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tildahlia's review against another edition
4.0
If you follow Serano online, you know she does God's work in preparing forensic, and compelling, rebuttals of all means of sexism, transphobia, trans-misogyny in ways most never have the patience for. She's clearly self-reflective and a deep thinker. I'm currently thinking a lot about how we relate/communicate in leftist circles, so particularly enjoyed the bits on call-out culture and safe spaces (which seemed to inform Contrapoints' most recent video on cancelling). She also does a great job critiquing terf and terf-adjacent views (including pointing out the hypocrisy associated with accusations trans women reinforce the gender binary). I did want more out of the chapter on the interaction of bisexuality and non-binary gender identity? Her writing style is so weirdly unique - very matter-of-fact and functional (the scientist in her) yet peppered with personal anecdotes and story-telling. A very readable and solid 3.5
evelikesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Here Julia Serano presents what she terms a "holistic" theory of feminism. She has thought up a way to see the various "isms" of our culture as a series of double standards, some with the weight of more power and history behind them. She also critiques feminist and queer movements, some of which have a tendency to become exclusionary and elitist, with "true activist/evil oppressor" dichotomies, when in reality no one is perfect and everyone is subject to various double standards. I'm not explaining this well. I think I need to go back and take notes; Serano's model looks extremely useful.
qpy's review against another edition
4.0
FINALLY FINISHED!!!!! I feel almost exactly the same as I did for Whipping Girl. My head is reeling. I need another read-through. I cannot speak to the content nor do it justice. It is a must-read. I can be better and I will be better and I still don't know how to even shoddily execute to be cognizant of the points made. The specific concepts and ideas are so good. I have so many passages I want to share, so many marked identities I want to discuss... I don't even know where to start.
To single out passages:
Ch 14 "How Double Standards Work" is one of the best things I have ever read. I hope to reference it in the future to describe the complex relationship I have with my identities, their spectrum of being "out" and/or visible, and so on. It resonated so deeply.
To single out passages:
Ch 14 "How Double Standards Work" is one of the best things I have ever read. I hope to reference it in the future to describe the complex relationship I have with my identities, their spectrum of being "out" and/or visible, and so on. It resonated so deeply.
winterlelie's review against another edition
3.0
Serano does raise some interesting points in those book, but she seemed to be repeating herself quite a lot, and the division into speeches and theory didn't do the book any favors.
ashedryden's review
3.0
I think with a better editor this could be a great book. I had a really hard time keeping focused and engaged with the text, which I didn’t expect after having read Whipping Girl 🤷🏼♀️ It could be, too, that someone less familiar with the material would get more out of it.
scrow1022's review against another edition
4.0
The second half is especially valuable re. analyzing patterns across lines of oppression, learning how to recognize and address them.
ajschmeiser's review against another edition
I had to return it to the library of a place I was moving from.
ravenofoctober's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who came a little late to feminism and QUILTBAG+ activism and general awareness (some college classes, but mostly after-college reading the internet and learning about privilege, etc.), I'm always looking for books like this, meaning from a perspective that is not my own (i.e., not a white lesbian). And since I haven't been in these spaces long, I liked the first part of the book with all of Serano's personal essays and whatnot because it gave me a good context and some slices of history of the movement that I wasn't aware of/didn't experience. It all also provides a good foundation for the second half of the book.
I kind of wish the two parts of the book hadn't been so starkly separated, though. I think the second half would have benefited from having more personal examples/stories sprinkled throughout. Serano is great at making a solid case for her suggestions on how to make these movements more inclusive, and she's very thorough, but at times the second half started to feel repetitive, almost as if she expected people to read one chapter without having read the previous chapters. I think if there had been some more personal anecdotes/examples in the second half it would have helped mitigate the feeling of repetition.
In the last chapter, she talks about the practice of calling people out on their behavior, and how it can be useful but it is often mishandled and used to delegitimize people who are genuine allies but just made an honest mistake. I appreciated this (because no one is perfect), but I actually wish she had devoted an entire chapter to this idea. It seemed kind of crammed in there right at the end, and yet I think it's an important aspect of this whole conversation—there's really no more thorough way to ostracize someone than to publicly shame them, which is what calling out can do when it's not done right. I think she could have cut some of the repetitive parts of some of the chapters out and then would have had time to talk more about this aspect of exclusion.
But overall I like the proposals Serano makes in this book about holistic activism and trying to fight the true root causes that lead myriad groups of people to be deemed second-class in some way. Instead of focusing just on fighting on one front (which then pits the groups against each other as each group tries to claim they are MORE oppressed than the other), those seeking change should focus on the common denominator, the us vs. them mentality at large. Serano's much better at breaking this down and being more granular in her explanation in the book, but that's the gist of it. And that's an idea I can get behind.
I kind of wish the two parts of the book hadn't been so starkly separated, though. I think the second half would have benefited from having more personal examples/stories sprinkled throughout. Serano is great at making a solid case for her suggestions on how to make these movements more inclusive, and she's very thorough, but at times the second half started to feel repetitive, almost as if she expected people to read one chapter without having read the previous chapters. I think if there had been some more personal anecdotes/examples in the second half it would have helped mitigate the feeling of repetition.
In the last chapter, she talks about the practice of calling people out on their behavior, and how it can be useful but it is often mishandled and used to delegitimize people who are genuine allies but just made an honest mistake. I appreciated this (because no one is perfect), but I actually wish she had devoted an entire chapter to this idea. It seemed kind of crammed in there right at the end, and yet I think it's an important aspect of this whole conversation—there's really no more thorough way to ostracize someone than to publicly shame them, which is what calling out can do when it's not done right. I think she could have cut some of the repetitive parts of some of the chapters out and then would have had time to talk more about this aspect of exclusion.
But overall I like the proposals Serano makes in this book about holistic activism and trying to fight the true root causes that lead myriad groups of people to be deemed second-class in some way. Instead of focusing just on fighting on one front (which then pits the groups against each other as each group tries to claim they are MORE oppressed than the other), those seeking change should focus on the common denominator, the us vs. them mentality at large. Serano's much better at breaking this down and being more granular in her explanation in the book, but that's the gist of it. And that's an idea I can get behind.
kserra's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting. Postulates a theory of oppression that I hadn't seen before.