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My thoughts

3.5/5stars gender is one of the biggest lies of our civilization This is one of those books which I really really love the idea of but the writing style just did not work out for me. This reads more like articles than stories and I did not know that going into it, which is my whole reading experience was a bit shaken. Did I enjoy reading it? Maybe not as much as I wanted but Do I still recommend reading this? ABSOLUTELY. Hear me out: You gotta know before going into this one that is not a STORY, not an account of some people's day-to-day lives, it reads more like an account of all social injustices and talks about the existing privileges and issues of the world through some 12 people who are wound up in a carefully but blandly woven universe. privilege is about context and circumstance One of the things I really loved about this book is the absolutely phenomenal representation of the various different communities of the world, and how they all have different "standards" of feminism/equality. It is important to note that despite being from a marginalised community one can have internalised misogyny and they have unlearn it and redefine their feminism. That is beautifully explained in here with different examples. People won’t see you as just another woman any more, but as a white woman who hangs with brownies, and you’ll lose a bit of your privilege, you should still check it, though, have you heard the expression, check your privilege, babe? Courtney replied that seeing as Yazz is the daughter of a professor and a very well-known theatre director, she’s hardly underprivileged herself, whereas she, Courtney, comes from a really poor community where it’s normal to be working in a factory at sixteen and have your first child as a single mother at seventeen, and that her father’s farm is effectively owned by the bank Yes but I’m black, Courts, which makes me more oppressed than anyone who isn’t, except Waris who is the most oppressed of all of them (although don’t tell her that) In five categories, black, Muslim, female, poor, hijab bed She’s the only one Yazz can’t tell to check her privilege Courtney replied that Roxane Gay warned against the idea of playing ‘privilege Olympics’ and wrote in Bad Feminist that privilege is relative and contextual, and I agree, Yazz, I mean, where does it all end? Is Obama less privileged than a white hillbilly growing up in a trailer park with a junkie single mother and a jailbird father? Is a severely disabled person more privileged than a Syrian asylum-seeker who’s been tortured? Roxane argues that we have to find a new discourse for discussing inequality Yazz doesn’t know what to say, when did Court read Roxane Gay - who’s amaaaazing? Was this a student outwitting the master moment? #whitegirltrumpsblackgirl This was another favourite part to read, the internal monologue of the white girl, altho I didn't agree with her beliefs a lot of times it was an insight into a privileged mind and I was able to rethink my own privileges from here. Highly recommend this book altho the writing is not my usual jam but still the content very well makes up for it. Be a person with knowledge not just opinions. CWs for the book: Sexual assault/rape/Gang rape, Domestic/relationship abuse, Child abuse/pedophilia/incest, Pregnancy/childbirth, Miscarriage, Racism and racial slurs, Transphobia and trans misogyny, Homophobia and heterosexism