Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit (Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance)

Good

Fantastic book! Bailey's ethnography of Ballroom in Detroit, illuminates the ways Black sexual marginals resist multiple forms of exclusion to create a new gender and sexual system and kinship through a dynamic form of cultural production. Read this book if you want to be challenged and inspired!

So I used this text in an Anthropology course, specifically to understand the experiences of those who are in the LGBTQ community. This text helped alot since it centered on the black LGBTQ community in Detroit. I never knew that in Detroit the culture was accommodating of gender variant individuals. As I soon found out, from watching the films Paris is Burning and The Aggressives, even though a community may appear accommodating of queers and transgender individuals power hierarchies exist within their own identities and categories. This was a good enthography to read as introduction into the world of the black LGBTQ community in Detroit. This would be a good text for most anthropology courses which focus on gender variant individuals. The book arrived on time however, due to its packaging the back spine was torn. However it was able to serve my purpose for my anthropology course and that's all that I needed. So I gave it three stars due to the packaging which resulted in a tear on the spine, however besides that the book came in good condition and was ready for use.

I teach this book in black masculinities courses. It is well researched and written. I also use it as an example of ethnographic methods for graduate students.

I am from Detroit and had no idea about the burgeoning Ballroom Community in the city, which speaks to the author's point. I love the critical analysis being brought to bear on the subject matter. The author effectively combines his personal voice and experience with an academic analysis.

The media could not be loaded.  I ordered the book two months ago, cracked it open today to have it read by thursday for class, the first 70 pages of the book are blank! Return window is closed. Definitely stressful and disappointing.