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Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
2 reviews
crackle's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
I read this book because it was recommended to me by several people. After reading it, I have no idea why. I feel like I must have missed some major pieces that make this book good. I can vaguely understand why at the time it might have been big. The entire book reads like a basic white woman post on feministing.com from the early 2000s (which it kind of is). She takes aim at a lot of feminist and queer topics I myself have criticisms of, but it's a lot of swings and no hits.
There are some good pieces (as in maybe some paragraphs) that I liked. I didn't find any issue with her intrinsic model, but it's hard to say because there wasn't a lot of actual content or theory around it. As soon as the author writes something with substance, she moves on quickly to some of the most heinous and bizarre sentences I've read.
I almost DNFed at chapter 15, where the first few sentences are (SERIOUS content warning)"When I was a child, I was sexually assaulted, but not by any particular person. It was my culture that had his way with me." A disgusting and triggering analogy to compare it to that. I do not understand how you can write so much about how upsetting early 90s transphobic movies were, then turn around and compare yourself to a child sexual abuse victim like that. The rest of the chapter is equally bizarre.
She's frequently out of her wheelhouse with child development theory (she has a phD in genetics), and doesn't provide any sources for most of her claims about childhood "masculinity."
I saw vague criticisms on GoodReads that she is dismissive of genderfluid and NB people, and I sort of saw some slight bits of that reading the book. When I got to chapter 20 though, holy god. Be forewarned it's a bit unhinged.
It's a frustrating book in that I see the outlines of something that could have been okay, but just fell short. It was worth it in that I was questioning my own conceptions of gender while reading it, but there just has to be better out there in 2024.
There are some good pieces (as in maybe some paragraphs) that I liked. I didn't find any issue with her intrinsic model, but it's hard to say because there wasn't a lot of actual content or theory around it. As soon as the author writes something with substance, she moves on quickly to some of the most heinous and bizarre sentences I've read.
I almost DNFed at chapter 15, where the first few sentences are (SERIOUS content warning)
She's frequently out of her wheelhouse with child development theory (she has a phD in genetics), and doesn't provide any sources for most of her claims about childhood "masculinity."
I saw vague criticisms on GoodReads that she is dismissive of genderfluid and NB people, and I sort of saw some slight bits of that reading the book. When I got to chapter 20 though, holy god. Be forewarned it's a bit unhinged.
It's a frustrating book in that I see the outlines of something that could have been okay, but just fell short. It was worth it in that I was questioning my own conceptions of gender while reading it, but there just has to be better out there in 2024.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
wimbleimble's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
This is a really good book. Some of the terminology is a bit outdated (in the sense that many people nowadays probably wouldn't use it to describe themselves as Serano does in the book) but what it signifies is very much still relevant and important. As someone who is in the process of trying to intellectualise a whole slew of things, having recently realised that I am transfeminine, this has been invaluable to me in understanding myself.
I've heard others describe parts of the book (in particular the last chapter) as invalidating of non-binary people, but I would disagree with this reading. Her ultimate conclusion, with regards to rejecting gender entitlement, I think rather speaks to the opposite, and to embracing all varieties of gender variant peoples and listening to their perspectives. I feel what she is instead criticising is valuing any gender identity over another, on the basis of it being subversive. This is admittedly something I have never encountered (though I have observed the opposite), and so it feels like a bit of a non-issue, though my experience is quite limited in this regard, due to my limited time in queer/trans spaces, and also due to the fact that the spaces I do have experiences with are probably vastly different to those that Serano wrote about in 2007.
But yeah, it's a really valuable work, and I'm going to be thinking about a lot of it for a while to come. Perhaps forever, considering my circumstances.
I've heard others describe parts of the book (in particular the last chapter) as invalidating of non-binary people, but I would disagree with this reading. Her ultimate conclusion, with regards to rejecting gender entitlement, I think rather speaks to the opposite, and to embracing all varieties of gender variant peoples and listening to their perspectives. I feel what she is instead criticising is valuing any gender identity over another, on the basis of it being subversive. This is admittedly something I have never encountered (though I have observed the opposite), and so it feels like a bit of a non-issue, though my experience is quite limited in this regard, due to my limited time in queer/trans spaces, and also due to the fact that the spaces I do have experiences with are probably vastly different to those that Serano wrote about in 2007.
But yeah, it's a really valuable work, and I'm going to be thinking about a lot of it for a while to come. Perhaps forever, considering my circumstances.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Hate crime, Transphobia, Sexism, Homophobia, and Mental illness
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