is a lot of cock-on-cunt action in the anthology, yes, but then again, the Gurlesque is very much about enacting the pathology of the hetero. Making it spasm.

7 Comments:

Blogger Danielle said...

I'm going to double post this, 'cause it's something that I just found out, and interesting: Brenda Shaughnessy's Interior with Sudden Joy was a finalist for the Lambda Award, and the FSG publicity for the book called it "queer, cool, excited, and pissed." This work is excerpted in the Gurlesque anthology.

1:10 PM  
Blogger Heidi Lynn Staples said...

i do love the idea of a girl in on and as girl enriched rosy plumped up with more puss Gurlesque 2.0--but i'm wondering, is the work there--can anyone point to notable omissions?

10:27 PM  
Blogger Sandra Simonds said...

hmmm, sorry I have not read all the threads so maybe some of this ground has already been covered. (very interesting discussion, by the way).It seems like the issue that is being raised is one that is inherent in all anthologies: what you leave in, what you leave out and the argument that is made on the basis of this inclusion /exclusion. The anthology can't be everything and everyone, or there would be no need for the anthology, right?

I would be worried, like Lara is saying, if we start just tallying up people based on their sexual orientation or just include people because they are gay or not for that matter. Wouldnt' that be more offensive?

I have to admit have no idea what a "queer" strategy is or what it means.

Thanks for the interesting posts.

7:01 AM  
Blogger et said...

cunt-on-cock, you mean.

8:09 AM  
Blogger et said...

cunt-on-cock, you mean.

8:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sandra,

The problem lies in the fact that an anthology is about representation, a claim to "mapping" what is happening, as the editors cite. So what gets left out is quite relevant because it is not represented. You can't include *everyone*, obviously, but you can be inclusive and exclusive -- these terms are not arbitrary fluff.

Examples are not difficult to find, though locating them is not my job. If you want a taste of what I mean after a couple of quick searches, see my post:

http://amyking.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/the-gurlesque/

Amy

12:53 PM  
Blogger Ana Božičević said...

Some final thoughts on the queer in/and the gurlesque here:

http://amyking.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/the-gurlesque/
&
http://amyking.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/finalish-thoughts-on-the-gurlesque-from-ana/

1:34 PM  

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