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Visibility Interrupted: Rural Queer Life and the Politics of Unbecoming
A questioning of the belief in the power of LGBTQ visibility through the lives of queer women in the rural Midwest
Today most LGBTQ rights supporters take for granted the virtue of being “out, loud, and proud.” Most also assume that it would be terrible to be LGBTQ in a rural place. By considering moments in which queerness and rurality come into contact, Visibility Interrupted argues that both positions are wrong. In the first monograph on LGBTQ women in the rural Midwest, Carly Thomsen deconstructs the image of the rural as a flat, homogenous, and anachronistic place where LGBTQ people necessarily suffer. And she suggests that visibility is not liberation and will not lead to liberation. Far from being an unambiguous good, argues Thomsen, visibility politics can, in fact, preclude collective action. They also advance metronormativity, postraciality, and capitalism. To make these interventions, Thomsen develops the theory of unbecoming : interrogating the relationship between that which we celebrate and that which we find disdainful—the past, the rural, politics—is crucial for developing alternative subjectivities and politics. Unbecoming precedes becoming. Drawing from critical race studies, disability studies, and queer Marxism, in addition to feminist and queer studies, the insights of this book will be useful to scholars theorizing issues far beyond sexuality and place and to social justice activists who want to move beyond visibility.
Today most LGBTQ rights supporters take for granted the virtue of being “out, loud, and proud.” Most also assume that it would be terrible to be LGBTQ in a rural place. By considering moments in which queerness and rurality come into contact, Visibility Interrupted argues that both positions are wrong. In the first monograph on LGBTQ women in the rural Midwest, Carly Thomsen deconstructs the image of the rural as a flat, homogenous, and anachronistic place where LGBTQ people necessarily suffer. And she suggests that visibility is not liberation and will not lead to liberation. Far from being an unambiguous good, argues Thomsen, visibility politics can, in fact, preclude collective action. They also advance metronormativity, postraciality, and capitalism. To make these interventions, Thomsen develops the theory of unbecoming : interrogating the relationship between that which we celebrate and that which we find disdainful—the past, the rural, politics—is crucial for developing alternative subjectivities and politics. Unbecoming precedes becoming. Drawing from critical race studies, disability studies, and queer Marxism, in addition to feminist and queer studies, the insights of this book will be useful to scholars theorizing issues far beyond sexuality and place and to social justice activists who want to move beyond visibility.
270 pages, Paperback
Published July 27, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 12, 2025
Da goat.
On a more serious note, I think this work really does speak to the ways in which queer rural life is rendered invisible by the pressure imposed by metronormative, mainstream LGBT movements to champion visibility as the key to queer liberation when there are so many other ways to find the kind of personal fulfillment these organizations seem to believe is only possible to achieve in the city. I related to so much of the scholarship and anecdotal evidence Thomsen uses to make this point, and this work helped me reconsider how places like my hometown can be sites of the kind of fulfilling queer futurism Thomsen and Munoz propose as possible.
On a more serious note, I think this work really does speak to the ways in which queer rural life is rendered invisible by the pressure imposed by metronormative, mainstream LGBT movements to champion visibility as the key to queer liberation when there are so many other ways to find the kind of personal fulfillment these organizations seem to believe is only possible to achieve in the city. I related to so much of the scholarship and anecdotal evidence Thomsen uses to make this point, and this work helped me reconsider how places like my hometown can be sites of the kind of fulfilling queer futurism Thomsen and Munoz propose as possible.
August 23, 2023
Ok this was interesting... but i cant help but feel like it was sometimes written in bad faith.
Basically, i agree with most of its points, except for the idea that some (even a majority of ?) queer activists want everyone to be out to everyone they ever meet, in a very specific and even normative way, and that this fact doesnt work well with how a lot of rural queers live. And, sure, it doesnt, but then again I have never met this kind of super intense queer activist who insist on deciding for people how they're allowed to be queer.
Basically the book says "hey rural queers can be happy and not everyone is an urban dwelling 26 years old gay white dude with high heels !" And I agree with that ! I just dont think anyone was disagreeing with that ?
Anyways, it was interesting to learn stuff about the midwest.
Basically, i agree with most of its points, except for the idea that some (even a majority of ?) queer activists want everyone to be out to everyone they ever meet, in a very specific and even normative way, and that this fact doesnt work well with how a lot of rural queers live. And, sure, it doesnt, but then again I have never met this kind of super intense queer activist who insist on deciding for people how they're allowed to be queer.
Basically the book says "hey rural queers can be happy and not everyone is an urban dwelling 26 years old gay white dude with high heels !" And I agree with that ! I just dont think anyone was disagreeing with that ?
Anyways, it was interesting to learn stuff about the midwest.
January 5, 2025
It’s so satisfying to find a book about all the things I’ve been thinking about—well in all fairness I didn’t find it, my good friend told me about it. The author does a pretty good job filling the gaps of conversation surrounding the chasm between urban and rural and how it is not really a chasm in the Midwest, the Midwest as a place worth talking about, and being queer and a woman identifying person in that space, being queer and fulfilled and happy in that place, something I have never heard anyone not from that place even consider as true for a second. Anyways, my gay Nebraskan/south Dakotan gay and female friends need to add this to their list.
April 1, 2025
rating this harder because I was so excited to get this book and ended up so disappointed by the framing and sometimes questionable analysis. maybe the documentary that's more focused on interviews will be better since that was the best part.
the author spends a lot of time critiquing national lgbtq+ orgs, which is fair. frequently, the goals of mainstream lgbtq+ politics suck and focus on efforts that benefit very specific pockets of the broadly and loosely defined lgbtq+ community (see same sex marriage or the right to be in the military). & I also agree with the general points made about the limitations of homonormativity.
while she touches on the different ways queerness is made legible in different contexts, there isn't space given to how that legibility is different across cultures (again tied to her conflation of orgs vs. people and what seems to be an assumption of whiteness). in general, she seems to argue for a version of urban queer people that doesn't actually exist. the whole coming out bit felt particularly silly and seemed to critique mainstream lgbtq rhetoric that was popular 10+ years ago but has been widely criticized (by urban queer people and even organizations) since at least 2016. same thing with discussions around visibility in the workplace. I know this book was published in 2022, & interviews were conducted 5+ years before that, but so much of this felt dated.
she talks a lot about homonormativity in the mainstream context (which, agree. I also am a hater), but then she uses it as a juxtaposition between rural and city lgbtq priorities, which makes me wonder what she thinks homonormativity is. That is what so many of the rural queer people she interviewed talked about -- not in terms of assimilating with mainstream lgbtq culture (though I'd argue she mischaracterized this) but in terms of assimilating into their local straight communities. assimilation looks different in cities vs. small towns, but it's still assimilation into the dominant cishet culture. hello?
a more nuanced look at how race impacts visibility, self-conception, etc. would have been helpful and was particularly glaring when this is something shared with other lgbtq+ people of color outside of rural areas. so often she would write with nuance about the rural Midwest in ways that made me go -- yes, and where else is that happening? she talks very briefly about Black lesbians in city centers early on, but there was a huge opportunity there to engage that is missed because she conflates the political priorities of mainstream national lgbtq+ organizations with urban places.
There is a huge gap in scholarship related to queer, rural women, and I'm glad this research exists even if it didn't live up to my expectations. the places where she lets her interviewees speak were great, as was the opportunity she gave to dispel myths and name/describe themselves. you could argue that the flattening of urban queerness in the book is fair given the hostility toward and flattening of lgbtq people in rural places, but it mostly flattens the ways urban queerness is not inherently cis, white, or male and does not question whether the metronormativity she highlights is relevant or representative of most urban queer people, and that conflation kills this book for me.
I do think she makes an excellent point about the usefulness and purpose of an "LGBTQ Community," and it would be interesting to see research engage with that further. there often is a greater orientation towards an LGBTQ Community in urban places compared to a greater orientation towards a local community in rural ones. how is that impacted by the number of local queer people one can orient oneself toward? how might the isolation of rural living (e.g. in an emergency or when you need help fixing something or if you have extra of something you can share) encourage people to orient themselves toward neighbors? how might the more transitory nature of urban living -- the ways renting often forces people to frequently move -- create barriers to building relationships with neighbors?
there are many limitations to identity as community, and she highlights that. probably the strongest argument she makes in the book. people throw the word community around a lot, but what does that mean -- how does that shape our own goals, priorities, and actions?
this didn't look like the experiences of the south dakota lesbians in my life, but when research is limited, you can't cover everything. Hopefully, it will spawn more research.
the author spends a lot of time critiquing national lgbtq+ orgs, which is fair. frequently, the goals of mainstream lgbtq+ politics suck and focus on efforts that benefit very specific pockets of the broadly and loosely defined lgbtq+ community (see same sex marriage or the right to be in the military). & I also agree with the general points made about the limitations of homonormativity.
while she touches on the different ways queerness is made legible in different contexts, there isn't space given to how that legibility is different across cultures (again tied to her conflation of orgs vs. people and what seems to be an assumption of whiteness). in general, she seems to argue for a version of urban queer people that doesn't actually exist. the whole coming out bit felt particularly silly and seemed to critique mainstream lgbtq rhetoric that was popular 10+ years ago but has been widely criticized (by urban queer people and even organizations) since at least 2016. same thing with discussions around visibility in the workplace. I know this book was published in 2022, & interviews were conducted 5+ years before that, but so much of this felt dated.
she talks a lot about homonormativity in the mainstream context (which, agree. I also am a hater), but then she uses it as a juxtaposition between rural and city lgbtq priorities, which makes me wonder what she thinks homonormativity is. That is what so many of the rural queer people she interviewed talked about -- not in terms of assimilating with mainstream lgbtq culture (though I'd argue she mischaracterized this) but in terms of assimilating into their local straight communities. assimilation looks different in cities vs. small towns, but it's still assimilation into the dominant cishet culture. hello?
a more nuanced look at how race impacts visibility, self-conception, etc. would have been helpful and was particularly glaring when this is something shared with other lgbtq+ people of color outside of rural areas. so often she would write with nuance about the rural Midwest in ways that made me go -- yes, and where else is that happening? she talks very briefly about Black lesbians in city centers early on, but there was a huge opportunity there to engage that is missed because she conflates the political priorities of mainstream national lgbtq+ organizations with urban places.
There is a huge gap in scholarship related to queer, rural women, and I'm glad this research exists even if it didn't live up to my expectations. the places where she lets her interviewees speak were great, as was the opportunity she gave to dispel myths and name/describe themselves. you could argue that the flattening of urban queerness in the book is fair given the hostility toward and flattening of lgbtq people in rural places, but it mostly flattens the ways urban queerness is not inherently cis, white, or male and does not question whether the metronormativity she highlights is relevant or representative of most urban queer people, and that conflation kills this book for me.
I do think she makes an excellent point about the usefulness and purpose of an "LGBTQ Community," and it would be interesting to see research engage with that further. there often is a greater orientation towards an LGBTQ Community in urban places compared to a greater orientation towards a local community in rural ones. how is that impacted by the number of local queer people one can orient oneself toward? how might the isolation of rural living (e.g. in an emergency or when you need help fixing something or if you have extra of something you can share) encourage people to orient themselves toward neighbors? how might the more transitory nature of urban living -- the ways renting often forces people to frequently move -- create barriers to building relationships with neighbors?
there are many limitations to identity as community, and she highlights that. probably the strongest argument she makes in the book. people throw the word community around a lot, but what does that mean -- how does that shape our own goals, priorities, and actions?
this didn't look like the experiences of the south dakota lesbians in my life, but when research is limited, you can't cover everything. Hopefully, it will spawn more research.
dnf
September 5, 2024realistically i'm not going to finish this bc it has been years. the premise is interesting, the introduction of the case of matthew shephard was intriguing, but the book contains endless repetition. i was expecting more theory or original ideas about queer rural life, but instead quotes from interviews w queer rural subjects are presented w/o further analysis, then paraphrased, then summarized. okay, so a lot of ppl in rural areas don't think their queerness is political. then what do we learn from that? is it the same for ppl in cities? etc.
July 17, 2023
wish it was more theoretical and less social science-y just analyzing interviews and saying the same thing over and over
December 15, 2022
All queer people should read this book that calls into question the taken-for-granted good of visibility, especially in this moment of homophobic backlash. The book provides a critical overview of LGBTQ politics in the United States and metronormativity, the (false) idea that city life is better for queer people. It's written accessibly and is an engaging read!
December 30, 2023
This was okay but it became passive aggressive towards anyone who isn't rural after a while. I realize it's different in other places but some of her essays were just "We don't believe in holding hands in public in (location). It has nothing to do with how we could be treated, we just are more bashful than the city slickers in Brooklyn".
January 19, 2025
This is going to become one of the books that I recommend to people unprompted. It's easy to be dismissive of Thompson's critiques of national LGBTQ+ rights groups if you have only ever engaged with 'liberation' as a surface level idea, but digging deeper is necessary to create true solidarity and engage in purposeful work.
January 7, 2026
An important contribution to queer literature that explores and documents the ways queer folks in the rural midwest often do not fit the traditional narratives around queerness from books that center urban populations.
April 5, 2023
I am glad the author included the viewpoints of Native queer people, but was hoping for more Latine representation, as there are a large number of Latine people in rural Minnesota
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews