1st Edition

Bisexual Spaces A Geography of Sexuality and Gender

By Clare Hemmings Copyright 2002
    256 Pages 10 Color & 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    256 Pages 10 Color & 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    256 Pages 10 Color & 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    A largely unexplored area, this is an innovative and original examination of bisexual spaces as places that are defined by both geographical boundaries and cultural significance. Hemmings applies the ideas of queer theory as well as social and cultural geography in her fascinating investigation into the spaces and places of bisexual life. Specifically focusing on Northhampton, MA and San Francisco, she draws on interviews with community members and the town histories showing how and why they have developed into safe places for the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities. By mapping out a space of bisexuality, Bisexual Spaces provides a new and provocative understanding of the concept.

    List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: Bisexual Landscapes Chapter Two: Desire By Any Other Name Chapter Three: Representing the Middle Ground Chapter Four: A Place to Call Home

    Biography

    Clare Hemmings is a Lecturer in Gender Studies Theory at the Gender Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    "Armed with theoretical agility, experiences personal and political, feminist and queer commitments, and an unflinching skepticism, Clare Hemmings wanders through the multiple spaces of bisexuality-geographical, theoretical, political, and cultural. Her report from these fronts is keen and challenging, a welcome addition to the development of critical bisexual theory, and to gender and sexuality studies more generally." -- Joshua Gamson, author of Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity
    "Clare Hemmings transforms the historically marginalized space of bisexuality. Here is an unfettered bisexual theorist whose prose is disarmingly lucid and powerful. Hemmings pushes the queer performative subject way beyond its currently rigid lesbian and gay locations. Feminists, postmodernists, queer and gender theorists alike should be indebted to Hemmings for grounding her truly original theories on bisexuality in meticulous and convincing scholarship." -- Jyl Lynn Felman, author of Never a Dull Moment: Teaching and the Art of Performance