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kmyerscoffman's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
stevia333k's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
one of the things this book repeatedly says is that women's studies courses tend to be white & there's a big problem of white people not being able to handle their guilt or not be able to pay attention to non-white experiences. so frankly, i'm thankful to have picked up this audiobook so that i wouldn't be taking up time from women of color. it gave me insight into my personal complicity & personal problems.
10%: The essay about chosen family was such a mood, and the combo of 9/11 & 2010's activism is a lovely combo because that covers most of my time in the school to prison pipeline
17%: This part about the patriarch preying upon vulnerability woc, reminds me of my own family, though we're white instead
19%: Holy shit "resisting sterilization and embracing trans motherhood" is explaining an omen an aunt of mine received about what would happen if I medically transitioned. Basically it has to do with a lack of support for infertility trauma
27%: That gentrification series "Marx in the house" would probably go good with the gentrification chapter "what happens when your hood is the last stop on the white flight express"
The HIV and me chapter is probably helpful too. Basically consider linguistic inclusivity as another method of praxis
46%: Marianismo is a pain in the ass!
52%: The part about abortion doulas sometimes being the only nonjudgmental person in people's lives is making me want to sob. there's a part of a book from "the body keeps the score" where the doctor person says that when we have crappy people in our lives we'll cling onto people who make us feel safe as much as possible. to keep my description of guilt brief, marry or die combined with queerphobia & ableism was abuse we shouldn't have been put through.
68%: I'm finding a lot of help from these 3 chapters: migrant organizing, ladies only, our hermanitas' heroes.
- the street harassment & molestation chapters, they explain a lot, and while my instinct is to say kill amatonormativity, that chapter really calls out that what that instinct is referring to is only 1 style is only 1 role & that we don't have to conform to the standards oppressive systems set up for us.
- the call out chapter pointing out that the non-profit complex was developed to thawrt mass movements was a big reveal for me. like i've been starting to pick up on & even have on my reading list books about how social work is tied to policing/police, but like mashallah, omfg that explains so much hell on earth & i need to know more!!!
- mo'nique is beautiful, omg this chapter on fatphobia made me want to sob. also the eating disorders, big mood.
10%: The essay about chosen family was such a mood, and the combo of 9/11 & 2010's activism is a lovely combo because that covers most of my time in the school to prison pipeline
17%: This part about the patriarch preying upon vulnerability woc, reminds me of my own family, though we're white instead
19%: Holy shit "resisting sterilization and embracing trans motherhood" is explaining an omen an aunt of mine received about what would happen if I medically transitioned. Basically it has to do with a lack of support for infertility trauma
27%: That gentrification series "Marx in the house" would probably go good with the gentrification chapter "what happens when your hood is the last stop on the white flight express"
The HIV and me chapter is probably helpful too. Basically consider linguistic inclusivity as another method of praxis
46%: Marianismo is a pain in the ass!
52%: The part about abortion doulas sometimes being the only nonjudgmental person in people's lives is making me want to sob. there's a part of a book from "the body keeps the score" where the doctor person says that when we have crappy people in our lives we'll cling onto people who make us feel safe as much as possible. to keep my description of guilt brief, marry or die combined with queerphobia & ableism was abuse we shouldn't have been put through.
68%: I'm finding a lot of help from these 3 chapters: migrant organizing, ladies only, our hermanitas' heroes.
- the street harassment & molestation chapters, they explain a lot, and while my instinct is to say kill amatonormativity, that chapter really calls out that what that instinct is referring to is only 1 style is only 1 role & that we don't have to conform to the standards oppressive systems set up for us.
- the call out chapter pointing out that the non-profit complex was developed to thawrt mass movements was a big reveal for me. like i've been starting to pick up on & even have on my reading list books about how social work is tied to policing/police, but like mashallah, omfg that explains so much hell on earth & i need to know more!!!
- mo'nique is beautiful, omg this chapter on fatphobia made me want to sob. also the eating disorders, big mood.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation
vintagegirlreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
ojaswisharma's review
Largely inconsistent and flawed. I liked a handful of the essays though.
celadon's review against another edition
5.0
Colonize This! is an incredible–and I mean incredible–collection of essays. What makes this book so shockingly different is its plethora of varied and relevant perspectives. All of the applicants are women of color, and within that there are women of all different backgrounds including trans women, women of all different classes, sexualities, and one person who is questioning their gender. It was so invigorating to read an anthology where the people submitting the work is anybody who has a pencil and the passion to write an essay. Maybe this will inspire you with empathy and vigor to challenge what is considered normal.
---Long Review To Come---
---Long Review To Come---
ravenofoctober's review
4.0
I think this collection of essays is an excellent read for someone like me--a feminist looking to better understand the intersection of racism, classism, homophobia, and other factors with feminism. There is a wide representation of women of color experiences in these essays.
This book was a hard read at times, because it is unapologetic in its criticisms of feminism, which in general still tends to focus on issues of white middle class women rather than the broader spectrum that includes women of color and their experiences with racism, classism, etc., altogether. I LIKED that it was unapologetic, because it was a good wake-up call to me. The rather narrow view of general feminism was something I understood at an academic level before reading this book, but this collection moved that understanding to a more practical level—how that general focus of feminism ostracizes a wide swath of women, and how it has affected the lives of the women who wrote these essays. The book manages to extrapolate the individual experiences described in the book simply because of the fact that each essay had an instance where the writer had been shunned from a feminist space by white feminists. So it manages to give personal accounts that piece together a larger picture when read together.
I do think feminism has made some strides to rectify this since this book was published in 2002, but it's not my place, as a white woman, to try and say how much improvement on this front feminism has made, because I do not experience the ostracism myself.
Each essay offered a different type of experience by a women of color (some queer, some not. Some grew up poor, some didn't. Etc.); it doesn't cover ALL possible experiences, but I think the editors did a great job of trying to cover as many as possible. This is a book I think white feminists should read to help educate themselves and better understand what women of color go through, but it definitely requires that we get over our knee-jerk reactions of criticisms of feminism.
This book was a hard read at times, because it is unapologetic in its criticisms of feminism, which in general still tends to focus on issues of white middle class women rather than the broader spectrum that includes women of color and their experiences with racism, classism, etc., altogether. I LIKED that it was unapologetic, because it was a good wake-up call to me. The rather narrow view of general feminism was something I understood at an academic level before reading this book, but this collection moved that understanding to a more practical level—how that general focus of feminism ostracizes a wide swath of women, and how it has affected the lives of the women who wrote these essays. The book manages to extrapolate the individual experiences described in the book simply because of the fact that each essay had an instance where the writer had been shunned from a feminist space by white feminists. So it manages to give personal accounts that piece together a larger picture when read together.
I do think feminism has made some strides to rectify this since this book was published in 2002, but it's not my place, as a white woman, to try and say how much improvement on this front feminism has made, because I do not experience the ostracism myself.
Each essay offered a different type of experience by a women of color (some queer, some not. Some grew up poor, some didn't. Etc.); it doesn't cover ALL possible experiences, but I think the editors did a great job of trying to cover as many as possible. This is a book I think white feminists should read to help educate themselves and better understand what women of color go through, but it definitely requires that we get over our knee-jerk reactions of criticisms of feminism.