Bad Feminist

The premise of the entire book is rightly built on the misrepresentation and the one dimensional portrayal of women and the female experience in popular culture (film, music, cinema,literature etc). Through out the book, she goes through plots of several movies, TV shows, books, both old and new, to build her argument and wittingly exposes their failure in addressing race, gender and sexuality beyond stereotypes and cliché stories.

Gays’s essay is a witty but also poignant break down of the female struggle, when she describes herself as a “bad feminist” it is to reiterate her belief in feminism beyond the narrowed “sister hood” warped construct of who, what and how a feminist is to act a.k.a the perfect feminist.

Feminists are ‘just women who don’t want to be treated like shit.’”–Roxane Gay, from “Bad Feminist: Take One”

She is quick to admit and embrace her “flawed” personality, her love for everyday trivial societal guilty pleasures like fashion, being loved and taken care of by another human being, her fears of loneliness and self image struggles, her love for the color pink, to the somewhat “Anti-Feminist” type of entertainment she indulges in.

However she uses this to debunk the misconstrued idea men and women alike have of a feminist. She states,

I have certain… interests and personality traits and opinions that may not fall in line with mainstream feminism, but I am still a feminist. I cannot tell you how freeing it has been to accept this about myself.

She carefully weaves in her own struggles and that of other women, she goes as far as to talk about her own experience of being sexually abused in school to ground her arguments. She never makes the narratives about herself or the victims, but rather aligns them to the broader tenets of feminism. The economic, social and political equality across all genders, sexuality and race.

She heavily relies on the cultural criticism of mainstream entertainment to set the tone of her discussions on issues like race & entertainment, gender & sexuality, race & gender, sexual violence. E.g. On the narcissist “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Twilight” she laments ” is it really news worthy or is the response to Fifty shades a depressing commentary on the state of modern desire”.

Gay cites and critiques crude lyrics in Robin Thicke’s most popular song “Blurred lines” that openly encourages sexual violence towards women, the unchecked abuse of women and young girls by male celebrities to politicians openly justifying and categorizing rape etc. She advocates against the far reaching real world consequences of policy often passed by male politicians have on the reproductive rights of women.

Being Haitian-American, the gist of her exploration and criticism is from a wholesomely embracing intersectional feminist perspective.

Gays critique is hugely centered on the one dimensional vision of the world in which the white, middle class, heterosexual male is the standard. From his patriarchal pedestal he sets the directions and discourse of humanity and the rest have to appease or aspire towards that standard. A total let down to the complex existence of the human being in its varied taste and preferences, shades and colors, desires and interest.