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stevia333k's review
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Deportation
legs_n_chins's review against another edition
4.0
My own critique hinges on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people as barely more than a passing mention. Understandably, as this author makes no mention of identifying as queer, she may not have experience in this community and as this is a reflective text on her own experiences, it doesn’t often factor into her writing. But I do think this is a continued problem that should be addressed. Queer people need to be included in the feminist movement, and the author says this often, but never goes any deeper than that. What’s more, and what’s most disturbing for me personally, is that she doesn’t seem to fully accept and embrace all people within the LGBTQ+ community.
In chapter 5, when discussing the rise of sexual liberation and hyper-sexuality as an inherent marker of the new feminist, the author engages in some very acephobic language and views. It’s notable that throughout the book she only ever uses LGBTQI as the acronym, leaving off the A entirely. As an asexual person, this was very uncomfortable and hurtful, and still did not prepare me for how she spoke about asexuality within the chapter. Zakaria first places the word asexual within quotes, as she often does when presenting new theoretical terminology in the text. She goes on to use asexuality as a “lens” through which to view the new hyper-sexual feminist movement, reducing asexuality — I felt — down to an idea or theoretical principle and completely divorcing it from an actual lived experience and identity shared by a wide variety of people who experience asexuality in a wide variety of ways. To me, it read as extremely invalidating and dismissive and downright exclusionary. It wouldn’t be out of place in the ace-exclusionary sections of the queer community nor in the acephobic areas of the straight community that consider us “broken.” It was triggering enough that I almost DNF’d. I’m ultimately glad I pushed through, but I hate that it reinforces extremely hurtful rhetoric around asexuality that continues to cause harm within our community.
Overall, I found the book to be very informative and helped me not only articulate some of my own experiences, but also look at some of my own biases from growing up in a white dominant country. As someone who is not white and does not identify as a woman, I am still very well aware that I’ve fallen into patterns of white feminism and sometimes upholding that status quo because it’s easy and safe. I really appreciated being given space to explore those things within myself by listening to another woman’s experience. Toward the end, Zakaria outlines a potential way forward and reminds us that solidarity exists in recognizing, accepting, and working with everyone’s differences. I like her explanation of it, and it’s backed by many of the points she makes in the book. I want to think there is hope toward the path Zakaria describes, and I hope that the shifting of my own viewpoint in reflection of this text is a step in that direction.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Child death and War
augustpeach_'s review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia
Great for anti-racism/social Justice book clubs.iamsammie27's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation
unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Abortion
Minor: Physical abuse, Torture, and Pregnancy
peachmoni's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Genocide, Violence, Police brutality, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual content, Transphobia, Cultural appropriation, and War
mscalls's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism
booksmellers's review against another edition
4.0
In Against White Feminism, Zakaria highlights how feminism has continuously ignored the needs of women of color. She effortlessly blends examples from her own life and connects them to white feminist movements throughout history and the present day. Zakaria has obviously done her homework and is well-spoken on the topic. I think this is an important work for any feminist to read.
Zakaria states her thoughts clearly and includes many examples to make her point. I have found myself taking my time to read through each chapter because it's a lot to digest. There are a lot of different ideas in this book (and some new ideas to me, although they're probably not new to non-white folk) and it's also helped me view the world and womanhood from a different perspective. I'm interested to read more non-white feminist theory, specifically Muslim feminist theory, and I'd like to learn more about the time periods and historical references she made throughout the book.
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Colonisation
Minor: Child death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry