Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

20 reviews

robinks's review

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

What a powerful introduction to Audre Lorde’s words. I read so many lines over and over to let them sink in. There were such meaningful, clear anecdotes and heavy research to support Lorde’s points. This is definitely a collection I will come back to time and time again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Violence, Misogyny, Sexism, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Classism, Lesbophobia, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Police brutality, Bullying, Rape, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Cancer, and Genocide

linguaphile412's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Racism, and Hate crime

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Racial slurs

Minor: Colonisation, Cancer, Sexual violence, and Classism

kennedylamb's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Xenophobia, Racism, and Police brutality

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was an interesting read for me. It's a bit depressing that many of the issues being addressed here in the 70s and 80s are still with us. There are some iconic essays/speeches in this book, but the long meandering interview with Adrienne Rich in the middle could easily have been cut without losing anything important.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Violence

thewordsdevourer's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

a work much deserving of its classic status, sister outsider is raw, incisive, deep, and searing; its soul-searching, reclaiming of self and space, and examination into the sinister nooks and crevices of american society in all its -isms and complex intersectionality are cloaked w/ righteous (and relatable) rage, all succinctly yet effectivively articulated in a mix of prose, poems, and interviews, among others, though the last chapter kinda throws me off in its placement and seeming detour from content presented earlier in the book.

not only does lorde get me nodding my head off in vigorous agreement, she also leaves me awed and astounded at times at how insightful and revealing her observations and truth-telling are, and her call to self-awareness and action are inspiring. she's also light years ahead of many others in her understanding and communication of the seemingly seamless blending of race, sex, sexual orientation, class, and other aspects of complex intersectionality, as well as her awareness of her own positionality, resulting in a startlingly non-western-centric work. this is def a book to keep and read then reread.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racism, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

Minor: Cancer, Death, Medical trauma, Child death, Infertility, and Rape

solitract13's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Racism, and Racial slurs

aishallnot's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

This is my first time reading/learning about Audre and her philosophies and I love her writing and how show shapes her perspectives in society as a black lesbian feminist. Even though her words were written decades ago they still apply today in the 21st century. I'm hoping to get a physical copy so I can annotate and reflect on her words.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Racial slurs

lucys_library's review

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, and Sexism

now_booking's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

It feels almost cheeky to give this amazing collection of essays, interviews, conversations, speeches anything less than 5 stars- cheeky in the way that would you rate a story a beloved grandmother tells you about your ancestry and heritage 4 stars? Because essentially, that is what this book is- it is history and politics, economics and geography, we’re called to reflect on sexism and racism, homophobia and heterosexism and above all intersectionality and how all the intersections that breed inequality and injustice are as relevant now as they ever have been. If it’s not 5 stars for me, it’s because sometimes I craved more of the author than her boundaries delivered in this book. This was so excellent that perhaps in the diversity of its composition, I preferred some formats to others- I wanted more than what the scope of this one book promised- I wanted perhaps a book of poems, an autobiography, a book on feminist theory, another on neoliberalism and yet another on history- to know more of this author and her practice and her lived experience. My greed for this book to be more than a patchwork quilt (however gorgeous) of varied content cast me a little adrift at times when reading this.

Every single word in this collection is laden with wisdom- from reminders of the mundane (and even the mundane here is insightful), to the mind-blowingly progressive.  My favourite parts were the bits where Audre Lorde speaks of her life and lends us her stories and personal lived experience to illustrate the concepts she’s putting forth. The opening story where she narrates her experiences as a Black lesbian woman in socialist Russia, to the tidbits she drops about learning from practically babyhood the ranking of a dark-skinned Black woman in society, and about what that would mean for her lived experience as an American and moreover a Black feminist and intersectional activist. When in one of her most famous pieces from this collection, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” she calls on us to acknowledge difference rather than fear it, to face intersectionality head on, to lean into the anger of injustice and the discomfort of speaking up and use it to drive change… chills. She’s everyone’s trusted Aunty in this book- the one that calls you out, tells you about yourself when necessary but also always has her arms open and inspires you. 

I’m not much of a non-ficition reader typically but this collection was so rich with lessons and insights that are relevant to me as someone who is interested in inequality, but also as someone fearful of getting the fight wrong. This book is part instruction manual for understanding the genotype and phenotype of inequality and injustice in America (and to a lesser extent, globally), and part call you action for how all of us as a society can learn to see and acknowledge things and to do better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

kengiedamali's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Lesbophobia