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1-Page Summary of Bad Feminist

Overview

Roxane Gay is a feminist, but she’s not like the other feminists. She doesn’t always agree with them or follow their rules. This makes her feel like a bad feminist. But Roxane believes that women are imperfect and cannot be perfect all the time, so they shouldn’t have to try to be perfect in order to be good feminists. Instead of being essentialist (believing there is one right way), we should support inclusive feminism which acknowledges that everyone has different needs and experiences as well as different ways of expressing themselves, both philosophically and physically.

In part one, Gay writes about her identity as a black woman. She also acknowledges that she is privileged in many ways. For example, she is a tenure-track professor living in a small town. In this section of the book, Gay shares stories from her first year teaching and finding community through competitive Scrabble.

Part Two focuses on gender equality and sexual violence. Gay critiques a number of books, movies, and television shows written by, for, and about women. These include Sweet Valley High (series), Miss America (film), Bridesmaids (movie), Girls (TV series), Play It As It Lays, Green Girl, Girlfriends, Twilight, and Fifty Shades of Grey. She also mentions other works such as The Bachelor, Sex in the City, A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Middlemarch by George Eliot, as well as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In addition to these works she writes about her own experience with rape while in middle school. Gay touches on inequalities in a variety of spheres. She writes about LGBTQ+ rights and the fact that the male experience is still valued above the female experience when it comes to what literature is considered “highbrow art”. She also discusses how the entertainment industry contributes to rape culture through jokes about sexual violence or normalizing it altogether. To conclude this section she talks about how fairy tale ideals demand women make disproportionate sacrifices for their relationships which can be dangerous if not done right.

In her section on Race & Entertainment, Gay critiques the portrayal of African Americans in film and television. She writes cultural criticism on The Help, Django Unchained, 12 Years A Slave, Fruitvale Station and Tyler Perry’s films. All of these portrayals are stereotypes that don’t accurately represent the black experience.

Part Four connects the themes of gender, race, and politics through a variety of stories and examples. Gay writes at length about reproductive freedoms as an inalienable right instead of a political campaign issue. She also advocates that criminals and terrorists don’t have to fit into certain racial stereotypes. Instead, she challenges society to end racial inequality altogether by being compassionate when tragedy strikes or injustice occurs.

Part five of the book is composed of two essays that further explain Gay’s view on feminism. She believes in gender equality, but she also thinks that feminist groups need to make room for different types of people. Because she doesn’t always agree with mainstream feminists, Gay considers herself a “bad feminist.” However, despite its flaws in modern society, she still thinks feminism is necessary and important.

Section 0 Summary (Intro: Feminism (n.) Plural)

Roxanne Gay begins her essay by explaining how social, cultural, and political climates are changing in today’s world. She explains that women face many issues when it comes to equality. For example, media often portrays women as objects of desire instead of people with their own stories. Gay then asks the reader how we can bring attention to these issues and offers her own solution.