Subject: Stone Butch Blues: Book Review From: ww@blythe.org (Workers World Service) Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 22:04:38 EST Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit "Stone Butch Blues" by Leslie Feinberg. Firebrand Books. 301 pages. Paper, $10.95 Review by Deirdre Griswold "Stone Butch Blues," released on March 1, is Leslie Feinberg's first novel, and it is already making waves. Her earlier works--"Journal of a Transsexual" and "Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come"--explained in objective historical terms the treatment of those who cross gender lines. With "Stone Butch Blues," she makes it all come alive in a personal and often lyric style. The book has created much excitement in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Bookstores in many cities have repeatedly sold out on the strength of word-of-mouth recommendations, even before formal promotion and reviews reached the area. Feinberg is traveling widely, doing readings from the book plus a slide show on the history of transgender. `Who am I?' The more that is known about human behavior, the clearer it is that gender takes many forms. However, the central character of the novel, Jess, finds out at an early age that family, neighbors and teachers demand she fit into a bipolar masculine-feminine world. It is out of the question that she be allowed to be herself--cowboy boots and all. Jess is rescued in her teens from a loveless environment at home by the affection and camaraderie she finds in gay bars in the pre-Stonewall era. But to the outside world, Jess is a "he-she," a woman who looks and acts too much like a man. "I wrote it in the first person," Feinberg explains, "to avoid having to use the pronouns he or she." Going to school, finding a job, shopping, and using a public toilet all open her up to embarrassment and danger. Gay bars are her refuge--except for the nights when club-wielding police make their raids. Then gaiety turns into a nightmare. Jess's story unfolds in the gritty steel town of Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1950s and 1960s. And here is the other unique feature of this book: It is about factory workers, people whose lives are consumed, day by day, feeding machines under the watchful eyes of petty management tyrants. Because of their struggle to be who they are, the lesbian/gay/transgendered characters in this story seldom make it into the big steel, auto or electric plants. Their dream is to get a union job in heavy industry (a "man's" job?) where their strength and skills will command respect. Instead, they work in binderies and plastics factories, places where wages are minimal and workers come and go. And they are the lucky ones. Many of the people we come to know in the bar scenes have escaped factory life by becoming "pros"--sex workers. It is a leap from the frying pan into the fire, where they are the target of the most brutal and sadistic abuse. Few survive, emotionally or physically, despite their heroism. But they all give something of themselves to Jess, the young butch who drinks in their affection and marvels at their tough-tender wisdom. A very specific indictment "Stone Butch Blues" gives an intimate picture of bigotry and gratuitous cruelty. But it is not a generalized indictment of the "human nature" of straight men and women. It is very specifically about capitalism and the pressures of this class-divided society. As Jess evolves from "baby butch" to someone who lives life from two opposing perspectives--first as a woman passing as a man and later as a person who is gender-ambiguous--she pulls hope out of all her painful experiences. There is a very radical political message to this book, but the reader is never subjected to a lecture; the politics are skillfully woven into the characters and the plot. Leslie Feinberg has been writing for Workers World newspaper for many years. Journalism is a far cry from literature, so a word should be said about her gift for dialogue. Whether the conversations are between lovers or antagonists, are part of the bar scene chatter or heart-to-heart personal confessions, they ring true. These are real people talking, joking, deflecting unwelcome curiosity, and sometimes revealing their innermost feelings. The almost instant success of "Stone Butch Blues," from lesbian/gay bookstores to the gender community nationally, says a lot about our times. There are many, many people across the country, in big cities and small towns, working in all kinds of jobs, who have been waiting for a book like this. It delivers a liberating euphoria because it speaks of their lives, their fears, their hopes. But this book must also find its way into the hands of some of those straight workers who have rubbed shoulders with Jess on the job--and never really knew her. 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