Bad Feminist (Gay)

Bad Feminist: Essays
Roxane Gay, 2014
HarperCollins
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062282712


Summary
A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay.

“Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.”

In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1974-75
• Where—Omaha, Nebraska, USA
• Education—M.A., University of Nebraska; Ph.D., Michigan Technological University
• Currently—lives in Layfayette, Indiana, and Los Angeles, California


Roxane Gay is a writer, academician, editor, blogger, and commentator. She is an assistant professor of English at Purdue University, founder of Tiny Hardcore Press, contributing editor for Bluestem Magazine, essays editor for The Rumpus, and co-editor of PANK, a nonprofit literary arts collective.

She is the author of the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), and the essay collection Bad Feminist (2014). She also edited the book Girl Crush: Women's Erotic Fantasies. In addition to her regular contributions to Salon and HTMLGIANT, her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2012 and The New York Times Book Review.

Gay was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Haitian parents. She attended Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, received her Master's degree from University of Nebraska and her doctorate (in rhetoric and technical communication) from Michigan Technological University. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/20/2014.)

Book Reviews
Blunt and funny.... Gay floats the proposition that “feminism has, historically, been far more invested in improving the lives of heterosexual white women to the detriment of all others.” It might have been interesting to pair further discussion on this theme with Gay’s defense of Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell’s self-help book Lean In, in which [Gay] argues that “Assuming Sandberg’s advice is completely useless for working-class women is just as shortsighted as claiming her advice needs to be completely applicable to all women.” But if I occasionally wish that Gay were a bit more formal in developing her arguments, her writing can also make a virtue of jarring compositions, of ideas that do not quite fit together.
Alyssa Rosenberg - Washington Post


Fascinating.... An important and pioneering contemporary writer.... Readers will immediately understand the appeal of Gay’s intimate and down-to-earth voice.... An important contribution to the complicated terrain of gender politics.
Boston Globe


A prolific and exceptionally insightful writer.... Bad Feminist doesn’t show us how Gay should be, but something much better: how Roxane Gay actually is.... Gay unquestionably succeeds at leading us in her way.
Globe and Mail (Toronto)


A thoughtful and often hilarious new collection of essays.
Chicago Tribune


What makes Bad Feminist such a good read isn’t only Gay’s ability to deftly weave razor-sharp pop cultural analysis and criticism with a voice that is both intimate and relatable. It’s that she’s incapable of blindly accepting any kind of orthodoxy.
San Francisco Chronicle


Roxane Gay is the gift that keeps on giving.... An entertaining and thought-provoking essay collection.
Time


One of our sharpest new culture critics plants her flag in topics ranging from trigger warnings to Orange is the New Black in this timely collection of essays.
Oprah Magazine


An assortment of comical, yet astute essays that touch on Gay’s personal evolution as a woman, popular culture throughout the recent past, and the state of feminism today.
Harper's Bazaar


Bad Feminist collects the very good essays of ‘It girl’ culture critic Roxane Gay.
Vanity Fair


Roxane Gay is the brilliant girl-next-door: your best friend and your sharpest critic.... She is by turns provocative, chilling, hilarious; she is also required reading.
People


Roxane Gay applies her discerning eye to everything from Paula Deen to The Bachelor.
Marie Claire


Roxane Gay delivers sermons that read like easy conversations. Bad Feminist is an important collection of prose—prose that matters to those still trying to find their voice.
Ebony


Toss Roxane Gay’s collection of witty, thoughtful essays, Bad Feminist into your tote bag. With musings on everything from Sweet Valley High to the color pink, Gay explores the idea of being a feminist, even when you’re full of contradictions.
Self


Alternately friendly and provocative, wry and serious, her takes on everything from Girls to Fifty Shades of Grey help to recontextualize what feminism is--and what it can be.
Time Out New York


Arresting and sensitive.... An author who filters every observation through her deep sense of the world as fractured, beautiful, and complex.
Slate


Gay’s essays expertly weld her personal experiences with broader gender trends occurring politically and in popular culture.
Huffington Post


[Gay’s] energetic and thought-provoking first essay collection will become as widely read as other generation-defining works, like Nora Ephron’s Crazy Salad and Joan Morgan’s When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost.
Essence


(Starred review.) This trenchant collection assembles previously published essays and new work by cultural critic and novelist Gay.... Although Gay is aware of her privilege as a middle-class Haitian-American, she doesn’t refrain from advising inner-city students to have higher expectations. Whatever her topic, Gay’s provocative essays stand out for their bravery, wit, and emotional honesty.
Publishers Weekly


Essayist, novelist and pop-culture guru Gay sounds off on the frustrating complexities of gender and race in pop culture and society as a whole. In this diverse collection of short essays, the author launches her critical salvos at seemingly countless waves of pop-cultural cannon fodder.... An occasionally brilliant, hit-or-miss grab bag of pop-culture criticism.
Kirkus Reviews

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