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441 reviews for:
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Morgan Jerkins
4.03 AVERAGE
441 reviews for:
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Morgan Jerkins
4.03 AVERAGE
I am a white middle aged woman, and I loved this book! I found it eye opening, heartbreaking, challenging and wonderful. I hope Jerkins writes more so I can read and learn from her. Based on Jerkins experiences growing up in NJ, going to Princeton, studying abroad, living in NYC at times her experiences are universal, and at times not at all, and unique only because she is black - this is where the heart break is. We must treat and respect women regards of race and national origin. This is going to be a book I highly recommend to others.
A bonus is that she reads the audio book and I highly recommend the audio book - I found myself wishing I could engage her in conversation.
A bonus is that she reads the audio book and I highly recommend the audio book - I found myself wishing I could engage her in conversation.
This started out great and then was just about average by the time I reached the end. Perhaps this is just due to my familiarity -- it seemed like this was stuff I'd already read before several times and I wanted something different, some nuance or angle that went deeper. Nonetheless, an interesting and quick read.
The first half of this book is well thought out and presents an experience different than what I’ve read several times over. Jerkins focuses on colorism from the perspective of a light skinned Black woman and how dark skin Black women treated her growing up. She ventures into wanting to belong to the Sisterhood, please her parents, find a man, etc and it falls off into something that reads more like journaling than sharing to inspire vulnerability and growth. I’m interested in reading more of what she has written but not fully confident in what I will get.
Reading this book made me privy to the most interesting conversation about race and feminism that I would have no business being part of the conversation otherwise or asking some of the questions that have been answered for me here. There are some shared experiences among all women, and on some level I can relate to identity-related discrimination. It’s not (anywhere near) the same, it’s a hint of a shared feeling.
Listened to this on audio. Narrated by the Author.
Wow. We need more books like this. Black women sharing their thoughts, struggles, and experiences. I really enjoyed this book. Like I mentioned above, this book is a collection of essays about Morgan's observations and experiences as a black, female feminist in America. She does say in (white) America, but she also makes some observations as to what it is like to be a black woman in black spaces as well. Her essays cover so many topics: what it was like growing up a black girl, her struggle to become a writer in an overwhelmingly white, male space, her struggles with living as a woman in Harlem, her search for love and meaning, how her race informed her international travels, her thoughts on Beyonce, the intersection of religion and race, and so much more.
Although I may not have agreed with her on everything she said, that is the beauty of hearing other people's stories. She says in her book, "There is no one way to be black." and the more I read and the more stories I hear, I find this to be more and more true. Blackness is not a formula. Although many of us may share experience and feelings, everyone brings a specific individuality. This book engaged me and had me thinking about things i hadn't thought about before and looking into my own experiences and ideas on the topics she brought up.
I am going in between 4 and 4.5 stars. I can't go full 5 stars because some essay passages were weaker than others. A few times I found myself thinking, "This kinda sounds like how someone in high school would structure a sentence/paragraph." However, the majority of her writing was solid and some sections quite poetic. This book would make a great book to buddy read or read in a book club as it would lead to so very good discussion.
I think I would like to get a physical copy for myself to come back to and to annotate. Highly recommend.
Wow. We need more books like this. Black women sharing their thoughts, struggles, and experiences. I really enjoyed this book. Like I mentioned above, this book is a collection of essays about Morgan's observations and experiences as a black, female feminist in America. She does say in (white) America, but she also makes some observations as to what it is like to be a black woman in black spaces as well. Her essays cover so many topics: what it was like growing up a black girl, her struggle to become a writer in an overwhelmingly white, male space, her struggles with living as a woman in Harlem, her search for love and meaning, how her race informed her international travels, her thoughts on Beyonce, the intersection of religion and race, and so much more.
Although I may not have agreed with her on everything she said, that is the beauty of hearing other people's stories. She says in her book, "There is no one way to be black." and the more I read and the more stories I hear, I find this to be more and more true. Blackness is not a formula. Although many of us may share experience and feelings, everyone brings a specific individuality. This book engaged me and had me thinking about things i hadn't thought about before and looking into my own experiences and ideas on the topics she brought up.
I am going in between 4 and 4.5 stars. I can't go full 5 stars because some essay passages were weaker than others. A few times I found myself thinking, "This kinda sounds like how someone in high school would structure a sentence/paragraph." However, the majority of her writing was solid and some sections quite poetic. This book would make a great book to buddy read or read in a book club as it would lead to so very good discussion.
I think I would like to get a physical copy for myself to come back to and to annotate. Highly recommend.
Loved this book! Morgan writes in a way that reads like the friend in your head, or really like my friendship circle. I love the themes that she spoke about especially about Beyonce's Lemonade and being a black woman, and her experience/journey with it.
I really enjoyed this book. I am a fan of Roxane Gay, Dr. Tressie McMillian Cottom, and Britney Cooper because I love reading books that are a collection of essays. I am giving this book 3 stars because I enjoyed this collection.
I do wish Jerkins further interrogated her views of darker-skinned Black women and women who do not have the same academic position as her. Her descriptions of other Black women actually made me think back to the discussion of beauty politics that came up in Thick (Dr. Tressie McMillian Cottom). Jerkins did not really interrogate the beauty politics between Black women. Rather her focus was more about white women. There is nothing wrong with having that focus, but I would have preferred hearing about the more nuanced comparisons. However, despite this one thing, I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed reading about her understanding of falling at the intersection.
I do wish Jerkins further interrogated her views of darker-skinned Black women and women who do not have the same academic position as her. Her descriptions of other Black women actually made me think back to the discussion of beauty politics that came up in Thick (Dr. Tressie McMillian Cottom). Jerkins did not really interrogate the beauty politics between Black women. Rather her focus was more about white women. There is nothing wrong with having that focus, but I would have preferred hearing about the more nuanced comparisons. However, despite this one thing, I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed reading about her understanding of falling at the intersection.
I was legitimately upset reading this. I'm a white woman and Jerkins explicitly states the book is not about me. That's fine and everything, but what's not fine is the bizarre and completely unempathetic and uncharitable view of anyone who isn't black or more marginalized than her on the progressive stack. I'm more than willing to give her some leeway on this too, but if you think black women have a monopoly on sexual violence and the like and insist on using absolutist language like "white women will never experience this" then I just...IDK. I'd suggest therapy for what she said about porn because that was some real incel shit, but therapy is apparently for the "religious and spiritually lazy". Alright.
And finally, say it with me now: sexual violence is bad no matter who is committing it and no matter who the victim is. Sexual violence and sexual harassment doesn't cease to be sexual violence and sexual harassment just because a) Jerkins doesn't witness it (Jerkins contends that white women apparently never get their asses slapped. This is news to me and antithetical to my own experience) b) a white woman is the victim and/or c) a non-white person is the perpetrator.
"Dick is like food. Once you have it, it's a must."
"White women are not pressured to look like anyone other else but themselves."
"White girls stare at Barbies and see potential. Black girls stare at white dolls and see impossibility."
"Their womanhood does not eliminate their whiteness." I'm led to conclude that Jerkins thinks that blackness eliminates the maleness of her black male peers, however.
"There is a pride in still being here in spite of it all and that's a feeling white women will never be able to experience."
"What better way to destroy her titanic influence on my conceptions of beauty and desire as a black woman than to watch a man splatter cum all over her face. The more painful her moans sounded, the better. Watching a blonde woman have sex with one man was too gentle a scenario; I relished multiple men pulling on all her limbs using them to pleasure their penises. I wanted them to take her all at once. I wanted her to be completely overwhelmed. Pushed towards the precipice between ecstasy and death. As long as the men didn't turn me off by calling her a bitch or a slut as they rammed inside of her, I was satisfied when they put their hands around her neck or slapped the side of her face. I wanted to hear and see the slaps, the red marks on her body, and the disheveled hair. The more force, the better. I am almost at a loss for words for how consuming these orgasms were...I was not at all interested in watching ebony porn. I did not wish to see black women get handled with the same violence. I did not want to see a black women stuffed in every orifice even if she was visibly and audibly satisfied by the filling. Each time I saw a penis jammed inside her mouth, I wondered if it would block her airways and she would suffocate, and none of the men would notice as they continued thrusting. Nothing was fine about watching men either black or white pull her panties to the side, jiggle her breasts in their hands, call her 'bitch' as if they were calling her 'honey'."
"How do we protect ourselves if that means chastising black men who we have always been culturally conditioned to protect?"
"Therapy...is a pastime, a hobby...it is for the religiously and spiritually lazy."
"We cannot come together if we do not recognize our differences first. These differences are best articulated when women of color occupy the center of the discourse, while white women remain silent, actively listen, and do not try to reinforce supremacy by inserting themselves in the middle of the discussion."
And finally, say it with me now: sexual violence is bad no matter who is committing it and no matter who the victim is. Sexual violence and sexual harassment doesn't cease to be sexual violence and sexual harassment just because a) Jerkins doesn't witness it (Jerkins contends that white women apparently never get their asses slapped. This is news to me and antithetical to my own experience) b) a white woman is the victim and/or c) a non-white person is the perpetrator.
"Dick is like food. Once you have it, it's a must."
"White women are not pressured to look like anyone other else but themselves."
"White girls stare at Barbies and see potential. Black girls stare at white dolls and see impossibility."
"Their womanhood does not eliminate their whiteness." I'm led to conclude that Jerkins thinks that blackness eliminates the maleness of her black male peers, however.
"There is a pride in still being here in spite of it all and that's a feeling white women will never be able to experience."
"What better way to destroy her titanic influence on my conceptions of beauty and desire as a black woman than to watch a man splatter cum all over her face. The more painful her moans sounded, the better. Watching a blonde woman have sex with one man was too gentle a scenario; I relished multiple men pulling on all her limbs using them to pleasure their penises. I wanted them to take her all at once. I wanted her to be completely overwhelmed. Pushed towards the precipice between ecstasy and death. As long as the men didn't turn me off by calling her a bitch or a slut as they rammed inside of her, I was satisfied when they put their hands around her neck or slapped the side of her face. I wanted to hear and see the slaps, the red marks on her body, and the disheveled hair. The more force, the better. I am almost at a loss for words for how consuming these orgasms were...I was not at all interested in watching ebony porn. I did not wish to see black women get handled with the same violence. I did not want to see a black women stuffed in every orifice even if she was visibly and audibly satisfied by the filling. Each time I saw a penis jammed inside her mouth, I wondered if it would block her airways and she would suffocate, and none of the men would notice as they continued thrusting. Nothing was fine about watching men either black or white pull her panties to the side, jiggle her breasts in their hands, call her 'bitch' as if they were calling her 'honey'."
"How do we protect ourselves if that means chastising black men who we have always been culturally conditioned to protect?"
"Therapy...is a pastime, a hobby...it is for the religiously and spiritually lazy."
"We cannot come together if we do not recognize our differences first. These differences are best articulated when women of color occupy the center of the discourse, while white women remain silent, actively listen, and do not try to reinforce supremacy by inserting themselves in the middle of the discussion."
Audiobook narration and quality- great.
I have a hard time rating this book. There is a lot of good and interesting writing in this, especially near the end when the author gives her take on current events and other peoples' takes on current events. Unfortunately the structure of this book felt disjointed when going from early life to school to professional life with some lit fic style short essays thrown in as well.
Also, you can see from other reviews some of the vulnerable and sometimes shocking reflections Morgan shares. I commend someone for sharing something that personal, on her own body and thoughts on other peoples' bodies. I think the part that was missing for me at times was the relevancy or reflection from current time looking back. Not sure if she still condones some of those sensitive moments or how it is supposed to fit in her overall story. CW for someone discussing in great detail finding pleasure in/fantasizing about violence against women
I have a hard time rating this book. There is a lot of good and interesting writing in this, especially near the end when the author gives her take on current events and other peoples' takes on current events. Unfortunately the structure of this book felt disjointed when going from early life to school to professional life with some lit fic style short essays thrown in as well.
Also, you can see from other reviews some of the vulnerable and sometimes shocking reflections Morgan shares. I commend someone for sharing something that personal, on her own body and thoughts on other peoples' bodies. I think the part that was missing for me at times was the relevancy or reflection from current time looking back. Not sure if she still condones some of those sensitive moments or how it is supposed to fit in her overall story. CW for someone discussing in great detail finding pleasure in/fantasizing about violence against women