Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates

65 reviews

nugenmak000's review against another edition

I plan to pick up this book later when I'm in a stringer mental headspace. This book is dark and covers the different layers of the manosphere and their groups. It covered misogyny and crimes against women/general hate of women. It also mentioned manifestos of crazed misogynistic murderers like Elliot Rogers. This book is overall very heavy and difficult to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

Minor: Antisemitism, Murder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Pedophilia, and Rape

ashwaar's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

I cannot imagine how it must feel to be a woman in the public sphere and receive innumerable threats and angry outpourings from men. I cannot imagine how you handle being doxxed, your families threatened, being physically and verbally assaulted, and then going on to write a book about the very real dangers these attackers pose, and how no one takes it seriously. We take these threats, and these assaults as generic, as something to be contended with as a woman, instead of trying to stop or prevent the behaviour at its source.

In Men Who Hate Women, Laura Bates explores several online communities including incel (involuntary celibate) groups. She recounts her experiences infiltrating extremely misogynistic, often violent online forums, where groups of angry men will curse against the wrongs they felt they have been dealt in society. Instead of working to better themselves through personal growth and development, they will blame women for their lack of sexual success, and fantasise about a world in which women have no right of choice to a sexual partner, where rape is legal and accepted and where women are not considered human enough to warrant any sort of voice. 

She then takes us on an exploration of other, more socially acceptable but still deeply disturbing and unhinged groups including pick-up artists, men’s rights activists and even mainstream figureheads like Jordan Peterson. By starting us off with the violently misogynistic and delusional incel groups, Bates traces a clear path to show how their ideology trickles down into the mainstream, socially acceptable content. From pick-up artists who hold huge workshops to manipulate and take advantage of their supporters to popular and acceptable ‘mentors’ like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.

Although it is a bit repetitive at times, I think this is needed so that Bates can get her point across, that these groups are real, bigger and more dangerous than we assume. Another thing that stuck with me is the blame is always, inevitably on women. When an act of mass violence is incited, especially by a young white man, the press is always focused on how society has failed them. They are not treated as a criminal, they are treated as a victim, even more so than the people they killed. This is a difficult, compelling and well-researched read that I think so many people would benefit from reading. As these groups are growing more and more popular and their ethos is becoming more socially acceptable, we need to raise our collective awareness in response. We need to support the confused, vulnerable kids stumbling across these forums and protect the women these actions and rhetorics ultimately affect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Hate crime

champagnepr0blem's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective

4.0

Honestly, this could have been 5 stars. But by the end it became a chore to read. Id lost all faith in humanity, and was starting to pick up on more scary stuff around me. Saying that, I believe this is a good starting point when looking at misogyny and the way toxic male online forums effect our daily lives. It's essential reading for all men and most women but it's hard to get through! You'll see the worst of everything and you'll see it on your doorstep.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Xenophobia, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Homophobia, Violence, Transphobia, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Antisemitism

jbv123's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

Moderate: Hate crime, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Sexual violence

dollyshouse97's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Reflecting all the interactions I’ve had with men on and offline 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Racism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Islamophobia, and Domestic abuse

mj_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Sexism

Minor: Rape, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Racism

th18's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Amazing book and incredibly eye opening. Hard to read sometimes because of the emotions I felt but I think this is a book that everyone should read atleast once, especially men. Highlighting these issues hat we as women and half of the population face is extremely difficult but I feel that Laura did an amazing job. I've definitely been motivated to spread this information to others and do my best to educate men around me in order to prevent as much as possible their becoming of incels. I cannot stress enough how educational this book has been. Will definitely reread.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Emotional abuse, Islamophobia, Suicide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Bullying, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Pedophilia, Death, and Racism

daddycat96's review against another edition

challenging informative tense slow-paced

5.0

Laura Bates doesn’t hold back and at times I needed to put the book down and breathe because I was that horrified by what I was reading. But she eloquently and clearly provides the reasoning and proof and links between the different segments of the manosphere and explains the real life, offline impacts of this supposedly online only world. It’s a hard fucking read and has many a triggering topic but it is definitely worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Hate crime, Rape, Murder, Gun violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Sexual content, Rape, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, Racism, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Domestic abuse

bookishbrenbren's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

I thought this book was really great but it would've benefitted from a heavier-handed editor crossing out repetitive or superfluous information.

It starts very strong with informative and compelling chapters on the incel community, pick-up artists (PUA), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), and MRAs, which (even for someone who felt fairly well-informed before going into the book) were all by turns very shocking and very elucidating. I thought the author's argument of how and why this online extremism is causing offline harm was strongest in these early chapters and I found myself marking the most number of pages in this section.
The subsequent chapters, on trolls and domestic violence provided diminishing returns to their inclusion and could've been shortened - or rather, the domestic violence chapter could serve as a primer to the book, more of an introduction if anything, as knowledge of the misogynist foundations of our society is sort of necessary background information.
The following chapters, "Men Who Exploit Other Men" and "Men Who Are Afraid of Women", which cover, respectively, the ways the most powerful and recognizable misogynists - the 'face' of misogyny, if you will - benefit from the support of online misogynists (and how online misogynists are empowered by their public representation) and the strong misogynist backlash against the #MeToo movement and the sudden popular interest in false rape allegations. Again, I thought these chapters were out of place after 6 chapters of sketching how the extremist misogynist online community looks and acts. There were pages explaining how Donald Trump and Piers Morgan benefit from misogyny... like... did the author and editor assume their readers not only exist in the year 2020, and then not only bought THIS book (not likely by accident, given the title), but somehow also made it through the first 200 pages of this book without understanding what these  men and their slavering followers have done to bring misogyny mainstream? Or did they think that these readers would be the folks who need convincing that the backlash to MeToo was misogynist in nature? To me, it seemed silly. If readers didn't know this information beforehand, it seems unlikely their worldviews would have allowed them to get through the first chapters of this book. Needless to say, I felt very bored by these chapters and what started out as a very exciting 5-star read for me became mired in "yeah yeah yeah"s. 

Then the final two chapters, on young men and the ways they are captured by the online extremist community and men who are working against the very outdated societal standards of masculinity, were a return to extremely informative and extremely compelling writing, and I was very glad I didn't give the book up sooner. Thus, I am torn. If I could edit about 60 pages out of this book, I think it would be a 5-star read. But as it stands now, it's only 'good'. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Mass/school shootings, Sexual violence, Rape, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Violence, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Stalking, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Homophobia

lawmixitup's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

5.0

Challenging and hard to finish. I can't say I enjoyed this book but I will say it's important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Islamophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Rape, Sexism, and Gun violence