Bad Feminist

Essays

paperback, 400 pages

Published Oct. 10, 2017 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-06-269569-7
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(56 reviews)

319 pages ; 23 cm

12 editions

Review of 'Bad Feminist' on 'Goodreads'

Roxane Gay is likable. I know she makes a point of saying likability is the wrong standard to apply to the protagonist of a work of fiction, but what about non-fiction? Is it just about ideas? A view from nowhere?

I strongly embrace the idea that one can be a "bad" feminist and still get to write essays on the subject (as well as essays on race and pop culture and reviews of books and movies.) I am a bad book reviewer but I'm here writing one anyway.

Unfortunately (though sometimes, I'd have to say fortunately) I was not familiar with many of the works she chose to review. I did think her review of Girls was excellent, by which I mean it matched how I think about it. Similarly, I agree that Orange is the New Black made a virtue of diversity while telling the story of a privileged …

Review of 'Bad Feminist' on 'Goodreads'

This book struck me as a bit uneven, but my take-away is that I need to read more by Roxane Gay. At their best, these essays expanded my thinking along both race and gender lines. At their worst, I felt like Roxane was an annoying friend who wouldn't just tell me what she thought of the movie, but wanted to replay it scene-by-scene for me - literally. Had I edited this collection, I would've cut the essays in which Gay reviews books (The Help), films (anything by Tyler Perry) and television shows (Orange is the New Black). I appreciated her smart perspectives on these works, and was simultaneously bored by the lengthy plot summaries I had to wade through to find them. I'm curious enough that I'll be picking up "Hunger" in the near future - and just hope she doesn't walk me through the recipes of her favorite foods!

Review of 'Bad Feminist' on 'Goodreads'

Continuing my education on feminist thought, I also got a does of minority rights education. Some of the the movies and music discussed I've never heard of, but enjoyed the discussion of culture from a different perspective than mine.

Couldn't stop thinking about the issues raised in the context of Israeli Arabs/Palestinians.

Review of 'Bad Feminist' on 'Goodreads'

This is a collection of essays on the complexities of feminism in everyday life. Most of them are built around pop topics, movies, music or recent events. While some commenters apparently decided to find that shallow, I think it's a very valuable approach. I'm sure these people can find enough highbrow texts, the actual value is in the personal approach that Gay uses to navigate the maze of feminism and interests, events and decisions that are constantly relevant in everyone's life. Gay calls herself a "bad feminist" since she likes shallow things, but actually I think that is overly humble. She is a great feminist, and is way ahead of most people in how far she has thought through an issue. This results in something that is more than "Lean In" is good or bad, but an unraveling of the different strings entangled into the discussion of an issue. Very …

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