Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From the Twenty-first Century by Alice Wong

39 reviews

lottie1803's review against another edition

challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Cancer, Body shaming, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Racism

wandering_canuck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Beautiful and raw, this collection of essays is mind-blowingly honest and unapologetic. Told from the first person, these stories are wonderful complex and offer a glimpse into the just as complex and varied experiences of disabled people. 

This is exactly what you don't expect to read: unapologetic, candid, genuine tales of the lived disabled experience. Do not expect inspiration porn or movie of the week stories of overcoming. This book gives space and voice to the realities of the day to day lived experiences of disabled people.

This book served to highlight my shameful ignorance and forced me to confront some of my own biases. This isn't a one-and-done type of book. I challenge you to read this book and not have your world shook. 

Wong does a fantastic job of bringing together many types of voices. A common theme throughout is the unjust marginalization of disabled people and it's intersectionality with other invisibilized qualities, such as poverty, queerness, size, and race. 

This is an absolute must-read and is deserving of a permanent spot on your bookshelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Ableism, Rape, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Sexual assault, Violence, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Racism, Addiction, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Classism

maddy4prezident's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

Read this book for a book club at work, and overall, I really enjoyed it. I thought the flow and thematic ties in the essays were excellent, and I loved that they all offered very beautiful and powerful perspectives on disability and disability justice. Some of the essays felt slightly more basic and redundant than others, but overall it was really enjoyable and informative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Ableism, Chronic illness, Death, Medical trauma, Police brutality, and Racism

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Disability Visibility is an anthology of essays edited by disability justice advocate Alice Wong. I don’t think I’ve ever read a collection of stories and perspectives so intersectional, raw and (as a non-disabled person) necessary. The structure of the collection is itself a stunning example of “disabled praxis,” as defined by A.H. Reaume in their essay “Why My Novel is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy,” as each essay simultaneously adds to and stands apart from preceding narratives, building a collage of experience that reflects the community built by and for those seeking disability justice.  

Loosely framed as essays, these range from first-person narratives to transcribed Ted talks to eulogies to artist manifestos to poetry. Several of these stories reflect the trauma and abuse experienced by those living at complex intersections of marginalization, and I was thankful that every essay includes detailed content and trigger warnings at the start. Through this unvarnished truth-telling, the intention of the anthology is made crystal clear - this is a collection rightfully built to amplify disabled voices for the benefit of disabled people and not for the gaze or comfort of non-disabled people.

I read this slowly, over more than a month, and I’m grateful I took my time with it. It challenged me to think about my own areas of deep-seated privilege and about the systems and spaces I have made inaccessible because of this privilege. It expanded my understanding of and respect for inclusivity and helped me to see the ways in which disability rights work has been consistently constrained by non-disabled people. These stories force us to ask, as s.e. smith does in their essay “The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People:” “How can we cultivate spaces where everyone has that soaring sense of inclusion, where we can have difficult and meaningful conversations?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Minor: Cancer and Child abuse

In this collection of essays, trigger warnings for each individual essay are included at the start of each essay.

yourfavavery's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Ableism, Body shaming, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Transphobia, Sexual content, Police brutality, and Genocide

kelleykamanda's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Damn. Read this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Misogyny, Excrement, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Grief, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Infertility, Body shaming, Ableism, Racism, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Fatphobia

leelaamanda's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Ableism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Medical content, Racism, Abortion, and Sexual assault

Minor: Hate crime, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Mental illness, and Medical content

chronicacademia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Abortion, Bullying, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

changelingreader_adrian's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Racism, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Abortion, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Grief, Confinement, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Eating disorder

tigger89's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was an incredibly informative read. As Alice Wong notes in her introduction, these essays aren't presented with the intention of swaying abled readers. There's little sugarcoating or gentle easing in these chapters, and often the rage behind the words is palpable. With many of these essays, the reader is expected to meet the author where they are, and to do the work themselves to understand any concepts that don't make sense. This is okay. After all, we've got google in our pockets and are capable of searching up a reference.

It's not all frustration and anger, though. Several of the essays focus on community, companionship, and finding joy. I smiled the whole way through "Guide Dogs Don't Lead Blind People. We Wander as One." even at the inevitable moment of sadness. The collection also makes a point to end with positivity, with the entire last section focusing on community and the final essay detailing a moment of joy at a performance conducted by and for the disabled community.

I think most readers would walk away from this volume with at least a few thoughts to chew on, even if you've already spent some time pondering or working in disability advocacy. The sheer diversity of the voices presented virtually guarantees it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Excrement

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, and Rape