Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

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

47 reviews

lottie1803's review

challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Cancer, Body shaming, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Racism

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

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Bullying, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, and Body shaming

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death, Medical content, and Homophobia

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.

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny

4.5

Really stunning collection of pieces. Only thing taking it down in stars is how some felt a little shorter/less fleshed out than I'd expected. Overall a really well-curated selection with great narrative voices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Hate crime, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Bullying, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Classism, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, and Racism

leguinstan's review

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This essay anthology is simply phenomenal!! Alice Wong did a fantastic job as an editor. The essays in Disability Visability are incredibly diverse and I personally felt that there was something to take away from nearly all of the essays in the collection.

When I say that this work is diverse, I don't simply mean that in regards to author's cultural backgrounds and identities (race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.). Some of the essays are extremely political while others are more personal and intimate in nature. Some are about promoting accessiblity in certain industries while others are about the failings of services put into place for disabled individuals. I deeply appreciate the intersectional and communal focus of Disability Visability and also appreciate the (very justified) rage that was expressed in many of the essays. Respectability politics? We don't know her!

There are  so many wonderful essays and I found it more difficult than usual to pick out my favorites. But here are some of my personal favorites:

• "Unspeakable Conversations" by Harriet McBryde Johnson
• "Radical visibility : A Disabled Queer Clothing Reform Movement Manifesto" by Sky Cubacub 
• "Guide Dogs Don't Lead Blind People. We Wander as One" by Haben Girma
• "Imposter Syndrome and Parenting With a Disability" by Jessica Slice
• "Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time" by Ellen Samuels
• "Love Means Never Having to Say... Anything" by Jamison Hill

Highly recommended!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content, Racism, and Sexual violence

While my list of content warning is not remotely comprehensive, I wanted to mention that every single essay in this anthology has content warnings listed at the very top pertaining to the particular essay in question. That is fan-friggin-tastic!!

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Damn. Read this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Misogyny, Excrement, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Grief, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Infertility, Body shaming, Ableism, Racism, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Fatphobia

leelaamanda's review

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Ableism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Medical content, Racism, Abortion, and Sexual assault

Minor: Hate crime, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Mental illness, and Medical content

alexisgarcia's review

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

this is such an important read. i wouldn’t recommend the audiobook because it’s harder to listen to and distinguish between the authors. but each and every author did such an amazing job and shined a light on some of the things disabled people have to deal with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Medical content, and Chronic illness