I'm the One That I Want

by Margaret Cho

[nannah]

Yeaaaah, I'm not sure why this is in the categories "Humor" or "Comedy". I mean, sure, Margaret Cho is a comedian, but the book itself isn't comedic. It has comedic touches, but it's overall a pretty serious account of her life leading up to her career taking off.

Content warnings (oh boy):
drug addiction
alcoholism
sexual harassment
rape
gendered slurs
transphobia (&transphobic slurs)
homophobic slurs
fatshaming
racism (in-book)
ableism

I wanted to like this so bad. My mother loves Margaret Cho, and although I've never seen any of her stand-up, I've heard such great things about her comedy that I just wanted to fall in love with her voice. And, I mean, I did sympathize with her cycles of self-sabatoge and making light of her sufferings (something I do too :/ ), and the very ending of the book was so hopeful and inspirational that I was left feeling rosy-eyed about everything.

But she fat-shamed people in the book, she used transphobic slurs, homophobic slurs, etc. And not just once, but several, several times. I know Margaret Cho isn't straight, but continually using the f** word made me on the verge of closing the book and picking something else up. She also seems to have a strange infatuation with gay men that seems . . . bordering fetishization? Again I'm not very familiar with Margaret Cho, but it made me very uncomfortable.

So while the ending was great, and I have nothing against her actual journey, the writing and language really put me off.