Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates

172 reviews

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

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

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

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

stormlightreader's review against another edition

challenging dark informative fast-paced

4.5

An uncomfortable read but provides important information. It’s really shocking to know that there are groups of men that view women so negatively. Seriously, for the most part the mindset of these men is nauseating but at other times their core beliefs are downright laughable. Bates does warn the reader in the Introduction that there are dark themes ahead. As the author has been a recipient of death and rape threats from the types of men described in this book, I can imagine that writing it was hard. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

bookishbrenbren's review

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

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

sammietee's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Mass/school shootings

kymzii's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.75

This is essential reading for everyone as the subject matter is important. However, I didn't find this very easy to read. It felt at times like a list of facts, rather than a story woven together to illustrate facts and opinions. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

mads_jpg's review

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

An absolutely terrifying but necessary read, I thought I was well-versed on incel culture and shitty pickup artists but I was so wrong. This rabbit hole goes deep and it's horrifying to think how many people fall for it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, and Murder

megantyler's review

challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

janeywaneyb's review

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

"We can't tackle a problem if people don't even know it exists. And, once we do know, we all have a responsibility to answer a simple question: what are we going to do about it?" Laura Bates ( Pg. 342)

I have had my eyes thoroughly slapped open by this book and the spread of violent misogyny into our daily lives by the Manosphere, politicians, journalists,  celebrities and others of influence through so many means that our Young people accept the ideology as a norm. This is a powerful book that offers such clarity on issues we should all be aware of and how the minority are influencing the majority filling our society with a hate rhetoric. Before starting this book I thought I knew something of incels and misogyny, nope! I knew nothing, I had no idea how deep rooted the issue is and how it is secreted into main stream politics, journalism and media to become a "norm". Bates has researched her book so thoroughly with no stone left unturned and she is shining a bright spot light that we must all look at NOW! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment