Bad Feminist

Book, 2014

Premise – A collection of bad feminist essays. And by that, I don’t mean badly written, feminist essays. I mean bad-feminist essays, bad-feminist being the term for someone who is not perfect but still strives to be feminist, without unreasonable, militant restrictions. Every feminist is a bad feminist, in one way or another. It’s another term for decent human being. The essays vary in topics from racism, to media, to rape jokes, to even the board game Scrabble. The book presents a mixture of societal commentary and personal storytelling, often integrating the two in these profoundly insightful essays.

Review – I really loved these essays. I know of Gay through Emma Watson's book club "Our Shared Shelf" in which she recommended another book of hers, Hunger, but I know Emma Watson has also read Bad Feminist, her most famous book, and recommended that we also read it. In some ways, Roxane Gay and I could not be more different. She’s an older, black woman. I’m younger and biracial, but not at all black. Yet, somehow, I found myself in her time and time again. Perhaps it was because despite our different origins, we have a more fundamental similarity – female academic. I have my eyes set on academia as a future. Gay is a writer, a professor, a lecturer. She has her PhD in English literature. Her love of writing, narrative storytelling, and fictional characters takes precedence over other measures of the media’s quality. Therefore, her stance on the likeability, flaws, and complexity of works of fiction and fictional characters matches mine almost exactly. Gay is also a nerd, of sorts. There is an entire chapter (my favorite chapter) dedicated to her love of Scrabble, and how she is both fierce and feminine about it. All of her Scrabble accessories are pink. I found myself screaming “YES!” at this piece of information. She also has an entire chapter where she fangirls over the Hunger Games, and particularly her love for sweet, sweet Peeta. I identify as a fangirl through and through.

I found myself agreeing with a solid 75% of what was being written. That’s a very good statistic, because it means that 25% of the time I’m putting my differences aside and just listening to what she has to say, deciding later whether my mind had been changed or not. 25% is enough to be learning, but not enough that it takes away my enjoyment of the essays. Of course, this is an incredibly personal reason to enjoy the novel. For those who do not share some of these core similarities, I wonder how she comes across. I know her essays are hilarious, but are they convincing to wide demographics?

What I appreciated most about her works was her honesty. She knows certain popular music is offensive to women, but she loves it anyways. It’s catchy! She knows reality television is trashy and objectifies women, but she watches anyways. It’s entertaining! These are not reasons to be complacent with the way things are, but just a reminder to not be so hard on ourselves. Sexism is engrained into our culture. Every effort we make towards equality is a positive one. As she puts it, she’d rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all. (85/100).

  
Quote - “If people cannot be flawed in fiction there's no place left for us to be human.”

And

“Perhaps, then, unlikable characters, the ones who are the most human, are also the ones who are the most alive. Perhaps this intimacy makes us uncomfortable because we don't dare be so alive.” 

What to read for - Probably the Scrabble essay, as I already said. It has very little to do with feminism but I just found it so funny.

If you liked this book, I'd recommend reading more of Roxane Gay's work!

Author: Roxane Gay
Publisher: Harper