Plane Queer, Stuck in the Middle with You, The B Word
New nonfiction titles not to miss.
April 12, 2013
Phil Tiemeyer’s Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality and AIDS in the History of the Male Flight Attendant (University of California Press) is the fun, dynamic history book you wish you’d had in high school. Intelligent and finely researched, Plane Queer answers questions you might not have thought to ask (like how the profession became a “gay” one) and examines the role of the flight attendant in 20th century America, from the popularization of commercial air travel to the AIDS epidemic to flying culture post-September 11. And that’s all without broaching the Mile High Club subject.
Trans author Jennifer Finney Boylan was already an established novelist when she began transitioning in her middle age, a period she recounted in her 2003 memoir She’s Not There. Now, with Stuck in the Middle with You: Parenting in Three Genders (Crown), she’s delivered another witty, heartwarming and well-crafted account of transgender experiences, combining her own storytelling with interviews of authors and friends, as well as her wife, to consider just what it takes to make a family.
In The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television (Indiana University Press), Maria San Filippo turns her razor-sharp intellect on the representation of bisexuality in modern media, where it still remains somewhat unspoken, often overshadowed by the hard-won visibility of gays and lesbians. Placing bisexual desire center stage, San Filippo’s book is a much-needed addition to the field of queer media studies. Plus, her take on True Blood is almost as fun as the show itself—and a whole lot smarter.
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