Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: culture. This is a collection of essays about queerness and pop culture.
I’m a few years older than the author so I experienced some of her references differently but I loved this collection of essays form Grace Perry. She perfectly captures a late-generation millennial’s experience with sexuality at a time when things were slowly starting to change. And with the reflections about Gossip Girl and Katy Perry, her willingness to be vulnerable about her growth, how difficult it was, and how she had to make specific connections in hetero-dominant culture to understand herself in the world, is really special. It’s soul-baring without the pretentiousness, which I love.
Perry is also an eagle-eyed culture critic so her takes on things then and how they’ve aged is often spot on. In particular with the hit song I Kissed A Girl, and the many complexities that existed over time from what is essentially a lipstick lesbian male-gazy tune. The Lindsay Lohan bit was especially sad to read, both her post-Mean Girls evolution and how quickly she dismissed her lesbian romance as nothing more than a generation fling. Perry gets to the heart of this, why it’s hard for queer people like her to experience it, and how a product like Mean Girls and a career like Lohan’s can help someone simultaneously understand their self and also stay buried in the closet.
This was one of my favorite 2025 reads, the only downside being I’m reminded how hard it is for good writers like Perry to find steady work this day and age.