Reviews with content warning for Violence - Bad Feminist

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

16 reviews

vaekay's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

3.75

I struggle sometimes to review older material such as Bad Feminist (10 years later) because oftentimes it loses relevancy. Many essays in this book have lost all relevancy or are on popular cultural artifacts that have been discussed to shit by now (i.e. The Help and Orange is the New Black). It isn't a crime to be dated or to discuss the then-and-now with no concern for how relevant it will be 10 years from now, but I want to warn other readers that much of it is outdated. Many essays were good and interesting; some essays were extremely hypocritical and irritating due to what felt like an elementary level of self-reflection and understanding as well as comfortability with her voice as an essay writer. Gay's implications that reveling in more traditionally feminine things like pink, materialism, weddings, and — I guess — sucking dick means you're not a feminist (or at least not a good one) was weird. That implication was probably the least feminist thing about Bad Feminist because in her moment of self-doubt and projection, she tore down other women. It felt weird and uncomfortable... and not the sort of discomfort that is well-meaning in its ability to challenge you. Unfortunately, the first and last essays are the worst ones in the text, which seems like an interesting choice to hook readers and leave them fulfilled by the ending.

That said, I want to read more of Gay's more recent work to see how her voice and ideas have grown and changed in the last 10 years.

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neni's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

Good writing but themes were inconsistent and often irrelevant to the feminist cause (there were quite a few book and movie reviews that just didn't fit). Giving it 3 stars because there were definitely a couple of really powerful, well worded essays, but I struggled to finish the rest

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larajgriff1's review against another edition

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challenging funny hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

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snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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luce98's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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ginimeh's review against another edition

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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.

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