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Gay talks about being a bad feminist, and I think that she thinks she is being ironic, whereas I got a few chapters in and thought, gosh you really are the terrible type of feminist. As a white British woman I am not the target market for this book I did not understand a lot of her topics, and have not heard of many of the pieces of work she was critiquing.
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Gays real focus is absolutely race, specifically black men and women in America - but for some reason she has decided to pretend it's about feminism. Unfortunately the book is boring and much more an autobiography about a Haitian female who has struggled with childhood and adulthood but isn't really a feminist. This worked as I was one of the fools who purchased the book without first checking it was actually about feminism. It is as though Gay wrote a collection of confused essays and was told that if she put them all together as a book and plastered the word 'feminist' on the front in bold pink letters, that it would trick lots of people into buying it. This book is a collection of essays about the author, who just happens to be a woman that enjoys criticising other people's work, and who enjoyes talking about herself (for instance the first chapter is around 20 pages of how she plays Scrabble). I can't wait to read more of Roxane's work, and hope that through her teachings I can actually become the better person than I always thought I was. This book encourages you to do your homework. As many of the discussions are around popular culture, films and books, I've now a massive reading list, which may or may not include Sweet Valley High. 'Bad Feminist' is in places hilarious, sad, and sometimes brutal. She lays herself bare on the pages of this book, divulging her secrets, her flaws, and her loves and hates. Gay does her bit, where she can, with complete honesty, and this is so refreshing to see. I too have often sang along to 'Blurred Lines', I have referred to fellow women in derogatory terms, I have judged a fellow woman by the way she looks. Books and films that I thought served justice and were a great representation to black people, such as 'The Help' and '12 Years A Slave' are really not, and how could I not have noticed this before? Ideas such as the 'magical black person' will stick with me forever, and I realised that however far women still have to go for equality, black people of either sex are still trailing ridiculously behind, sometimes with a white man touting a gun not far behind them.Īs for the feminist aspect of the book, you'll find that you agree with everything. I was aware of my privilege, but now it's like I can see it. I'm not racist in any way I could previously control, but in the way that was embedded into me by growing up in a white middle class neighbourhood. What I did not realise is that unbeknownst to myself, I'm actually quite racist. I've known for a long time that I was a feminist, albeit a bit of a bad one too, which is why I was drawn to this book. There were two distinct themes throughout the book - the first being feminism, the second, racism.
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Roxane Gay's 'Bad Feminist' is possibly the most enlightening book I've ever read. 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.īad 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, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.īe prepared to have all of your righteousness torn out, chewed up, and spat out. In these funny and insightful essays, 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). She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there." - Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?īest Book of the Year: NPR - Boston Globe - Newsweek - Time Out New York - Miami Herald - Book Riot - Buzz Feed - Globe and Mail (Toronto) - The Root - Shelf AwarenessĪ collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation "Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture.