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The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 305
EAN: 9780674004412
ISBN: 0674004418
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 227
Publication Date: November 01, 1999
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editorial Review:
The Trouble with Normal argues passionately against same-sex marriage, but here's the twist: not because it denigrates the institution of marriage, but because it perpetuates the cultural shame attached to sex between consenting but unmarried adults. When gay men and lesbians try to claim that they're just like "normal folk," Michael Warner writes, they do a profound disservice to other queer folk who choose not to live in monogamous or matrimonial bliss and who believe that the solution to being stigmatized for your sexuality is not to pretend it doesn't exist. Same-sex marriage advocates, he continues, often seem to be willfully blind to the cultural ramifications of their position, viewing marriage as "an intensified and deindividuated form of coming out." They don't seem to realize that if society validates their relationships, other types of relationships will by necessity be invalidated. (He also makes a strong case for the fight against sexual shame's being more than a queer issue, citing 1998's presidential impeachment crisis: "[Bill] Clinton, certainly, was not the first to discover how hard it is in this culture to assert any dignity when you stand exposed as a sexual being.") Extending his analysis, Warner shows how the championing of married gays and lesbians as "normal" is part of the same cultural climate that leads to "quality of life" crackdowns against queercentric businesses--as is already underway in New York City--and a deliberate sabotage of safer-sex education that puts millions of Americans at continued risk of exposure to HIV. Warner's precise, straightforward argument is enlivened by numerous sharp zingers, as when he accuses Andrew Sullivan of "breath[ing] new and bitchy life into Jesuitical pieties" about sexual morality. The Trouble with Normal is a bold, provocative book that forces readers to reconsider what sexual liberation really means. --Ron Hogan
Michael Warner, one of our most brilliant social critics, argues that gay marriage and other moves toward normalcy are bad not just for the gays but for everyone. In place of sexual status quo, Warner offers a vision of true sexual autonomy that will forever change the way we think about sex, shame, and identity.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Same-sex marriage != queer liberation
A comprehensive and incisive excoriation of same-sex marriage as a movement for "gay liberation." Warner's investigations of the interactions between gay shame and a push for same-sex marriage (see also Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and Benjamin Shepard) is a useful lens to explore the millions of dollars and volunteer hours going almost exclusively to same-sex marriage advocacy -- at the expense of issues that arguably have a larger impact on the day-to-day lives of most queer and trans folks, from ... Read More
Rating:  - wow
This book is for any gay rights activist who finds themselves wondering "why I am so ambivalent about gay marriage?"
I was recommended this book on amazon because one of my favorite books is Here Comes the Bride by Jaclyn Gellar. What that book does for marriage and straight women, this book does for marriage and the gay community.
It is completely and utterly vital work that Warner did.
Rating: - a little over the top
i bought this for a queer theory class and read it and found it interesting. i don't think i would have picked it up just to read, though. it's definitely something that the average jane would need to discuss to get the most out of (at least i did), but as a class text it was good... parts of it were a little over the top for me, but informative and stretched my mind for sure.
Rating: - A great and powerful demolition of the puritanical elements of the gay movement
Warner presents a highly valuable and enjoyable polemic against the increasingly LGBTQ movement or what would be better termed the growing "embourgeoisment" of the queer liberation movement represented best by such petty reactionaries as Andrew Sullivan, Michelangelo Signorile, and Larry Kramer. It certainly makes you think more about how sexually liberated we in our 'enlightened' age truly are.
Rating: - A different perspective
In this excellent book, Michael Warner explains how gay and lesbian activists are pursuing the wrong goal by advocating and working for the right to be legally married.
Warner points out that, instead, the focus ought to be on separating certain legal benefits and perks that are now only available to those in a legal marriage from one's marital status. Such marriage-linked benefits not only discriminate against gays and lesbians, but also heterosexuals in nontraditional relationships, and singles ... Read More
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