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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
3 reviews
zombiezami's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I have had this book on my TBR for quite a long time. So long, it seems, that quite a bit of this feels outdated. Still, there are some helpful and revelatory points here
Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexism, Outing, Misogyny, Transphobia, Medical content, and Body shaming
Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Rape, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, and Murder
Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Suicide, and Classism
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 Some of the terminology is a bit outdated (in the sense that many people nowadays probably wouldn't use it to describe themselves as Serano does in the book) but what it signifies is very much still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.
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Hate crime, Transphobia, Sexism, Homophobia, and Mental illness
ebmaher's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Julia Serano says she wrote this book for many reasons, but mainly to create the book she would have wanted to read as a young trans woman, and I think that’s really evident throughout. It’s both the books strength — it’s remarkably readable, personal, and incisive — and it’s weakness — Serano even says in the preface to the second edition that she wishes she’d have been able to move beyond her own experience to consider race, class, nationality, etc. create different trans experiences.
Serano is a likable and capable companion throughout. As a former gender studies major, there was much I was familiar with, but I particularly appreciated Serano’s framing of oppositional sexism and her critique of queer culture’s and queer studies’s dismissal of femininity. A useful text for understanding where terfs come from and (on a clear and well-argued level) why they’re so wrong.
Serano is a likable and capable companion throughout. As a former gender studies major, there was much I was familiar with, but I particularly appreciated Serano’s framing of oppositional sexism and her critique of queer culture’s and queer studies’s dismissal of femininity. A useful text for understanding where terfs come from and (on a clear and well-argued level) why they’re so wrong.
Moderate: Transphobia, Deadnaming, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Hate crime, Death, and Biphobia
Pretty much all content warnings are in the context of calling out and explaining discrimination.
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