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A review by shivani_n
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
reflective
4.0
“I embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy. I’m not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I’m right. I am just trying—trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself.”
“When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.”
“To have privilege in one or more areas does not mean you are wholly privileged. Surrendering to the acceptance of privilege is difficult, but it is really all that is expected. What I remind myself, regularly, is this: the acknowledgment of my privilege is not a denial of the ways I have been and am marginalized, the ways I have suffered.”
“It's hard not to feel humorless, as a woman and a feminist, to recognize misogyny in so many forms, some great and some small, and know you're not imagining things. It's hard to be told to lighten up because if you lighten up any more, you're going to float the fuck away. The problem is not that one of these things is happening; it's that they are all happening, concurrently and constantly.”
“Somewhere along the line we started misinterpreting the First Amendment and this idea of the freedom of speech the amendment grants us. We are free to speak as we choose without fear of prosecution or persecution, but we are not free to speak as we choose without consequence.”
“You don't necessarily have to do anything once you acknowledge your privilege. You don't have to apologize for it. You need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about.”
“Some women being empowered does not prove the patriarchy is dead. It proves that some of us are lucky.”
_____________________________________________________________
this book is absolutely fantastic. roxane gay provides insightful perspective and commentary on a multitude of topics throughout this collection of essays about gender, race, class, and privilege. even though this book was written in 2014, i still find it incredibly relevant for today's society. let's just say that i think a LOT of men (and women! everyone really!!) would benefit from reading this book. i honestly learned so much from her writing and enjoyed listening to her opinions. i listened to the audiobook of this, narrated by bahni turpin, and i personally loved the way she narrated the book, and how she felt so passionate about what she was saying, it really felt like i was listening to the author herself, if that makes sense? it just gave the book a very personal sense, and, me being a very opinionated person myself, i was really able to connect with the author's passion and desire for change and how strongly she felt about these topics. additionally, i loved the way she chose to unpack these complex ideas through pop culture and media as well as her own experiences, because as a person who loves to consume media very frequently and fervently, i loved how she picked apart the pieces of said media, analysing how they have a large impact on the real world and what shapes our perceptions of certain people, communities, and concepts. it widened my perspective on how the culture and institutions of our world have shaped us as human beings and the prejudices we have.
bad feminist raises the question, what is a feminist? what is really the goal of the feminist movement? gay explains this through her essays, while tying in other social issues as well. i have always considered myself to be a feminist, but it was so interesting to take a step back and actually think about the philosophy of feminism, and what it means to be a feminist, while also being your own imperfect self, an idea that gay continues to reflect on and build on throughout the book.
so many of the essays in this collection had me baffled at how i had never thought of this idea in this light before, and that i had never realised something that now seems so clear when the author has stated it in the way that she did. i found the essay about white privilege particularly jarring, because of this quote: "...white privilege. to retain humanity in the face of inhumanity. for criminals who defy our understanding of danger, the cultural threshold for forgiveness is incredibly low". in this essay, gay reflects upon the murder of trayvon martin, a young black boy who was shot by george zimmerman in 2012. but then again, if i was to expand on every essay that made me think deeply about something in a different way, this review would end up being a whole book itself lmao. in conclusion, i loved this book and i would HIGHLY recommend!
“When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.”
“To have privilege in one or more areas does not mean you are wholly privileged. Surrendering to the acceptance of privilege is difficult, but it is really all that is expected. What I remind myself, regularly, is this: the acknowledgment of my privilege is not a denial of the ways I have been and am marginalized, the ways I have suffered.”
“It's hard not to feel humorless, as a woman and a feminist, to recognize misogyny in so many forms, some great and some small, and know you're not imagining things. It's hard to be told to lighten up because if you lighten up any more, you're going to float the fuck away. The problem is not that one of these things is happening; it's that they are all happening, concurrently and constantly.”
“Somewhere along the line we started misinterpreting the First Amendment and this idea of the freedom of speech the amendment grants us. We are free to speak as we choose without fear of prosecution or persecution, but we are not free to speak as we choose without consequence.”
“You don't necessarily have to do anything once you acknowledge your privilege. You don't have to apologize for it. You need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about.”
“Some women being empowered does not prove the patriarchy is dead. It proves that some of us are lucky.”
_____________________________________________________________
this book is absolutely fantastic. roxane gay provides insightful perspective and commentary on a multitude of topics throughout this collection of essays about gender, race, class, and privilege. even though this book was written in 2014, i still find it incredibly relevant for today's society. let's just say that i think a LOT of men (and women! everyone really!!) would benefit from reading this book. i honestly learned so much from her writing and enjoyed listening to her opinions. i listened to the audiobook of this, narrated by bahni turpin, and i personally loved the way she narrated the book, and how she felt so passionate about what she was saying, it really felt like i was listening to the author herself, if that makes sense? it just gave the book a very personal sense, and, me being a very opinionated person myself, i was really able to connect with the author's passion and desire for change and how strongly she felt about these topics. additionally, i loved the way she chose to unpack these complex ideas through pop culture and media as well as her own experiences, because as a person who loves to consume media very frequently and fervently, i loved how she picked apart the pieces of said media, analysing how they have a large impact on the real world and what shapes our perceptions of certain people, communities, and concepts. it widened my perspective on how the culture and institutions of our world have shaped us as human beings and the prejudices we have.
bad feminist raises the question, what is a feminist? what is really the goal of the feminist movement? gay explains this through her essays, while tying in other social issues as well. i have always considered myself to be a feminist, but it was so interesting to take a step back and actually think about the philosophy of feminism, and what it means to be a feminist, while also being your own imperfect self, an idea that gay continues to reflect on and build on throughout the book.
so many of the essays in this collection had me baffled at how i had never thought of this idea in this light before, and that i had never realised something that now seems so clear when the author has stated it in the way that she did. i found the essay about white privilege particularly jarring, because of this quote: "...white privilege. to retain humanity in the face of inhumanity. for criminals who defy our understanding of danger, the cultural threshold for forgiveness is incredibly low". in this essay, gay reflects upon the murder of trayvon martin, a young black boy who was shot by george zimmerman in 2012. but then again, if i was to expand on every essay that made me think deeply about something in a different way, this review would end up being a whole book itself lmao. in conclusion, i loved this book and i would HIGHLY recommend!