Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

29 reviews

its_j's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

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laurenleigh's review

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dark emotional funny informative fast-paced

4.5

I enjoyed the breadth and complexity of this essay collection. Gay discusses such a wide variety of topics, touching on reality television, pop culture, literary criticism, modern journalism, body autonomy, Black artistry, slave narratives, personal memoir, and what it means to be a woman in today’s world. One common theme throughout these topics was Gay’s ability to uphold opposing views simultaneously. She is able to make a strong, cohesive argument, but she never does so without acknowleding or considering the other side. For example, she can explain how Django Unchained is in many ways a racist movie, but still commend the acting and editing. She can celebrate a feminist text while pointing out its flaws. She can enjoy a catchy song and also condemn its sexism. It’s easy to pick a side and decide that’s the only way. Dualistic thinking comes naturally to us. But to make a strong argument while also exploring the nuances of the issue is much more interesting to me. The book overall made me want to write more! It reminded me of what I used to strive for in my own essay writing back in college. My only struggle with this text was that it started to feel very heavy. These are topics that require discussion for sure, but I should have taken breaks in between the essays. I wonder what it would read like if the lighter essays were more interspersed to break up the heavier ones.
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brookey8888's review

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

I did really enjoy a lot of these essays and what they were about. That being said I do feel like a few had nothing to do with feminism so that was whatever. Also there was a few things I didn’t agree with. One of them being if you go out with friends you should split the bill evenly even if one of your friends doesn’t have the same amount of income. I don’t agree with that if I know my friend doesn’t have the same amount of money as me I’ll either pay for her or we can pay for what we ordered. Also she was like oh I’m not as much as a feminist because I like want kids like that’s not what feminism is and she kind of went into that but it gave me the wrong vibes. But I do think a lot of this was very good and very intellectual and if you want to know about some of these ideas. This is good for starting out. It was mostly just her opinion about things and just certain things at that, very broad.
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ainebeam's review

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challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

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emmagreenwood's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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fullybooked22's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

I enjoyed this book. It gave me a lot to think about and I definitely appreciated Gay's diverse outlook on many topics which definitely made me question some socially accepted texts/ ideas. Although I didn't agree with some of her points (e.g. her viewpoint on trigger warnings + her idea of what made a 'real' feminist such as not being allowed to shave your legs and needing to hate men???) I believe the parts about race + feminism are incredibly important especially in changing the movement from one of 'white feminism' and eurocentricity to a more inclusive movement against oppression for all (and allowing women themselves to dictate what does and doesn't oppress them). I would absolutely recommend this but maybe as to someone who would already call themselves a feminist as if this is the first piece of feminist literature you read I think it could possibly skew your idea of what it actually means to be a feminist. 
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puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

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ladydisdain's review

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informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Its difficult to truly assess a book thats been touted as a cornerstone of whatever wave of feminism we're currently in nearly a decade after its publication. There's a certain amount of truths that are now held to be self evident being espoused as seemingly radical. Maybe it's like reading a horror classic in the modern age- time turns the sourcebook all but trite. But I do believe this book gets a bit of a bad rap for ushering in a wave of so called Bad Feminists, all twitter bark with no bite or intersectionality. There is certainly room for valid criticism of Gay's essays as reactions to the classic straw feminist rather even as she acknowledges the fallacy, but this collection only begins and ends by addressing feminism. There are as many essays dealing with race, general media criticism, and Gay's personal experience that seem to have been disregarded in the cultural memory of this work. Overall its a perfectly satisfying, lightly thought provoking read. Just maybe dont base your entire theory of gender off the collected blog posts of someone who specifically warns you against it.
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jazzaling's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

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