The Small Book of Hip Checks - (Writing Matters!) by Erica Rand

About the Book

Erica Rand uses multiple meanings of hip check--an athlete using their hip to throw an opponent off balance and the inspection of racialized gender--to consider the workings of queer gender, race, and writing.

Book Synopsis

In The Small Book of Hip Checks Erica Rand uses multiple meanings of hip check--including an athlete using their hip to throw an opponent off-balance and the inspection of racialized gender--to consider the workings of queer gender, race, and writing. Explicitly attending to processes of writing and revising, Rand pursues interruption, rethinking, and redirection to challenge standard methods of argumentation and traditional markers of heft and fluff. She writes about topics including a trans shout-out in a Super Bowl ad, the heyday of lavender dildos, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, the criticism received by figure skater Debi Thomas and tennis great Serena Williams for competing in bodysuits while Black, and the gendering involved in identifying the remains of people who die trying to cross into the United States south of Tucson, Arizona. Along the way, Rand encourages making muscle memory of experimentation and developing an openness to being conceptually knocked sideways. In other words, to be hip-checked.

Review Quotes

"The Small Book of Hip Checks, with its jerking, twisting, and nonlinearity, is a corporeal experience for writer and reader alike. Rand's wit, empathy, and care for her subjects make the experience both challenging and pleasurable, a text about our role as embodied readers and writers who traverse various social positions. The Small Book of Hip Checks is a piece of scholarship intended not only for scholars of gender, sexuality, and race, but for readers in any field seeking alternative modes of inquiry within their work and writing."--Eileen DiPofi "Criticism" (4/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"In these essays, Rand hip checks the NBA, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, a Burger King ad campaign for the Proud Whopper situated at a Pride parade, blue jeans, a somewhat pornographic moment in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather that was secretly circulated among her classmates, and, toward the end, lavender-colored dildos. She not only asks readers to question their assumptions, she also performs that inquiry through her writing."--Linda Levitt "Popmatters" (3/2/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"In this wonderful book, hip checks provide the ground for asking urgent questions, the methodology for exploring the questions, and the means for rethinking what we thought we knew. Written by a leading cultural studies theorist, The Small Book of Hip Checks is theoretically brilliant and warmly personal."--Eithne Luibhéid, author of "Pregnant on Arrival: Making the Illegal Immigrant"

"Erica Rand's focus on writing and revising, her nuanced close readings, and her engaging and innovative prose make The Small Book of Hip Checks a unique and inviting book. This is an important contribution to conversations in trans studies, queer studies, and feminist studies of the body."--Toby Beauchamp, author of "Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices"

About the Author

Erica Rand is Professor of Art and Visual Culture and of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates College and author of Red Nails, Black Skates: Gender, Cash, and Pleasure on and off the Ice, The Ellis Island Snow Globe, and Barbie's Queer Accessories, all also published by Duke University Press.