Bad Feminist
2014
- race awareness in motion pictures
- conduct of life
- african americans in mass media
- anecdotes
- popular culture
- essays
- feminism
- women
- nyt:paperback-nonfiction=2014-08-24
- women, conduct of life
The story
319 pages ; 23 cm
What it’s like
Brisk, candid, and conversational, the voice of a sharp friend talking over coffee rather than a lecture hall. Roxane Gay's essays move easily between wry self-deprecation and pointed cultural critique, so the reading feels intimate and quick, with short personal anecdotes opening onto larger arguments about pop culture, race in film and television, and what it means to claim feminism while still loving things that fall short of it. The sentences are plain and rhythmic, with frequent asides and a dry humor that softens sharp observations without blunting them. It suits a rainy weekend with a mug of tea, a commute where you can dip in and out of individual essays, or a slow evening when you want to be argued with gently. Pacing is brisk and varied, the tone warm but unsentimental, and the emotional register rests on honesty about contradiction and self-acceptance. Its intensity is low in the sense of gentle prose, though it discusses sexual assault, racism, and bodily trauma directly and without graphic detail. For readers who want thoughtful, funny, personal cultural criticism and an invitation to stop policing their own pleasures.
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