Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life

by Amy Gluckman (Editor), Betsy Reed (Editor)

Overview

Homo Economics is the first honest account of the tense relationship between gay people and the economy. This groundbreaking collection brings together a variety of voices from the worlds of journalism, activism, academia, the arts, and public policy to address issues including the recent economic history of the gay community, the community's response to its changing economic circumstances, and the risks inherent in a narrow definition of liberation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136045189
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/12/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	488
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Amy Gluckman and Betsy Reed are the authors of The Gay Marketing Moment, an expose of myths about gay consumers that appeared in Dollars and Sense, a Boston-based progressive economics magazine. They are both members of the Dollars and Sense editorial collective.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments, Introduction, Part I: A Community Divided, Part II: The Contradictions of Capitalism for Lesbians and Gay Men: Some Theoretical Perspectives, Part III: Arguments and Activism, Contributors, Index

Editorial Reviews

Editors Gluckman and Reed, members of the progressive Dollars and Sense editorial collective, believe that not much research has been done showing how "the U.S. economy has shaped modern gay life," a problem they attempt to rectify with this unique collection of essays. The essays look at occupations, labor union involvement, living in gay neighborhoods, marketing campaigns targeted at gay consumers, domestic partnership and other benefits, and AIDS. In one remarkable essay, Lee Badgett finds that the sampling of gay and lesbian people in polls is skewed; she maintains that the myth of affluent gays is largely just that and that "it is much more common for lesbian, gay and bisexual people to earn less than heterosexuals." While a few of the 19 essays come across as leftist screeds, the majority thoughtfully examine how gays and lesbians have used American capitalism to start small businesses, benefit their communities, and improve their lives overall. Recommended for larger academic libraries and all gay/lesbian collections.-Richard S. Drezen, "Washington Post" News Research Ctr., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

"The high disposable income/disproportionate power/special rights canard lives on...because it makes a useful organizing tool for the right. The essays collected in Homo Economics provide the factual and analytic ammo to shoot it down, demonstrating that the affluent sector within the gay community is by no means representative of all gays and lesbians... [This book] builds on the earlier work of let-wing scholars, taking it to a new level of sophistication." — The Nation
"Homo Economics is an exciting book analyzing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people's relationship to the market, to gender roles and to the economic system. These provocative essays clearly explain how class biases and divisions operate to frustrate queer progress. The authors argue convincingly for a movement with the vision and willingness to tackle the gender, class, racial, and economic inequalities of capitalism. In this period of global economic exploitation, social turmoil and domestic cutbacks, this collection makes an invaluable contribution to progressive thoery in general and to queer progressive practice in particular." — Urvashi Vaid
"With titles like "I was a Stepford Queer at the Inaugural Ball," Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life brings together lively commetnary on the often ironic relationship between homosexuality and commerce in America. Editors Amy Glucksman and Betsy Reed have assembled such front-liners as Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and New York-bases journalist Jeffrey Escoffier, as well as respected academics of the lifes of Julie Matthaei, within this acute yet entertaining set of 20 missives." — Publishers Weekly
"The volume is needed, timely, well conceptualized, and without substantive competition...Gluckman and Reed's potential audience is vast and largely untapped." — Rhonda M. Williams, University of Maryland, College Park
"Homo Economics is a welcome addition to the small volume of literature exploring the relationship between lesbian and gay communities and the economy." — Prue Hyman, The Lesbian Review of Books

From the Publisher