caro6408's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Misogyny, Body horror, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, and Sexism
Moderate: Pregnancy and Miscarriage
applekern's review against another edition
2.0
If you‘ve read Invisible Women and are looking for your next read - this is really not it.
I rarely rate a book less than 3 stars. I think an author should always be given a certain amount of credit and respect for working their ass off to write and publish a book. However, this is a special case. I loved the idea of this book, the concept, the premise, the blurb & I really wanted to like this book. But damn, the way this is written and portrayed is so off and comprises all the reasons why feminism gets the hate it does sometimes.
The author calls out these men who take the example of a few cases (read: sick women) and, based on their superficial & biased-by-their-time-and-society opinion, concluded the wildest theories that made the medical industry so biased against women. And that is true, e.g. most drug studies are done only on men because women with all their hormons just add complexity. But the answer can not be, taking the example of select (and extreme) men and creating the elusion of this being the complete history and then writing a book about it - which‘s main mission does not seem to be to inform but to shock and enrage and to push people into black and white thinking.
It‘s so far from objective and so far from holistically written, I‘d had to actively remind myself that this omits many aspects that add complexity and nuance to the topic - hell, it felt like 80% of this book is solely about the US & UK, as if the rest of the world never existed. And I think that‘s the whole point - this book was written by the author for herself & people very similar to her, not for everyone.
To conclude my rant of a review, this book gives an easy answer in a complex world - so take it with a grain of salt.
I rarely rate a book less than 3 stars. I think an author should always be given a certain amount of credit and respect for working their ass off to write and publish a book. However, this is a special case. I loved the idea of this book, the concept, the premise, the blurb & I really wanted to like this book. But damn, the way this is written and portrayed is so off and comprises all the reasons why feminism gets the hate it does sometimes.
The author calls out these men who take the example of a few cases (read: sick women) and, based on their superficial & biased-by-their-time-and-society opinion, concluded the wildest theories that made the medical industry so biased against women. And that is true, e.g. most drug studies are done only on men because women with all their hormons just add complexity. But the answer can not be, taking the example of select (and extreme) men and creating the elusion of this being the complete history and then writing a book about it - which‘s main mission does not seem to be to inform but to shock and enrage and to push people into black and white thinking.
It‘s so far from objective and so far from holistically written, I‘d had to actively remind myself that this omits many aspects that add complexity and nuance to the topic - hell, it felt like 80% of this book is solely about the US & UK, as if the rest of the world never existed. And I think that‘s the whole point - this book was written by the author for herself & people very similar to her, not for everyone.
To conclude my rant of a review, this book gives an easy answer in a complex world - so take it with a grain of salt.