Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn

21 reviews

justmehayleyb's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

informative sad fast-paced

4.25

Highly informative book. Quite emotional and upsetting at times but really important to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chronically_theo's review against another edition

emotional informative sad

3.75

This book was incredibly hard to read. Reading about how people like you have been violated and dismissed never gets easier. It is interesting though if you are in the right headspace 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

radfordmanor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

catherineleigh's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Infertility, and Rape

solliereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

What an absolutely vital and incredible read! This book has made me totally rethink my approach to medical misogyny and medical malpractice as a direct result of the disbelief of women and their experiences with pain. I've suffered with unexplained chronic pain for a long time, and I've always been turned away when I attempted to seek help, support and understanding of the pain and exhaustion that no professional has ever seemed to want to touch with a five-foot pole. Reading this book felt like a warm hug - true, the facts are harrowing, particularly those regarding the experiences of women of colour and their repeated erasures from feminist movements, as well as their especially harsh experiences with medical malpractice and being treated as experimental patients without their expressed knowledge or consent, but every single fact has been included in this book to scream out that all women, regardless of race and class, deserve and demand to be believed by the professional practitioners that hold their lives in their hands.

I really appreciated, too, having a clear timeline of events that provide much-needed context regarding various issues in women's health. It was by no means an easy read, and there were times where I was so disgusted by the things women have gone through that I wanted to put the book away, but it was certainly an immensely helpful one. Cleghorn has clearly gone to great lengths to write a text of such great importance on the subject of medical misogyny, and everything in her book is backed up by a massive amount of citations, none of which are pointlessly crammed in there either. I truly look forward to reading her upcoming book in 2024 - MOTHERS: An Intimate History - and I fully expect it to be just as crucial a read as this was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Chronic illness, Infertility, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Gaslighting

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, and Rape

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicidal thoughts

thania's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

Very good and informative book. It was clearly written with reference to much research and the way the information was presented was coherent. I was able to witness throug this book the horrors of medical misogyny and get frustrated over the repeat offences on women’s rights that just kept happening for the same convoluted reasons. Other than that, I wish she put in headers for each new disease though or didn’t jump through years so much. I understand that in most cases it is necessary but it can get quite confusing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

burdasnest's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

 This book made me feel seen and connected to all of the women in our time and the past who suffered medically because of their sex. Cleghorn acknowledges intersectionality and inequity well, but keep in mind that this is focused on western medical history and knowledge and cisgender women. She also emphasizes the absolute importance of the myriad issues we have before us as unwell women. I feel called to advocate and act by this book, and think that it should be required in health curriculum in higher education from physiology to public health. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

arachan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

I had to read this book in chunks.  It's a very honest, very thorough look at the way medicine has persistently failed women and people with uteruses.  (Note on that: Cleghorn does not discount trans experience but given the historical record and medicine have been framed through the binary, women is the term used.)

This is a book that baffles and outrages me.  So much that could have been done differently, if the dominant culture was willing to value women and so much of what women got diagnosed was 'I can't be bothered'.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting