Bad feminist : essays / Roxane Gay.

By:

Gay, Roxane

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: New York : Harper Perennial, [2014]Edition: First editionDescription: xiv, 320 pages ; 21 cmISBN:

9780062282712 (paperback) :
0062282719 (paperback)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

814/.6 23
305.42 23

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.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Non-Fiction	Adult Non-Fiction	305.42 GAY	Available	pap.ed.		36748002344705

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there." -- Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?

A New York Times Bestseller

Best Book of the Year: NPR * Boston Globe * Newsweek * Time Out New York * Oprah.com * Miami Herald * Book Riot * Buzz Feed * Globe and Mail (Toronto) * The Root * Shelf Awareness

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

In these funny and insightful essays, 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, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Popular and prolific essayist and novelist Gay (An Untamed State) reflects on feminism, politics, and popular culture. (LJ 9/1/14) (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

This trenchant collection assembles previously published essays and new work by cultural critic and novelist Gay (An Untamed State). Even though she loves pink, feels nostalgic about the Sweet Valley High series, and lets degrading rap lyrics blast from her car stereo, Gay is passionately committed to feminist issues, such as equal opportunity and pay and reproductive freedom. Writing about race, politics, gender, feminism, privilege, and popular media, she highlights how deeply misogyny is embedded in our culture, the careless language used to discuss sexual violence (seen in news reports of sexual assault), Hollywood's tokenistic treatment of race, the trivialization of literature written by women, and the many ways American society fails women and African-Americans. Gay bemoans that fact that role models like Bill Cosby and Don Lemon urge African-Americans to act like ideal citizens while glossing over institutional problems in the education, social welfare, and justice system that exacerbate racism and poverty. 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. Agent: Maria Massie, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

Essayist, novelist and pop-culture guru Gay (An Untamed State, 2014, etc.) 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. Although the title can be somewhat misleadingshes more of an inconsistent or conflicted feministthe author does her best to make up for any feminist flaws by addressing, for instance, the disturbing language bandied about carelessly in what she calls rape culture in societyand by Gays measure, this is a culture in which even the statelyNew York Timesis complicit. However, she makes weak attempts at coming to terms with her ambivalence toward the sort of violent female empowerment depicted in such movies asThe Hunger Games. Gay explores the reasons for her uneasiness with the term womens fiction and delivers some not-very-convincing attempts to sort out what drives her to both respect and loathe a femalecentric TV show like Lena DunhamsGirls. Although generally well-written, some of these gender-studies essays come off as preachy and dull as a public service announcementespecially the piece about her endless self-questioning of her love-hate relationship with the tacky female-submission fantasies inFifty Shades of Grey. Yet when it comes to race-related matters (in the section "Race and Entertainment"), Gays writing is much more impassioned and persuasive. Whether critiquing problematic pandering tropes in Tyler Perrys movies or the heavy-handed and often irresponsible way race is dealt with in movies likeThe Help,12 Years a SlaveorDjango Unchained, Gay relentlessly picks apart mainstream depictions of the black experience on-screen and rightfully laments that all too often critical acclaim for black films is built upon the altar of black suffering or subjugation.An occasionally brilliant, hit-or-miss grab bag of pop-culture criticism. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.