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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
really made me change my perspective on the world of modeling. i'll admit that i held some of the preconceived notions about models like Em Rata that she described constantly coming up against in this book. very hard to hear about all of the horrible things she's experienced while trying to make a living. glad she wrote this book to change some false assumptions about models and share her own experience in the industry.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book. Emily was self-reflexive, thoughtful, and showed a commitment to personal growth as a function of societal growth. There were times I wish she had integrated more of the scholarship that undergirds these discussions, but I know this wasn’t an academic book. Overall, this exceeded my expectations, and made me consider ways my experiences align (or diverge) from Emily’s, and what that means for me.
I really liked listening to the audiobook, it was powerful to hear her words in her voice. If hell exists, Jonathan Leder will go there.
I wished desperately for her to push her thinking a little further, to think about how she might be complicit in the very systems that have done her so dirty. This book is a funny mix of vulnerable & powerful introspection and a total failure to look outward. She made the same (powerful) point over and over about how her/women’s bodies are commodified, and by the end it felt redundant. However I really appreciate and respect how vulnerable and honest she was and overall really enjoyed listening to this over the last few days.
I wished desperately for her to push her thinking a little further, to think about how she might be complicit in the very systems that have done her so dirty. This book is a funny mix of vulnerable & powerful introspection and a total failure to look outward. She made the same (powerful) point over and over about how her/women’s bodies are commodified, and by the end it felt redundant. However I really appreciate and respect how vulnerable and honest she was and overall really enjoyed listening to this over the last few days.
emotional
inspiring
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria
3.5 Hmmm
I wonder how many readers of this book knew of Emily prior to reading it... I feel like maybe I'm in a unique position where I (1) either haven't watched the Blurred Lines MV or erased it from my memory and (2) kind of just didn't know who Emily is and why she's famous. I read purely based on a recommendation, so I'd like to think that I checked most potential biases at the gate.
I'm still processing this and sure I'll have more to think about. Overall, Emily is a great writer. She imbues this rawness in her prose that feels like something you might not get with more seasoned writers, and it works for this and her content.
I'm conflicted because she does preface her work early on to say that she wrote this to share her experiences and her reflections on certain experiences and the way they shaped her career, not to find answers. But at the same time, I'm still a bit disappointed that she didn't go further. I saw another review that mentioned that this book was empowering for her only -- it doesn't empower other women. And I think maybe that's the key point that makes me a bit unsatisfied with this work. Because of that, it sometimes feels like there's... no growth? Which, by the way, isn't true -- I mean it's very clear through her essays that she has indeed grown a lot since her childhood. But I think the end of the book left me feeling like ... well our society is still shit, and I have no optimistic outlook on a path forward to change. I get a sense of like "damn, Emily has a lot of self-awareness and deep thinking" but no sense of "Emily is ready to act upon these realizations or understand how to break out of her role being somewhat complicit in different means of oppression."
I like to have some (potentially unfounded) optimism on the progress we're making in feminism and subverting a lot of these oppressive standards, and I'd like to think that Emily would be a powerful voice to this if she were just to take another step forward. Maybe the attention from this book can help her realize that her audience doesn't *have* to just be incels and that there's an untapped pool of supportive people waiting for something worth listening to.
I'll probably think back to these essays once in a while, and I've very glad to have read it despite my recent avoidance of celebrity memoirs. (Thanks, Michael!)
I wonder how many readers of this book knew of Emily prior to reading it... I feel like maybe I'm in a unique position where I (1) either haven't watched the Blurred Lines MV or erased it from my memory and (2) kind of just didn't know who Emily is and why she's famous. I read purely based on a recommendation, so I'd like to think that I checked most potential biases at the gate.
I'm still processing this and sure I'll have more to think about. Overall, Emily is a great writer. She imbues this rawness in her prose that feels like something you might not get with more seasoned writers, and it works for this and her content.
I'm conflicted because she does preface her work early on to say that she wrote this to share her experiences and her reflections on certain experiences and the way they shaped her career, not to find answers. But at the same time, I'm still a bit disappointed that she didn't go further. I saw another review that mentioned that this book was empowering for her only -- it doesn't empower other women. And I think maybe that's the key point that makes me a bit unsatisfied with this work. Because of that, it sometimes feels like there's... no growth? Which, by the way, isn't true -- I mean it's very clear through her essays that she has indeed grown a lot since her childhood. But I think the end of the book left me feeling like ... well our society is still shit, and I have no optimistic outlook on a path forward to change. I get a sense of like "damn, Emily has a lot of self-awareness and deep thinking" but no sense of "Emily is ready to act upon these realizations or understand how to break out of her role being somewhat complicit in different means of oppression."
I like to have some (potentially unfounded) optimism on the progress we're making in feminism and subverting a lot of these oppressive standards, and I'd like to think that Emily would be a powerful voice to this if she were just to take another step forward. Maybe the attention from this book can help her realize that her audience doesn't *have* to just be incels and that there's an untapped pool of supportive people waiting for something worth listening to.
I'll probably think back to these essays once in a while, and I've very glad to have read it despite my recent avoidance of celebrity memoirs. (Thanks, Michael!)