A review by ladydisdain
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

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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