Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

6 reviews

cleot's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Outing, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, and Suicide

the transphobia by a sex partner was particularly upsetting to me as a trans person, as was the graphic on-page sexual assault of trans man resulting from bathroom harassment

brechtian's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

The lows of this book are quite low (poor depiction of trans identity, borderline trauma porn, sections of quite spotty prose), but the highs are, admittedly, very high. This book at its best is a masterful postmodern examination of Frankenstein as biography, text, legacy, and cultural object. It explores multiplicity and our creation of monsters within ourselves as well as others beautifully, all while providing fascinating parallels to conversations surrounding transhumanism, AI, and the future of technological advancement. Honestly, the more you know about the critical conversations/academic discourse surrounding Frankenstein, the more you will likely enjoy this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, and Transphobia

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Ableism

There are quite a few graphic sex scenes.

mispaintedlady's review against another edition

Transphobia is why I didn’t finish the book. It was incredibly uncomfortable how  the book failed to address trans people, gender fluid people and queer people in general. 

It came off really dated. It progressively got worse as it was clear the gender fluid main character was having comparison drawn to AI being “gender less” and also the monster from the book Frankenstein.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment

mryshells's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Huge TW for transphobia towards characters in the book but also in the clearly problematic views the author must hold that come through in the writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Alcohol

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

Confusing how there aren’t any quotes around the dialogue

Problematic: Ry compliments a Black woman’s hair by saying she looks like an expert “maybe because of how you style it. Very professional.” As I’ve seen from other reviewers the book does not get any better in Trans rep for Ry. I have no interest in reading about a Trans character that is written for cis people like myself and would rather spend my time on books with more accurate representation.

The conversation around AI-prof stein says that AI won’t make women obsolete or be sexist which begs the question of how could it not be sexist when the ones building the robots are sexist themselves? It’s human error. He’s being idealistic in thinking that a future of AI will be non binary when the creators of AI have their own prejudices and beliefs that will be built into AI, just like humans writing the Bible put their own image on God.

Where is the story even set in?! First they talk about Memphis then they’re going to a bar in Trafalgar Square?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Misogyny, Sexism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Ableism and Child death

demo's review against another edition

1.0

Winterson is one of my favourite queer writers but in the end she is a cis woman and I should have been more wary of her decision to write about the experience of being trans. Her use of a trans protagonist is exploitative (see: the sexual assault scene in the pub) and is grounded in ill-informed understandings of gender identity, transness and transition (see: Winterson's reliance on male and female as opposing biological categories, even while she ostensibly subverts the gender binary). Further, Victor's erotic obsession with Ry's transness reeks of objectification and fetishisation but is framed as romantic and loving (see: the book's subtitle of "A love story"), mirroring and revealing Winterson's own sense of entitlement to use trans people for her own purposes. And this is not to mention the ableist and fatphobic sentiments littered throughout. A hard yikes. This ain't it chief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia