Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks

10 reviews

amsswim's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Required reading. Highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Intersectionality should be the standard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Classism, Death, Deportation, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Misogyny, Genocide, Grief, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

A difficult topic shown under a harsh almost clinical light.  Everything is so matter of fact, and it is so sad.  I don’t know why I decided to read this.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Torture, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Classism, Racism, Violence, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexism, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Body shaming, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment

singingstar89's review against another edition

challenging dark informative

5.0

Very hard to read emotionally but super easy to understand. Something everyone should read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual violence, Racism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Colonisation, Death, Miscarriage, Murder, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Slavery, Grief, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

smilagros's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I listened to this on audio and I highly recommend that experience. But I also wish that I had a physical copy to annotate because there was A LOT that I wanted to highlight and tab. There was a few things that I knew about but there was a really good conversation that I needed to listen to. I think everyone should read this because it may by eye opening to some, it may not be to others but you will learn ATLEAST SOMETHING from this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Deadnaming, Slavery, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, and Colonisation

vrede's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Classism, Sexism, Trafficking, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Rape, Torture, Racism, and Emotional abuse

maggieparedesauthor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Hate crime, Classism, Sexual violence, Genocide, Gore, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Child death, Grief, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual harassment, Rape, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, War, Kidnapping, Sexism, Torture, and Trafficking

stillmuseum's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Slavery, Racism, Rape, Colonisation, Torture, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence

acciohannah's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

5 stars

This is one of the most important books I’ve ever read & should be required reading for everyone. 

A heart wrenching and honest perspective on the continuing oppression of black women. hooks’ criticism of white feminism, white supremacy & the patriarchy is so well researched & presented in this book. the writing is incredibly readable, thought-provoking & informative. 

an in-depth look at the intersection of racism, capitalism, classism & imperialism. though it can be a bit redundant at times, and obviously some facts are dated as this book was written 40 years ago, for the most part it holds true. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Classism

studiouspoppy's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

It was a very interesting and informative reading, bell hooks is very clear and easy to read, even though it's a very difficult topic. The only reason why I don't give it 5/5 stars is because I don't think it was inclusive of LGBTQAI+ groups, and it's something that should be taken into account when talking about white feminism and its lack of inclusivity and diversity.
The only part that mentions the question about mandatory heterosexuality is to question the academics who have written about it and their failure to act against a system considered oppressed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation

kierscrivener's review against another edition

informative

3.25

This is an important book for intersectional feminism, however it also shows its age. hooks sees Sojourner Truth as an inspiration and her speech as the origin of the title, and talks about how Truth advocated for Black women through an appeal of her strength and her vulnerability. And as she looked to Truth we can look to her forty years later. She thoroughly chronicles Black Women and the relationship to oppression, mistreatment, feminism from the trans-Atlantic journey through slavery and how 'prosperity' hid the abuse of women and made them the accursed when raped and assualted. And how this led to the myth of Black Women's promiscuity and/or degraded and made to be tough and not a full woman as she worked in the fields. Through reconstruction, Jim Crow and the then current 70s into 81. Which is where it begins to show its age in the later half.

Her contemporary was 81, and though racism is still roaring its nasty head, the landscape of feminism, civil rights and Black consciousness looks very different now then it did forty years ago. But anything I say please feel free to correct me as I am not Black and I was born in 1997 in Canada, so my critics are far from expert level or first hand. 

(sexual violence discussion, skip paragraph)
The first time I rewound was when she claimed no male slaves were sexually assualted (as sexism would not allow them to practice homosexuality). I went back twice to make sure that was actually what was said. It was. It's 1981 so I'll give her a pass, but what I definitely know is upholding the patriarchy doesn't make you any less gay, and sexual assualt, molestation and sexual torture have been inflicted by many straight men as a way to humiliate other men. As in a patriarchy the idea of being a woman, being dominated is the worst you can be. And with the amount of rape that took place of female slaves, it is most definite that many, many men and boys were also subject to sexual violence and trauma. 

She references Audre Lorde but does not address sexuality except to dismiss it or denounce white lesbians as not a 'we.' And in the closing chapter in a list of how white women just want to replace men in the power of dominance but she wants to destroys dominance lists lesbians as not helping women who want to sleep with men. Which I guess is in the strictest sense is true but for someone who is preaching intersectionality and how she wants to break the bars between gender, race and class. Who constantly critiques white women for not advocating for the rights of all women and then to turn and say but not women who sleep with women. That's antithetical. Unless in her 80s thinking she thinks lesbians are only desiring women as a copy of men. and yet still. To repeatedly bring it up is rather uncomfortable 

There is also other notions around Black men as rapists no longer being a prejudice peddled. When I would argue that this is one of the most enduring myths and prejudices. And Black women refusing to join the movement as they just want their men to step up so they can be housewives. And the lack of Black women in interracial relationships (which may still be the case I am not sure in the United States, I grew up with lots of mixed families and my sister in law is biracial to my brother's white). A lot of it though is really the housewife thing and why Black women would want to lower their feminist ideas to focus on racial equality and reclamation of womanhood. Which to me, and it might just be that white girlboss feminism is unappealing and I actively seek out intersectional feminism but the idea of anti racism and feminism being separate is truly foreign, so is seeing the Black women in my life not passionate about both. It could be my circle, it could be that Canada is more left leaning, or I could be totally wrong.

I would like to end by recommending Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women The Movement Forgot as a great book to read in tandem or one after the other. I think ain't i a woman still has much merit but it shows its age. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia