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A review by simonlorden
The Harm We Do Ourselves by Jean Akouri
1.0
This book was made available on NetGalley for an honest review.
It was less than a hundred pages but it was a struggle to read. It is less of a fictional novel and more of an extended debate about gay (and later trans) rights in Lebanon and in the US.
The main character, Sami, is an out gay man, who is incredibly judgmental towards other gay men who are more promiscuous than him, and also gay men who are closeted. Actually, his view was contradictory to me, because he talks about how gay people are discriminated against and learn to hate themselves from the beginning, and even their legal rights to existence is debated, but then still judges people who don't come out? Still, at this point I was still going to give this book 3 stars, because I was trying to come at this with an open mind for a man whose cultural experience is very different from my own.
But then it just goes into shitting on trans people, honestly. The two main characters claim they aren't transphobic because they support "genuinely trans people", they are only against "trans ideology in the West", like "men deciding to be women" or trans women wanting to be in women's sports - so really, I don't really understand which part of trans people they support? The characters also insist that gay people must separate themselves from the harmful trans ideology because being gay is not the same as "constantly changing pronouns".
So, yeah. I tried to take this with an open mind, but as a fictional book it's unenjoyable and badly written, and as an essay/debate/whatever it is very judgmental and transphobic.
It was less than a hundred pages but it was a struggle to read. It is less of a fictional novel and more of an extended debate about gay (and later trans) rights in Lebanon and in the US.
The main character, Sami, is an out gay man, who is incredibly judgmental towards other gay men who are more promiscuous than him, and also gay men who are closeted. Actually, his view was contradictory to me, because he talks about how gay people are discriminated against and learn to hate themselves from the beginning, and even their legal rights to existence is debated, but then still judges people who don't come out? Still, at this point I was still going to give this book 3 stars, because I was trying to come at this with an open mind for a man whose cultural experience is very different from my own.
But then it just goes into shitting on trans people, honestly. The two main characters claim they aren't transphobic because they support "genuinely trans people", they are only against "trans ideology in the West", like "men deciding to be women" or trans women wanting to be in women's sports - so really, I don't really understand which part of trans people they support? The characters also insist that gay people must separate themselves from the harmful trans ideology because being gay is not the same as "constantly changing pronouns".
So, yeah. I tried to take this with an open mind, but as a fictional book it's unenjoyable and badly written, and as an essay/debate/whatever it is very judgmental and transphobic.