Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

24 reviews

candlewaster's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

aburns2's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

randeerebecca's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

1.0

This book basically feels like the author is being an apologist for “monstrous” behavior without coming right out and saying it because she’s a self-proclaimed feminist. I see her feminism, but I think it’s very simplistic and minimally intersectional. She starts the book off by arguing that use of the word “monster” for men who are abusers (i.e. Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby, etc.) is so that as individuals, we don’t need to acknowledge our own potential for those kinds of behaviors. Which is an interesting perspective, but also a flimsy excuse. At times, it seemed like the author was arguing this point simply to make herself feel better about continuing to consume art when she felt guilty doing so because of the creator’s crimes and behaviors. She also goes on to blame the internet because now people have to know that their beloved cultural icons have done horrible things - it seems to me she’d rather live in ignorance? There’s a simple solution, of course. The author personally does not have to engage with social media, the very thing she blames.

There were a few bits that really felt yucky to me:

• criticizing queer kids’ use of tumblr for “unbodied connection” with fandoms. Tell me you’re not queer without telling me? This is so ignorant of how isolating it can be to exist as queer, especially in small communities, and how important it can be to connect with others like you over something meaningful. But it’s wild because she later talks about being a weird kid needing connection and she got that from David Bowie music and fans? So she clearly understands the need, but maybe not the context.
• Listed men who have been found to be abusive and pedophilic as examples of cultural “monsters,” and THEN followed that by listing women who had mental health problems and said “does self harm count?”
• On Picasso’s abusive behavior towards women: “Picasso is the victim of, the servant to, his own impulses.”
• Implied that the reason society went after Woody Allen and Roman Polanski for their pedophilia is because they are Jewish and our society is anti-Semitic… not because they assaulted children or anything…
• Sylvia Plath is included in this book on cultural “monsters” because her suicide was a “violent act” against patriarchy, supposedly. The reality is that she was clinically depressed in the midst of heartbreak. The author does state that Plath was not a monster, so why is she even included in this discussion?
• She conflates recovery from addiction to someone needing support for their “monstrous” behavior (i.e. pedophilia, abuse, violence)

The message at the end, summed up: we’re all monsters and all victims and what we do doesn’t make a difference anyway, so consume the media created by perpetrators 👎🏻

I will give her this: she made a point to say that memoir should be description and not prescription, meaning she doesn’t feel a person’s views espoused in their memoir(s) should automatically be taken as life advice by readers. Which is good, because I certainly won’t with hers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Antisemitism, and Abandonment

dantruman's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Thoughtful, challenging, informative, reflective. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

The author is not in favor of the above but they come up in relation to the artist’s she discusses.

claraarianne's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Antisemitism, and Sexual harassment

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

2.75

I don't know that this was necessarily what I was expecting. It was thought provoking at some points. At others, I lost the plot. While critiquing gender essentialism in general and in its association with power dynamics and gender stereotypes, the author often relies on it in the language used around her critique of powerful men.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism

thehungryartist's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

1.25

Full review coming soon, but there was a lot about this book I didn’t like/that did not resonate. Claiming Israel existed in the 30’s is one of them. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Misogyny, and Violence

jayisreading's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.0

I wish this essay collection worked for me, given my interest in the topic. but I found it rather disappointing. I think the questions that Dederer wanted to address are crucial ones for all of us to contend with. Can you actually separate art from the artist? Is it ethical to consume media by problematic (or “stained,” as she describes it) people, some of whom are labeled geniuses? How should we be engaging with problematic media, if at all?

I will say that I think it’s a little unfair to expect concrete answers from her, considering that it’s a bit more complicated than giving a simple “yes” or “no” response. However, a reader only has so much patience for any amount of waffling; by the third or fourth chapter, I was tired of it. I think it’s fine if an author wants to take a moment to think about a particular topic on-page, but they need to give the reader a reason to stick around for it. In other words, what’s at stake? Why should we care? Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a point to any of these essays that gave me any indication as to why what Dederer wrote mattered. She had numerous missed opportunities to do in-depth analyses with the issues she raised. Instead, she provided a lot of surface-level observations that gave the reader very little to work with, other than to quizzically wonder, “Why should I care about your feelings over your favorite artist being problematic?” Relatedly, I saw a few reviewers comment that this book reads more like a memoir, which I’m inclined to agree with, especially when one takes into account the handful of personal anecdotes that Dederer hardly connected (if at all) to the topic at hand. In addition, I felt that she often failed to give enough context when she called a number of individuals “monsters.” Sure, readers could do separate research on some of the mentioned figures in the book to learn more about their wrongdoings, but part of an essayist’s responsibility is to provide even some of that context and nuance.

Again, the questions posed in this book are important ones. However, I think Dederer could have afforded to spend more time with these essays to better establish the points she wants to make, as well as to reorganize her ideas so that they are more closely connected.

Note: Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a finished paperback copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Death, Suicide, and Transphobia

emily_mae08's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Abandonment

hduc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book deals with monstrous people. Of course there will be disturbing stories. But fear not, take one or two pages at a time. You would come out of this book a heart lighter.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and War