2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Queer lives give rise to a vast array of objects: the things we fill our houses with, the gifts we share with our friends, the commodities we consume at work and at play, the clothes and accessories we wear, various reminders of state power, as well as the analogue and digital technologies we use to communicate with one another. But what makes an object queer?
The sixty-three chapters in Queer Objects consider this question in relation to lesbian, gay and transgender communities across time, cultures, and space. In this unique international collaboration, well-known and newer writers traverse world history to write about fabulous, captivating, and transgressive items ranging from ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and Roman artefacts to political placards, snapshots, sex toys, and the smartphone.
Table of Contents
1. The Queerness of Objects
CHRIS BRICKELL & JUDITH COLLARD
2. The First Gay Kiss?
RICHARD BRUCE PARKINSON
3. Tutanekai’s Flute
PAERAU WARBRICK
4. Faces of Queer-Aboriginality
DINO HODGE
5. Pasting Together an Identity
HELEN PAUSACKER
6. The Strapless Satchel
JEFFREY VAUGHAN
7. The Queering of Action Man
GREG MINISSALE
8. Reading Two Gay Histories
BEN ANDERSON-NATHE
9. Fragments of Sappho
CHRIS BRICKELL
10. New World Slavery’s Queer Object
CARINA PASQUESI
11. Freda’s Mountaineering Memoir
CHRIS BRICKELL
12. Teddy’s Illustrated Letter
RACHEL HOPE CLEVES
13. Four Saints in Three Acts
TIRZA TRUE LATIMER
14. Donald Friend’s Life in Letters
TIM ROBERTS
15. Dear Dawn, Can I Hold You?
LAUREN BRITTON
16. A Gay Magazine in Communist Poland
LUKASZ SZULC
17. The Cunt Coloring Book
MARGO HOBBS
18. Henry’s Albums
BARRY REAY
19. Sammy’s Stud File
BARRY REAY
20. The Proverbial Lavender Dildo
ERICA RAND
21. Amos’s Chair
BARRY REAY
22. Cruising Masculine Spaces
JUDITH COLLARD
23. The Stuff of Cruising
JOHN HOWARD
24. The Warren Cup
CHRIS BRICKELL
25. Monuments
PETER SHERLOCK
26. Robert Gant’s Shoes
CHRIS BRICKELL
27. Oscar’s Photograph?
NEIL BARTLETT
28. Saint Sebastian
CHRIS BRICKELL
29. Tender Buttons
JANE TRENGROVE
30. The Paintings of Lois White
JUDITH COLLARD
31. The L Word Quilt
AMANDA LITTAUER & DIANE JOHNS
32. The Queen of Polka Holes
KATSUHIKO SUGANUMA
33. Queer Dogs
HEIKE BAUER
34. Our Own Dear House
BEV ROBERTS
35. An Attic Apartment
CHRIS BRICKELL
36. The Rotary Dial Telephone
MATT COOK
37. C734
CHRISTOPHER CASTIGLIA & CHRISTOPHER REED
38. Saint Eugenia’s Relics
ROBERT MILLS
39. A Tram Ticket, an Egyptian and an Englishman
ROBERT ALDRICH
40. To My Friend from His Friend
GRAHAM WILLETT
41. The Story of a Locket
PETER WELLS
42. Till We Meet Again
JO CAMPBELL
43. A Set of Wedding Photos
ELISE CHENIER
44. Carl Wittman and the AIDS Quilt
AMANDA LITTAUER & DIANE JOHNS
45. Exhibit A: The Powder Puff
WAYNE MURDOCH
46. Neil McConaghy’s Penile Plethysmograph
KATE DAVISON
47. A Military Discharge Certificate
SHIRLEENE ROBINSON
48. The Moral Majority is Neither
TIMOTHY WILLEM JONES
48. Devotional Objects
MELISSA M. WILCOX
50. Political Buttons
KATHERINE A. HERMES
51. Plastic Politics
JAMES BURFORD, KATH KHANGPIBOON &
JUTATHORN PRAVATTIYAGUL
52. Bloomers and Monocles
NIKKI SULLIVAN & CRAIG MIDDLETON
53. A Lesbian Waistcoat
NADIA GUSH
54. Lesbian Lipstick
REINA LEWIS
55. Punk Jacket
MARCUS BUNYAN
56. The Australian Speedo
YORICK SMAAL
57. The World’s First Gay Travel Guide
DANIEL BRANDL-BECK
58. Keith’s Slides
CHRIS BRICKELL
59. John Hunter’s Make-up Box
CHRIS BRICKELL
60. The Portable Lesbian Party
ALISON ORAM
61. The Rangers Motorclub Flag
TIM ROBERTS
62. The Disco Ball and the DJ
PHILIP HUGHES
63. Queer Smartphones
SIMON CLAY
List of Contributors
Notes
Photo References
Index