Reviews with content warning for Racism - Bad Feminist

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

82 reviews

anger566's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

There were some parts I had to skip past bc Gay was talking about books/media that I haven't seen so they weren't interesting to me.

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mydearwatsonbooks's review against another edition

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tdouty97's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.5

Gay's essay collection is a good reminder of the sorts of things one should care about as a feminist and an ally to marginalized groups. There were things I wanted from the book that it didn't necessarily give me, like a clearer through line and more memior-type writings, but that is not the book that she set out to write, so I can't blame her.

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adrigodebison's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

I've been on a big nonfiction kick recently, so I decided to read the audiobook of Bad Feminist, which I've owned for a while. In this collection of essays, Roxane Gay discusses feminism through the critical lenses of race, gender, and wealth, analysing TV shows and media for their portrayal of women and feminist ideas.

The essays about various TV shows were interesting, as Gay goes into a lot of detail about the depiction of women and frames the shows in new contexts. My issue is that even though this book was only published in 2014, the pop culture references feel dated? It just goes to show how quickly life moves on, as some the shows Gay mentions finished years ago and feel far less relevant now.

Some of the references to high profile figures (Bill Crosby, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) also haven't aged well (though Gay couldn't really have predicted that) and I found that, while she does critique others for their focus on gender binaries, Gay's writing isn't particularly trans or non-binary inclusive.

I found the essays where Gay discusses racism and draws on some of her own life experiences particularly engaging. The blend of memoir and essay collection words well, but it left me wanting more on the memoir side (just personal preference). On the whole, Gay's reframing of the word 'feminist' and the way she embraces being a 'bad feminist' is refreshing.

Content warnings for discussions of racism, fatphobia, EDs, rape and gang rape. (less)

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