lady_moon's review against another edition
1.5
Some version of the dream of this book still lives in the back of my head and maybe one day I'll find the excellent collection of essays that this book absolutely was not.
Bad Feminist had a good start. I had fun listening in the beginning, I enjoyed her talking about her time as an advisor, about privilege and her time as professor. There was an essay about scrabble...? That was boring and pretty pointless. Then there was an essay about how to have women friends, which was... a list with just common sense and stupid points. But I tell myself, okay I can ignore that.
But there were also essays that talked about random pieces of media? Some shows and books, some critique, like... I don't know any of this media, except The Hunger Games, so I wasn't really invested in all this. I wasn't fan of the The Hunger Games essay though. I just didn't care to be honest? It didn't add anything to the conversation. If this was a memoir or something, fine, but it isn't - this is book with essays named Bad Feminist. Such essays were just a little out of place. And I personally was annoyed at the unnecessary amatonormativity that was present.
Now, I could have ignored all of this. I really could have. But then the trigger warning discussion came. And it pissed me off. For the most part there was nuance and dissection, about censorship and what can be a trigger. But then she basically said she can't understand how some people live in the illusion of safety and that trigger warning won't protect them from what already is inside them. I'm sorry but what the fuck?? Does she know think "warning" means? It's not there to protect you or to prevent you from consuming this media (as she also thinks) but to warn you what you're going to consume so you can take care of yourself if needed. What was this bullshit, honestly? This is the first time I really felt there's something not quite right with this book.
(Not to mention before that there's a heavy discussion of rape and her own rape and right after that to have is an essay about trigger warning... I mean, that's petty.)
Then there's one waaayyy too long essay that criticize Fifty Shades of Grey. Woman, what the hell 😠We all know this book is shit, there really wasn't need of such deep critique of it (half of which is a rant, honestly). I was really tempted to DNF at that point.
Other thing that baffled me: The hunting of witches is, apperantly, because rulers wanted to prevent abortions?? 😠What is this woman talking about, I- Tell me you don't know anything outside of USA history without telling you don't know anything outside of USA.
The hunting of witches isn't some trick the government to take down people who know the medicine for abortion (maybe that was someone's idea, I don't know). Hunting witches was rooted in superstition, xenophobia, bigotry and most of all - misogyny. Don't make it related to something irrelevant just so it can appeal to American issue.
After that it was a series of discussion of different movies with Black representations. I knew exactly two of this movies/Tv series, one of which I haven't watched. This was curious for me, as a white person who doesn't watch a lot of these genres, let alone critique of it.
Overall, there just... wasn't anything new? Anything even remotely deeper to add to the discussion regarding feminism. Not even to the conversation about race to be honest? There wasn't anything new, anything interesting, not even in the way it was presented to us. I do enjoyed some things in the beginning but then it quickly became painfully average. Kudos for the advertisement lol, I was really convinced I'm picking up an amazing book.Â
Bad Feminist had a good start. I had fun listening in the beginning, I enjoyed her talking about her time as an advisor, about privilege and her time as professor. There was an essay about scrabble...? That was boring and pretty pointless. Then there was an essay about how to have women friends, which was... a list with just common sense and stupid points. But I tell myself, okay I can ignore that.
But there were also essays that talked about random pieces of media? Some shows and books, some critique, like... I don't know any of this media, except The Hunger Games, so I wasn't really invested in all this. I wasn't fan of the The Hunger Games essay though. I just didn't care to be honest? It didn't add anything to the conversation. If this was a memoir or something, fine, but it isn't - this is book with essays named Bad Feminist. Such essays were just a little out of place. And I personally was annoyed at the unnecessary amatonormativity that was present.
Now, I could have ignored all of this. I really could have. But then the trigger warning discussion came. And it pissed me off. For the most part there was nuance and dissection, about censorship and what can be a trigger. But then she basically said she can't understand how some people live in the illusion of safety and that trigger warning won't protect them from what already is inside them. I'm sorry but what the fuck?? Does she know think "warning" means? It's not there to protect you or to prevent you from consuming this media (as she also thinks) but to warn you what you're going to consume so you can take care of yourself if needed. What was this bullshit, honestly? This is the first time I really felt there's something not quite right with this book.
(Not to mention before that there's a heavy discussion of rape and her own rape and right after that to have is an essay about trigger warning... I mean, that's petty.)
Then there's one waaayyy too long essay that criticize Fifty Shades of Grey. Woman, what the hell 😠We all know this book is shit, there really wasn't need of such deep critique of it (half of which is a rant, honestly). I was really tempted to DNF at that point.
Other thing that baffled me: The hunting of witches is, apperantly, because rulers wanted to prevent abortions?? 😠What is this woman talking about, I- Tell me you don't know anything outside of USA history without telling you don't know anything outside of USA.
The hunting of witches isn't some trick the government to take down people who know the medicine for abortion (maybe that was someone's idea, I don't know). Hunting witches was rooted in superstition, xenophobia, bigotry and most of all - misogyny. Don't make it related to something irrelevant just so it can appeal to American issue.
After that it was a series of discussion of different movies with Black representations. I knew exactly two of this movies/Tv series, one of which I haven't watched. This was curious for me, as a white person who doesn't watch a lot of these genres, let alone critique of it.
Overall, there just... wasn't anything new? Anything even remotely deeper to add to the discussion regarding feminism. Not even to the conversation about race to be honest? There wasn't anything new, anything interesting, not even in the way it was presented to us. I do enjoyed some things in the beginning but then it quickly became painfully average. Kudos for the advertisement lol, I was really convinced I'm picking up an amazing book.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Ableism, Alcohol, Classism, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, and Misogyny
Moderate: Homophobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, Hate crime, Bullying, Pedophilia, Slavery, and Vomit
Minor: Eating disorder, Medical content, and Outing
emwgrace's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexism, Racism, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Misogyny, Slavery, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Violence
Minor: Racial slurs
jessthanthree's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Rape
beca_reads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I feel that younger me would of appreciated this. I wish I had read this a few years ago when I was first starting to explore feminist writing, It lays down the foundations and some nuance to the each topic that is explored. I would definitely recommend this book to people just starting out in reading feminist nonfiction as the writing is accessible, and explores a variety of topics from education to the music industry.Â
 I went into this thinking it was going to be more statistical based but was more so Gay's personal journey with being a feminist while drawing on feminist research and global events To begin with I was not so sure on the writing style but I think maybe some of the earlier essay's were just weaker than some of the later essay's in the book. I did really enjoy how Gay talked about literature and other forms of the media throughout the book, It's left me with lots of good recommendations to read or watch and added a critical lens to media I've already consumed. Â
 I went into this thinking it was going to be more statistical based but was more so Gay's personal journey with being a feminist while drawing on feminist research and global events To begin with I was not so sure on the writing style but I think maybe some of the earlier essay's were just weaker than some of the later essay's in the book. I did really enjoy how Gay talked about literature and other forms of the media throughout the book, It's left me with lots of good recommendations to read or watch and added a critical lens to media I've already consumed. Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Police brutality, Ableism, Body shaming, Racism, Hate crime, Homophobia, Colonisation, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Lesbophobia, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Classism, Islamophobia, and Misogyny
readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
 I've been on a big nonfiction kick recently, so I decided to read the audiobook of Bad Feminist, which I've owned for a while. In this collection of essays, Roxane Gay discusses feminism through the critical lenses of race, gender, and wealth, analysing TV shows and media for their portrayal of women and feminist ideas.
The essays about various TV shows were interesting, as Gay goes into a lot of detail about the depiction of women and frames the shows in new contexts. My issue is that even though this book was only published in 2014, the pop culture references feel dated? It just goes to show how quickly life moves on, as some the shows Gay mentions finished years ago and feel far less relevant now.
Some of the references to high profile figures (Bill Crosby, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) also haven't aged well (though Gay couldn't really have predicted that) and I found that, while she does critique others for their focus on gender binaries, Gay's writing isn't particularly trans or non-binary inclusive.
I found the essays where Gay discusses racism and draws on some of her own life experiences particularly engaging. The blend of memoir and essay collection words well, but it left me wanting more on the memoir side (just personal preference). On the whole, Gay's reframing of the word 'feminist' and the way she embraces being a 'bad feminist' is refreshing.
Content warnings for discussions of racism, fatphobia, EDs, rape and gang rape. (less)Â
The essays about various TV shows were interesting, as Gay goes into a lot of detail about the depiction of women and frames the shows in new contexts. My issue is that even though this book was only published in 2014, the pop culture references feel dated? It just goes to show how quickly life moves on, as some the shows Gay mentions finished years ago and feel far less relevant now.
Some of the references to high profile figures (Bill Crosby, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) also haven't aged well (though Gay couldn't really have predicted that) and I found that, while she does critique others for their focus on gender binaries, Gay's writing isn't particularly trans or non-binary inclusive.
I found the essays where Gay discusses racism and draws on some of her own life experiences particularly engaging. The blend of memoir and essay collection words well, but it left me wanting more on the memoir side (just personal preference). On the whole, Gay's reframing of the word 'feminist' and the way she embraces being a 'bad feminist' is refreshing.
Content warnings for discussions of racism, fatphobia, EDs, rape and gang rape. (less)Â
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Rape, and Racism
stvnh's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Racism, Gun violence, and Hate crime
Moderate: Abortion, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
brookey8888's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I did really enjoy a lot of these essays and what they were about. That being said I do feel like a few had nothing to do with feminism so that was whatever. Also there was a few things I didn’t agree with. One of them being if you go out with friends you should split the bill evenly even if one of your friends doesn’t have the same amount of income. I don’t agree with that if I know my friend doesn’t have the same amount of money as me I’ll either pay for her or we can pay for what we ordered. Also she was like oh I’m not as much as a feminist because I like want kids like that’s not what feminism is and she kind of went into that but it gave me the wrong vibes. But I do think a lot of this was very good and very intellectual and if you want to know about some of these ideas. This is good for starting out. It was mostly just her opinion about things and just certain things at that, very broad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
hyleore's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
I read this too late: since it deals with "current events", it already feels a bit old. I did gain interesting insights from it. I'd be curious about reading more recent Roxane Gay work because there have been some changes in mainstream feminism since 2013.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Rape
thatpine's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
I really enjoyed this and found it to be relatable and an easy read. The only problem I had was that I hadn’t seen or read some of the movies/books she references. She does work hard to explain a lot of it, but I got so much more out of the sections that I had read/watched.Â
Content Warnings
Minor: Eating disorder and Rape
emmagreenwood's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Ableism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia