Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

9 reviews

kell_xavi's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative medium-paced

4.0

Memoir by multilingual Scottish comedian, working class autistic woman, fashion icon, and former stripper Fern Brady. Brady’s experience of autism, depression, and anxiety is very unlike my own—different class, culture, field, and gender context, as well as 2 decades and celebrity status separate us—yet a lot of it is familiar, and the added stories (descriptions, frustrations, examples) are appreciated. I hope all of us women and trans autistics can find ways to be comfortable and safe with ourselves. I hope books like these can help us to be seen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Police brutality and Rape

misdiagnosis

laurenkimoto's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Dysphoria, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Ableism, Blood, Bullying, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Biphobia, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

tetrootz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Self harm, Grief, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Rape, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, Drug use, Ableism, Classism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Vomit, Physical abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Police brutality and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Dementia

readingpicnic's review

emotional funny reflective

5.0

Very real and unfiltered account of being a late diagnosed autistic woman, with lots of humor throughout. Fern also points out lots of common autistic traits throughout to the reader, to which I realized that so many things I do are shared experiences in the autistic community that I thought were just applicable to me…very validating to read though. The commentary on autistic women becoming strippers and/or sex workers was so interesting and something I’ve never heard before, but it makes sense with how she laid it out coupled with her own experiences. I loved the audiobook narration.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Ableism, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

jillysmith's review

challenging emotional funny sad medium-paced

3.75

Equal parts funny and heart wrenching, Fern Brady tells the story of her life leading up to her diagnosis with autism in her mid thirties. While she worries about being defined by her new diagnosis, she shows how damaging suppressing and ignoring her condition has been throughout her life. She pulls no punches, sketching out the characters in her life with an almost cruel factualness. You can easily imagine that this autobiography was painful for many of her friends and family to read. Her life in comedy is given short thrift, with later chapters becoming a little repetitive of the facts and events that seem to give her comfort, but it's a powerful piece of persuasion that women need diagnoses too to help them navigate a world not designed for them. The audio book is a little stilted at times, but a pleasure to listen to

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, and Violence

Minor: Self harm, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

skudiklier's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

I'm so glad I read this. I didn't realize I was autistic until I was an adult, and I found a lot of this really relatable, despite having very different experiences from her (both with regard to autism and just life in general). It's a really detailed and honest look at growing up undiagnosed, and so much of this was really frustrating or sad to read. I wish everyone would read this if only to get this full of a picture of one autistic person's experiences. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Drug abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Pandemic/Epidemic

river23's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, and Child abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Violence, Alcohol, and Death

linguaphile412's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Ableism, Mental illness, Sexism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Religious bigotry, Death, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship

imogenoakes's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexism, Body shaming, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts