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likeklocwork's review against another edition
2.0
My high expectations ruined this book for me. While some of the essays are powerful and thought-provoking, I found most to be boring and to read more like book reports than original cultural commentary. Most of the essays seemed rushed, oddly paced, and unfinished. Disappointing.
chrissigermann's review against another edition
3.0
This book was very eye-opening to the short comings of people against feminism and the bad behavior that some feminists exhibit. Roxane Gay knows her stuff. If it weren't for some chapters that weren't entirely relevant to the message, I would give it 5 stars.
mreiki's review against another edition
5.0
"No matter what issues I have with feminism, I am a feminist. I cannot and will not deny the importance and absolute necessity of feminism. Like most people, I am full of contradictions, but I also don't want to be treated like shit for being a woman.
I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all."
I remember the buzz around this book when it was first published and I understand where it came from. I will definitely be recommending this book to friends and I'm thinking of incorporating some of the essays into my teaching as conversation starters on issues like intersectionality, responsibility politics, and rape culture.
I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all."
I remember the buzz around this book when it was first published and I understand where it came from. I will definitely be recommending this book to friends and I'm thinking of incorporating some of the essays into my teaching as conversation starters on issues like intersectionality, responsibility politics, and rape culture.
hwheaties's review against another edition
5.0
Please see blog for full review.
wanderingbarkhumanities.wordpress.com
wanderingbarkhumanities.wordpress.com
ebats's review against another edition
3.0
3-. took me forever because library loans kept stealing it back :D. gay is a beautiful writer, of course, but this collection felt a bit disjointed (probably another reason it took me forever...if i loved one essay there was no real reason to start the next one right away). i didn't know many of her literary (or pop culture) references and those parts read so academically in comparison to some of the other more personal essays.
nancyflanagan's review against another edition
5.0
Four and a half stars.
Yes, the book is uneven. Gay's writing style--not academic, not feature-writer slick, but 100% smart girlfriend--takes some time to get used to. And some of the essays (the one on Fifty Shades of Gray, for example) are like shooting fish in a barrel, just too easy to make solid points. The book feels like what it is: a compendium of things written for different publications and audiences.
But her essays on racism and feminism, the heart of the book, are memorable. I carried this book around for a month, reading them one at a time, and they all spoke to me. Gay may represent a new kind of academic, someone readable, someone not 100% sure of herself. Someone female.
Yes, the book is uneven. Gay's writing style--not academic, not feature-writer slick, but 100% smart girlfriend--takes some time to get used to. And some of the essays (the one on Fifty Shades of Gray, for example) are like shooting fish in a barrel, just too easy to make solid points. The book feels like what it is: a compendium of things written for different publications and audiences.
But her essays on racism and feminism, the heart of the book, are memorable. I carried this book around for a month, reading them one at a time, and they all spoke to me. Gay may represent a new kind of academic, someone readable, someone not 100% sure of herself. Someone female.
eleanorfranzen's review against another edition
4.0
There is some absolutely amazing stuff here: Gay articulates so clearly and so fluidly many of the things that I seem to spend my whole life trying to explain to people who don't want to hear it, such that I want to just put a copy of this book in their hands and say, "Please read this and understand." Some of the pieces are weaker than others, mostly I think because they often end with a "we have to do better" message which is true and right, but which gets diluted if you read it half a dozen times in succession, which is what happens when you read the collection straight through. Another reviewer has mentioned how loose these pieces seem--as though they've just been lifted from her blog. I think that's entirely likely, and given Gay's track record of journalism with major newspapers like The Guardian, I'd be inclined to blame her editors, not her, for that. That aside, she is such a breath of fresh air: neither automatically furious, nor intellectually craven, but deeply thoughtful, and different, and wonderful. This will become a modern classic.