Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell

99 reviews

saskiahill's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gun violence and Alcohol

inthedark's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This feels like required reading for all humans. It took me a chapter or two to really get into it, but Gladwell does a phenomenal job of weaving social science and history into a fascinating story. I took notes the entire time. With the world so polarized, we absolutely need information like this to live more compassionate lives. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Rape

rebelstorm's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

dafni's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Police brutality

antireading's review against another edition

1.25

I feel as though Gladwell ignores other factors to the discussions he brings up, most especially race, gender, and their intersections. He drills down everything to miscommunication but doesn't bring up the fact that many are predisposed to not wanting to be truthful in communication with women, with Black people, etc. It is not JUST because of policing practices that Black people get pulled over, but it is because of a bias against them and the communities that are over-policed. It felt like he was oversimplifying a lot.

The section on Jerry Sandusky and Brock Turner was gross. He treated CIA operatives who invented torture tactics with more care than victims of rape. He seemed to outright disbelieve the victims of Sandusky and chalk up Turner's rape to a "miscommunication" due to alcohol. He calls most sexual harassment on college campuses miscommunications due to alcohol and hazy rules of consent, while also acknowledging that 1 in 5 female college students report being sexually harassed. He also says the problem is equally with the men raping and the alcohol. Alcohol is a large chunk of the book for no apparent reason as it doesn't tie into the main Sandra Bland storyline like other issues do at the end. I wasn't interested in hearing excuses for a man raping an unconscious woman, but apparently, women should have known better.

The medium of an audiobook was interesting as Gladwell aimed to make it a high-quality podcast. That fell short when I had issues understanding snippets of the audio from various types of recording equipment, age of recordings, accents, and speeds of talking. I found myself just drowning out those snippets, especially when listening in the car, as the jumpiness of quality was too distracting. I feel like the description, while it technically does describe what happened, didn't really feel like the book as I was getting into it. It was very much interconnected stories but I thought those points would be briefly brought up, not dedicating whole chapters to it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Minor: Child death and Vomit

mmestitches's review against another edition

0.25

Irresponsible at best. I feel like the point of this book was to humanize how people make terrible mistakes, but ultimately it reinforced the idea that keeping people with power emotionally comfortable is more important than protecting the lives of people without power. 
I normally love Malcom Gladwell's work but this book was irresponsible as hell in how it discussed some high profile cases about sexual predators. He draws a parallel between victims of CSA being unable to understand they're being abused and grown ass adults allowing kids being raped as a result of their inability to handle some cognitive dissonance. I see this pattern of making victims of child abuse equally responsible to the adults committing or enabling the abuse,  and it makes me want to scream. Gladwell went as far as to play a clip of a victim crying and pleading with her abuser to recognize the hurt he caused, and the purpose of this clip is to show how murky the facts can get in these cases as opposed to being used as a classic example of how a groomed and abused child grows into an adult who feels responsible for healing the person that abused them.  These responses are not murky, they are well researched and understood, but holding people accountable for their actions is hard so Gladwell took a lazy, victim blaming approach.  How disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Not worth reading, spare yourself

avasey's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

artsandcraftsmajor's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Compelling, but left unsure of how to move forward. Feels important. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt

beingsimba's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective

5.0

What I love about Gladwell's work is that he challenges us to look deeper than the surface and confront our assumptions about the world (and in this case, the strangers) around us.

Using the 2015 Sandra Bland case as a frame narrative, Gladwell uses various scientific studies, interviews, and other high-profile crimes to present his case. The topics are serious and difficult to listen to and one should definitely heed the content warnings if they decide to read this.

One last note is I cannot recommend the audiobook enough as it is less a typical audiobook and more a long format version of his podcast, Revisionist History. It is incredibly immersive and absolutely contributed to me enjoyment of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Murder

hundhemm's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

1.5

The text is well written, but sources are unreliable.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Murder, and Sexual harassment