Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad

23 reviews

ellaniji's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Classism, Genocide, Homophobia, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Slavery, Sexism, Rape, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Body shaming, and Racism

Since this book is about white feminism, rasism and sexism are central in this book.

dominicangirl's review

informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Xenophobia

swamphag42069's review against another edition

This book was super awesome but not a fun read (personally) This brown girl felt incredibly validated and seen while reading, which was simultaneously v triggering. I am not who needs to be reading this, but would recommend all intersectional feminists who are white should. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Gaslighting, and Xenophobia

savvylit's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book thoroughly highlights and unveils several delusions that are common in the greater (white) culture of the Western world. Primary among them is the idea that white women have been unaware or innocent during some of history's worst atrocities. For instance, Hamad draws on examples from colonial America & Australia to show that white women were not only complicit in genocidal behavior but also strong proponents of it.

That's not to say that White Tears/Brown Scars is purely about betrayals of the past - it most certainly is not. Hamad discusses the past only to bolster the truth at the heart of this book: that even in modern life, a myth of white female innocence is just as common and damaging as ever. Using examples from real individuals, her own experience, and the media, Hamad outlines the ways that white women willfully use their tears and presumed "innocence" to dismiss and damage women of color. Time after time, white women have shown that if they're even mildly criticized for racist behavior, they will become belligerently sad and defensive. By taking a concern and transforming it into a personal attack, the focus of the argument then becomes centered solely on the white woman's feelings. If there's any sort of audience, other folks do their best to assuage the sad white woman. Thus, the initial concerns and distress of the person of color become completely forgotten. This is a collective delusion that gaslights women of color.

When white womanhood and its insidious associations of presumed innocence are continually prioritized and promoted, the "feminist" movement has failed. Hamad proves that equality among women is only achievable once white women are willing to acknowledge their complicity in upholding whiteness. Throughout history, whiteness has been a self-perpetuating power structure built on outright lies. We need to recognize the delusions that we continue to uphold & promote and stop centering white feelings in discussions of race.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Trafficking, Hate crime, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Racism, Misogyny, Genocide, Gaslighting, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

zombiezami's review

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Racism, Genocide, Violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Death, Islamophobia, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Rape, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Body shaming, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: War, Torture, and Classism

Eugenics, Colorism, Blackface, White supremacy, Lynching

emilia_digi's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Islamophobia, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Slavery, War, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Violence, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Child death, Racism, Rape, and Sexism

theoceanrose's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Very informative, but not a good choice for when you're suffering through covid brain fog. Put this aside for when you can think clearly and fully process.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Racism, and Sexism

cooper_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

A fantastic analysis and breakdown of white feminism and it’s perpetuation of white supremacy and continual invalidation of the experiences of BIPOC women. It’s not always a easy read, but it is an important and necessary one in order to understand and combat the systems of oppression that exist in our world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Gaslighting, Slavery, and Rape

bookworm_leilani's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racism, Colonisation, and Hate crime

Moderate: Gaslighting, Genocide, Sexual violence, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Slavery, and Ableism

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Everything about this book is exceptional and so insightful and informative. Some parts of the book can be little hard to digest emotionally or academically and but I appreciated that when Ms. Hamad quoted another writer or thinker and the quote was a little too academically verbose she diluted it enough for the not so academic or deeply philosophical readers aka me. I really liked the international scope the book has and how the author gives so much perspective on the colonization of Aboriginal women. This book also gave me rationalization on why White American feminism never appealed to me and why in my most cringey adolescent moments I didn't identify with feminism. It was all white feminism's fault! As I kept reading and learning about all the ways white women upheld white supremacy and racism and class division I kept remembering that super creepy compilation of white women on Tik Tok all hysterically crying and then immediately stopping and then sinisterly smiling to the camera. Like none of them stopped to think about the history of harm those tears by their twisted ancestors caused to so many people of color and Black men, or rather, they KNOW the power of their tears and flaunted it for all to see which makes me wanna scream and also run far away from any white woman. Gonna have to be honest tho and say I didn't give it a full 5 bc it kinda rubbed me the wrong way that Ms. Hamad included the men that reached out to say they knew all too well about (white) women's tears bc they had experienced it firsthand. Like I'm glad she felt support from them but also I hope these men didn't use her article to use it as some sort of approval by a woman of color to them saying that any woman who cries during an emotional or stressful situation is just manipulative bullshit. I know that wasn't the intent of adding that here but men like to tergivisate and I just know most interpreted it that way. Other than that very small thing in the book I admit I'm amplyfing bc it bothered me personally, this book is amazing and should be read by every single white woman and those who think assimilating into whiteness is their way to power/making it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Rape