Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

20 reviews

lizard800's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

3.75

I'm pretty far along in my body confidence/radical self love journey so this book wasn't paradigm shifting for me, but I would definitely reccomend it to someone who was just starting that journey. I liked in the last chapter how the author gave lots of concrete examples of how to embody and live radial self love.

One thing I did take from this book is just the idea that we're really 'returning' to radical self love because that's the way we navigated the world when we were born. I've never thought of it that way and I will take that with me for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Sexism, and Transphobia

dblue236's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

It's rare that I find a "self-help" or "inspirational" book that I actually enjoy, because I often find them to be preachy or overly biased or just simply not geared toward people I can relate to. That was not the case here. I genuinely enjoyed everything about the book, and I agreed with the author on several points and could relate to many of the experiences she shared throughout the book. I was not familiar with her before picking this up, but I'm really glad I gave it a chance and I look forward to learning more about her in the future!

Note: I have added content warnings to this review, but it is important to me that I point out that the trigger warnings are about discussions of those topics and NOT that the views of the author herself are triggering. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming and Bullying

Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, and Islamophobia

julesfrigault's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Classism

oliviapincin's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Police brutality, and Islamophobia

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Hate crime, and Deportation

teacupsandfirereads's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

This was a great nonfiction to start the year with. It made me stop and thing and reflect, which I really appriciate. It gave lots of tidbits that I will bring with me into the new year in how I look at my own (disabled) body as well as others. I can see the appeal of having a hardcopy to flip back on as reminders now and again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, and Transphobia

rieviolet's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book deals with a very important topic and introduced me to the term "body terrorism", which is a pretty neat expression and very fitting to encapsulate all the oppression and damage inflicted on non-conforming bodies.

I found the informative parts very interesting and actually, I wish that more time and pages could've been spent on such reflections. However, I think that this could be a good starting point for people completely new to such themes.

The overall structure of the book didn't entirely convince me. I think that the essay-style sections and the self-help ones didn't blend together well. It might be a bit of a "me problem" as well, as I don't do very well with the self-improvement genre.
Also, as another reviewer pointed out, the mixing of academic and more conversational language made the writing style feel a bit all over the place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Islamophobia

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Dysphoria

emfass's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Everybody should read this book. A loving look at all the systems that have been put in place to make us hate our bodies. Sonya Renee Taylor offers us a beautiful way back to ourselves and to each other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, and Misogyny

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, and Transphobia

mj_86's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Profound, life-changing narrative about how radical self-love can change yourself and the world. Amazing and thought-provoking, my highlighter barely had a break while I worked to realize every effort to make myself less for others (or myself) would fail.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Transphobia

spacekee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcohol

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

I appreciate the attention Taylor pays to expanding this work beyond self, showing how radical self-love can transform communities and entire systems. I don't see that focus in self-help books nearly as often as I'd like.

Beyond that, this wasn't the mindblowing, heart-opening revelation so many people promised me it would be. If it were my first exposure to the concepts that Taylor is packaging under the label "radical self-love," maybe I would be as madly in love with it as others are. But I found little here that I haven't been finding in therapy and my spiritual practice for almost a decade. tbh, I took more notes on Ijeoma Oluo's introduction than on the body of the text.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Islamophobia