Bad Feminist : : Essays

Locations
Call Number: 814 Ga, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Essays / Gay, Roxane
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	814 Ga	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	814 Ga	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	814 Ga	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Essays / Gay, Roxane	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Feel me, see me, hear me, reach me -- Peculiar benefits -- Typical first year professor -- To scratch, claw or grope clumsily or frantically -- How to be friends with another woman -- Girls, girls, girls -- I once was Miss America -- Garish, glorious spectacles -- Not here to make friends -- How we all lose -- Reaching for catharsis : getting fat right (or wrong) and Diana Spechler's Skinny -- The smooth surfaces of idyll -- The careless language of sexual violence -- What we hunger for -- The illusion of safety/the safety of illusion -- The spectacle of broken men -- A tale of three coming out stories -- Beyond the measure of men -- Some jokes are funnier than others -- Dear young ladies who love Chris Brown -- So much they would let him beat them -- Blurred lines, indeed -- The trouble with Prince Charming, or, He who trespassed against us -- The solace of preparing fried foods and other quaint remembrances from 1960s Mississippi : thoughts on The help -- Surviving Django -- Beyond the struggle narrative -- The morality of Tyler Perry -- The last day of a young black man -- When less is more -- The politics of respectability -- When Twitter does what journalism cannot -- The alienable rights of women -- Holding out for a hero -- A tale of two profiles -- The racism we all carry -- Tragedy, call, compassion, response -- Bad feminist : take one -- Bad feminist : take two.
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.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Much More than Feminism Here! submitted by sdunav on June 12, 2015, 2:02pm Funny, sharp, well-written, timely, totally on-target collection of essays about all sorts of things - being fat, playing scrabble, writing, reading (and watching) The Hunger Games, race, Tyler Perry's movies, and yes, feminism, and what makes you a feminist.

She's a thinker and a writer, for sure. submitted by lisa on August 10, 2019, 8:33pm Give it a go, particularly if you like the no-holds-barred kind of forthright frankness of a non-punch-pulling person.

Would Recommend submitted by evie2017 on August 20, 2020, 2:40pm Not my favorite book on feminism, but it lives up to the hype of being frank, funny, and insightful. I do like that it's broken into essays instead of being "one" long book which makes it easier to read for long periods of time.

Great feminist read that feels necessary submitted by clk.9123 on August 21, 2022, 3:17pm Roxane Gay's collection of essays is a mixture of topics, most notably race, but everything seems to connect itself in ways you may have subconsciously pieced together before but never really took the time to think out. I think she is a breath of fresh air because she is rational. She recognizes both sides of the story in many of her essays, and points out how damn difficult it is to be any one thing. How can we demonize the black kid just walking down the street, and blame him for his own murder, but creepily empathize with the "boy next door" kid responsible for the Boston bombings? These questions and points she makes are so well thought out in how she presents them. It's equal parts awe-inspiring and frustrating.

Parts of this book were not written for me. They were not written for the average, white privilege, white girl from the midwest. They weren't meant to speak to me on a personal level, because they are not me. But they did teach me a lot.
Because they point out the ludicriousy of white people and our failings to black people and how we marginalize in the smallest ways, ways we don't even realize, but happens to have big consequences. All these little thoughts people have about race, and how they're shared and presented, further perpetuates how we can literally put a black kid on trial for his own death, Gay points out.

At times these essays are baffling. You don't want to think of The Help as being detrimental, but quite frankly, now that I've read her perspective on this story, I can't help think it over and realize shes right. But it makes me a bad feminist because I still think its a good movie and a good book.

I like that she realizes shes a feminist but a bad one. It gives me hope, somehow. And, it's a relief.