Perfect is the enemy of good: so said Voltaire, and so implies Roxane Gay in her Bad Feminist, an essay collection that guides the reader along Gay’s own journey embracing her feminism, activism, and womanhood.
Gay’s approach to feminism usually makes it more, well, approachable. She explores the ways in which she could be perceived as a “bad” feminist by more gung-ho folx who self-identify as such: her love of the color pink, her appreciation of the work of Junot Diaz. As an intersectional feminist, Gay also explores these themes in relation to her Blackness: her exhaustion championing Black students who do not want to be helped, for instance.
Gay is at her best when she – as a person, not just as a scholar, narrator, and all-around brilliant human – is present on the page. Her experiences lend dimension to her beliefs; her analyses of some of her favorite (and least favorite) media were some of my favorite pieces in the book. (Her rightfully vitriolic critique of The Help was *chef kiss* perfection).
Essays that veer towards the overtly (and overly?) academic are tougher to get a handle on, and I found them alienating for the very same reason so many find feminism alienating: they made me feel dumb. But if you are on the lookout for a book that, overall, makes feminism seem more approachable, that will encourage you to embrace its tenets without having to be perfect all the time, Bad Feminism is an excellent introductory course.