Reviews tagging 'War'

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

55 reviews

ruthmoog's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective

4.5

Brilliant book that clearly explains the impact of excluding women's experience. It doesn't ignore the experience of non-white women either, but does acknowledge that although women and female data are missing, so too are data for non-white women plus pregnant and menstruateing women to a greater extent. Trans women however are not referenced at all.

It's very statistic heavy, and relentless, but a must read imo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

sop17hie's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

I had to put it down for days at a time because I would just get so frustrated with the state of the world, but glad this book exists. Already lent it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, and War

abbs17's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Violence and War

zombiezami's review against another edition

Although I was excited for this book and getting lots of interesting and surprising facts from it, some of the turns of phrase struck me as outdated at best and cis-centric/transphobic at worst. Some of these include "female-bodied," saying she considers women to be those with XX chromosomes (fun fact: almost no one checks their chromosomes because it's expensive to do so, so the XX/XY dichotomy is a generalization, even before you get into intersex people existing), and quoting someone who says that "pregnancy is not a gender-neutral event." These statements, plus hearing that the author was British, gave me pause. 

I searched the author online and found that she had said some transphobic dogwhistles that she erased rather than apologizing for. Aside from this, her solutions to various issues such as sexual violence seem focused on carcerality. Even if the author had said, "I'm focusing on cis women because that's what data I have," that would have been a bit more excusable, but I don't feel good about continuing to read this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Transphobia, and Excrement

Minor: War

Menstruation

literelli's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and War

anil's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.75

First of this is a super interesting book with some good points. Absolutely worth the read. BUT. 

I have some serious issues with its very binary and cis centered language as well as the way it brushes over a lot of the differences within the groups of both (cis) men and women in a way that I don't think is helpful. 

In some parts that distinction may be more superficial but in some parts it REALLY isn't because there is a huge difference for example between a medical issue going underdiagnosed because of the way people are socialized and biological differences in presentation. Even within biological differences there is the question of hormone levels vs average physical presentation for example. 
All of these are massively affected by being a cis woman of course! I'm not claiming that the root cause of the issues named here is not sexism. But its also affected by certain disabilities, medical treatments (not just medical transition), ethnicity and probably a host of other factors I can't think of spontaneously. And sometimes they happen to apply to cis men even.

And of course part of the point is that some of this information is lacking because we're not doing the scientific studies but then say that! And in some instances we do know or have information that suggests directions and those are ignored by the author.

These are not just superficial concerns there are specific suggestions for solutions targeted towards women in this book that could be targeted more precisely and more helpfully by looking at who precisely is the group affected.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and War

hannibanani29's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Genocide, Transphobia, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

spellygirl's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

5.0

Everyone should read this book. Though if you have any empathy at all, it's going to break your heart and piss you off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and War

sydapel's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

4.75

Truly proud of myself for taking the time to really dig into this book, as I'm walking with this incredible depth of knowledge about all of the pervasive and unrecognized ways the female population is discriminated against at every level of our lives. And how so much of it is the result of failing to ask women any questions. From prescription drugs to low income housing to disaster relief, this book is an absolute must read. I particularly appreciated how the author made space to talk about countries other than the US and UK, making this a global perspective on discrimination and gender gaps rather than a white European one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

leif's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Stalking, and War