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“We’re not supposed to like her, but Countess Olenska intrigues me because she is interesting. Gay admits to rather admiring Countess Olenska from The Age of Innocence, and preferring Nellie Olsen to Laura Ingalls Wilder. She explains how she struggled for acceptance at High school, and in a deeply personal account how she was victim of a horrendous sexual attack. We see her as a new professor, starting out on her university teaching career, we experience American fat camps (shudder) with her, the world of competitive scrabble – (so, so funny). Roxane Gay a woman of colour, born to Haitian parents, teaching at a university which she describes as being ‘in the middle of a cornfield’ a place where as a black woman she rather stands out. Throughout this collection, we are given ample opportunity to get to know the woman who wrote these essays. This criticism although sometimes angry is balanced however, Gay freely admits where things work, where writing is good even if she hates the finished product as a whole. The cult of celebrity, the expectations of female perfection, issues of gender and race and the depiction of the black experience by Hollywood screenwriters and directors all come in for criticism.
ROXANE GAY BAD FEMINIST ESSAY PEOPLE TV
While the many American popular culture references went right over my head – I had seen only one of the TV shows talked about and seen none of the several films alluded to – it really didn’t matter at all. Sweet Valley High, Fifty Shades of Grey, and films such as Bridesmaids and Django Unchained all come in for scrutiny. Gay explores feminism within the confines of modern popular culture, as well as her own experiences. I believe women not just in the United States but throughout the world deserve equality and freedom but know I am in no position to tell women of other cultures what that equality and freedom should look like.” I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves. “Feminism is a choice, and if a woman does not want to be a feminist, that is her right, but it is still my responsibility to fight for her rights.
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This book is not an academic text it is deliberately more accessible and relevant than that. Of course that isn’t so, and in this brilliant collection, of funny, brutal, deeply personal, and superbly accessible essays Gay demonstrates, how really feminism is for us all, that we can find reasons to uphold it, and think about what it really means in the most unexpected places. I think for some people, Feminism can feel like something for others people who are cleverer, more politicised, academics and campaigners. When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.”Įven in 2015, Feminism can get a rather bad press, is sometimes spoken of tongue in cheek or with undisguised derision. For whatever reason we hold feminism to an unreasonable standard where the movement must be everything we want and must always make the best choices.
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“In truth, feminism is flawed because it is a movement powered by people and people are inherently flawed. I had immediately engaged with Gay’s easy, straightforward style, her honesty and her realistic feminist standpoint. When I met up with my friends I hadn’t much left to read and in fact finished it after work the following day. I had left it a little bit late to begin reading, the evening of my little Feminist book group’s meet was only a few days off and I had only read two or three essays, which might have been enough to at least take part in a discussion, but I was hooked and for the next three days I read it insatiably. Firstly, however it surprised me, I hadn’t quite expected to be as enthralled by it as I was. Chosen by one of my book groups, Bad Feminist a collection of essays by American writer and academic Roxane Gay has given me a great deal to think about.