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blueberry0531's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Misogyny
Moderate: Sexual content
growintogardens's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia and Sexual content
Minor: Violence
rhizome's review against another edition
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Loved most of the poems in here. Little red cap, mrs. beast and a couple others really stood out to me. But it was also very repetitive and I feel the topic was a little too narrow to be a complete collection.
I read poetry usually out of order, and it happened that the last poem I read was the one about Tiresias. That one poem ruined the entire book for me. It is probably one of the most transphobic things I have read in a published book. I think this book is steeped in gender essentialism which is far more bearable when talking about ostensibly cisgender straight men. I do not feel pity for men, don't get me wrong BUT I think the rhetoric of "men are inherently evil/selfish/etc" very quickly veers off into transphobia in the way that essentialists view manhood and masculinity as almost an "original sin" that somehow a trans woman (who is NOT a man to begin with) cannot escape from that "marking".
Very surprised that people think of this as some "feminist tome" so to speak. It was extremely alienating to read as a trans person.
I read poetry usually out of order, and it happened that the last poem I read was the one about Tiresias. That one poem ruined the entire book for me. It is probably one of the most transphobic things I have read in a published book. I think this book is steeped in gender essentialism which is far more bearable when talking about ostensibly cisgender straight men. I do not feel pity for men, don't get me wrong BUT I think the rhetoric of "men are inherently evil/selfish/etc" very quickly veers off into transphobia in the way that essentialists view manhood and masculinity as almost an "original sin" that somehow a trans woman (who is NOT a man to begin with) cannot escape from that "marking".
Very surprised that people think of this as some "feminist tome" so to speak. It was extremely alienating to read as a trans person.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
leanneymu's review against another edition
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I wanted to like this collection more than I did. Though I respect Duffy for writing from the perspective of some unlikeable women, it did make it harder for the poems to resonate for me. I did enjoy some of the poems, but quite a few didn't hit for me. Also, this collection is over 20 years old, and some of the attitudes expressed by the poems' narrators have not aged well. (With a content note for transphobia in one poem.) If nothing else, it's an interesting time capsule for late nineties ideas about the relationships between (heterosexual) men and women.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Transphobia, and Sexual content
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