Reading diary.

- Bad Feminist. Roxane Gay. A collection of essays covering a wide range of topics, divided in five sections: “Me”, “Gender & Sexuality”, “Race & Entertainment”, “Politics, Gender & Race” and “Back to me”. At the beginning and ending of the book, Gay clarifies the title —she’s a self-confessed “Bad Feminist” in order to accept and embrace herself, with all her natural virtues and flaws, sincerely recognizing that sometimes her actions won’t quite live up to her theoretical standards. But as she tells us “I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all”. 

Gay often mixes autobiographical anecdotes (which range from humorous to heartbreaking) with academically rigorous analysis. Her studies of several pop culture artifacts accomplish the very difficult act of balancing a fan’s perspective with a critical eye. So, too, her unflinching examination of complex social topics. 

The essays about herself start with a casual tone that successfully guides the reader through such issues as the tribulations of academia, both in and outside the classroom. The one chronicle of her experience with competitive Scrabble can perhaps be a bit overwhelming for people not particularly interested in the subject (to be fair, it’s very much the effect that any sports or competition article would have on somebody who was not a fan of said sport or activity); that is her only indulgent essay —and even that one pointedly examines the micro-aggressions that  Gay was subject to for the simple reason of being a Black woman competing in a tournament. 

I found her essays on pop culture especially fascinating. Gay deftly analyzes all sort of items, be they literary (from “Gone girl” to “This is how you lose her” to “The Hunger Games” —to even lowbrow bestsellers like “Fifty shades of Grey”, “Twilight” and the Sweet Valley High book series), filmic (“Fruitvale Station”, “Django Unchained”, “The help” and the filmography of Tyler Perry) or televised (from “Girls” to “Orange is the new black” to “Girlfriends” to a string of procedurals and competitive Reality Shows). She is merciless, both as a critic and with her own biases, examining the good, the bad, the problematic and the enjoyable with equal precision. 

Just as precise are her analyses of profound social problems in her country (sometimes worldwide, truly) —issues of racial bias, of rape culture, of a constant “love the sinner, blame the victim” pervasive ideology in media and in the average person. Gay offers no simple solutions, often turning her criticism not just towards public figures and celerities, but towards us, the very readers. 

Sometimes she will offer points of view that she will admit are not just biased but perhaps outright wrong —her ambivalence towards the notion of a “trigger”, and that it stems from personal trauma (she is a gang-rape survivor) is nothing less than though-provoking. And with the rare sincerity on an essayist as she concedes that her own conclusion is not universal, and will not apply to every one (she concludes that trigger warnings are useless, but admits that this does not necessarily apply to other people with traumatic experiences in their past, and that other people are free to apply such warnings as they see fit). 

And there is still far more —complex human sexuality, notions of what is feminine and what is not, the many types of existing feminism, views on politics, intimation of her own creative process as a fiction writer…

Overall, a strong essay collection that is quite relevant in present times. Will it be as powerful years or decades later, once some of the pop references will have become passé? I would say yes, because the focus is on the many sociological and ideological currents beneath fiction and news items. A smart, carefully constructed analysis of her world —or rather, of the world itself.