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Fear of Difference

by
June–July 2003, no. 252

Unpacking Queer Politics by Sheila Jeffreys

Polity Press, $49.95pb, 189 pp

Fear of Difference

by
June–July 2003, no. 252

Reviewing a book is rarely a simple exercise and those who think it is should pause before accepting the commission. It is a delicate exercise, this balancing of critique, subjectivity, envy and even-handedness. You never quite know if you have hit the right balance. A nagging fear of being ungracious, and revealing too much of the self, can result in days of procrastination. This degree of difficulty is multiplied when reviewing a book that directly attacks one’s chosen way of life, as is the case in this book’s denunciation of gay male sexual practice. So let me be honest. I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into when I agreed to review Sheila Jeffreys’s latest lesbian feminist offering, Unpacking Queer Politics. Nine years ago, I wrote a review of Jeffreys’s work for a postgraduate politics journal. It was a ‘swingeing critique’ - a phrase Jeffreys deploys frequently in Unpacking Queer Politics when she approvingly cites likeminded theorists - and Dr Jeffreys was none too pleased. As we both worked in the same building at Melbourne University, this made for some uncomfortable elevator rides.

Unpacking Queer Politics

Unpacking Queer Politics

by Sheila Jeffreys

Polity Press, $49.95pb, 189 pp

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