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BOOK REVIEW: Critical & Experiential : Dimensions in Gender and Sexual Diversity: Previn Karian

May 4, 2017

Critical & Experiential : Dimensions in Gender and Sexual Diversity Paperback
Edited by Previn Karian

A multidisciplinary collection of chapters on gender and sexual diversity,  that moves beyond the LGBTQ(IA) acronym to include non-binary and heterosexual variation.

This book is a hefty,  extremely well researched and argued tome and it brings together academics, practitioners and activists from the UK, US, Canada, Russia and India. Although aimed at the practitioner and professional there is much in this book that an informed layperson can benefit from, not least of which is the clear honest voices of experience of people living lives of delicate complexity and discussing openly and with a clarity that’s often not given platform the ways and means of developing ones identity, life choices and experiences based on what’s true to you.

The various chapters are presented with insight and with a decent balance between layperson and professional, between research and lived experiences and draws clear, honest results that are understandable and informative.

There are some profoundly interesting chapters in this book, that challenge as much as inform but anyone with an interest in proud, frank and non-pathologizing discussions of gendered identities and sexual practices that are explored in honest and engaging ways would find this book invaluable in a process of personal understanding or development.  This book is Karians’ personal rebut to the shock of latent homophobia on display at a conference in London a few years back and it’s clear tone and clarity of vision does much to push against ignorance and harmful assumptions on the professional level and many others.  Complex, insightful and filled with personal experiences this is certainly food for thought.

To order the book, click here:

Out now.

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