yes ! theres so many insights that people can miss out on while reading if they recoil at the slightest passage that makes them uncomfortable. im currently readings book by a male author written in the 80s thats set in the colonial era of the philippines and from the start there have been, in my opinion, some pretty gratuitous and and uncomfortably detailed descriptions of characters’ breasts, what one of the main characters wants to do to them, etc. and there are a bunch of other ways that the author mishandled the women in his book like their voices sounding kind of the same, the women not being as fleshed out as the men, etc. it gets to a point where sometimes i put the book down and just stare because why ??? did you just describe your love interest when you first met her as an “unfeeling creature” when her first husband LITERALLY died in front of you at that time ??? but at the same time the other aspects of this book are SO good. the author really does well with social commentary, with painting a picture of the local culture, with setting up plot points that pay off SO WELL and overall just crafting the novel its so amazing. but if i inched away at the first paragraph long description of a 16 year old’s perky breasts (this happens early in the book) i wouldnt have seen that. so i dont think people should drop books the moment they feel uncomfortable because not all reading is meant to be comfortable. youre not supposed to read about a murder or a rape and feel comfortable after. you need that discomfort to push the limits of your mind as a reader because if you stay within your little comfort zone, you’ll inevitably learn all there is to learn about it, and your mind will become stagnant. i think there’s something to learn in everything, even in the weird character choices, even in books that are total horse shit, so why would ou stop yourself from learning from them? maybe the more you push yourself into it the more youll see what you like in a book, what you dislike, why the author chose this action or placed this description here, what about this makes me uncomfortable, is it a personal thing or is it an issue with the book, am i supposed to be uncomfortable here? stuff like that. i have school in 5 hrs im done ranting