Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - My Body. Was es heißt, eine Frau zu sein

I really loved this read and Emily's meditation on what it's like to have the privilege to make it big in an industry that sexualizes and objectifies you, and realize down the road you never truly achieved any power. You just got perks like money and status but that the real power continues to be in the hands of rich men who use that power to continue to do harm.
I also really appreciated the honestly with which she explores the internal conflict of wanting the attention of scary, powerful men, and how we're taught to find validation in that even though it's violent towards us. There's a promise of power and empowerment there if you can be a big girl and tough it out. Emily's not the "perfect victim" and it's important to share stories like that because it's true to life. You shouldn't have to be this "perfect victim" to have the harms done to you acknowledged and addressed.

Content Warnings

kaitlinshares's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Content Warnings

coreyarch9's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

"I want more for myself. I will proclaim all of my mistakes and contradictions, for all the women who cannot do so, for all the women we've called muses without learning their names, whose silence we mistook for consent. I stood on their shoulders to get here."

In My Body, Em Rata unpacks her relationship with her body - her source of fame, her source of security, and a piece of her that is constantly evolving as she grows.

And that's all this book is, and all it claims to be. There are other stories to dissect the particulars and modalities that are constantly in flux and in contradiction as Emily grows from a quintessential YOLO youth with pretty privilege to being thrust into the limelight as an example of what is (or what isn't) feminism, to legal cases literally determining the ownership of her likeness.

Extremely well-written and easy to connect to. I loved that there wasn't a clear angle for this book and that, instead, it embraced the conflict of different aspects of the relationship between person and body.

Content Warnings

ella1212's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

An interesting insight into the world of modeling and into how society views women’s bodies as a purely commodifiable asset, without regard for our brains, intellect etc.
as this was a series of essays I thought there would be less about Emily herself and more about societies views on women’s bodies as a whole. It felt more like an autobiography rather than essays. I also wish that there had been more in the book about how modelling isn’t something for young women to aspire to. There was little regard for the demographic that would read this book and therefore came across as a bit lacking in self awareness and dare I say empathy for the reader themselves.

oh damn pooor youuu being paid $25k to watch a football game…smh

But otherwise fascinating insight into the entertainment industry’s role in the use of women’s bodies as a means of production, something we don’t get to own or reclaim 9 times out of 10.

Content Warnings

hellobillieb's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

3.0

Beautifully written and heartbreakingly relatable. I will be thinking about this book for a long time

Content Warnings

readily_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional fast-paced

2.5

I really wanted to like this book, but it is a stretch to say it is a book about feminism. It’s a memoir. Really enjoyed the last essay in the book however.

Content Warnings

More...