Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist covers a lot of ground: reviews of Fifty Shades of Grey, The Help, Django, and The Hunger Games. A disturbing story of her rape. Takes on race in America. Plenty of personal details. But my favorite essay in Bad Feminist is “Typical First Year Professor” where Roxane Gay experiences all of the challenges of teaching college students that I do. You’ll find that Roxane Gay is a complicated person with a lot on her mind. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
[INTRODUCTION]
Feminism (n.): Plural
[ME]
Feel Me, See Me, Hear Me, Reach Me
Peculiar Benefits
Typical First Year Professor
To Scratch, Claw, or Grope Clumsily or Frantically
{GENDER & SEXUALITY]
How to Be Friends with Another Woman
Girls, Girls, Girls
I Once Was Miss America
Not Here to Make Friends
How We All Lose
Reaching for Catharsis: Getting Fat Right (or Wrong) and Diana Spechler’s Skinny
The Carless Language of Sexual Violence
What We Hunger For
The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion
The Spectacle of Broken Men
A Tale of Three Coming Out Stories
Beyond the Measure of Men
Some Jokes are Funnier Than Others
Dear Young Ladies Who Love Chris Brown So Much They Would Let Him Beat Them
Blurred Lines, Indeed
The Trouble With Prince Charming, or He Who Trespassed Against Us
[RACE & ENTERTAINMENT]
The Solace of Preparing Fried Foods and Other Quaint Remembrances from 1960s Mississippi: Thoughts on The Help
Surviving Django
Beyond the Struggle Narrative
The Morality of Tyler Perry
The Last Day of a Young Black Man
We Less Is More
[POLITICS, GENDER & RACE]
The Politics of Respectability
When Twitter Does What Journalism Cannot
The Alienable Rights of Women
Holding Out for a Hero
A Tale of Two Profiles
The Racism We All Carry
Tragedy. Call. Compassion. Response.
[BACK TO ME]
Bad Feminist: Take One
Bad Feminist: Take Two
Acknowledgements
I have it on my kindle. Have to get to it. Her novel is well thought of too.
Patti, Roxane Gay covers a lot of ground in this book. Plenty of subjects and interesting takes!
You know I’ll be getting a copy.
Smfft. Chortle.
Bob, you are such a kidder! But your Seahawks have a tough game tomorrow against the Eagles. Today’s WALL STREET JOURNAL has the headline: SANCHEZ FACES HIS OLD COACH.
I’ll pass on the book; sounds too serious for me, at least during this season.
Too early for pro football talk, George, today is all about the college game. DUCKS WON last night and are in the 4-team playoff. Today the other spots are finalized. I’m hoping, though I don’t expect it to happen, that both Alabama and Florida St. are upset and that both TCU and Baylor win. Just ’cause it will complicate the process, with the Ducks already secure.
Rick, I’m looking forward to the College Football Playoffs, too!