In a series of essays entitled “Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay, topics regarding feminism and the role of women are discussed and analyzed at great length through life experiences both traumatic and humorous. She analyzes the role of women in her own life, in books, in politics, and in media. It seems like she discusses everything one could possibly think of regarding social issues: athletes, literature, politics, rape culture, race, body image, privilege, LGBT rights, comedy, trigger warnings, and likely much more that I am forgetting. In every essay Gay is able to tie in this universal theme of expecting more and doing better. She says it is imperative that we do not keep settling for the small social problems faced on a daily basis.
She is able to speak from a unique experience as a young black female professor with a special interest in national scrabble competitions. She easily grabs the attention of the reader with her profane word choice and compelling points. Gay is unafraid to call people out on both their behavior, bad writing, and privilege, and she does so always with grace, understanding, and humor. She extends a warm appreciation for most if not all of the works she critiques and makes sure to include what the author had done right with the work and what corrections they may want to make going forward. She explains how some works of literature and entertainment were just not made for people like her. Something that came as a shock while I was reading this was her disdain for the novel-turned-movie The Help. She defends her claim reasonably, saying that the novel, despite being about black women, was written by a white woman and therefore made for the entertainment of white women. She mentions other issues she has with the novel such as the over-representation of black men as abusive and white women as helpless people who had no choice but to treat the maids with contempt. Gay also puts some of the blame on herself, explaining how it is a personal issue with the novel and who wrote it and explains how she has always had issues with authors who write about what they do not know about. She recognizes this as something she needs to work on but goes on to write about other instances in which this occurs like when skinny authors write about fat protagonists or when male authors write their female characters. She understandably makes the argument that each person’s experience is incredibly unique, making it difficult to write from a place you don’t know about while also realizing that all authors must do this at times. She goes back and forth on many topics, and ultimately keeps the idea that being a “bad feminist” is better than no feminist. It is okay to misunderstand. It is okay to ask questions. It is okay to make mistakes. I, being an avid feminist and defender of human rights, was sold on the book the moment I began reading. I love how she allows room for human error. Her own life experiences, although disturbing and difficult to read at times, gives the reader a much better understanding as to why her book matters, why her story matters, and why feminism matters. I am left with an even bigger passion for the cause and much deeper understanding of its importance. |