Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
8 reviews
amgarrido's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Racism, and Physical abuse
meecespieces's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia
annayareads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
"Pleasure is the point. Feeling good is not frivolous, it is freedom."
This volume featuring adrienne maree brown's writing and the work of so many others in the pleasure activism space should be essential reading. From the beginning to the very end, brown had me thinking more deeply about pleasure than I ever have before. Starting out with "Uses of the Erotic" by my own intellectual mother Audre Lorde was just the warm welcome that I needed to greet the ideas within the book with openness.
Throughout the pages, I could feel the joy, love, pain, and pleasure imbued in the words. Reading this book feels like being cared for. It gently nudges you to deconstruct the repression that has been forced onto us and instead explore what gives us pleasure. I will carry Pleasure Activism in my heart for years to come.
This volume featuring adrienne maree brown's writing and the work of so many others in the pleasure activism space should be essential reading. From the beginning to the very end, brown had me thinking more deeply about pleasure than I ever have before. Starting out with "Uses of the Erotic" by my own intellectual mother Audre Lorde was just the warm welcome that I needed to greet the ideas within the book with openness.
Throughout the pages, I could feel the joy, love, pain, and pleasure imbued in the words. Reading this book feels like being cared for. It gently nudges you to deconstruct the repression that has been forced onto us and instead explore what gives us pleasure. I will carry Pleasure Activism in my heart for years to come.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Rape
helhas3letters's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
This book is a collection of articles, essays, and interviews, arranged into 6 sections and with the aim of exploring/explaining the use of platforming pleasure in one's life and activism.
I personally found this book quite difficult to read, as it oscillated between articles which used academic language and advanced concepts, and interviews with very casual language and little discernible focus.
The former could have benefitted from explanations of some terminology and concepts as it seemed to assume significant existing knowledge on the part of the reader. I did find some of the explanations that were presented to be unhelpful and confusing, e.g. I felt that the explanation of the practice of 'somatics' did not tell me anything about what it actually was and could have benefitted from clear examples.
On the other hand, the interviews seemed to lack a clear goal and just felt like a transcription of some casual conversations between friends. I personally didn't gain anything of value from reading them.
I also felt that the book spent lots of time describing (many) individuals who were either interviewed or just briefly mentioned. The volume of people described felt overwhelming and I found it hard to locate which of these descriptions were going to be useful and worth remembering. There were some descriptions devoted to a person simply mentioned in passing in conversation, which felt totally unnecessary and irrelevant.
The descriptions themselves also became very personal to the author, e.g. rather than 'X is an expert in Y and works with the organisation Z', it was more like 'X is a good friend of mine and makes me feel Y and we met Z years ago'. Because of this, it was hard to understand the relevance and expertise of lots of these people.
Finally, I felt that a lot of the footnotes in this book were extraneous and didn't add anything of value. I normally love the extra information provided by footnotes, but with this book I ended up ignoring them by the halfway point.
Despite my issues with the structure and formatting of this book, the core concept is interesting and there were gems of thought throughout. I believe however that the topic was too sprawling and it could have been presented best as one long article or a short manifesto, cutting many of the interviews or simply using quotes from them occasionally.
I personally found this book quite difficult to read, as it oscillated between articles which used academic language and advanced concepts, and interviews with very casual language and little discernible focus.
The former could have benefitted from explanations of some terminology and concepts as it seemed to assume significant existing knowledge on the part of the reader. I did find some of the explanations that were presented to be unhelpful and confusing, e.g. I felt that the explanation of the practice of 'somatics' did not tell me anything about what it actually was and could have benefitted from clear examples.
On the other hand, the interviews seemed to lack a clear goal and just felt like a transcription of some casual conversations between friends. I personally didn't gain anything of value from reading them.
I also felt that the book spent lots of time describing (many) individuals who were either interviewed or just briefly mentioned. The volume of people described felt overwhelming and I found it hard to locate which of these descriptions were going to be useful and worth remembering. There were some descriptions devoted to a person simply mentioned in passing in conversation, which felt totally unnecessary and irrelevant.
The descriptions themselves also became very personal to the author, e.g. rather than 'X is an expert in Y and works with the organisation Z', it was more like 'X is a good friend of mine and makes me feel Y and we met Z years ago'. Because of this, it was hard to understand the relevance and expertise of lots of these people.
Finally, I felt that a lot of the footnotes in this book were extraneous and didn't add anything of value. I normally love the extra information provided by footnotes, but with this book I ended up ignoring them by the halfway point.
Despite my issues with the structure and formatting of this book, the core concept is interesting and there were gems of thought throughout. I believe however that the topic was too sprawling and it could have been presented best as one long article or a short manifesto, cutting many of the interviews or simply using quotes from them occasionally.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Cancer, Drug use, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Incest, and Racism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, and Transphobia
tegen's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Inspiring look at how we can resist by engaging with the erotic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, and Racism
sapphicfog's review
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This book is the best sexuality book I have ever read - each essay was full with such important insights, I had a lightbulb moment every other page. We can’t separate the study of sexuality and pleasure from systems of oppression and vice versa - thank you amb for this gift!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse
jackry's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, and Drug use
eschorrlesnick's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Child abuse
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