Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet

6 reviews

milliecybu's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

Minor: Abortion, Colonisation, Islamophobia, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Death, and Sexual harassment

arayo's review

informative

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Ableism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Abortion, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Torture, Murder, and Miscarriage

_annika__'s review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Bullying, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Rape, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body shaming, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Slavery

moraina's review

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

This book’s subject matter is great - a history of witch trials, and how they shaped our society’s view of women. Chollet tackles many feminist issues, including motherhood, relationships, aging and dying, healthcare biases, etc. She makes points that I hadn’t thought about before and uses relevant examples, especially in the medical section.

That being said, this book was an absolute slough to get through. With many references to magazines, movies, and books that I’d rarely heard of, I struggled to understand the illustrated point for much of the book. This book is also translated from French, so many of these references are probably quite relevant to French culture, but totally lost on an American reader. She did reference many American movies and authors as well, but many were from the 1980s or earlier, so again lost on a 25-year-old reader that doesn’t have an academic background on this subject.

Additionally, I did take issue with huge parts of the book being quotes from other works. My lack of understanding the references aside, I wanted to hear more of the author’s viewpoints or summaries of these works, rather than read paragraphs of quotations. It just felt like it really slowed the book down, and made it difficult to follow the structure and connections she was making between sections. I also agree with other reviews saying that there definitely is not a ton of information to learn about witch trials themselves, it’s more about why the witches of the past were treated the way they were, and how that has persisted in modern society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Racism, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Antisemitism, Classism, and Colonisation

Trigger warnings aren’t necessarily graphic descriptions in this book, but are talked about in the context of and comparing to feminist issues and historical events.

morebedsidebooks's review

slow-paced

1.0

Sorcières : La puissance invaincue des femmes by Mona Chollet attracted attention and sales in France when it was originally published in 2018. Now as In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial translated to English by Sophie R. Lewis in 2022. Countless pages later, almost 8 hours, (x2)— I ran into toil and trouble. A longer review on my blog. Thoughts, questioning some specific parts for accuracy, clarity, comparing a little with the French edition too. Unfortunately, it came out when I had other priorities, so languished on my TBR.  Bref, ignorez les best-sellers, ne vous forcez pas! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Misogyny, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content, Abortion, Miscarriage, Cultural appropriation, and Physical abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Pedophilia, Racism, Incest, and Lesbophobia

Discussion also includes ageism and age gaps along with instances of offensive language.

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Mmmm yes.

A few favourite points: the villainisation of older women (aka, women who no longer serve a purpose to men): womens reproduction rights and women who are, voluntarily, childless; and the sexism and misogyny in medicine, particularly midwifery, stemming from the fear of 'witch' healers

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Classism, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Emotional abuse