I read this book so you didn’t have to. Trust the one and two star reviews.

Not at all what I was expecting. Every chapter drips with internalized misogyny which makes for a rather disappointing read, especially from a writer who considers herself a feminist. I wouldn't recommend.

Absolutely illuminating and thought provoking in all ways

I have had this book on my TBR list for a very longtime. I remember first coming across an article mention this book when doing a research paper for an African-American studies course. I have long since forgotten what the paper was about but I remember this book title. Maybe because it is such a catching title and used a term that I remember from growing up. That being said I had high hopes for this book. While I think the author deliver I did have some issues with it. There were many topics br

Has some issues - heteronormativity, respectability politics, the “missing black daddy”/“downfall of the black nuclear family = downfall of society” trope (she must not have read about Moynihan at this point), the conflation of womanism and black feminism (similar, and connected, but not quite the same), and of course, the titular “good girls vs. Chickenheads” (AKA “pick-me”) trope. However, this book is gorgeous in its imperfections - it’s a non-academic (at the time), young black woman, speaki...

I actually really enjoyed this book. The author is a hip-hop feminist who writes about her struggle as a feminist and her love for hip-hop and her African-Ameriacn community, but how she is torn because the lyrics, media representation of her sister community, etc. I would recommend this book to anyone doing urban youth ministry, and the girls in that youth ministry.(high-school/college-aged. I'm including one of my favorite excerpts of the book:"I'm going to make God the main man in my life. Wh...

Started out really good....I wanted so badly to like When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, but I just can't fuck with Joan Morgan's assessment of hip hop feminism in this book.From what I understand after reading this book, hip hop feminism isn't so much interested in ending sexist oppression as it is in figuring out how to work within a sexist society to achieve economic success and find a man particularly because hip hop feminism likes the "benefits" of a sexist society like chivalry and not h...

Reading this book is not so much like learning or studying Black feminism in the era of hip hop, with a culture and climate steeped in bold misogyny wrapped in a tight flow over a fly beat. It's more like listening in on your older cousin and her girlfriends discuss life in the 90s as 20 or 30-somethings, trying to find their way as women with obstacles that their foremothers couldn't have blueprinted even if they tried. This is the beginning of educated, passionate Black women not really sure h...

I don’t know what took me so long to read this book! It was awesome!

I feel like this book misrepresents itself. She starts off raising legitimate questions about the double-binds Black feminism imposes on women who both identify as such and don't. However by the end of the book, she's coming down on the side of finding it okay that women want to be taken care of by men and showered with gifts and free meals. It moves from thoughtfully incisive to shallow criticism (if it can even be called that). I was ready to embrace a different articulation of feminism as gen...

Grab a seat and a glass of wine because this review is about to be a longggg one. Without holding back, I’ll just admit that this is probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read and definitely the worst book I’ve picked up this year. I had to write some notes at the end in order for this review to not come off as pure reaction but as concern for the frame of consciousness Joan Morgan was in when she wrote this in 1999. Fair warning: this book is highly cisnormative, heteronormative, lesbophobi...

Joan Morgan is a vibrant, intellectual powerhouse of a writer, but her thought train here is more than a little schizophrenic. Not to be a picker of nits, but one cannot spend 260+ pages saying how black men need to be more responsible and accountable, and then be flippant and dismissive about the crimes of Mike Tyson and O.J. Simpson. And we’re not talking about traffic violations or jaywalking here, we’re talking about violent and brutal crimes against women. If you’re going to call out high s...

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I am ashamed to admit that I've owned the paperback copy of this book for YEARS, and am just now reading it thanks to a newly released audiobook that turned up on my library Hoopla account. Now I need to read my print copy, and take all the notes. To read this review in its entirety and to see a video of Joan Morgan speaking about Hip Hop and Feminism click here

This book was great. I'm not going to say it belongs with the works of bell hooks or Audre Lorde as some great polemic of black feminist/womanist thought, it definitely sits in the pantheon of books by Black women about feminism/womanism for them in their experience. I laughed and I wondered how I can make things better. She of this book ages well, some of the slang doesn't, but Black men dan women are still going through the same relationship issues they did before, although now with more popul...

This book made me cringe. What's interesting is that I bought it about 9 years ago, read half of it and loved it. Time is a masterpiece. Morgan claims that she wants to uplift the black community through hip hop feminism but doing so, she tears us apart, mainly black women. There is much talk about black-on-black crime and degradation. Worse, is her claim that she is seeking a feminism that holds the black community accountable and does not marginalize black women as victims. Yet, she only seems...

I really wish I had read this book earlier in life. It was funny, thought provoking, and just a great read. I love books that make you think. If you consider yourself a feminist, this book will cause you to really think about a lot of things. I would recommend this for all women coming of age in this society. This book is about 15 years old, but so little has changed. Follow this link for more thoughts on this book https://youtu.be/8V4Zpmu1xek

I read this book as a sophomore in college and at that time, I read it and moved on, unable to appreciate it at that time. Rereading it at this point in my life... It’s speaking a whole new language. I love that Joan Morgan is speaking to the grays and not letting anyone off the hook. Sure, there are things she did not address (heteronormativity, homophobia, rejection of capitalism). However, the amount of courage it must have taken to be vulnerable and write this book when she did... mad respec...

first off, this one got 4 stars because it got me thinking and talking, NOT because i didn't find some of the content problematic. That part about how dudes should be able to abdicate their parental rights, and thus responsibilities, if they were clear thru a pregnancy that they didn't want to parent a child? Damn, that one still turns my guts. That's some shit. But no matter how vehemently i disagree with some of JM's conclusions, the questions are dead on. I found more relevant to MY life in t...

I read this book because it came highly recommended by both Melissa Harris Perry and Kaila Adia Story. Morgan starts off the book by describing why and how black women have been isolated from (male dominated) racial justice movements and (white dominated) feminist movements. While multiple black feminist scholars have filled in this gap, Morgan notes that many black women find their theoretical texts inaccessible. Additionally, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and other black feminists haven't quite cap...

Reading When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost was a reminder of a couple of things:1-Feminism is not the same for all women & that's okay. I also think this can be a source of frustration and cause tension. I think this can be a great beginning of a discussion on what feminism means and how it can benefit women and men. 2. Inclusiveness is still a work in progress. Let us not forget that LGBTQ+ voices deserve to be heard. This is a glaring omission that I wonder if Morgan would address if the opp...