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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
10 reviews
adirblum's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
The essay "Pleasure after Childhood Sexual Abuse" was incredible and a great read but could potentially be very triggering. There are some fairly specific descriptions of what happened, though they are not graphic. Read that essay with caution if it's a sensitive/triggering topic for you.sweetcaptainlily's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Xenophobia
amgarrido's review
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual content
meecespieces's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia
annayareads's review against another edition
4.75
This volume featuring adrienne maree brown's writing and the work of so many others in the pleasure activism space should be essential reading. From the beginning to the very end, brown had me thinking more deeply about pleasure than I ever have before. Starting out with "Uses of the Erotic" by my own intellectual mother Audre Lorde was just the warm welcome that I needed to greet the ideas within the book with openness.
Throughout the pages, I could feel the joy, love, pain, and pleasure imbued in the words. Reading this book feels like being cared for. It gently nudges you to deconstruct the repression that has been forced onto us and instead explore what gives us pleasure. I will carry Pleasure Activism in my heart for years to come.
Moderate: Child abuse and Rape
helhas3letters's review against another edition
2.0
I personally found this book quite difficult to read, as it oscillated between articles which used academic language and advanced concepts, and interviews with very casual language and little discernible focus.
The former could have benefitted from explanations of some terminology and concepts as it seemed to assume significant existing knowledge on the part of the reader. I did find some of the explanations that were presented to be unhelpful and confusing, e.g. I felt that the explanation of the practice of 'somatics' did not tell me anything about what it actually was and could have benefitted from clear examples.
On the other hand, the interviews seemed to lack a clear goal and just felt like a transcription of some casual conversations between friends. I personally didn't gain anything of value from reading them.
I also felt that the book spent lots of time describing (many) individuals who were either interviewed or just briefly mentioned. The volume of people described felt overwhelming and I found it hard to locate which of these descriptions were going to be useful and worth remembering. There were some descriptions devoted to a person simply mentioned in passing in conversation, which felt totally unnecessary and irrelevant.
The descriptions themselves also became very personal to the author, e.g. rather than 'X is an expert in Y and works with the organisation Z', it was more like 'X is a good friend of mine and makes me feel Y and we met Z years ago'. Because of this, it was hard to understand the relevance and expertise of lots of these people.
Finally, I felt that a lot of the footnotes in this book were extraneous and didn't add anything of value. I normally love the extra information provided by footnotes, but with this book I ended up ignoring them by the halfway point.
Despite my issues with the structure and formatting of this book, the core concept is interesting and there were gems of thought throughout. I believe however that the topic was too sprawling and it could have been presented best as one long article or a short manifesto, cutting many of the interviews or simply using quotes from them occasionally.
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Transphobia, and Cultural appropriation
tegen's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault
sapphicbloom's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
jackry's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Sexual violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
eslsilver's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Child abuse