Bad Feminist in Overdue Podcast

Mar 08, 2015 Tiffani rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, read-in-2015

Bad Feminist is a collection of essays by Roxane Gay in which she explores what feminism means to her personally, while also exploring of various aspects of culture and real world events through a feminist lens. Several of her essays focus on pop culture which might be a turn off for some. While familiarity with the particular pop culture phenomena Gay references is helpful, it isn’t strictly necessary because her critique of various television shows or other art goes beyond the particular show Bad Feminist is a collection of essays by Roxane Gay in which she explores what feminism means to her personally, while also exploring of various aspects of culture and real world events through a feminist lens. Several of her essays focus on pop culture which might be a turn off for some. While familiarity with the particular pop culture phenomena Gay references is helpful, it isn’t strictly necessary because her critique of various television shows or other art goes beyond the particular show or movie, etc. I interpreted what she was trying to get across (in part) was the idea of having complex relationships with media and art and the sense that media and art can often be imperfect, problematic, and even bad. It may be (intentionally or probably more often carelessly and thoughtlessly) misogynist, devoid of people of color or anyone who is not part of the upper middle class. It might be full of caricatures and stereotypes and poorly written or acted, insert appropriate verb here. But still, sometimes you dance and sing along to the song with the sexist lyrics anyway because it has a good beat, the lyrics are catchy, and you are human. You watch the show that although set in New York has no people of color and everyone seems to be able to afford really nice apartments no matter what kind of job they have or even if they don’t have a job because despite its flaws the show is kind of funny. (Gay writes about the HBO show Girls but I couldn’t help but think of the show Friends.) You remember that media and art can be entertaining and irritating at the same time. You try to remember that it isn’t fair to expect one show, song, or movie to perfectly address every issue of social justice. At least, that was my interpretation.

Aside from the explorations into pop culture, not surprisingly Roxane Gay writes about feminism and what that means to her. She points out that feminists are people and like everyone else, they are flawed so feminism is flawed, and that is okay. Personally I have never had trouble calling myself a feminist. This is largely because I view feminism as being about equality between men and women and freedom of choice over one’s life and body. I never bought into the idea of equating feminism with disliking men. I never considered feminism a bad word although some people might consider it such. I grew up believing that feminists come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colors, genders, sexual orientations, etc. so my feminism doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. As such I wouldn’t call myself a “bad feminist” because I never considered there to be an ideal or good feminist. Still, I like how Gay embraces the idea of being a “bad feminist,” of being messy and contradictory. She takes people to task, but doesn't expect them to perfect.

As I read this book I kept thinking how thankful I was that it exists. Thankful because it captures somethings I have felt but haven’t articulated quite so precisely. It isn’t a perfect book. There are a few essays that seemed incomplete or out of place. Most however, resonated with me in some way. One of my favorites was The Solace of Preparing Fried Foods and Other Quaint Remembrances from 1960s Mississippi: Thoughts on The Help. I have had conversations where I had to explain why while I didn’t hate the movie The Help, I could have done without it (or frankly other movies like it). Next time I will simply point to Gay’s essay and say read this.

Thank you Roxanne Gay, for writing Bad Feminist. I needed this. ...more

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