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Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'
Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis
4 reviews
DO NOT READ ! She is a terrible person who loves to brag about her success (speaking at MLM events, exploiting people) and should not give advice. She just talks about her live and blames you for not being as successful :D - let me tell you her thoughts : if you’re not as rich as her you’re just lazy and undisciplined. Hold yourself accountable. There you go, I just saved you 7hours and 20 dollars :-) - you’re closer to her success than you would be reading that stupid book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Classism
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
1.5 stars
Starting off 2025 by hate-reading a book by and for christian white women!
I had a lot of fun annotating this mess.
The bad:
The caucacity and tone-deafness of certain parts (i.e. international adoption, calling her blog-readers her "tribe", etc.). The privilege soaked into every story... she doesn't speak as if racism and systemic inequality exist. Early on in the book, she talks about not giving up on your dreams, despite the world telling you you're "too 'fat, tired, or female' for it." She even mentions the word "patriarchal" a whole ONE time in the book, in passing. She knows what that is?! Couldn't tell from the rest of the book. There's so much more this book could've done to connect to all types of mothers/women/people that it didn't because of its narrow viewpoint.
Rachel does come off as braggy -- "I struggle and I'm real about it, but I can mind-over-matter better than anyone I know!!" A lot of bragging and not-like-other-moms vibes.
She also loves to call the reader "my sweet friend," "girl," "sister," "girlfriend," and it's cringey everytime. This is the tip of the iceberg for cringe, and I could go on...so here's a passage:
"'...Here's what you need to know, here's what you should consider, and also, the first few times you have sex you should pee afterward so you don't get a UTI!'
Somewhere in Texas and old reader just fainted.
Yes I wrote about a urinary tract infection. If that freaks you out, move right along to the next chapter, sister, because it's going to get way more intimate than that." (p.74)
She then proceeds to brag that she ~does it~ "more than any married couple you know."
She also says "yo" in the book. Just once, but thats way more than a rich white woman should ever say it.
She also dives into the first year that her and her husband were "together," and it's so bad. A big age difference, she's 19 years old, he's in his late 20s, and using her for sex and treating her like shit. And then we're supposed to think that this is the beginning of a beautiful love story? Girl, stand up and wash your motherf*cking face.
This book is also SO contradictory. One chapter she'll say not to ever put a time limit on your goal, and in the next chapter she's talking about how she wants a vacation home in Hawaii by age 40. First, stop colonizing Hawaii. Second, you just said no timelines, sister! Her views on alcohol are also contradictory. Midway through the book, she lists boxed wine as something that helps her cope with mom's stress, and says everyone needs something to "unwind." Then later on in the book, she has a whole chapter on using wine and vodka to cope with mom stress, and how bad that is. Girl, Be Consistent!
This is also not the book for body acceptance. There's quite a bit of fat shaming, diet talk, and body negativity in general. She's spends a chunk of a chapter talking about how flawed her body is because she has hair on her toes. As a Latine person, the last thing I want to read is a white woman complaining about body hair. Girl, You Have No Idea. Also, how are you calling body hair a flaw when God fearfully and wonderfully made us this way? Not very godly of you, Rach.
The good:
Because this book is written for christian women, a demographic I am too familiar with, I do appreciate that she sings the praises of (secular, I assume) therapy, which many christians are told is not godly. I was told this growing up. You're just supposed to pray the trauma away. 😉
So I'm glad that there's a voice for likely-trump-voting women to try therapy and heal themselves from traumas. The world will be a better place for that.
Secondly, although sometimes tone deaf in her delivery, I am glad that Rachel preaches to surround yourself with a diverse community of people around you. This, for white Christian women, is a bit unheard of to hear from their own people. Rachel talks about "loving your neighbor", which includes people of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, political affiliations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. As many of us know, Christian women are some of the most judgmental people (there's no hate like christian love!). So I am glad Rachel is advocating against that (despite her pulling the "Black and Mexican gay best friend" card and using a couple ethic slurs earlier in the book).
All in all, I do not recommend this book. As someone who grew up christian, this is nowhere near the most offensive, hateful thing I have read. I believe many conservatives would call this "too woke" since it's a book about a career-minded mother who goes to therapy and even has *a* gay friend of color. This might be progressive christianity, I fear. Which is slightly better than the fundamentalist tin-foil-hat tripe I read growing up.
CW: racism, fatphobia, body negativity, ED, suicide, religion, slut-shaming, alcoholism
Starting off 2025 by hate-reading a book by and for christian white women!
I had a lot of fun annotating this mess.
The bad:
The caucacity and tone-deafness of certain parts (i.e. international adoption, calling her blog-readers her "tribe", etc.). The privilege soaked into every story... she doesn't speak as if racism and systemic inequality exist. Early on in the book, she talks about not giving up on your dreams, despite the world telling you you're "too 'fat, tired, or female' for it." She even mentions the word "patriarchal" a whole ONE time in the book, in passing. She knows what that is?! Couldn't tell from the rest of the book. There's so much more this book could've done to connect to all types of mothers/women/people that it didn't because of its narrow viewpoint.
Rachel does come off as braggy -- "I struggle and I'm real about it, but I can mind-over-matter better than anyone I know!!" A lot of bragging and not-like-other-moms vibes.
She also loves to call the reader "my sweet friend," "girl," "sister," "girlfriend," and it's cringey everytime. This is the tip of the iceberg for cringe, and I could go on...so here's a passage:
"'...Here's what you need to know, here's what you should consider, and also, the first few times you have sex you should pee afterward so you don't get a UTI!'
Somewhere in Texas and old reader just fainted.
Yes I wrote about a urinary tract infection. If that freaks you out, move right along to the next chapter, sister, because it's going to get way more intimate than that." (p.74)
She then proceeds to brag that she ~does it~ "more than any married couple you know."
She also says "yo" in the book. Just once, but thats way more than a rich white woman should ever say it.
She also dives into the first year that her and her husband were "together," and it's so bad. A big age difference, she's 19 years old, he's in his late 20s, and using her for sex and treating her like shit. And then we're supposed to think that this is the beginning of a beautiful love story? Girl, stand up and wash your motherf*cking face.
This book is also SO contradictory. One chapter she'll say not to ever put a time limit on your goal, and in the next chapter she's talking about how she wants a vacation home in Hawaii by age 40. First, stop colonizing Hawaii. Second, you just said no timelines, sister! Her views on alcohol are also contradictory. Midway through the book, she lists boxed wine as something that helps her cope with mom's stress, and says everyone needs something to "unwind." Then later on in the book, she has a whole chapter on using wine and vodka to cope with mom stress, and how bad that is. Girl, Be Consistent!
This is also not the book for body acceptance. There's quite a bit of fat shaming, diet talk, and body negativity in general. She's spends a chunk of a chapter talking about how flawed her body is because she has hair on her toes. As a Latine person, the last thing I want to read is a white woman complaining about body hair. Girl, You Have No Idea. Also, how are you calling body hair a flaw when God fearfully and wonderfully made us this way? Not very godly of you, Rach.
The good:
Because this book is written for christian women, a demographic I am too familiar with, I do appreciate that she sings the praises of (secular, I assume) therapy, which many christians are told is not godly. I was told this growing up. You're just supposed to pray the trauma away. 😉
So I'm glad that there's a voice for likely-trump-voting women to try therapy and heal themselves from traumas. The world will be a better place for that.
Secondly, although sometimes tone deaf in her delivery, I am glad that Rachel preaches to surround yourself with a diverse community of people around you. This, for white Christian women, is a bit unheard of to hear from their own people. Rachel talks about "loving your neighbor", which includes people of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, political affiliations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. As many of us know, Christian women are some of the most judgmental people (there's no hate like christian love!). So I am glad Rachel is advocating against that (despite her pulling the "Black and Mexican gay best friend" card and using a couple ethic slurs earlier in the book).
All in all, I do not recommend this book. As someone who grew up christian, this is nowhere near the most offensive, hateful thing I have read. I believe many conservatives would call this "too woke" since it's a book about a career-minded mother who goes to therapy and even has *a* gay friend of color. This might be progressive christianity, I fear. Which is slightly better than the fundamentalist tin-foil-hat tripe I read growing up.
CW: racism, fatphobia, body negativity, ED, suicide, religion, slut-shaming, alcoholism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Alcohol
dark
If you are white, thin and rich, this book may be for your problems. But even there it could be potentially harmful. It‘s interesting how she blames her addiction problems on the biological parents of her children, but it‘s their fault that they are addicted. Really scary massages, also reg. Fatphobia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia
Minor: Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Religious bigotry