Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates

90 reviews

singhmachine's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Violence, and Xenophobia

dayoldtea's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This is an accessible if sometimes intense description of misogynistic online spaces. Bates' arguments and proposed action steps are interesting. My only quibble is that I would have appreciated a little more theorizing about structural issues/causes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pedophilia, Mass/school shootings, and Stalking

glass_carousel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

This book is one that I view as necessary reading in the current era. Men Who Hate Women genuinely made me sick to my stomach at times, but it provides such a good view of all of the different communities online that dedicate their time to the hatred of women. Many of these communities I have heard of, and have noticed their activity during my time in online spaces, others, such as MGTOW, I had never heard of. 

A complaint I have about this book is that it could have used more intersectionality in addressing how these hatred movements affects those in the LGBTQIA+ community, whether they identify as women or not. In my opinion, hatred of femininity is a big contributor toward homophobia and hatred of those who live outside of typical gender expectations. The book  also centers heavily on western experiences, only occasionally and briefly touching on experiences of people outside of the global west. It would have been nice to get a little more on non-western experiences. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Pedophilia

pianokeys's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Slavery

sloanadrouny's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Stalking

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

dark informative tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

elisacarlene's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative sad slow-paced

4.0

This book is a necessary read. It exposes a terrifying truth, that the world of ‘men who hate women’ is not as underground as people think and is, in fact, seeping (pouring?) into the mainstream. Bates unpacks the involvement of powerful people, including mainstream politicians, and explains the tools leaders of the manosphere use to legitimise their vitriol. I appreciated the fact she points out how this movement is actually bad for men, how the men involved in leading it often mistreat other men, and how many men who are sucked into these movements are themselves vulnerable. Having personally seen hints of some of the attitudes described in this book up close in real life, coming from (possibly vulnerable) men who seemingly live normal lives and cross our paths usually without most of us ever knowing their ideology, I wanted to understand it more and this book certainly helped. 

However, I found it very difficult to get through, admittedly largely because of the subject matter, but also unfortunately because of the way it was written. It was quite repetitive and I think some information/examples could have been chosen more selectively and told more succinctly. Though I understand Bates probably just wanted to drive her points home and show as much evidence as possible, I believe this could have been executed better. I also feel the chapters, some of which were very long, were disorganised and could have been better structured, perhaps with subheadings and maybe some graphics showing the data visually, to aid the flow of reading and the digestion of such tough content. I’m only taking one star off for this because I still believe this is an essential book on a largely-ignored topic, not to mention the fact that at least Bates took the issue on, and not without great personal risk. It’s a shame it didn’t read better, because this is the type of book everyone should read and that I’d like to give to family and friends, but I think perhaps Bates is preaching to the converted, as apart from being unlikely to pick a book with this title up in the first place, someone who isn’t ‘converted’ probably wouldn’t have the patience to read a book written in this way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse and Racism

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is an incredibly informative and important book that i recommend everyone reads. Bates offers an accessible and gripping look into the world of misogyny and sexism, especially in online spaces, that shows all the ways in which the world still often times turns a blind eye or even unactively supports misogyny. 

This is a rather heavy book, with discussions around sexual assault, murder and harassment, but I think it’s incredibly important to read if you feel you can handle those topics. The author uses a mixture of her own experiences, interviews with other victims, academics and activists, and her own research into the world of online misogyny to create a concise discussion about sexism and what the world can do to tackle it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Murder, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Overall talks about the things the hate groups send and post which is usually really graphic

juliec617's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The book was extremely powerful and insightful. My copy is filled with notes and highlighted paragraphs. This book was my introduction to Laura Bates and will be something I will re-read many more times. 
Each chapter examines different extremist groups (Incels, MGTOW, PUA, and MRA). It goes into detail how politics and poor journalism/media coverage downplays the power these groups have. It covers how boys can sucked into these groups and ways of thinking and how to we can prevent/stop it.  Laura Bates covers misogyny in what she calls the "manosphere" and how it acts as a spider web, catching prey and brainwashing young men to spew hate and recruit others, while the ones at the top get rich off of the hate. This book also looks into the physical acts of violence seen in countries such as the U.S.A., UK, and Australia. 

I cannot recommend this book enough to both women and men. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

This book is not for the weak, I had to put it down several times and switch to something more cheery. I'm glad I read it and will re-read it in the future. Take care while reading this book.