stevia333k's review

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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.

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dean_issov's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

"Colonize This!: Young women of color on today's feminism" is an empowering collection of essays by various women of colour around the USA just a year after the horrible 9/11 tragedy. This essay collection is eye opening, it gave me different perspectives on what it is like to live as a woman of colour in our society and how it affects them in many ways. I loved that it covered many issues on not only sexism but also on race, religion, abortion rights, immigration, sexual and domestic abuse, and many more. It is both shocking and sad that an essay collection that was written two decades ago is still very relevant in today's world; especially considering what is happening in Afghanistan at this very moment, where the Taliban is taking control over everything there.

As a Filipino man living in the Philippines, I read this essay collection to educate myself on intersectional feminism because I never really felt how privileged I am as a cis man until only a few months ago when I started learning about feminism, religion, and politics. Ever since then I began to continually educate myself on anything that I can get my hands on. This essay collection is a decent introduction to intersectionality and I'm very glad that I read it.

Some essays didn't particularly hit as hard as some of the others, most likely because I'm a man and found it a bit difficult to relate to, but each and every essay is still important and beneficial to anyone who gets to read these women's lives and anecdotes. Personally, some essays just felt dry and repetitive, and there were some that felt like it could've been better if it went on longer, but it's still good nonetheless. 

My favourite essays (not in any specific order):

Colonize This! - Cristina Tzintzún

Organizing 101 - A Mixed-Race Feminist in Movements for Social Justice - Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz

What Happens When Your Hood Is the Last Stop on the White Flight Express? - Taigi Smith

Love Clinic - Soyon Im

Lost in the Indophile Translation - Bhavana Mody

It’s Not an Oxymoron - The Search for an Arab Feminism - Susan Muaddi Darraj

Nasaan ka anak ko? - A Queer Filipina-American Feminist’s Tale of Abortion and Self-Recovery - Patricia Justine Tumang

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