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Bad Feminist: Essays
Până la Roxane Gay
Descriere
New York Times Bestseller
A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay.
“Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.”
In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.
Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.
Recenzii
The essays in this book range from several relating to the title to reviews of books and movies from Gay's very personal point of view, which I like a lot. But because the reviews tended to be short, I listened to only a few at a time. It's the kind of book I'm tempted to get in print (electronic or otherwise) so that I can dip back in to see what she thought of this or that film. Gay also gets very personal about her own painful backstory, and why the title of the book fits her and what she means by it.The reader, Bahni Turpin, was excellent. Gay narrates her next book, Hunger, herself. It will be interesting to compare the two voices.
A lot of gems here, some less strong ones mixed in too. I like her best when I don't read her straight through. Take a break in between essays. They are not all about feminism per se but they are mostly all pretty good. Some are wonderful.
I found this book, oddly enough, in a comic book store! I love to read books of all kinds of natures, to inform myself and educate myself. After reading the description of the book, I decided to buy it!
The essay's really made me think about my actions and my words. It was very thought-provoking and at times, made me question how I dealt with things in life. I love books that make me do that! It helps me to change my mode of thinking and to help change myself for the better. That is exactly what this book does!
Amazing! Amazing! Amazing! You did an excellent job, Roxanne Gay! Can't wait to find and read Hunger next!
The essay's really made me think about my actions and my words. It was very thought-provoking and at times, made me question how I dealt with things in life. I love books that make me do that! It helps me to change my mode of thinking and to help change myself for the better. That is exactly what this book does!
Amazing! Amazing! Amazing! You did an excellent job, Roxanne Gay! Can't wait to find and read Hunger next!
Enjoyed some pieces a lot more than others. Some of the pieces felt dated already and I wished I had read it sooner. Some of them are rather chilling given the current political climate. But I really enjoyed this overall and think it is definitely worth reading!
Roxane's voice is one every woman needs to hear. I have a huge soft spot for anyone willing to lay themselves bare, totally vulnerable, to the general public. It's not a safe, happy place to expose oneself and I respect those souls brave enough to share so openly. I have a minuscule book budget (thank goodness for libraries!) but this one I will be buying; I want to re-read it, mark it up, think deeply about Gay's ideas, criticisms, experiences. She challenges her readers, and that's exactly what has to happen if anything's gonna change.5 stars
[Bad Feminist] (318 pages) by Roxanne GayI enjoyed this book of essays about feminism and discrimination very much. I admit to skimming some of the chapters which analyzed current shows or media that I was not familiar with, but there was more than enough to draw me in. Sections include Me (about Roxanne Gay, the author); Gender and Sexuality; Race and Entertainment; Politics Gender and Race, Back to Me. I found that I like to read a chapter or two at a time, to give things a chance to marinate, so to speak. Gay is intelligent, sincere, compassionate and funny. I didn't agree with everything she said, but it surely made me think about how I perceive things, how I present myself, and how I stand up for my beliefs. A very good read.
There is good stuff here, I just wasn't feeling the lit criticism. I was looking for more of a memior, less culture critique. Interesting, I just felt it dragged.
Nice and well articulated essays. The topic is feminism seems to be a thorn in the society but reading essays on this book, one gets a clear picture on the topic. Looking for more Roxane Gay. EssayCyber.
Wonderful read. Made me think, laugh and at times feel completely uncomfortable.
I love this author's work. I will consume everything she offers, including snarky and clever tweets ;)
Thoughtful, entertaining, and bingeable essays. My only beef is that a few of them scatter in lots of different directions and then just sort of...end. Still, highly recommended. There's a great variety and lots of the essays resonated with me deeply or made me consider issues in a new way.
I want to be very clear here. Much of the content of these essays was important and worth reading, although none of it was particularly eye-opening or groundbreaking. My problems with this collection rest solely with the prose style, which was so much about the author that it, at times, over-powered and undermined the value of an individual chapter. If the project had been sold as a memoir, then, perhaps, this would have been forgivable, but there were too many critical essays and reviews here that suffered from way too much "me". I am not denigrating in any way the validity of the author's experiences, only her ability to present them in a way that even attempts to universalize them. I am super-aware that any criticism I make may be unreasonably gendered or faintly racist, but given the sheer number of opportunities that the author takes to tell us about her PhD and faculty tenure, I feel fine is saying that this was some of the weakest non-fiction writing I have read.
On a side note, the edition I have from Corsair in its 14th printing contained some of the most egregious typos I have ever encountered in a professionally published work. Simply shocking.
On a side note, the edition I have from Corsair in its 14th printing contained some of the most egregious typos I have ever encountered in a professionally published work. Simply shocking.
Roxane Gay makes the case for being a feminist whether you can be a good feminist even in to your own standards, by repeatedly demonstrating her very human very feminist views on our culture and her own life. We can be conflicted, we can be attracted to any number of patriarchal figments of our culture without relinquishing our feminist credentials. So we should understand our limitations as feminists but not give up our stance as feminists. I like her voice and look forward to hearing more of it.
I can't remember the last book that gave me life the way this one did. Roxane writes about Wendy Davis's filibuster and the gallery erupting in cheers, and this book did for my spirit what she describes, "awoke something in me that I hadn't realized had gone dormant." All parts of me are here in these essays, and many parts of Roxane that are different and a beautiful revelation. If I were to take the crystallization of my life experiences, feminisms, and sociological concerns for justice and cultural critique and make myself a fabulous writer, I would touch upon much of the subject matter but only a fraction of the heart and brilliance in Roxane's voice and insights. I am so envious of those people still living in the hometown I fled, who might have the chance now to exchange greetings in a coffee shop or the bookstore (because there is only one). Thank you, Roxane, for letting me see that I am, indeed, still here.
Roxane Gay, New York Times opinion writer and university professor, writes about feminism, fat acceptance, homophobia, racism, sexual violence, kink, pop culture, and a lot more in this collection of essays. She doesn’t come across as a know it all like some essayists do; she consistently admits to her own failings and prejudices. She’s funny and insightful at times; heartbreaking at others. Her own brutal gang rape at age twelve is fodder for her writing, as is 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight. The book is a mixed bag. I have seen a lot of reviewers criticizing this book. One, for the writing not adhering to regular essay format but rather being more like blog posts. Yes, this is true. But I don’t feel that detracts from the content, and they are easy to read and digest. There is a trend among people today to glance at a more formal looking piece and think ‘tl;dr’. The other complaint I’ve seen is that a lot of them are on pop culture. I don’t see why this is a problem. Pop culture is what people are reading/watching. It’s what’s influencing people. Pop culture needs to be written and thought about. She doesn’t solve the feminist problem- she considers herself a bad feminist because she likes pink and she’s not a man-hating, angry woman. Well, I’m a bad feminist, too, despite being right out of the 1970s feminist wave. I, too, like pink, and I love makeup (I am angry, though, a lot of the time).I loved this book. Is not only funny and thoughtful, she puts herself out there. I came across this book by happenstance, but I’m going to look for her other work now.
I enjoyed this book, especially the feminist film and movie reviews. The author is an excellent writer who gives a fresh perspective to popular media. But the author would be better off studying feminism before she critiques feminism itself. Feminism is not the study of individuals but rather the study of class based systems that keep women down. There is no such thing as a good or a bad feminist. Feminism is not something that judges women for living their lives wrongly, but rather criticizes the patriarchal culture that makes life difficult for women. Some women do have the privilege of being able to live life with more equality, and we should be happy for them, but not all women can and they should not be judged for that. We are better off spending our energy fighting for a better world rather than striving to be a good feminist.
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I hope many more can say we are bad, bad feminists. Thank you for this brilliant, unapologetic book.
Roxane Gay’s first collection of essays received considerable acclaim when it was published in 2014. She candidly observes the culture surrounding her through both gender and racial lenses. However, I found this collection a bit uneven. I was most moved when Gay wrote from the heart about personal experience. Other essays had a more academic tone and did not hold my interest. I was also surprised to find that topical issues and pop culture seemed dated, even though only a few years have passed. Gay writes very, very well and represents a new, fresh voice of feminism. Her recent memoir, Hunger, is powerful. I think I would have enjoyed Bad Feminist more had I read it immediately after its release. With that in mind, I will be on the lookout for her new essay collection which will be published in May, 2018.
This book was one that truly challenged me to rethink how I think about many issues. There are topics that I can only sympathize with (as a white working class woman) but overall this book has got me thinking a great deal. I love that even though the author and I are so completely different, we are very much the same.
I really wanted to like this book, but the essay nature made things feel a bit scattered. She made some really good points, but they weren't always on feminist issues. Maybe I should have done a bit more research into the books so that I could have properly adjusted my expectations, but the word feminist instantly brings certain topics to mind. That being said, the author is clearly educated and isn't afraid to speak her mind about her beliefs. Her views on race, education, feminism, politics, love, poverty, and many other topics were interesting and mostly fresh. Reading this book made me want to read some of her other works to know how to better judge this book. The scattered nature of the essays makes this a good read for anyone interested in the variety of issues she writes about, but being so scattered takes away from the book as a whole.
I roared through this collection of essays for which the tag "feminism" falls far short. Gay certainly brings a feminist lens to her essays of literary criticism and deconstructions of pop culture, but her perspective is far more complex than that. The collection's title comes from her assertions that feminism is flawed, that she is an inconsistent feminist (aren't we all?), and that neither she nor feminism should be disregarded because of these facts. She notes, as well, that eschewing the entire movement based on its failings is exactly what those who would most benefit from the movement's demise would like to see happen. Gay's essays explore race and class and sexuality as well as gender. I found myself laughing out loud at times, googling certain personalities or events to learn a bit more, saying "amen" under my breath. Her writing is deft and accessible, which is not to say that it's not sophisticated. It is. Her voice is steady but nuanced, suggesting that she is exquisitely conscious of various audiences. I love her boldness. I love her frankness. I love her vulnerability (although I suspect she would have something to say about why I love that latter quality). I loved the essay about the Scrabble tournament. Here's one favorite example of her straightforward writing style: In "Some Jokes Are Funnier than Others," she is exploring the ongoing debate about comics' and others' "right" to tell jokes at others' expense, especially rape jokes, racist jokes, etc. I hear this debate a lot on college campuses where the tension between "free speech" and "safe spaces" is palpable, and students all too frequently want their own free speech protected but not necessarily the free (and often hurtful) speech of others to be controlled by the administration. Gay simply says "We are free to speak as we choose without fear of prosecution or persecution, but we are not free to speak as we choose without consequence." I will be repeating this sentence. The essay collection is divided into sections and the one called "Race and Entertainment" was where I learned the most. This is probably because, as a white woman, her musings on gender and feminism fit within my longer-term consciousness. Also, I'm in my mid-50s (well, I'm probably more accurately in my late 50s but who's to say?) so many of the pop cultural references were less familiar to me. I googled. I learned. I resonated and appreciated and considered my own reactions to some of the films or songs or tv shows with which I was familiar. This was an enlightening read. I can't wait to read more of Gay's work.
I was trying really hard to space these essays out between other reads but it swallowed me up this evening. Review to come!
While I do read some non-fiction, I don't read a lot of it. And in general, a book of essays is by no means my go-to genre. However, Roxane Gay has been getting a lot of hype during the past couple of years and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I didn't realize until just recently that she teaches part-time at a university within 5-10 minutes of my house. So given those facts, I decided I wanted to give her a try. The title of this collection is a little misleading. While Gay does address some feminist topics, she also goes off somewhat into some seemingly random streams of thought. There was also a fair amount of discussion pertaining specifically to people of color and/or racism, which in itself I'm fine with, but it seemed a bit off-topic for this so-called feminist collection. There were quite a few essays critiquing particular movies or books (and again, many of these seemed to deal with issues other than feminism), some of which I agreed with, some of which I didn't, and others that I'd never seen or read so couldn't really relate to either way. Overall, I'm fairly impressed with Roxane Gay's skill as a writer, and individually, these essays were thought-provoking. However, I was disappointed with this collection as a group, as it didn't really seem to come together in a well-defined, cohesive collection. As a reader, I was a bit confused as to what I was supposed to come away with after reading.
I've recently delved into the world of feminist literature and so it was bound to happen that I would read Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist. Ya'll, this book will slap you in your face with its brutal honesty. It's a collection of essays about everything from what it's like to be a black female professor (or what the teaching profession is like at all really) to the pressures of being the 'right' weight in our society. It's a no holds barred look at how we place everyone into categories and what it's like when you're one of those people that defy this categorization. This is a look into what it means to be a flawed human (or a bad feminist to use Gay's terminology) who recognizes that it's impossible to get everything right. One can only try to be their best self and do their best to stay true to their beliefs. She talks about her struggles with the label of 'feminist' and how she has always chafed against being lumped in with this group as she doesn't fit all of the supposed parameters. However, there is no one definition of feminist. (Am I ranting? It feels like I'm ranting. And even this worry right here is a part of the problem because I have been conditioned to feel that expressing my opinions/feelings is something I should apologize for.) She covers a lot of sensitive topics such as rape and in particular gang rape. The discussion of whether or not the term 'rape culture' has helped or hindered our society in terms of making this a known issue but at the same time desensitizing us to its effects (mention of Law & Order: SVU may have been made). This book is real. If you only read one book labeled as 'feminist literature' then I hope this is the one that you pick up. 10/10 highly recommend. :-) Note: More books on feminism coming up soon.
A selection of essays, some personal, most examining pop culture (movies, books, television, music) through the lens of sexism and racism.Gay is a very accessible, often funny writer. My favorite essays in this collection were the more personal ones at the beginning, which often turned out to be unexpectedly moving. I liked reading about how she adjusted to being a college professor at a small-town, Midwestern university and how she got into competitive Scrabble. Once the essays got less personal and more "bloggy," I didn't like them as much, although there were interesting insights throughout. Mostly I felt that just as Gay was really beginning to dig in to her subject, the essay ended. I would have liked to have had more in-depth writing and less of the superficial kind I associate with web publishing. I had read a version of her essay on unlikable heroines before and found it inspiring. I also thought the essay on privilege was one of the most accessible approaches to the topic I have found. I definitely enjoyed Gay's nonfiction more than her novel and would welcome a memoir or other longer-form nonfiction work from her.
In this collection of essays Roxane Gay addresses a wide range of topics from the personal (such as her love of the Sweet Valley High series and competitive Scrabble) to the political (for example, the ongoing battle for reproductive choice). The ideas of "privilege", and its opposite, "marginalization", run through the collection as well. For Gay, there seems to be no middle ground between these two states. In any given area of life,one is either privileged or marginalized, with no middle ground.Gay calls herself a "bad feminist" because she likes men, shaves her legs, and sometimes dances to misogynist hip-hop, if she likes the beat. I don't think these thing make her a bad feminist, and I doubt she really thinks so, either. Being a feminist is not about living up to common notions of what a feminist is "supposed" to look like. One can be a feminist and an individual as well.Bad Feminist didn't resonate with me as much as I expected; Gay, who is in her thirties, devotes a lot of time to discussing cultural touchstones (the HBO series Girls, for example) that don't mean much to me (I don't think I am a part of her intended audience). Stil, I recommend this book to anyone who wants one woman's perspective on contemporary feminism, imperfections and all.
A wonderful collection of essays, by turns hilarious, tragic and insightful. Gay is a brilliant cultural critic, balancing thoughtful analyses of books, movies and tv with personal stories. Highly recommended.
Gay is funny and smart. I envy the hell out of the students who get to be in her classes. Her essays on feminism are excellent. They are in no way innovative, there is nothing that has not shown up in many many essays which came before. But Gay makes this school of thought approachable and interesting for a large audience. That is an admirable feat. I was not as crazy about the book and movie reviews. There is much that is really good. I was thrilled that someone else had the same response I had to The Help! My complaint is that Gay often criticizes books and films for not being the books she wanted them to be. She complains about what ifs. But the writer told the story she wanted to tell. You can lament that the book did not tell the story it told the best way, but you can't fairly lament that the story was not a different one. I found this particularly problematic in the review of Junot Diaz. You tell your story Roxanne, and he gets.to tell his. His does not need to be told from a feminist perspective to be valid or great *and she does acknowledge that the writing was great*. All in all though there is a lot of good here. a solid 3.5.
The premise of the books is you can be a feminist and make mistakes, be a hypocrite, and be a flawed human. Roxane Gay takes on race, pop culture, politics, feminism in her essays. Her writing is insightful and thought provoking. I found myself going yassss and wtf no in the same essay. I'm glad she included personal essays about her life and experiences. I would of liked there to be a more defined theme and flow. Some of the essays repeated things she said in a previous essay a few pages earlier. Really enjoyed the book and plan to read more by Roxane Gay!