Familiar Perversions
256 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:18 Jul 2018
ISBN:9780813591353
Hardcover
Release Date:18 Jul 2018
ISBN:9780813591360
Familiar Perversions
The Racial, Sexual, and Economic Politics of LGBT Families
Rutgers University Press
Winner of the 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Over the past two decades, same-sex couples raising children have become more visible within US political and popular culture. Thanks to widely circulated images of well-mannered, well-dressed, and well-off two-parent families, a select number of LGBT-identified parents have gained recognition as model American citizens. In Familiar Perversions, Liz Montegary shows how this seemingly progressive view of same-sex parenting has taken shape during a period of growing racial inequality and economic insecurity in the United States. This book evaluates the recent successes of the “family equality” movement, while asking important questions about its relationship to neoliberalism, the policing of sexual cultures, and the broader context of social justice organizing at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Montegary’s investigation of the politics of LGBT family life takes us on a journey that includes not only activist events and the courtrooms where landmark decisions about same-sex families were made, but also parenting workshops, cruise ships, and gay resort towns. Through its sustained historical analysis, Familiar Perversions lays critical groundwork for imagining a queer family movement that can support and strengthen the diverse networks of care, kinship, and intimacy on which our collective survival depends.
Over the past two decades, same-sex couples raising children have become more visible within US political and popular culture. Thanks to widely circulated images of well-mannered, well-dressed, and well-off two-parent families, a select number of LGBT-identified parents have gained recognition as model American citizens. In Familiar Perversions, Liz Montegary shows how this seemingly progressive view of same-sex parenting has taken shape during a period of growing racial inequality and economic insecurity in the United States. This book evaluates the recent successes of the “family equality” movement, while asking important questions about its relationship to neoliberalism, the policing of sexual cultures, and the broader context of social justice organizing at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Montegary’s investigation of the politics of LGBT family life takes us on a journey that includes not only activist events and the courtrooms where landmark decisions about same-sex families were made, but also parenting workshops, cruise ships, and gay resort towns. Through its sustained historical analysis, Familiar Perversions lays critical groundwork for imagining a queer family movement that can support and strengthen the diverse networks of care, kinship, and intimacy on which our collective survival depends.
Well researched, compellingly argued, and beautifully written, Familiar Perversions provides a wholly original approach to the cultural politics of LGBT families. Montegary seamlessly weaves together multiple methods and literatures in this important and timely book.
Essential.
Chronicle of Higher Education new scholarly books weekly book list,' by Nina C. Ayoub
Familiar Perversions chosen as a Choice 'Outstanding Academic Title' for 2018
[Familiar Perversions'] descriptive account and...separate prescriptions are important contributions toward a more emancipatory queer agenda. [It] serve[s] as timely reminders that the legacy of Stonewall is still unfolding—and that we all have a part to play in how the discourse surrounding queer rights is written.
Familiar Perversions demonstrates the strengths and importance of taking an interdisciplinary, cultural studies approach to LGBT life and politics….Refreshing….Familiar Perversions is necessary reading for scholars of LGBT studies, queer theory, social movements, and the family.
A truly impressive work of interdisciplinary cultural studies...An invaluable recourse for scholars and students considering questions of homonormativity, homonationalism, and reproductive futurism, the impetus of its lucid, precise writing lies more in political strategy building than in theoretical intervention.
Liz Montegary’s Familiar Perversions provides an in-depth examination of the emergence of the LGBT family as a recognized and increasingly legitimate cultural formation....One of the most significant contributions of Familiar Perversions is Montegary’s ability to find queer possibilities within neoliberal family formations.
As a queer scholar and adult daughter of lesbian mothers, I cannot overstate how refreshing it was to read [this] text. Montegary rightfully and shrewdly critiques much of the individualized, equal-rights-focused LGBT parenting activism in the United States, but she never loses sight of the fact that she is speaking about real families. It is clear she is conscious of the scrutiny and homophobia that even the most privileged queer families face, and she is respectful of the communities they create to combat these forces, as well as the real feelings of affirmation that some families experience when receiving state-sanctioned benefits and recognition.
LIZ MONTEGARY is an assistant professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Stony Brook University in New York. She is the coeditor of Mobile Desires: The Politics and Erotics of Mobility Justice.
Introduction: Familiar Perversions
1 Anxiety: The History of Lesbian and Gay Parenting Activism
2 Visibility: Local Communities, Transnational Economies, and the Exceptionally American Family
3 Equality: Same-Sex Marriage and the Precarity and Perversity of Children
4 Vitality: The Family Business of Health Promotion and Wealth Management
Conclusion: Toward a Queer Family Politics
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index
1 Anxiety: The History of Lesbian and Gay Parenting Activism
2 Visibility: Local Communities, Transnational Economies, and the Exceptionally American Family
3 Equality: Same-Sex Marriage and the Precarity and Perversity of Children
4 Vitality: The Family Business of Health Promotion and Wealth Management
Conclusion: Toward a Queer Family Politics
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index
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