Reviews with content warning for Bullying - My Body

I really loved this read and Emily's meditation on what it's like to have the privilege to make it big in an industry that sexualizes and objectifies you, and realize down the road you never truly achieved any power. You just got perks like money and status but that the real power continues to be in the hands of rich men who use that power to continue to do harm.
I also really appreciated the honestly with which she explores the internal conflict of wanting the attention of scary, powerful men, and how we're taught to find validation in that even though it's violent towards us. There's a promise of power and empowerment there if you can be a big girl and tough it out. Emily's not the "perfect victim" and it's important to share stories like that because it's true to life. You shouldn't have to be this "perfect victim" to have the harms done to you acknowledged and addressed.

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hannibanani29's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

5.0

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nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

Speechless. I’ll let the quotes speak for themselves….

“I want to calculate my beauty to protect myself, to understand exactly how much power and lovability I have.”

“I liked to tell friends that the French word for model is mannequin. “So,” I’d say, shrugging, “I’m a mannequin for a living.”

“As the number on my scale went down, the number on my checks had been going up. The agency had taken notice.”

“In my early twenties, it had never occurred to me that the women who gained their power from beauty were indebted to the men whose desire granted them that power in the first place. Those men were the ones in control, not the women the world fawned over. Facing the reality of dynamics at play would have meant admitting how limited my power really was—how limited any woman’s power is when she survives and even succeeds in the world as a thing to be looked at.”

“The stylist, their assistant, the client or the editor, the other models, and sometimes the photographer will stand right in front of you and wait as you strip. You understand that your body is a means for them to accomplish what they’re here to accomplish: to make an image to sell whatever it is they’re selling. They’re in charge of it now, not you. Now hand it over, they seem to say. Your body is why you’re here and we need it. Now.”

“I look down at my body and it doesn’t feel like my own. It feels like something, but not me. They can look at me all they want, because they’re right; my body is just a tool.”

“The world celebrates and rewards women who are chosen by powerful men.”

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