Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Pageboy by Elliot Page

96 reviews

madscientistcat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I cried in the intro and that really just set the tone for the whole book. I feel almost overwhelmed with how incredible it is to hear Elliot's story this way. I can't recommend the audiobook enough; hearing it in his own voice is a beautiful thing.
(Seriously check the content warnings though, this is not an easy one)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Hate crime and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit and Death of parent

Additional content warning for obsessive compulsive behavior/disorder

liyanga's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death

jessthanthree's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Medical content, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Deadnaming, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Gore, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Colonisation

chasingpages1's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Medical content, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Excrement, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, Car accident, Outing, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rayreyes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

I love EP and appreciate his vulnerability in this piece. However, the majority of the novel was challenging. Pedophelia, non consensual physical advances, parental abuse/neglect, parental abandonment/narcissism… yowza was this a potluck of triumph and pain. Not what I had in mind going into it, but I’m grateful for the read. It was really nice being able to trust his account of things so easily; he’s able to hold the good and the imperfect about himself and his choices so earnestly and mindfully compassionate that it was clear the work he’s done. Bravo for lovely people 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Stalking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Outing, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

blueoddity's review against another edition

dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Car accident, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

michala1182's review against another edition

I'd like to preface by suggesting readers check the tags/reviews for this book before purchase as some of the events included are traumatic and deeply upsetting.

I didn't enjoy Page's writing style - each chapter chops and changes from childhood to adulthood (as memoirs are apt to do), but there is no real throughline, rendering it difficult to interpret the correlation between events - and those that are mentioned are retellings, offering no insight or reflection on their significance. Unfortunately, this results in Pageboy becoming something of a hollow read that I grew weary of and unable to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

redroseses's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Deadnaming, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

inkdrinkers's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

"It is painful, the unraveling, but it leads you to you."

Elliot Page has been in the spotlight for years - starting in small roles in Canadian productions before moving to the break-out hit Juno and starring in multiple huge series like X-Men and The Umbrella Academy. Pageboy seeks to tell Page's own story, from a queer childhood to finally coming into himself as an adult, exploring the world that has fought against him living authentically.

As with any memoir, I feel like star ratings are a bit iffy, but ultimately I feel like I have to give this a three because of the writing quality and the way the narrative is laid out. Had I known this was a nonlinear narrative that jumps from childhood to adulthood with little to no preface, I think I would have at least attempted to build a timeline in my head. But listening to this book as an audiobook and being thrown back and forth through Page's life felt confusing and hard to manage. The writing on a technical level is good, a little heavily leaning towards purple prose in some aspects - but lacking in any kind of resolution for a lot of the heavy topics brought up.

I feel for Page. He somehow became this posterboy for queerness even before he understood where he fell in that world. Hearing him personally talk about his experiences with lesbophobia and homophobia were incredibly difficult and I hope the take-away for many people is that the world can be cruel and is not nearly as progressive as we hope. I do feel like this memoir needs a HUGE content warning at the beginning, as topics are discussed heavily and with detail. I found myself nauseous through a large portion that discussed assault (though I knew it was coming - Hard Candy is one of my favorite movies). There just seemed to be no take-away for each of the heavy topics, no reflection that made the detail of the discussions worthwhile to experience and hear recounted. I really would have loved more insight to Page's thoughts, rather than just being told verbatim about an event happening to him.

I'm sad because this was a highly anticipated audiobook for me. I'm sad because I feel like Page wrote this before he was truly ready. Maybe in twenty or thirty year's time we'll get a retrospective view of Page's experiences that are more about his thoughts instead of recounting the horrific things he's had to go through. And I, genuinely, hope he is able to continue healing and moving forward as his authentic self.

Content warnings: Homophobia/Transphobia (multiple on page references and stories), Eating disorder (heavily discussed), Self harm (techniques and discussed heavily), Sexual assault/Rape (stories varying in description), Stalking (with threats), Sexism (from those in power/in the acting industry)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Transphobia

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Lesbophobia