Bad Feminist in The Toast

Jul 07, 2014 bijal rated it really liked it

Only giving this 4 stars because I was really hoping for an essay on One Tree Hill. But really, this is 5 stars and Roxane Gay is a national treasure and I will read anything she writes.

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Nov 07, 2014 CC rated it really liked it

Shelves: critical-race-theory, feminist-non-fiction, feminist-theory, non-fiction, essays

Sometimes I forget how moderate Roxane Gay is. At times, I welcome her even-hand and find it deeply admirable. Other times, I think, stop giving everyone the benefit of the doubt so damn much! That is what I truly love about Gay's work. I often find myself disagreeing with her. And yet, I still find the content of her work endlessly challenging and interesting. I find myself coming back to her words because it's rare to find a writer who you can both relate to and disagree with, at the same time Sometimes I forget how moderate Roxane Gay is. At times, I welcome her even-hand and find it deeply admirable. Other times, I think, stop giving everyone the benefit of the doubt so damn much! That is what I truly love about Gay's work. I often find myself disagreeing with her. And yet, I still find the content of her work endlessly challenging and interesting. I find myself coming back to her words because it's rare to find a writer who you can both relate to and disagree with, at the same time, so consistently. I never doubt that Gay comes to her sentences, her conclusions, with great precision, thought and care, and it's these commitments paired with her authenticity and empathy that keep me coming back.

This book is important, without a doubt. I worry it won't maintain its rightful prominence in the collective feminist literary canon (if there is such a thing that can be distilled into a list of titles) despite the fact that it truly deserves such a longevity of position.

However, the quality of essay vacillates too wildly for me to say it's a knock-out. It is possible that I spend too much time immersed in Twitter, and that I read too many black feminists/womanists who - to be quite honest - are a notch above Gay when it comes to complexity of thought and incalculable genius. I don't say this to pit these women against each other in any way - I bring it up because, in truth, I was expecting more from this collection of essays because of the company Roxane Gay keeps, because of the quality of essays I know Gay can and has produced; I expected every essay to move me, deeply. And they didn't. But the truth is, it speaks to Gay's profound talent, insight and formidable skill that so many essays in this collection did move me in the ways I had hoped for.

Notable among the essays in this collection: "How to Be Friends with Another Woman"; "I Once Was Miss America"; "What We Hunger For"; "Dear Young Ladies Who Love Chris Brown So Much They Would Let Him Beat Them"; "The Trouble with Prince Charming, or He Who Trespassed Against Us"

"The Careless Language of Sexual Violence" made me weep and is, to me, the premier essay in this collection. ...more

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Sep 11, 2014 Jessica rated it it was amazing

Four stars for execution, six for how much some of the pieces resonated with me, averaging out to five. I will be talking this up a lot.

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Sep 08, 2014 Emily rated it it was amazing

I love Roxane Gay's voice. She's passionate, funny, engrossing, and she has the rare ability to dig into heavy topics in a conversational manner. In this essay collection, the breadth of her knowledge and interests is apparent: she's equally comfortable discussing critical theory, reality television, and her personal life.

Most of all, I love her central thesis of bad feminism; feminisms are like the people who enact them, messy, complicated, sometimes holding contradictions, and that's okay. She I love Roxane Gay's voice. She's passionate, funny, engrossing, and she has the rare ability to dig into heavy topics in a conversational manner. In this essay collection, the breadth of her knowledge and interests is apparent: she's equally comfortable discussing critical theory, reality television, and her personal life.

Most of all, I love her central thesis of bad feminism; feminisms are like the people who enact them, messy, complicated, sometimes holding contradictions, and that's okay. She makes me want to be a better bad feminist; to feel and write more passionately on any topic that grabs my interest. To not shy away from contradictions. To not be afraid to open conversations even when I don't have a clear answer. To admit when I don't know things.

One thing that concerns me about the collection is how it will age, particularly the essays written for the online publications about things that happen on the internet. As someone who has followed Gay's online writing for years, I didn't mind re-reading essays I had read online previously. Still, some of these, just a month after the book's publication, felt already dated. Several essays clearly worked better in an internet format, where you can link to the article you're critiquing, or show a list of hashtag responses to a current event. It felt pretty weird reading actual ink on paper about something crappy a celebrity tweeted, and made me wonder if some of these things are worth recording for posterity in this manner. Similarly, some of the rage against the Atlantic's clickbait-y feminist trolling seemed like it didn't have value without the timeliness; sure Anne Marie Slaughter popularized ongoing discussions about "having it all," but, as a pretty big internet feminist reader, I had little recollection of Elizabeth Wurtzel's controversial recent pieces. While these clickbait pieces may be worthy of Gay responding on her tumblr, it felt that they weren't worthy of critiques in a tangible book.

Still, I deeply enjoyed the collection overall. As a fan of Roxane Gay's work, I especially appreciated the personal details she added about her life, her academic work, and her writing process. Her vulnerability, honesty, and courage make this essay collection a treasure.
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Dec 26, 2014 Maggie rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2015

Did I enjoy it? Yes, I did. Collections of essays are always tough because inevitably there will be some that you hate and some that you love. This was no exception, and while I didn't love every single essay in the collection, I liked an awful lot of them, and they got me thinking about a lot of feminist issues from a different point of view.
Would I read it again? Some of the essays yes. The whole book from cover to cover, probably not.
Who would I recommend it to? I already recommended it to my ...more

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