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A review by emmabeckman
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
3.0
As far as a compilation of personal essays detailing one person's opinions and experiences, this was closer to a 4-star book. I appreciated the author's preferences and unique insight as a daughter of immigrants, a woman of color in modern America.
And yet. (One of the most annoying repetitions in this book was this specific two-word statement as a way to introduce a second side of a single coin...)
This book was billed as a world-changing, influential, work-of-the-times feminist book. It was most certainly not. I disagree strongly with the author's view of feminism in regards to herself (I know, I can't be her judge and jury as her experience is hers alone and I would never let her dictate my own experience). But after railing on for essay after essay about how various feminism-related issues have not been expressed or valued in a feminist-enough way, she then ends the compilation by saying that she's a "bad feminist" meaning that she herself doesn't follow her own doctrine. "Do as I say, not as I do" at its most definitive, I suppose. I don't know. I supposed I just didn't like someone trying to pontificate about how everyone should live their lives when they themselves don't even follow it was a little condescending to me as a modern woman and an open feminist.
So as I saw, as far as essays of a unique experience, it was fine. As a feminist-literature-of-our-time, there are better ones out there.
And yet. (One of the most annoying repetitions in this book was this specific two-word statement as a way to introduce a second side of a single coin...)
This book was billed as a world-changing, influential, work-of-the-times feminist book. It was most certainly not. I disagree strongly with the author's view of feminism in regards to herself (I know, I can't be her judge and jury as her experience is hers alone and I would never let her dictate my own experience). But after railing on for essay after essay about how various feminism-related issues have not been expressed or valued in a feminist-enough way, she then ends the compilation by saying that she's a "bad feminist" meaning that she herself doesn't follow her own doctrine. "Do as I say, not as I do" at its most definitive, I suppose. I don't know. I supposed I just didn't like someone trying to pontificate about how everyone should live their lives when they themselves don't even follow it was a little condescending to me as a modern woman and an open feminist.
So as I saw, as far as essays of a unique experience, it was fine. As a feminist-literature-of-our-time, there are better ones out there.