Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

6 reviews

oliviapincin's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Islamophobia, Body shaming, Suicide, Homophobia, Transphobia, Fatphobia, Ableism, Sexual assault, Racism, Police brutality, and Mental illness

Minor: Cancer, Hate crime, Eating disorder, and Deportation

rieviolet's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book deals with a very important topic and introduced me to the term "body terrorism", which is a pretty neat expression and very fitting to encapsulate all the oppression and damage inflicted on non-conforming bodies.

I found the informative parts very interesting and actually, I wish that more time and pages could've been spent on such reflections. However, I think that this could be a good starting point for people completely new to such themes.

The overall structure of the book didn't entirely convince me. I think that the essay-style sections and the self-help ones didn't blend together well. It might be a bit of a "me problem" as well, as I don't do very well with the self-improvement genre.
Also, as another reviewer pointed out, the mixing of academic and more conversational language made the writing style feel a bit all over the place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Suicide, Fatphobia, and Racism

Moderate: Ableism, Transphobia, Islamophobia, Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

Minor: Police brutality, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Addiction, Antisemitism, Dysphoria, Slavery, Eating disorder, Medical content, Cancer, Mental illness, Violence, and Excrement

spacekee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Suicide, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Transphobia, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Ableism, Homophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, and Islamophobia

Minor: Alcohol

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

I appreciate the attention Taylor pays to expanding this work beyond self, showing how radical self-love can transform communities and entire systems. I don't see that focus in self-help books nearly as often as I'd like.

Beyond that, this wasn't the mindblowing, heart-opening revelation so many people promised me it would be. If it were my first exposure to the concepts that Taylor is packaging under the label "radical self-love," maybe I would be as madly in love with it as others are. But I found little here that I haven't been finding in therapy and my spiritual practice for almost a decade. tbh, I took more notes on Ijeoma Oluo's introduction than on the body of the text.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Ableism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia

bladelikesbooks's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book is about radical self love - what it is, why it’s important, and how you can work towards practising it. It is also about reflecting on your thoughts and actions. It’s also a collection of academic research, personal experiences and the experiences of Taylor’s students/clients. Taylor provides you with a toolkit to do the self love work within yourself. 

I really enjoyed reading this. I listened to the audiobook and I loved that it was narrator by the author. I prefer audiobooks of nonfiction, especially educative ones like this, because it feels like having an actual conversation with the author! This book gave me a lot to think about, it added to my perspectives, and made me reassess my own biases. That’s exactly what I wanted from it! This is definitely one I’ll be rereading multiple times. 

TWs/CWs - Ableism; Abortion; Addiction; Ageism; Antisemitism; Body shaming; Corruption; Death of a Parent; Fatphobia; Forced Imprisonment; Forced Sterilisation; Government Control; Heart Attack; Holocaust; Homophobia; Islamophobia; Kidnapping; Manipulation; Misogyny; Objectification; Oppression; Pregnancy; Police Brutality; Prison; Racism; Sexism; Sexual Harassment; Shame; Suicide; Terrorism; Torture; Toxic masculinity; Transphobia 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Body shaming, Sexism, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Antisemitism, Transphobia, Ableism, Suicide, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Police brutality

Minor: Addiction, Torture, Islamophobia, Pregnancy, Abortion, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

lycheejelly's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Biphobia, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, and Xenophobia