Growing Up Queer: Kids and the Remaking of LGBTQ Identity
Mary Robertson
(Author)
Description
LGBTQ kids reveal what it's like to be young and queer today
Growing Up Queer explores the changing ways that young people are now becoming LGBT-identified in the US. Through interviews and three years of ethnographic research at an LGBTQ youth drop-in center, Mary Robertson focuses on the voices and stories of youths themselves in order to show how young people understand their sexual and gender identities, their interest in queer media, and the role that family plays in their lives. The young people who participated in this research are among the first generation to embrace queer identities as children and adolescents. This groundbreaking and timely consideration of queer identity demonstrates how sexual and gender identities are formed through complicated, ambivalent processes as opposed to being natural characteristics that one is born with. In addition to showing how youth understand their identities, Growing Up Queer describes how young people navigate queerness within a culture where being gay is the "new normal." Using Sara Ahmed's concept of queer orientation, Robertson argues that being queer is not just about one's sexual and/or gender identity, but is understood through intersecting identities including race, class, ability, and more. By showing how society accepts some kinds of LGBTQ-identified people while rejecting others, Growing Up Queer provides evidence of queerness as a site of social inequality. The book moves beyond an oversimplified examination of teenage sexuality and shows, through the voices of young people themselves, the exciting yet complicated terrain of queer adolescence.Product Details
Price
$26.00
Publisher
New York University Press
Publish Date
November 27, 2018
Pages
224
Dimensions
6.0 X 0.6 X 8.9 inches | 0.7 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781479876945
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About the Author
Mary Robertson is a wife, mother of three, and small business owner. She has had a love of writing since she was a small child. As life does it took her on an unexpected route. She became a wife at eighteen and a mother at nineteen. Mary has devoted most her young adult life to being a good mother, wife, and an active member in whatever community she is in. Currently, she runs her small business and spearheads multiple community projects. She has learned many of life's lessons at a young age and hopes that her writing conveys a message of love and family, no matter if you're bound by blood or not. Mary loves anything outdoors and derives a lot of inspiration in the history of the Texas Gulf Coast where she lives. Her humble life and country style of living brings a fresh voice to modern writing.
Reviews
"Illuminating...Robertson examine[s] how youth today form queer identities.This accessibly written inquiry will be of interest to queer readers, sociologists, and gender studies enthusiasts alike."--Publishers Weekly
"With clarity and rich detail, Robertson tells the story of growing up queer and the community organizations and institutions that buoy today's LGBT youth. It is a deeply engaging account of both the dignities and indignities of becoming queer, leaving us with a more complicated portrait of youth resilience and risk."--Amy L. Best, Author of Fast-Food Kids: French Fries, Lunch Lines and Social Ties
"Robertson shows the mechanisms through which binary conceptions of gender are reinforced, and she examines the intersectional effects of race, class and ability ... The book's main strength lies in rich ethnography and detailed accounts of young people. The methodological discussions are especially nuanced, and the rich histories add to our understanding of what it means to grow up queer today"--CHOICE
"Mary Robertson...make[s] a reader want to...just enjoy the teens she meets. Theres life in them, deep introspection and philosophical thought, as well as acceptance covered slightly with the scabs of perseverance. Their voices are real and need no explaining. They offer hope."--Washingto Blade
"Robertson, rather artfully, nestles her work into the empty space in LGBTQ youth research; how youth become gendered, how they become sexual, and how they come to embrace the identity language that fits them with the most precision. Robertson not only adds to the existing research, but also weaves in and out of it, highlighting its relevance, but also indicates where it proves to be archaic."--Journal of Youth and Adolescence
"A rational and thoughtful examination of the evolving nature of the LGBTQ identification process in children and adolescents. ... a groundbreaking and timely book that reveals the complicated and ambivalent nature of the identification process. Robertson argues that queer identity is not solely about gender and/or sexual identity, but is instead an intersectional bouillabaisse of race, class, ability, and more. Growing Up Queer also looks at the heartbreaking social inequality of queerness, where society accepts some kinds of LGBTQ identification but still rejects others it does not find palatable or sufficiently socially compliant. By using their own words, Robertson gives voice to their stories from their own point of view. This is a refreshing yet deep examination of the process of identification, how it has evolved, and future prospects for change and inclusion."--The Advocate
"This book works well as an introduction to queer theory, and what is meant by queer as an anti-identification. Growing Up Queer would serve well for both advanced undergraduate and introductory graduate courses focusing on queer theory, gender and sexuality, and qualitative methods. The text also works well in demonstrating young people's agentic role in constructing their own gender and sexual subjectivities while also demonstrating processes of socialization, paying mind to how gender and sexuality are also done to us, not simply who we are."--Gender & Society
"With clarity and rich detail, Robertson tells the story of growing up queer and the community organizations and institutions that buoy today's LGBT youth. It is a deeply engaging account of both the dignities and indignities of becoming queer, leaving us with a more complicated portrait of youth resilience and risk."--Amy L. Best, Author of Fast-Food Kids: French Fries, Lunch Lines and Social Ties
"Robertson shows the mechanisms through which binary conceptions of gender are reinforced, and she examines the intersectional effects of race, class and ability ... The book's main strength lies in rich ethnography and detailed accounts of young people. The methodological discussions are especially nuanced, and the rich histories add to our understanding of what it means to grow up queer today"--CHOICE
"Mary Robertson...make[s] a reader want to...just enjoy the teens she meets. Theres life in them, deep introspection and philosophical thought, as well as acceptance covered slightly with the scabs of perseverance. Their voices are real and need no explaining. They offer hope."--Washingto Blade
"Robertson, rather artfully, nestles her work into the empty space in LGBTQ youth research; how youth become gendered, how they become sexual, and how they come to embrace the identity language that fits them with the most precision. Robertson not only adds to the existing research, but also weaves in and out of it, highlighting its relevance, but also indicates where it proves to be archaic."--Journal of Youth and Adolescence
"A rational and thoughtful examination of the evolving nature of the LGBTQ identification process in children and adolescents. ... a groundbreaking and timely book that reveals the complicated and ambivalent nature of the identification process. Robertson argues that queer identity is not solely about gender and/or sexual identity, but is instead an intersectional bouillabaisse of race, class, ability, and more. Growing Up Queer also looks at the heartbreaking social inequality of queerness, where society accepts some kinds of LGBTQ identification but still rejects others it does not find palatable or sufficiently socially compliant. By using their own words, Robertson gives voice to their stories from their own point of view. This is a refreshing yet deep examination of the process of identification, how it has evolved, and future prospects for change and inclusion."--The Advocate
"This book works well as an introduction to queer theory, and what is meant by queer as an anti-identification. Growing Up Queer would serve well for both advanced undergraduate and introductory graduate courses focusing on queer theory, gender and sexuality, and qualitative methods. The text also works well in demonstrating young people's agentic role in constructing their own gender and sexual subjectivities while also demonstrating processes of socialization, paying mind to how gender and sexuality are also done to us, not simply who we are."--Gender & Society
