Scan barcode
uncreationmyth's reviews
82 reviews
Pop Song: Adventures in Art & Intimacy by Larissa Pham
5.0
this thing’s got nothin but hits— some of them too close to home. love 2 be reminded not only that i have had zero (0) unique thoughts in my one precious life but ALSO that every single one of them has probably already been written by someone else much more eloquently + intelligently than i ever could ::)))
Women in the Picture: What Culture Does with Female Bodies by Catherine McCormack
3.75
not gonna lie i spent a lot of this book on edge, in fear of transphobia/biological essentialism and/or white feminism. luckily, i think it did a… decent(?) job of handling it? nothing egregious, but it has its blind spots. for the most part, it focuses on cishet white womanhood— i’m still waffling back & forth on how fair it is to hold that against a book that is largely rooted in the traditional western art canon, which historically has uhhh not been known for being inclusive.
i liked that it didn’t shy away from discussing how race affects the lens of each archetype, but it felt like that it only really explored the devaluation/denial of black womanhood specifically in opposition to white women as a default. the points made are true & important & well-articulated, but it kind of almost felt like it set up a weird false binary? there were missed opportunities to discuss other colonial power dynamics reflected in art— the orientalism & primitivism examples felt very unevenly weighted in comparison. also a lot of missed opportunities in discussion of lgbtqia+: there were brief mentions of lesbianism but i can’t recall any mentions of trans women. i guess i would have liked to see more nuance + diversity in conceptions of womanhood.
yet again, i’m unsure if i’m holding this book to an unfair standard?
overall, still a worthwhile read imo. i liked the way it drew through lines to modern day advertising & mainstream pop culture. it also gave me a really great list of art/ists & essays that i want to explore more. i think my issues with it stem more from the ways i think it falls short in challenging the implicit ideas of womanhood upon which all of these archetypes rest.
i liked that it didn’t shy away from discussing how race affects the lens of each archetype, but it felt like that it only really explored the devaluation/denial of black womanhood specifically in opposition to white women as a default. the points made are true & important & well-articulated, but it kind of almost felt like it set up a weird false binary? there were missed opportunities to discuss other colonial power dynamics reflected in art— the orientalism & primitivism examples felt very unevenly weighted in comparison. also a lot of missed opportunities in discussion of lgbtqia+: there were brief mentions of lesbianism but i can’t recall any mentions of trans women. i guess i would have liked to see more nuance + diversity in conceptions of womanhood.
yet again, i’m unsure if i’m holding this book to an unfair standard?
overall, still a worthwhile read imo. i liked the way it drew through lines to modern day advertising & mainstream pop culture. it also gave me a really great list of art/ists & essays that i want to explore more. i think my issues with it stem more from the ways i think it falls short in challenging the implicit ideas of womanhood upon which all of these archetypes rest.
I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya
would feel weird to give this a star rating
i think it’s a great intro/starting point for people who are just beginning to explore conversations around gender. it’s short, it’s accessible, it feels raw & direct & honest & human.
96 pages doesn’t leave a lot of room nuance or much beyond vivek shraya’s own specific personal experience—which is fine because it’s her memoir, after all— but it’s enough to get someone to start looking at gender more critically & asking questions they might not have thought to ask before.
i think it’s a great intro/starting point for people who are just beginning to explore conversations around gender. it’s short, it’s accessible, it feels raw & direct & honest & human.
96 pages doesn’t leave a lot of room nuance or much beyond vivek shraya’s own specific personal experience—which is fine because it’s her memoir, after all— but it’s enough to get someone to start looking at gender more critically & asking questions they might not have thought to ask before.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
4.5
my new comfort read <3 i love this sweet little space book that's 500+ pages of mostly just aliens Being Nice to each other ::)))
Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays by Durga Chew-Bose
3.5
this book may in fact have been a little Too Much and i was Not In The Mood. :/ idk i wanted to like this a lot more than i did. i used to not understand when people complained about navel-gazing, wandering, stream of consciousness musings but i think i get it now? oof sry but that first essay was hard for me to stay motivated through.
wait that sounds mean. it's fine. just very hit or miss for me— unfortunately much more of the latter than the former.
also yet another book that makes me wish i was a Movie person
wait that sounds mean. it's fine. just very hit or miss for me— unfortunately much more of the latter than the former.
also yet another book that makes me wish i was a Movie person
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
4.25
me reading anything unreliably narrated by a woman slowly descending into madness: go off, queen! she gets it <3
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
5.0
once i regain the ability to think critically/write cogently, it's over for u hoes :~)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
4.0
i already used my catcher in the rye joke on rubyfruit jungle
there are much more insightful things i could say rn, but for some reason all i can think about is how bizarre it is to me that some people really do just Watch Movies? can’t relate
there are much more insightful things i could say rn, but for some reason all i can think about is how bizarre it is to me that some people really do just Watch Movies? can’t relate