Bad Feminist

Books | Social Science / Essays

4.1

(1.9K)

Roxane Gay

“Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there.” — Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?A New York Times BestsellerBest Book of the Year: NPR • Boston Globe • Newsweek • Time Out New York • Oprah.com • Miami Herald • Book Riot • Buzz Feed • Globe and Mail (Toronto) • The Root • Shelf AwarenessA collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generationIn 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). 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, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.

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Author

Roxane Gay

Pages

336

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

2014-08-05

ISBN

0062282727 9780062282729

Community ReviewsSee all

"A collection of essays where she talks about her reflection on feminism through references of movies and books. "

Sandy Lopez

"I loved this set of essays and the understanding that labels don’t have to be earned by perfection. Feminism is incredibly important, I hate to say especially now because it’s always important but especially now when our rights are being stripped away. People are vast and messy, not everything will align with or perfectly reflect feminist values, but it’s better to have those very human flaws and sometimes not so feminist thoughts or behaviors than to not be feminist at all. "

CaitVD

"3.5 stars - I really connected with a couple essays in this collection and the ones that didn’t speak as much to me still left me with something to think about. Gay does a lot of introspection on popular tv shows, movies, and music (some of which I recognized and some of which I didn’t). I think she made interesting points. I also liked her take that it is impossible and unappealing to be a perfect feminist. However, this collection wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I thought Gay would have more to address in regard to feminism and intersectionality in a direct fashion and I don’t think Bad Feminist did that."

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Alyssa Czernek

"This book was published at a time when the country was not having as many conversations about inequality, before marriage equality was the law of the land, hell even before #MeToo and the onslaught of accountability in regards to sexual assault. This book is sorta frozen in time because it has a finger on the pulse of the time it was published. So the references such as bill Cosby being a pillar of the black community don’t translate well. It’s very interesting and I liked it especially when Gay talks about teaching."

Finn Hughes

"Such a thought provoking read. The essays in here are phenomenal "

Brigit Elizabeth

"Love all her books"

Alissa Ceber

"Yeah I do"

"so interesting <3 very nice to read "

gayle

"I loved her writing style and anecdotes. As I was reading, I could feel her passion about the subject which immediately hooked my interest.<br/>The only downfall was there were too many opinions that it was lost in the book jumping from one to the next. Unfortunately, I don't believe I took away a lot from this book as it was the same perspectives and opinions from my college sociology classes."