Bad Feminist

My last finished book of 2023.

I think I've read too many books with people who talk about still liking content that they know is kinda sorta problematic but at the time where this book came out it was something that we needed to take a minute to think about. I remember the peak era of call out feminism and there's definitely a few things I would have liked to have seen enter the discourse back then.

There's a segment about trigger warnings which I found somewhat tedious and that's where my reading notes ended.

Ultimately it wasn't an unpleasant read (Gay has an engaging writing style and there's a great flow to the book) and there were definitely interesting moments and quotable lines but it was so largely about pop culture and aged that it ended up being a mostly just okay read. I agree with Gay that maxi dresses are the best though.

3.25-5/5 rounded down.

I really appreciated a lot of the observations Roxane Gay makes in this book. She is particularly adept at being critical while acknowledging her own involvement in problematic topics (for example, she critiques music, movies, and TV shows while sharing her own enjoyment of them). This book made me think a lot – about topics I'd never considered before as well as about issues on which I disagree with Gay. I will say that I'm not a huge fan of essay collections, so while I found the writing interesting, it was often hard for me to stay engaged (but I think that's a very specific personal preference and not necessarily a problem with the book).

The first thing I remember reading by Roxane Gay was “What We Hunger For” on The Rumpus. What I so admire about that essay, and so much else that Gay writes, is the way she complicates a love and devotion for something like The Hunger Games and connects it to something very real and deeply personal. That essay exploded my idea of what a pop culture essay could do, and the rest of the essays in Bad Feminist follow suit. Another highlight in Bad Feminist for me included the essay on women's reproductive rights and access to abortion and contraception. I found myself throughout the essay thinking, “YES!” and then staring angrily into space, mentally ranting in agreement with whatever she was saying. Throughout this book, she says so many things I've thought but never thought to say out loud. She doesn't shy away from sorting through and acknowledging complexity that is so often glossed over and simplified for a lot of folks. I could go on and on about all the things I admire about this book, but I'll stop and just say: please read it all the way through. And then read it again. I know I will.

Unrelated note: I'm glad Goodreads is reminding me that it's taken me over a year to finish this book.

This collection of essays was truly amazing. It bothered me, in the way that we should be bothered. It made me rethink some of my long held views and gave me a vocabulary to articulate some of my new ones. I love her perspective on everything from politics, to media, and of course to the idea that we cannot be perfect feminists and that is okay. Loved it all around. A must read for feminists or feminist-curious readers.

this is a not a novel about feminism like i expected it to be, and the funniest part is the few essays about gay's opinions on feminism at the beginning and ending of the book are most of the reason this is getting one star. i almost dnf'd this at like the 20% mark (the essay about scrabble had me so close to finally giving up) but it was fine enough background noise through my day that i finished it anyway. this book is peak choice feminism. a woman who chooses to do things does not make what she's choosing to do feminism just because she's a woman and she chose to do it. i disagree with gay's entire understanding of feminism: that it is about being equal with men rather than women's liberation. the last two essays here are abhorrently, laugh out loud bad... as in i actually laughed multiple times in disbelief. roxane gay is embarrassed because she enjoys rap music, fashion, and the color pink. she is mortified because she has opinions on maxi dresses and shaves her legs. these things, according to her and the titular Perfect Feminist she's constructed in her mind that she consistently defers to, make her a Bad Feminist. please be fucking real. palatable, meaningless, wishy-washy, pandering. buzzfeed feminism if you will. spend your time on something actually worthwhile instead of this shit

I listened to this book on an audiobook from my library. I don't know much about Roxane Gay, but I must admit I went into this expecting something similar to Yes Means Yes, which I liked but was hotly, fiercely written and chock full of rather tiresome rhetorical questions related to feminism. Bad Feminist surprised me in how gently and wisely it was written. It isn't just a book about Gay's insights on feminist topics; it is also about her forays in competitive Scrabble and her first year as a college professor. Interwoven through these stories are her opinions on race and gender issues. She has attitude, but is not hard to swallow. She has personality and a distinct voice. I liked this book a lot.

oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my goshI think the last time I've felt so connected to and validated by a book was [b:The Partly Cloudy Patriot 12358 The Partly Cloudy Patriot Sarah Vowell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388249904s/12358.jpg 229722], which as you may know I read and loved in college. (But I think Bad Feminist will have wider appeal than Partly-Cloudy Patriot, which I think is kind of a niche book.) I love Roxane Gay's writing wherever I can find it, and having all of these essays together is so amazing. I love when I agree with Roxane Gay about things because she makes me feel so smart and validated for having correct opinions. I love when I don't agree with Roxane Gay, or when she has strong opinions about something I haven't thought about before, becuase she is so great at persuading me to see things a different way. She is just so smart and honest and great at picking apart complicated cultural tangles. I just want to buy 100 copies of this book and thrust it at everyone I know.

It's interesting, looking at how polarizing this book is. So many people really didn't enjoy it, and I guess it may not be for everyone, but I really thought this was an exceptionally good read. I just recently read Hunger, Gay's memoir, and found this book full of the same blunt honesty, strong summarization, and social commentary that that book contained. I think Gay is a fantastic author and look forward to reading more from her.

I skimmed and skipped a lot of those book (only 1 or 2 chapters, but that's a lot for a devoted completionist like me). There was a lot of descriptions of other people's works of art, pages of it, including plots of books, movies, and a long description of an art museum exhibit the author had visited, which I didn't find particularly enthralling.

She has some interesting opinions but a collection of essays like this can't help but give you the impression that the author hates everything they read/watch, and there are no good examples of diversity or representation in this world. She gives no “good” examples or ways to improve on diversity/representation, so I just found the book frustrating. Even then something which strives to have a diverse cast, oitnb, she makes fun of for being too excited about having a diverse cast. I don't know what she wants from me.