skylerhenson's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

This book made me realize a lot of what I didn’t like in the world was because it was made with men only in mind. In all areas of transportation, healthcare, product design, politics, and even disaster relief efforts. My one critique is that there is not a lot of trans-inclusive language but this book is about the lack of data on AFAB bodies and cis women. 

I had the latest edition that included an epilogue about the Covid pandemic which I appreciated because some lines were harrowing to read from a book published in 2019. Overall, an eye-opening read. I want to read more feminist literature like this 

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zombiezami's review

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Although I was excited for this book and getting lots of interesting and surprising facts from it, some of the turns of phrase struck me as outdated at best and cis-centric/transphobic at worst. Some of these include "female-bodied," saying she considers women to be those with XX chromosomes (fun fact: almost no one checks their chromosomes because it's expensive to do so, so the XX/XY dichotomy is a generalization, even before you get into intersex people existing), and quoting someone who says that "pregnancy is not a gender-neutral event." These statements, plus hearing that the author was British, gave me pause. 

I searched the author online and found that she had said some transphobic dogwhistles that she erased rather than apologizing for. Aside from this, her solutions to various issues such as sexual violence seem focused on carcerality. Even if the author had said, "I'm focusing on cis women because that's what data I have," that would have been a bit more excusable, but I don't feel good about continuing to read this. 

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rhianonw's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.75


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hollieee's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5


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