Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong

15 reviews

wandering_canuck's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Beautiful and raw, this collection of essays is mind-blowingly honest and unapologetic. Told from the first person, these stories are wonderful complex and offer a glimpse into the just as complex and varied experiences of disabled people. 

This is exactly what you don't expect to read: unapologetic, candid, genuine tales of the lived disabled experience. Do not expect inspiration porn or movie of the week stories of overcoming. This book gives space and voice to the realities of the day to day lived experiences of disabled people.

This book served to highlight my shameful ignorance and forced me to confront some of my own biases. This isn't a one-and-done type of book. I challenge you to read this book and not have your world shook. 

Wong does a fantastic job of bringing together many types of voices. A common theme throughout is the unjust marginalization of disabled people and it's intersectionality with other invisibilized qualities, such as poverty, queerness, size, and race. 

This is an absolute must-read and is deserving of a permanent spot on your bookshelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Ableism, Rape, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Sexual assault, Violence, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Racism, Addiction, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Classism

korourke's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Wonderful book, mostly American centred, but so thoroughly examines where we are now, what got us here, and what world we could build.

My fav essays were:
- Unspeakable Conversations by Harriet McBryde Johnson
- Common Cyborg by Jillian Weise 
- How to Make a Paper Crane from Rage by Elsa Sjunneson
- Why My Novel Is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy by A.H. Reaume
- Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time by Ellen Samuels
- Times Up for Me, Too by Carolyn Gehrig
- Still Dreaming Wild Disability Dreams at the End of the World by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Medical content, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Medical trauma, and Rape

Moderate: Bullying, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Suicide, and Violence

yourbookishbff's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Disability Visibility is an anthology of essays edited by disability justice advocate Alice Wong. I don’t think I’ve ever read a collection of stories and perspectives so intersectional, raw and (as a non-disabled person) necessary. The structure of the collection is itself a stunning example of “disabled praxis,” as defined by A.H. Reaume in their essay “Why My Novel is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy,” as each essay simultaneously adds to and stands apart from preceding narratives, building a collage of experience that reflects the community built by and for those seeking disability justice.  

Loosely framed as essays, these range from first-person narratives to transcribed Ted talks to eulogies to artist manifestos to poetry. Several of these stories reflect the trauma and abuse experienced by those living at complex intersections of marginalization, and I was thankful that every essay includes detailed content and trigger warnings at the start. Through this unvarnished truth-telling, the intention of the anthology is made crystal clear - this is a collection rightfully built to amplify disabled voices for the benefit of disabled people and not for the gaze or comfort of non-disabled people.

I read this slowly, over more than a month, and I’m grateful I took my time with it. It challenged me to think about my own areas of deep-seated privilege and about the systems and spaces I have made inaccessible because of this privilege. It expanded my understanding of and respect for inclusivity and helped me to see the ways in which disability rights work has been consistently constrained by non-disabled people. These stories force us to ask, as s.e. smith does in their essay “The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People:” “How can we cultivate spaces where everyone has that soaring sense of inclusion, where we can have difficult and meaningful conversations?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Minor: Cancer and Child abuse

In this collection of essays, trigger warnings for each individual essay are included at the start of each essay.

chronicacademia's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Abortion, Bullying, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

kerrygetsliterary's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Acephobia/Arophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexism, Confinement, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

ageckocalledachilles's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Everyone should read this. It covers a multitude of disability rights issues as well as being incredibly intersectional. Some sections discuss very difficult/triggering issues, but many of these come with content warnings 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Acephobia/Arophobia, Medical trauma, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Genocide, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Minor: Miscarriage

caropi's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Violence, Abortion, and Sexual violence

spiritedfaraway's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

Stories are the closest we can come to shared experience… Like all stories, they are most fundamentally a chance to ride around inside another head and be reminded that being who we are and where we are, and doing what we’re doing, is not the only possibility.

       – Harriet McBryde Johnson 

Everyone should read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Abandonment, Grief, Police brutality, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Sexism, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Abortion, Domestic abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: Slavery

leahlovesloslibros's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

I really enjoyed hearing about a variety of disabilities, specifically first-person accounts. There were some disabilities in this book that I hadn't even considered, which is why books like this are so important: so individuals can become more educated and aware. This book should be required reading in school.

A pleasant surprise while reading this book is that I found some validation of my own. I have spent years dealing with impostor syndrome surrounding some of my own disabilities, especially since they are not considered disabilities by all individuals. This book really helped me realize that my disabilities are not only real, but valid. I want to help bring more awareness to both visible and invisible disabilities. We [individuals with disabilities] deserve that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Cursing, Colonisation, Genocide, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Alcoholism, Cancer, Misogyny, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Death of parent, Abortion, Bullying, Torture, Self harm, Police brutality, Murder, and Domestic abuse

Additional CW/TW: erasure, incarceration, intersectionality, child neglect, poison, natural disasters Rep: AAPI, BIPOC, disabled, trans, nonbinary, ace

foreverinastory's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

5.0

Everyone should read this. That is all.

CWs from each story as provided by the contributor:

Unspeakable Conversations: eugenics, infanticide, assisted suicide.

There's a Mathematical Equation that Proves I'm Ugly: bullying, suicidal ideation.

The Erasure of Indigenous People in Chronic Illness: settler colonialism, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, erasure, sexual assault, violence, suicide, suicidal ideation.

The Isolation of Being Deaf in Prison: sexual assault, language deprivation, isolation, incarceration, trauma, audism.

Common Cyborg: hate, misogyny, harassment, rape threats, death threats, racism, suicide, sterilization, ableism, eugenics. 

We Can't Go Back: institutionalization, abuse.

Last but Not Least: body shaming, groping, sexual harassment.

The Antiabortion Bill You Aren't Hearing About: bodily autonomy, eugenics, ableism, trauma, sexual assault, medical trauma, objectification, carceral state, sterilization.

Incontinence is a Public Health Issue...: suicidal ideation, bullying, body shaming, infantilization. 

Failing/Burning: suffering, medication, spoilers for Hannah Gadsby's Nanette.

Lost Cause: abuse, racism, ableist language, child neglect, torture, poisoning, self-harm.

Disability Solidarity: state violence, anti-Blackness, racism, ableism, audism, police brutality, incarceration, murder, white supremacy. 

Time's Up for Me, Too: sexual assault, intimate partner violence, abuse, trauma. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abortion, Acephobia/Arophobia, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence