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A review by merx
Watch Us Rise by Ellen Hagan, Renée Watson
3.0
This book is definitely conflicting. Having read others' reviews for it, there are many opinions in the one-star ones as well as five-star ones that I agree with.
Did it make me think about feminist issues, did it make me want to be more creative and take more action for the things I care about? - Absolutely.
Was it thought-provoking and caused me to have opinions about it? - Yes, that's why I'm writing this review.
Was Chelsea the most shallow kind of feminist I've known (the Kwanzaa and Hannukah part made me cringe so much + refusing to call Isaac a feminist because he's male? seriously?), focusing only on her problems (not working more to get her schoolmates to join her club etc), judging other women for their own choices, and do I think I would've liked the book more with a different kind of protagonist? - HELL YES.
In my opinion the story would have benefitted if it were to be seen from a perspective of a girl who is into something that is not "traditional for girls to do" - for example STEM. Chelsea herself saying "well yeah girls should be allowed to do whatever they want BUT I REALLY HATE SCIENCE SO I DON'T WANT TO BE MADE TO STUDY IT" was a bit tiring for me and just showed how one-dimensional she is.
Also about the incident with the cells from Henrietta Lacks - I myself study chemistry and during my brief time in my university's biochemistry lab I once could actually work with these cells myself. I absolutely agree that it wasn't ethical to take her cells without her consent. Then again, during the part where they talk about the woman's quote who assisted with her autopsy, I didn't agree with the conclusion they got from that. When I worked with those cells, I at first hadn't heard of the story behind them either. Without that, it was just another see-through liquid in a vial. It wasn't a question of race or gender, it was just difficult to associate something like that with a real life person, whoever they came from. But the poem Jasmine wrote after the incident was beautiful and really could be applied to any hate crime or non-consensual experiment against women of colour as well.
Did it make me think about feminist issues, did it make me want to be more creative and take more action for the things I care about? - Absolutely.
Was it thought-provoking and caused me to have opinions about it? - Yes, that's why I'm writing this review.
Was Chelsea the most shallow kind of feminist I've known (the Kwanzaa and Hannukah part made me cringe so much + refusing to call Isaac a feminist because he's male? seriously?), focusing only on her problems (not working more to get her schoolmates to join her club etc), judging other women for their own choices, and do I think I would've liked the book more with a different kind of protagonist? - HELL YES.
In my opinion the story would have benefitted if it were to be seen from a perspective of a girl who is into something that is not "traditional for girls to do" - for example STEM. Chelsea herself saying "well yeah girls should be allowed to do whatever they want BUT I REALLY HATE SCIENCE SO I DON'T WANT TO BE MADE TO STUDY IT" was a bit tiring for me and just showed how one-dimensional she is.
Also about the incident with the cells from Henrietta Lacks - I myself study chemistry and during my brief time in my university's biochemistry lab I once could actually work with these cells myself. I absolutely agree that it wasn't ethical to take her cells without her consent. Then again, during the part where they talk about the woman's quote who assisted with her autopsy, I didn't agree with the conclusion they got from that. When I worked with those cells, I at first hadn't heard of the story behind them either. Without that, it was just another see-through liquid in a vial. It wasn't a question of race or gender, it was just difficult to associate something like that with a real life person, whoever they came from. But the poem Jasmine wrote after the incident was beautiful and really could be applied to any hate crime or non-consensual experiment against women of colour as well.