Bad Feminist Essays

There are some things that Roxane Gay talks about in this book that made me feel seen. She says things that I’ve wanted to say in words that are far more eloquent than I could ever phrase. I am going to remember the chapters on The Help and Django Unchained forever!

started out kind of rough and too blog-y but ended up really liking it. Would rec to people who don’t believe the world still needs feminism. But also wouldn’t rly recommend as a sociological text but more of a critical series of essays on American pop culture tho.

4 stars A great collection of essays that dive into feminism. It's easy to feel like a "bad feminist," as Gay describes it - someone who enjoys the music of artists that are terrible people or watches television shows even though it's been decreed as anti-feminist. But this book dives into the deeper feminism that exists and how you can still be a feminist even if you don't think you align with the hardcore feminists that you think of when you think of the F-word. As a women and gender studies major, I appreciate Roxane Gay's collection here. It's a good start to feminism and a good reader's digest version of what anyone new to the movement needs to know.

I’m a Feminist but a “Bad” one. After a certain amount of time I spent to be perfect, it’s a relief to be utterly human and flawed and, most importantly, embrace myself as I am. Even though I’m a bad feminist, I’m still a feminist who cares and works to solve (at least heard) the problems women face. The reason I give 3 star of this book is that I don’t like about the book Roxane Gay is over explaining her points and repeating herself a lot.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. And then it became a series of uninteresting essays that sound like college papers. No thanks.

This is generally a positive review! The low rating is simply for the fact that I didn't enjoy reading it much, and didn't feel that I got anything particularly new and insightful from it. Bad Feminist is at times thoughtful and amusing, but by the end, more tiring and overwhelming than anything else. To Gay's credit, this is partly the sheer, seemingly irresolvable turmoil of the black/female experience that she illuminates through the lens of pop culture, politics, and personal anecdotes. On the other hand, it's also the aimless meandering of each essay and the collection as a whole, and the relative lack of new insight into these issues. I also found bewildering delight in some of the concluding lines that seemed to stare expectantly at me from the page, as if brimming with untold meaning for me to unpack. For example! On Django Unchained: Instead of offering me some new thoughts on this troubling reality, Django Unchained simply served as a reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same. (Please, help; I still have no idea what that's supposed to mean.) Or, on Tyler Perry: It is bittersweet that something is better than nothing, even if the something we have is hardly anything at all. (I usually think of myself as a generous and patient reader, but I almost rolled my eyes.) One thing I appreciated about these essays, however, was Gay's simultaneous commitment to her fight and her recognition of her human flaws and limits. On the first point, she criticises the ways in which society, culture, and politics have failed black people and women, and she strives to persist in dismantling these incessant obstacles. I really enjoyed her reflection of being an advisor for a black student association: There was a negligible black faculty presence on campus (you could count them on one hand), and those folks were either too busy or burnt out or completely uninterested in the job. […] Advising a black student association is exhausting and thankless and heartbreaking. It kind of destroys your faith after a while. A new black faculty member came to campus a couple years in, and I asked why she didn't work with the black students. She said, "That's not my job." That person said, "They're unreachable." I hate when people say something is not their job or that something isn't possible. We all say these things, sure, but some people actually believe they don't have to work beyond what is written in their job description or that they don't have to try to reach those who seemingly cannot be reached. At the same time, she acknowledges the wildly contradictory nature of her feminism (and, broadly, civil rights movements). Most notably, she criticises the model of the "essential feminist" and the homogenisation of all women, who, I suppose, "don't want to be treated like shit", regardless of their socioeconomic status, their career goals, their racial and cultural upbringing, and a whole myriad of other intersectional factors. "Bad Feminist", then, might be interpreted as an ironic comment on the standards we hold for women, women in power, and women who take a stand on issues that are contentious, yes, but more importantly, so crucial to people's hopes and unhappinesses—issues that people want desperately to change and, with each incomplete attempt at change, that people despair will never change. Ultimately, Gay reminds us that all these different categories of women are women who do and can only speak from their position, whether we perceive that position to be privileged and ignorant or angry and aggressive or anywhere in between. Two excerpts that stood out for me on this point: On black pop culture: Most black movies, for better or worse, carry a burden of expectation, having to be everything to everyone because we have so little to choose from. On influential feminists: Public women, and feminists in particular, have to be everything to everyone; when they aren't, they are excoriated for their failure. In some ways, this is understandable. We have come far, but we have so much further to go. We need so very much, and we hope women with a significant platform might be everything we need—a desperately untenable position. Overall, Gay's individualistic voice and viewpoint comes through in this collection of essays, but personal charm ultimately wasn't enough to strongly convince me.

a bit too contradictory, but certain essays on their own were very excellent

2.5*

Roxanne Gay is a fantastic writer, and a lot of her essays are incredibly insightful and poignant, but often she tries to tackle too much within her essays, leaving the reader with feeling of whiplash when an essay that begins by praising a stronge female character in young adult literature turns into a recount of the author's own rape, where both topics lose some of their power by being juxtaposed. Despite this, I would give many of her essays 4 or 5 stars - however, Bad Feminist is a poorly curated anthology. Perhaps the trouble was my expectations going into a work entitled "Bad Feminist" assuming that it would contain mostly reflections about feminism, womanhood, and maybe dip into intersectionality (which naturally follows). But I was a little surprised to get hit early on with an essay about competitive scrabble (well-written, but not exactly what I was looking for) amidst works on being an imperfect feminist or trying to empower her students, or a review of the newest Sweet Valley High novel in the section entitled "Gender and Sexuality". The section on Race and Entertainment is thankfully more coherent and well-selected, though the author often addresses both race and sexuality (and entertainment) within essays throughout the book. If this was merely a compilation of this author's work, perhaps properly ordered or even just uncategorized and left to savor, I would have been less disappointed in this work as a whole. I would suggest reading the essays of interest rather than trying to tackle this whole book in the order presented because many of the individual essays are definitely worth a read - I especially recommend The Careless Language of Sexual Violence and The Politics of Respectability.

Really enjoy Roxane’s writing style and how she weaves her personal narrative into her essays.

Smart and thoughtful. The personal essays were brilliantly presented, and I'm always in for good media critique.

it is interesting to read 'bad feminist' nearly a decade after its publication. that is a very long time for so little to have changed and a very little time for so much to have gotten worse.

yes, gay talks about the matters that make her (us all?) a "bad feminist" but she also covers a number of other issues that intersect with feminism and form an indelible part of the cultural conversation. they are good at provoking both reactions and thoughts and one can only hope all readers will walk away with something each.

on a lesser note, a passage that really touched me in an unexpected way was on towards the end of the book, one dedicated to amy winehouse's passing. it reminded me of choi sulli's passing - something that still resonates deeply with me to this day - and the precise way gay manages to put the tragedy of it into words will stay with me for long.

It started really well and I loved the first essays. In the middle some were a bit superficial but nonetheless still relatable. And ended really good. I can't give less than 5 stars to someone's thoughts and experiences (unless it's something discriminatory). These experiences are always relatable as woman. I really recommend everyone to read this. I loved it overall. Thank you Roxane Gay.

A collections of essays on intersectionality, feminism, race, politics and pop culture. Roxane Gay has many interesting insights to offer and I found comfort in her struggles with the feminist label. Will read more of her books. "I openly embrace the label of bad feminist. I do so because I am flawed and human. I am not terribly well versed in feminist history. I am not as well read in key feminist texts as I would like to be. I have certain... interests and personality traits and opinions that may not fall in line with mainstream feminism, but I am still a feminist. I cannot tell you how freeing it has been to accept this about myself." "I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all. "

wld be a good starting off point for people who want to delve into feminism/intersectionality.

I bought the book a decade later than she probably intended me to read it so a lot of the cultural events she was referencing throughout the book weren't very familiar or significant to me anymore. The writing style also wasn't consistent or particularly distinct, and the whole repetition-for-emphasis thing that she often has going on got annoying in some stories. BUT!!! there are still a lot of important ideas that make it worth the read! Modern-day feminism often demands perfection from those who practice it, like we aren't human beings and by extension, flawed in a number of unforgivable ways. It's something I've always needed to hear, especially as a fellow pop culture fiend and advocate for women's rights :)

I too am a bad feminist, but I also would rather be a bad one than no feminist at all.

Lots of thoughts on this one. Gay is certainly a great writer. Ultimately this is a great collection of essays that provokes important conversations (even if just internally), but I definitely wasn't nodding along the whole time. I didn't love this as much as I expected to, perhaps because many essays came across as whiny to me. But lots to think and talk about, and that is always a sign of a worthwhile read.

I highly recommend this collection of wonderful essays. It's funny and sad and thoughtful and inspiring and well-written.

A collections of essays on intersectionality, feminism, race, politics and pop culture. Roxane Gay has many interesting insights to offer and I found comfort in her struggles with the feminist label. Will read more of her books. "I openly embrace the label of bad feminist. I do so because I am flawed and human. I am not terribly well versed in feminist history. I am not as well read in key feminist texts as I would like to be. I have certain... interests and personality traits and opinions that may not fall in line with mainstream feminism, but I am still a feminist. I cannot tell you how freeing it has been to accept this about myself." "I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all. "

A collections of essays on intersectionality, feminism, race, politics and pop culture. Roxane Gay has many interesting insights to offer and I found comfort in her struggles with the feminist label. Will read more of her books. "I openly embrace the label of bad feminist. I do so because I am flawed and human. I am not terribly well versed in feminist history. I am not as well read in key feminist texts as I would like to be. I have certain... interests and personality traits and opinions that may not fall in line with mainstream feminism, but I am still a feminist. I cannot tell you how freeing it has been to accept this about myself." "I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all. "

a STAPLE piece of modern intersectional feminist literature

i don't feel comfortable rating non fiction, but i feel like i couldn't enjoy this as much because of the references of the time of its publication

“Dear Young Ladies Who Love Chris Brown” was iconic. “A Tale of Three Coming Out Stories” killed me. & “Bad Feminist Take Two” was a perfect ending to this book. I loved the intersectionality of this. I love the acknowledging of privilege and it made me take a step back and acknowledge my privilege in life.