Bad feminist, good book

Bad Feminist is a book of essays in a time where social justice is getting perhaps more mainstream positive press than any time before. While every thinkpiece in this vein will have detractors, such thinkpieces have more outlets and more exposure than they might have enjoyed even ten years ago, when blogging was an established medium for this kind of thing but the social justice corner was still just that — a corner.

What that means is that Bad Feminist doesn’t necessarily cover new ground, if you are the type of person who reads this type of material regularly. However, Bad Feminist is written by Roxane Gay, who is a singularly good writer. She’s perceptive, incisive, funny, and personal. Even if you don’t agree with everything she says, she demands your respect.

Drawing both from popular culture and from the academic sector, these essays detail Gay’s experiences with sexism and racism, as well as her own struggles with feminism as a movement, and tales of personal empowerment. They’re structured to paint a picture of herself as a flawed woman who has endured, accomplished, and learned, and who still has more to endure, accomplish, and learn. She takes pride in her flaws and her strengths, because that’s the kind of complexity that broadens the traditional picture of womanhood, and the kind of complexity that feminism can itself embrace to be equally inclusive of all women, flawed as we are.

This isn’t an introductory-level primer to feminism, but it’s also not too esoteric for beginners. It’s great for those who love Gay’s writing (as everyone should), and feminists who are looking for an intersectional perspective (as they should). It’s also for people who could call themselves feminists but who aren’t sure what it is, and it should be for non- or anti-feminists who could use a little exposure to an alternative viewpoint, but I know I can’t force anyone to read anything.