I Prefer Girls

by Jessie Dumont

I Prefer Girls makes its triumphant return! One of the true classics of the golden age of lesbian pulp fiction is back, complete with its captivating Robert Maguire cover and a window in on Greenwich Village, circa 1963. Long out of print, I Prefer Girls has been a favorite of collectors for years and is now available in this new edition from Blackbird Books.

Genres: LGBT, Classics, Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

Reviews

[OhKay · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are usually clear red flags when a lesbian pulp is written by a man under a female pseudonym. This book is a red flag factory on fire. I don’t know if I’ve ever read any pulp so obviously written by a man, & I’ve read dozens & dozens. So, male writer red flags?

1. Boobs! Boobs! Boobs!- Why are men so extra fixated on boobs? No queer woman I’ve ever met is!

2. “Lesbians are just men in skirts when in comes to sex.” - These male writers all seem to think that because a lesbian likes women, they must view sex just like most men. They objectify other women, they view sex as a conquest, & the act of sex is all about body parts & not feelings.

3. Lesbians find their own bodies hot.- I. Can’t. Even.

4. Lesbians think about men A LOT.- They actively hate men. They plot ways to hurt or humiliate them. They secretly want to be them. Etc. Only a male writer would think this. It might be too ego-crushing to know that lesbians don’t really care about that stuff? Or think about them all that much?

5. Lesbians have some magical power to seduce any straight woman they meet.- It seems any woman is vulnerable to the advances of a lesbian. Even the most marriageable straighty-straight-straight can turn on a dime. But, of course, the good love of a virile man can turn her back.

6. Lesbian relationships never last. They aren’t emotionally capable of romantic love.- If these writers spent 5 minutes around actual queer women, they’d understand just how “unemotional” their relationships are! All the processing, U-hauling, drama... Have they ever MET a woman?

I could barely stand to finish this book, & I felt like I needed a shower afterwards to clean off all the ickiness.

As a side extra- this book does have a hilarious 60’s pulp trope- a marijuana sex orgy party! I’ve read at LEAST 10 of these. People go to a party, listen to jazz, smoke pot... & it suddenly makes them all want to run around naked & schtup each other with abandon. Yes, cause that’s exactly what smoking pot does to people!

[Lissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whoa, predatory lesbian alert! All of the characters have severe problems - Penny, who seems incapable of loving anyone but herself, who uses and abuses Marcella and makes a game of dominating others; Marcella, who is so hopelessly in love with Penny that she has no personality except that of a clinging co-dependent; and Bernice, who is so incredibly naive that she believes pretty much anything anyone tells her.

Penny cruises Greenwich Village, cheating on Marcella regularly, seeking to "convert" straight girls into lesbianism and dominate them (umm...). She tells one character that it's really impossible for two women to stay together and love one another like a woman and a man. Argh. I have a feeling that this book was written by a man who had no idea what he was talking about, especially when it comes to the descriptions of women's bodies.

Watch out for this one - this book is a huge bummer. Best thing about it? The cover art!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is there to even say about this book? It's wild, it's trashy, it's homophobic af

but still kinda fun tho :)

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed reading this book, it was not a comfortable story to read. The main character, Penny, is not a likeable character at all, being a control freak and a bully. She is the archetypal abusive partner. If the aim of this book was to show that women enjoy sex as much as men, I'm afraid it failed. From my standpoint, it was a story of an abusive bullying rapist, who just happens, in this instance, to be a woman.

[Lottie Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very obviously written by a man using a woman’s name - really disappointing.

[Amy Ashenden · Rating 1 out of 5]

Best thing about this was the cover. The main character is creepy/predatory and it's too normalised, didn't enjoy this much.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

DONT BY BOOK JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE PRETTY AND GAY!!! this book will forever sit on my shelf as a reminder to that testament!

[Brianna Davies · Rating 1 out of 5]

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was supposed to be a FUN exploitative disaster.

I get that this is a staple of the lesbian noir genre, but this book neither becomes about what it sets out to be nor backs up the book it becomes. It's two very oddly split stories. And if you don't like the predatory lesbian trope things are going to get pretty ugly, let me tell you. Which is sad, because the voice is very strong. I was sucked in immediately, I just hated all the events portrayed. There were also more elaborate descriptions of breasts than I will ever need in my life. I know it's empowering to try and reclaim this genre for a new generation of queer women; but this was written by men for men and it remains so to this day.

[Eden Beavers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will never recommend this book, due to the trigger warnings in this. There are at least ten different trigger warnings. This book shows insight in an abusive lesbian relationship. We have all read, and even seen abusive straight relationships, but this book gives insight on lesbian abuse. This book also makes it sound as if being lesbian is a “sickness”.

[Breanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

if no one ever for the rest of time ever reads this book again that is the best outcome. astonishingly horrible. one star rating and that’s for the cover alone. please do not let the homophobes read this

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly i wasn’t expecting that ending
wish we still held on to these 60s pulp ideas of lesbianism being synonymous w hating men, because liberal corporate girlie feminism has invaded the minds of our strongest lesbian minds in this generation

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not an enjoyable read. Most of the plot was so repellent it almost felt hateful.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main character is a monster, and the plot is super delusional. I don't get it.

[Katelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horrendously harmful to any queer people first getting into lesbian fiction.

I have no doubt in my mind that this story is so insufferable because it is written by a man. Male pulp fiction writers lesbian books outnumbered women’s at about a 5 to 1 rate so it’s unsurprising that ‘I Prefer Girls’ falls under this category.

It paints lesbians as cruel, abusive and mentally disturbed beyond belief. Not a single character was fleshed out or believable in their motives. Plays into very tired tropes such as turning straight women gay, lesbians as man-hating and gay women are notorious cheaters. Needless to say, it is not a feel good bit of pulp fiction that offers up glimpses of happiness for real life queer people. There are much better pieces of pulp out there for queer people to invest their time into reading.

But if you like to think about breasts, then boy do I have a book for you! Breasts are everywhere in this book, everywhere. I don’t think you could go more than 10 pages at a time without coming across the main characters inspection of breasts. While I would agree that lesbians like breasts, only a man is this obsessed with them. This sometimes makes for a comical moment for the queer reader in which they may laugh at the book rather than with it. Considering its rather tragic nature at least we can find humour in its outright silliness at times.

This book retains 2 stars simply because of its historical significance. It makes for a good examination under a queer lens when done with a feeling of separation. It tells us about gay lives during the 1960s, in that they were capitalised upon and sensationalised. This book is far more interesting when looked at for its social context. However, it is extremely harmful to approach with a sort of ‘historical’ lens in which we might believe lesbians in the 60s were genuinely like this. They weren’t. They were queer people as we are now only under worse circumstances, they were more often than not faithful and caring and not devious abusers who only thought about sex by any means necessary.

[Lady Olenna · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s probably written by a man. So, a no for me. I don’t abide by a man writing lesbian stories.

[Fari Cannon]

this is literally the first book i have ever intentionally not finished because it was making me feel physically ill. all ill say is that it ends with the main character realizing that she’s been flying into these awful blackouts and beating the shit out of her partner. and thats not even the worst thing about it so like. fuck this book. if you want to read lesbian pulp fiction put in the work to find and read literally any book but this one

[Butters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it cause I was curious about lesbian pulp fiction after reading some of the Bilbo chronicles' books. It was not very good; filled with stereotypes and a very predatory view of lesbian relationships. 2/5 at the most.

[Gemma Gómez Rivas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mi problema, en realidad, con este libro no es porque sea malo sino más bien porque, una vez más, sentí que se ensañaba contra las sáficas…

[Clar Hart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boobs, boobs, murder?!, boobs
(Full review here: https://www.sgn.org/story.php?ch=arts...)

Content warning: Physical abuse, emotional abuse, pedophilia, sexual assault, homophobic language

Reading this was similar to watching season 1 of The Ultimatum: Queer Love. Come for the cover, despair over the depressing car crash of Sapphic relationships, be placated by boobs.

I picked this up for the cover. Was this shallow? Maybe. But could I turn down reading 1963's I Prefer Girls —in lurid red letters on the cover — on the subway? Absolutely not. Generally, I try to choose books that were written by Queer women, which means I've had to begrudgingly turn down titles like Satan Was a Lesbian (although I still plan to get this on a postcard).

However, all my efforts to get to the bottom of the pseudonym "Jessie Dumont" have been in vain. They've written another "Lesbians be evil" book called Made in Hell, and the author blurb claims they're a well-known Brooklynite author. But beyond that? Just static.

One thing about the author, whoever they are: they are absolutely wild about boobs. There is no boob that goes unremarked upon. In a particularly memorable passage, two women at a party have a boob-off in which they strip and flop their boobs around, followed by all the other women driven to strip and flop their boobs around, too. I could not detail a single face — but boobs? Muscly boobs, soft boobs, perky boobs, big boobs — down to the freckles on their areolas, they are lovingly detailed.

Beyond its tit obsession, this book is similar to stories like Gone Girl, Phantom Thread, and Twilight — noir "romances" in which a couple locked in mutually assured self-destruction mistake obsessive co-dependence for love.

In brief, Penny is a monstrous femme fatale who thinks people are only nice to her to try to manipulate her into having sex, so she might as well return the favor. She's manipulative, abusive, and cruel. Her prey drive is her only hobby.

Although Penny calls herself a Lesbian, she's open to all genders and only says about her partners, "I prefer girls, because they're so easy to dominate."

Marcella is Penny's older girlfriend, whom she compulsively cheats on. Penny then meets blonde virgin Bernice. Drama ensues.

In the end, Penny ends up back with Marcella. Penny also finds out that during her own amnesiac "red-outs," she horribly abuses whoever is nearby. Penny's been beating Marcella for years. Marcella won't leave her, because Marcella believes if she's not there, Penny will take out her violence on someone else and wind up in prison. Marcella, like many women in abusive relationships, thinks she's the only one strong enough to be with Penny.

Ultimately, it's assumed Penny and Marcella are locked in a death tryst until Penny kills Marcella like Edward kills Bella, the hot chick in Phantom Thread kills the old guy, and the other hot chick in Gone Girl kills Ben Affleck. If that's your thing, congrats. It comes in Lesbian flavor now.

There should also be a word about Bernice, the damsel-in-distress. Bernice is in a relationship with Mark, an abusive man who wants her to be his picket-fence housewife. Then she meets Penny and realizes some things. Bernice falls into the dilemma that many Queer women of then — and now — face: a sure thing with a man she doesn't care for or the risk of a relationship with a woman she does. Unfortunately for her, that woman is the abusive Penny. Bernice could deal with being poor and living in a shitty apartment; she could give up her material comforts for love. But that's not a choice she's offered. With no one on her side, she goes back to what she knows: a quiet life in the suburbs in the pocket of a controlling man.

The writing is not bad. There's some delightful banter, like when Penny asks a man, "Are you an actor? Then roll over and play dead." Or "I just came over to say hello." "Great. Now say goodbye." When Penny hits up an ex for a party invite and asks if she can bring a friend, he responds, "Do you have one?"

It also did have some lovely zingers, like "'Is a Lesbian someone who hates men?' 'Yes.'" Or, in reference to going to a Gay bar, the very "hey, fellow kids" phrase of "jazzing dyke-style."

In the end, like most pulp of that era, the moral seems to intend to be "damn, Lesbians are fucked up." From my vantage point at the peak of hundreds of devoured carcasses of happy Queer literature, I'm fortunate enough to be able to read it and say, "Damn, some people are fucked up, regardless of their sexual preferences."

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is with great heaviness in my heart that I give this book a high rating.

This is either the grotesque work of a misogynistic, homophobic, fetishist and what he thinks lesbianism stands for, a masterful character study story with underlying aspects of psycho-thriller in which all the prejudices help move the story forward, or a mixture of both.

It's impossible to like the main character, Penny, it is hard to sympathize with her partner Marcella, and it's claustrophobic to watch naïve Bernice get groomed — yet I couldn't look away. The narrative is gripping, the prose is exquisite, and at times, despite the verbal, physical, and psychological violence everywhere, it is also funny.

Penny was hateful but her composition was phenomenal — to me, at least, it was so clear she was the byproduct of the circumstances she'd come from. The red-outs she had, the missing aspects of her entire childhood, the way she at one moment dismisses the memory of her parents, speaks on how growing up with them was no big deal, boring and uneventful, and some two, three lines later speaks of the horrors of being beaten often by her father, having a passive, always-crying mother who, like herself, must have suffered at the hands of him, are an ode to what she grew to be. Just like her father, with an aversion to women like her mother (and anyone she deems as weak and bendable), and likely some personality disorder that developed too early on. She dismisses her own fears when they loom above her, whenever uncertainty arises, and turns back to the comfortable patterns of manipulating and hurting others to cope.

She's the perpetrator you reluctantly recognize was also a victim, once upon a time. Whether this was intentional by the author or not is what makes this book good or bad; it all depends on how you choose to interpret what the book gives you, in the end.

I'm still almost fully convinced this was written by a man, and almost as convinced this man never once had a conversation with a real lesbian in his life. The boob obsession is laughable and Penny getting turned on by her own image in the mirror? If you were to tell me whoever wrote this was a virgin I'd believe you without a doubt. The author clearly doesn't know how sex between two women works or anything about feminine anatomy, as a matter of fact. Michelangelo trying to paint women from imagination kind of problem.

Every single criticism I've seen in the comments stands. It's the kind of book that spares no efforts to try and offend every lesbian in sight. It parrots so many warped stereotypes it's a true showcase of which period it was written in — around that period when these stereotypes were created, to begin with. Some of them are so ridiculous to me, a modern-day lesbian, that it felt bewildering anyone thought anything along those lines only sixty years ago (and to come to the realization some people still think along these lines today).

Regardless of valid, correct criticism, I could not get around the fact the book is also, you know, unfairly good, quick-witted, expertly constructed, and skillfully developed.

[J.X. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, I don't want to give this four stars. I don't think it's earned them - but Jessie Dumont's writing style pushes the rating up that high. She's very adept in writing a book that I love to hate.

Penny Stewart is a horrible person. Yes, it's displayed very clearly throughout the text - and honestly, that covers most of my issues with this book. I'm not a fan of books with an unsympathetic protagonist. However, she's very consistently selfish, and nobody is really exempt; that's essentially a matter of personal taste that USUALLY would be something I set aside when I review my feelings on the book as a whole.

It's other things that drag the story down to two or three stars. Contrivances like her "angry spells", the way Bernice just up and goes with Marcella even though she's a complete stranger... how Marcella flips to cold as ice at the end, then right back to the simpering lovesick doormat to let Penny treat her like shit yet again. Just some character inconsistencies in those cases. Given that this book is from the Sixties, I can forgive the handling of queer subject matter to a point, but the very end reads like a cautionary tale: don't be a lesbian, or you'll either wind up a Penny or a Marcella, abused or abusing. Be a good little girl like Bernice and run away screaming into the arms of a man. What a lovely moral. Even though the book goes to great lengths to almost normalise the gay subculture of the village, at the very end it walks back on every single bit of that and demonises. If I didn't more or less see that ending coming, given the type of user Penny is, I would have been even more disappointed than I was.

But as I said, the writing is very well done in spite of my caveats. That's why it took me a couple of months to get through it; I put it down for a while because I knew I was in for a bad time, but didn't abandon it completely because Dumont knows what she's doing. You completely understand who Penny is and her world by the end of the book, and in spite of her choices, you still manage to feel some level of sympathy for her (and Marcella and Bernice, both essentially her victims within the narrative). Truly skilled. It's just too bad the author made the choice - or perhaps the era in which it was published made the choice for her - not to use her powers for good.

[C. Drying · Rating 4 out of 5]

HOW’D YOU COME ACROSS THIS BOOK?
There’s a Twitter account called Lesbian Pulp Bot, and the cover of I Prefer Girls is used as the profile image. I looked up a number of the books this Twitter account spews out, and all of them except I Prefer Girls are out of print. You can still buy the original copies here and there online, but for a lot of money, anywhere between $35 and $125, so I settled for I Prefer Girls.

WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
How do I spell the sound of a gloomy sigh? Liking this story doesn’t come easy.

ALRIGHT, THEN, START WITH WHAT’S BAD ABOUT IT.
It’s not a bad thing to spend a few hours with a character you really don’t like in a story that is dismal at every turn because feeling different feelings and vicariously experiencing different experiences is the reason a reader reads.

I hated the main character, but amazingly the author managed to manipulate a little sympathy for her from me. Of course, the portrayal of lesbianism is dreadful, but as a womyn myself (and not a young one at that), I can tell you it’s not an easy life.

ANYTHING ELSE?
I liked that I was able to read this book quickly. It’s actually brilliantly written and edited, and there are enough tiny little nuggets of wisdom dispersed throughout, and so you feel a little well fed while reading it despite that in the end, you will feel overwhelming misery.

DO YOU RECOMMEND OTHERS READ THIS BOOK?
Well, let’s be clear about this. I’m a book slut and will read anything, so, naturally, yes, I recommend it, but realize the book was written over 50 years ago. One ought to be equipped with the ability to discern the context of time, place, and history. In other words, don’t be too PC about it; just immerse yourself in the story and then tuck the experience (or knowledge of it) under your belt.

[Ron Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a guy who thinks women don't think as much about sex as guys do, "I prefer Girls" by Jessie Dumont may change your mind. The glimpse into the lesbian world of the 1960s is frank, bold, and revealing in many ways.

There is nothing flattering here about the lesbian lifestyle. The story line is a sick romance, a not too subtle psychological thriller dealing with intimate relationships, some form of multiple personality disorder, sado-masochism, and other strongly sexual themes. It is a window into a tortured lifestyle.

It all takes place in Greenwich Village in the 60s. I have to believe the Village is accurately portrayed and the extreme themes fit the nature of the setting. However open, permissive, and quirky the lifestyle, it was clearly not an easy time to be gay. Especially lesbian.

Is this the exception or the rule? Things have changed in our current society. Some elements certainly linger, in a less exaggerated form, but it is wrong to attribute them uniquely to the gay lifestyle. This is a story of relationships and it doesn't necessarily matter if the object of desire is the same sex or not. I can easily see this same plot with a man and a woman.

The fact that the characters are lesbians in Greenwich Village in the 60s adds a level of interest and intrigue that definitely enhances the novel. This book and this story seem to be an excellent example of Lesbian Pulp, and an enlightening look at an important piece of history.

[Courtney]

I’m not really sure what I want to rate this one because it is obviously toxic and stereotypical as hell but it did have some good writing and I found the main character fascinating. Mostly terrible but complex. It is definitely of its time in that being a lesbian is unfortunately portrayed as a mental illness. It also feels like it was written by a man (not sure how the author actually identified). There were moments of interesting snapshots into Greenwich Village in the early 60s through a pulp noir, almost giallo trashiness style lense. Plus that cover is gorgeous. I’m always looking for more books set in Greenwich during this time period.

[Elliot Josephine Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it weren't for the Comstock Act I would definitively conclude that this book was written by a straight man. Lesbianism is pathologized throughout the narrative told by this unsympathetic lead, even when it is undeniably titillating. Books of that period could never conclude blissfully queer, but had to make some break back to heterosexualism to avoid censorship. And yet, the hatred of women and utter lack of credible queer sensuality makes this an exciting, but violent romp--a bit of a horror story.

[liv]

WtFfffFffffFfffffff

[natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

HELLO THE PLOT TWIST??? ALSO LESBIANS WOOOOO

[Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written and ahead of its time. This book is a quick read and the psychological games of the main character keep you hooked.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a well written book with a good storyline, the ending was depressing and the main character was unlikebable 😔 message was good and it was very very funny. Good story with obsession and jealousy