keltieleereads's review
It started to get a bit too woo woo for me. Especially when she induced her own miscarriage on the bathroom floor.
amadswami's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5 disappointed in the level of anger, poor writing and ignorant messages that were spread a mere 20 years ago and again in 2017. You have no love for yourself or others in this big big world.
indielittttt's review against another edition
2.0
CUNT: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio
(CW: slurs)
Okay, bear with me this might be a complicated review.
There is a lot of useful information in this book. Muscio has a slew of great ideas that she shares in this book. That being said, I can’t say that I’d recommend anyone read this. There’s two main reasons for this on which I’ll elaborate.
First, she uses slurs….a lot. Within the first few pages she, a white woman, used the N word. While she wasn’t using it to de derogatory (she was conjuring an example), there’s no need to spell it out, it’s not your word to use. She also uses the R slur repeatedly throughout the book. While I recognize this book was originally written in the early 00s, this is a revised edition from 2018, there’s no reason she couldn’t have taken the time to rethink her word choice.
Second, she dedicates 2 whole parts of this book to sexual violence without having a clear idea about what sexual violence actually is. In the latter of the two parts, ‘A Wee Train Ride’ she seems to overlook how the root causes of sexual violence work to create sexual violence.
Again, she has a lot of good ideas and thoughts (and some bad ones), but I think she tried far to hard to include topics she doesn’t have a full grasp on. And in her quest to be funny and relatable, fell flat and at worst, was downright offensive.
2/5⭐️
(CW: slurs)
Okay, bear with me this might be a complicated review.
There is a lot of useful information in this book. Muscio has a slew of great ideas that she shares in this book. That being said, I can’t say that I’d recommend anyone read this. There’s two main reasons for this on which I’ll elaborate.
First, she uses slurs….a lot. Within the first few pages she, a white woman, used the N word. While she wasn’t using it to de derogatory (she was conjuring an example), there’s no need to spell it out, it’s not your word to use. She also uses the R slur repeatedly throughout the book. While I recognize this book was originally written in the early 00s, this is a revised edition from 2018, there’s no reason she couldn’t have taken the time to rethink her word choice.
Second, she dedicates 2 whole parts of this book to sexual violence without having a clear idea about what sexual violence actually is. In the latter of the two parts, ‘A Wee Train Ride’ she seems to overlook how the root causes of sexual violence work to create sexual violence.
Again, she has a lot of good ideas and thoughts (and some bad ones), but I think she tried far to hard to include topics she doesn’t have a full grasp on. And in her quest to be funny and relatable, fell flat and at worst, was downright offensive.
2/5⭐️
cransell's review
3.0
Continuing my trek through the feminist canon. A little new age-y for me - but a quick read! I read the whole thing in about 3 hours last night. Also reminded me that I should reread the Pippi Longstocking books!
magnetgrrl's review
5.0
Cunt is pretty radical without being too pushy, and the author maintains an accessible and anecdotal style throughout that keeps things from getting neither too serious and accusatory nor too academic and boring. This was a bit of a crash course introduction to feminism for me, as I hadn't done much feminist reading at the time. But I think it was a good book for that, because of its use of modern, non-academic language and because though coming from an extreme angle most of the time Muscio covers a pretty broad range of topics in feminism and the issues facing women today. Though I disagreed with her views on several things, I was amazed at how many issues Cunt brought up that I had never even considered. Like some kind of aversion therapy, being thrown into the deep and radical end of feminism made me quickly and acutely aware of how many things I had to think about on the subject that I had yet to even begin to explore.
I remember when I read this I immediately wanted to give a copy to my mother, my grandmother, all my aunts... every woman I know and especially those from older generations. But I knew they would be turned off by the title and maybe scared off by how radical Muscio can be. I still think this is a book every woman should read, but it's definitely a book you must approach with an open mind and a lot of leeway to explore views that may be very different from your experience.
I remember when I read this I immediately wanted to give a copy to my mother, my grandmother, all my aunts... every woman I know and especially those from older generations. But I knew they would be turned off by the title and maybe scared off by how radical Muscio can be. I still think this is a book every woman should read, but it's definitely a book you must approach with an open mind and a lot of leeway to explore views that may be very different from your experience.
marc_lucke's review against another edition
5.0
If I could give Cunt six stars, I would. Revolutionary and radical in the truest, deepest sense; this book is absolutely essential reading for... Well, everybody, really. Make it your bible.
readingwithk's review against another edition
1.0
While I appreciated the premise of this book and was looking forward to reading about the history of the word cunt, that was not what I got. I do not think that this book has aged well.
I was not impressed with the lack of gender/transgender representation (not even mentioned until page 240ish) and I found some of what she said about rape culture troubling. I think what bothered me the most was the finality of her writing and statements. It was as if what she was saying was truth without taking into consideration that everyone has a different body/life experience.
For example, when it came to abortion, she insisted that what worked best for her was to just will to not be pregnant. That was better than an abortion. I was livid when I read this. She fell on this idea of willing things into existence as a way to empower women. From giving yourself a miscarriage to preventing yourself from getting raped. The more I think about this book, the more angry I get, which is a shame because I would love to read a book that actually celebrates vaginas.
I was not impressed with the lack of gender/transgender representation (not even mentioned until page 240ish) and I found some of what she said about rape culture troubling. I think what bothered me the most was the finality of her writing and statements. It was as if what she was saying was truth without taking into consideration that everyone has a different body/life experience.
For example, when it came to abortion, she insisted that what worked best for her was to just will to not be pregnant. That was better than an abortion. I was livid when I read this. She fell on this idea of willing things into existence as a way to empower women. From giving yourself a miscarriage to preventing yourself from getting raped. The more I think about this book, the more angry I get, which is a shame because I would love to read a book that actually celebrates vaginas.