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kayleelw12's review against another edition
emotional
informative
slow-paced
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
mollief's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
4.0
This was a reread for me. Bad Feminist was absolutely groundbreaking when it came out, and I will still recommend to anyone I meet who hasn’t read it, but some of the references and opinions are a little outdated because it’s a nearly 10 year old book that uses pop culture references in the essays, and it seems Dr. Gay’s opinions have shifted over time, too.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
elawrence14's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
jokehelldo's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
Can't say I agree with everything (I strongly disagree with some things), and yet, the author did her work very well
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Rape
ginimeh's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
I read Bad Feminist in 2023 after years and years of having it on my reading list. I think this is why I was so disappointed by the book. I only ever knew the title and after coming to terms with the fact that Gay is not writing about being a bad feminist but mainly popculture and the time the book was written I was ready and set to read it in historical context.
There were a lot of points where I thought "if I read this as a teen back when it was published I'd be able to take so much from it" and some thoughts and sentences are a welcomed gift for the next arguments I'll have with sexists or racists but further than that it didn't give me much. The only thing I really take away from it is that 2014 was still a year when "being feminist" meant to be a woman, to only talk about two genders, to mix up liking a specific color and shaving your legs is the same as supporting being a bad feminist. Honestly the last chapter accomplished to ruin the book for me. 2014 is almost a decade ago but if you write a book about feminism (no matter if it's about your perspective or the lense of media and society) I think one should look at the big scope of privilege and not only brush them while talking about two main points or axes of intersectionality. But maybe I'm putting to much responsibility on the author and thereby proof her point that we expect a lot from feminism.
Also I read it in German and the translation were horribly stiff sometimes.
There were a lot of points where I thought "if I read this as a teen back when it was published I'd be able to take so much from it" and some thoughts and sentences are a welcomed gift for the next arguments I'll have with sexists or racists but further than that it didn't give me much. The only thing I really take away from it is that 2014 was still a year when "being feminist" meant to be a woman, to only talk about two genders, to mix up liking a specific color and shaving your legs is the same as supporting being a bad feminist. Honestly the last chapter accomplished to ruin the book for me. 2014 is almost a decade ago but if you write a book about feminism (no matter if it's about your perspective or the lense of media and society) I think one should look at the big scope of privilege and not only brush them while talking about two main points or axes of intersectionality. But maybe I'm putting to much responsibility on the author and thereby proof her point that we expect a lot from feminism.
Also I read it in German and the translation were horribly stiff sometimes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Sexual harassment
schnanko's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Abortion, and Sexual harassment
brimclala's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Rape
baileysir's review against another edition
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I loved this book of essays! Gay’s writing style is casual and familiar yet thought-provoking and incisive. She provides an important perspective on race, gender, feminism, women’s rights, and more with this infinitely compelling and powerful collection of her essays.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
arrowdodger's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Oh gosh. I had a weird experience with this one.
First of all, this is the first audiobook I've ever listened to. I listen to a lot of podcasts so I thought I'd give it a shot, but I don't think audio is my favorite medium for an actual book. The narrator was pretty good in general, but there were definitely a fair few mispronunciations, which were distracting. The pace of a book is also so much slower with someone else reading. I think overall I'm just a more visual learner and I'd rather keep experiencing books that way.
Now, onto this book itself. Some of the essays were more enjoyable to me than others, but I suppose that's to be expected of an essay collection. The ones speaking on rape culture in specific were honest and cutting, and I did enjoy those. The ones that were more about pop culture were fine, but left me wanting for something more. For example, Gay's takes on 50 Shades of Grey were nothing that I haven't heard a thousand times already. I thought she was going to approach it from an angle more personal to her, but she just said the same thing that everyone else has already said about that series.
The chapter on trigger warnings, though. Sigh. It made me have to take a break from listening. I found it so profoundly condescending, number one. Gay says multiple times that she herself doesn't really see the point in trigger warnings, and that she essentially thinks people who do are naïve. She says experiencing a trigger isn't as bad as actually living through the trauma, as if anyone was ever arguing to the contrary, and as if that makes being triggered not a big deal. She repeats some pretty disingenuous talking points about how trigger warnings are censorship. She makes a sweeping statement that nobody can be completely protected from triggering things, as if this makes trigger warnings completely pointless.
I just find this entire take so ridiculous. First of all, adding a trigger warning to the beginning of a piece of media is so incredibly easy and simple and requires almost no extra work. I find it so farcical when people act like it's the biggest inconvenience of their lives, or that it's akin to censorship. You can still write about whatever you want and nobody is saying not to (besides maybe teenagers on TikTok, but they'll grow up one day). Some people would just like a heads up if there is something potentially hard to grapple with in your work. She complains that there is no universal guide for trigger warnings, but I think most people know that big things like death, suicide, eating disorders, rape, etc. are easy to anticipate might trigger people. It's common sense. Just because you can't possibly anticipate everything that could trigger every person on earth doesn't mean you should throw the whole concept away. That's an argument a child would make.
Secondly, people who ask for trigger warnings (or content warnings in general) aren't little babies thinking they need protection from every experience in life, and it's dishonest to frame it that way. I know if I consume a piece of media with my particular trigger in it, I will just have a bad time consuming that media. Not only will I have anxiety and flashbacks and potentially become physically ill, it's just a waste of my time because I won't enjoy the thing I'm reading/watching. I would rather just read or watch something that doesn't have that thing in it. If I see my specific thing in a trigger/content warning it tells me that that piece of media isn't for me. It's really just that simple. I also just don't want to see my trigger enacted in media and I really don't think there's a purpose for me to. I don't want to subject myself to that in an attempt to seem "tough" like Gay seems to think of herself as doing. Subjecting myself to something that harms me emotionally that deeply isn't something I can just shrug off. I might even relapse into self-harm. I don't think that it would be someone else's "fault" if that happened, and I don't expect other people to cater to my personal traumas all of the time because that isn't possible, but I do think as people we can just generally take small and easy steps to help each other get through life easier. Trigger warnings are one of those steps.
So... yeah. I really hated that chapter.
Also, there's a bit toward the end where Gay mentions that her longtime on-again-off-again boyfriend is "politically conservative." Not to be THAT kind of feminist, but... ew. I do think it's weird to claim to be a feminist while fucking a man who votes against the best interests of women everywhere. I see this a lot and it makes me feel insane.
Overall I enjoyed Gay's perspectives on rape culture and I would be down to read her words on that topic more in the future. I have a couple of her other books lying around, because my job sometimes throws things into my lap, and I'll probably get around to reading them eventually. She's a good writer and has a great voice. In this collection she just fluctuates wildly between informative and powerful messages, takes that are so mild they make no impact at all, and takes that are, put simply, bad.
First of all, this is the first audiobook I've ever listened to. I listen to a lot of podcasts so I thought I'd give it a shot, but I don't think audio is my favorite medium for an actual book. The narrator was pretty good in general, but there were definitely a fair few mispronunciations, which were distracting. The pace of a book is also so much slower with someone else reading. I think overall I'm just a more visual learner and I'd rather keep experiencing books that way.
Now, onto this book itself. Some of the essays were more enjoyable to me than others, but I suppose that's to be expected of an essay collection. The ones speaking on rape culture in specific were honest and cutting, and I did enjoy those. The ones that were more about pop culture were fine, but left me wanting for something more. For example, Gay's takes on 50 Shades of Grey were nothing that I haven't heard a thousand times already. I thought she was going to approach it from an angle more personal to her, but she just said the same thing that everyone else has already said about that series.
The chapter on trigger warnings, though. Sigh. It made me have to take a break from listening. I found it so profoundly condescending, number one. Gay says multiple times that she herself doesn't really see the point in trigger warnings, and that she essentially thinks people who do are naïve. She says experiencing a trigger isn't as bad as actually living through the trauma, as if anyone was ever arguing to the contrary, and as if that makes being triggered not a big deal. She repeats some pretty disingenuous talking points about how trigger warnings are censorship. She makes a sweeping statement that nobody can be completely protected from triggering things, as if this makes trigger warnings completely pointless.
I just find this entire take so ridiculous. First of all, adding a trigger warning to the beginning of a piece of media is so incredibly easy and simple and requires almost no extra work. I find it so farcical when people act like it's the biggest inconvenience of their lives, or that it's akin to censorship. You can still write about whatever you want and nobody is saying not to (besides maybe teenagers on TikTok, but they'll grow up one day). Some people would just like a heads up if there is something potentially hard to grapple with in your work. She complains that there is no universal guide for trigger warnings, but I think most people know that big things like death, suicide, eating disorders, rape, etc. are easy to anticipate might trigger people. It's common sense. Just because you can't possibly anticipate everything that could trigger every person on earth doesn't mean you should throw the whole concept away. That's an argument a child would make.
Secondly, people who ask for trigger warnings (or content warnings in general) aren't little babies thinking they need protection from every experience in life, and it's dishonest to frame it that way. I know if I consume a piece of media with my particular trigger in it, I will just have a bad time consuming that media. Not only will I have anxiety and flashbacks and potentially become physically ill, it's just a waste of my time because I won't enjoy the thing I'm reading/watching. I would rather just read or watch something that doesn't have that thing in it. If I see my specific thing in a trigger/content warning it tells me that that piece of media isn't for me. It's really just that simple. I also just don't want to see my trigger enacted in media and I really don't think there's a purpose for me to. I don't want to subject myself to that in an attempt to seem "tough" like Gay seems to think of herself as doing. Subjecting myself to something that harms me emotionally that deeply isn't something I can just shrug off. I might even relapse into self-harm. I don't think that it would be someone else's "fault" if that happened, and I don't expect other people to cater to my personal traumas all of the time because that isn't possible, but I do think as people we can just generally take small and easy steps to help each other get through life easier. Trigger warnings are one of those steps.
So... yeah. I really hated that chapter.
Also, there's a bit toward the end where Gay mentions that her longtime on-again-off-again boyfriend is "politically conservative." Not to be THAT kind of feminist, but... ew. I do think it's weird to claim to be a feminist while fucking a man who votes against the best interests of women everywhere. I see this a lot and it makes me feel insane.
Overall I enjoyed Gay's perspectives on rape culture and I would be down to read her words on that topic more in the future. I have a couple of her other books lying around, because my job sometimes throws things into my lap, and I'll probably get around to reading them eventually. She's a good writer and has a great voice. In this collection she just fluctuates wildly between informative and powerful messages, takes that are so mild they make no impact at all, and takes that are, put simply, bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape