Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee

22 reviews

historicalmaterialgirl's review

4.0

hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

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This was honestly better than I was expecting! You should read this even if you're not someone who usually cares about masculinity or sports. I really enjoyed it - I felt myself become a more empathetic person through this. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual violence

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

4.25

challenging reflective medium-paced

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This is a memoir of a trans man who decides to enter into amateur boxing for more perspective into traditional masculinity and to understand parts of himself. Boxing is pretty far outside of my typical wheelhouse, even if queer books and gender studies is right in the middle of it. So this was quite an interesting look into the inside of that as someone with very little knowledge of that component going in. 

There is a lot in here obviously about masculinity at large but even more compelling to me was how it all (masculinity as well as the experience of boxing) tied into the author's life. As McBee is unpacking masculinity and his relationship to it, he's also analyzing relationships past and present, working though grief, and processing his childhood abuse. This was really well put together and had a lot of great insight. 

This book does focus on a limited scope of masculinity, but the author clearly states his position socially (as white and cis-passing) and acknowledges how it's a different experience from others. He doesn't go far into detail on a lot of these points nor does he dig far into the class differences that he describes in the boxing gyms. This is a memoir - it makes sense that the scope would be limited, but it would have been interesting to see a bit more about this especially since he did pull from academic sources at other points in the book (and I enjoyed the discussion that he had in those sections).

Overall, I had a good time with this. It was well-written, interesting, and insightful. It grapples with a lot of big questions about masculinity, identity, and personal history in a really compelling way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Violence, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault

oisinthewizard's review

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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As a gay trans man, this was a somewhat difficult read and showed me a gap in masculine experiences as shaped by sexuality and performance. While I found McGee's experiences almost entirely unrelatable, his writing is self reflective and offers insight into the pressures to perform a strictly heterosexual masculinity.

I was made deeply uncomfortable by the use of anti-gay male slurs and with the author's approach to the casual use of such slurs in all-male settings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Blood

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny

sunshinemoth's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Sexual harassment

Minor: Pedophilia

emcat591's review

3.5

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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I felt like this book touched on some great points, but it seemed like the author just kind of let them float by rather than engaging with them. I don't know that I got a lot out of it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Violence

mengzhenreads's review against another edition

5.0

challenging reflective medium-paced

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this book is so slim and yet holds so much weight goddamn this was just incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts

mscoleman's review

4.0

reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Sexual violence

zombiezami's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Drug abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, Sexual harassment

tinyelfarcanist's review against another edition

5.0

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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While this memoir recounts the author's journey to become the first trans man to fight at Madison Square Garden (for a charity event), this is not a story about boxing. It relies on his experience training to question what makes a man a man.

He starts perceiving his reality full of the privilege men have when passing as cis. He questions what drives men to resort to violence when in the face of a problem. He interviews experts on gender to understand masculinity in the society we live in.

Great insight for people transitioning (or born in) to masculinity. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism

Minor: Violence, Blood, Death of parent

goldenjunegem's review

4.5

reflective fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence

Moderate: Child abuse