Roxane Gay: Bad Feminist (2014, HarperCollins Publishers)
English language
Published Nov. 15, 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Whew, three tries and I finally finished, (no fault to the author, just one of supply)! Reading this after the election was heartbreaking. So much of it seems prescient in hindsight. Well-written, interesting, varied, and excellent overall.
Having now listened to this on audiobook (caught up in wrapped attention) and read a few page of one star reviews on goodreads, I am going to try and sit down and write a fair review that takes as many things into consideration that I possibly can.
First off, if you are a fan of high brow essays, this is probably not the book for you. I'm not an expert on essays myself, not having read or written any since high school, but this in no way shape or form really struck me as anything but the most loosest interpretation of what an essay is. While the book does take on a variety of issues, I would think that a collection of essays would be something you could read in any order. I would not recommend reading this book in any way besides front to back. There's a clear narrative …
Having now listened to this on audiobook (caught up in wrapped attention) and read a few page of one star reviews on goodreads, I am going to try and sit down and write a fair review that takes as many things into consideration that I possibly can.
First off, if you are a fan of high brow essays, this is probably not the book for you. I'm not an expert on essays myself, not having read or written any since high school, but this in no way shape or form really struck me as anything but the most loosest interpretation of what an essay is. While the book does take on a variety of issues, I would think that a collection of essays would be something you could read in any order. I would not recommend reading this book in any way besides front to back. There's a clear narrative thrust to the personal experiences that Gay is presenting and you would miss out from reading any part outside the whole.
Essays also presume to have theses say the one star reviewers. This book does not have clearly written arguments, Gay has a lot of hypocritical view points and she doesn't ever seem to dig that much below the surface. I agree, as a collection of essays, this book really shouldn't have been touted as a collection of essays, that was a really poor marketing decision by whoever was in charge of that sort of thing. That said, if this is your only reason for critiquing the book I can't help but feel like you missed the entire point of this book.
What do I think was the point of this book? I think this book was an attempt by one woman to explain why more women should identify as feminist. Personally I found Gay's humility and honesty when it came to her own opinions rather refreshing and educational. Everyone has ways in which we fail to live up to our ideals, but not everyone is willing to admit to them. Talking about them in the open goes a long way to counter a lot of the patriarchy's false claims about the movement.
It is this point, and the execution of this point, that I have decided to give Gay four out of five stars. I really enjoyed getting to know her through this book, and even if she remained somewhat surface level (and accessible to the kind of person who chooses not to identify as feminist because of their misrepresentation in the mainstream) I still came out with a lot to think about. I've seen a lot of good things come from the talk around this book, and I don't actually think that Gay believes that feminists can't like pink.
