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 white woman.

I do need to call her out for early on referring to someone my age as a geriatric, but I understand we live in an age-ist culture and I plan on trying another of her books anyway.