Some of her writing hits so hard that readers will need to put the book down and contemplate what they have read before continuing. The collection starts out a bit slow, with essays on privilege, Scrabble tournaments, and Sweet Valley High, but only grows stronger as it progresses. Gay does not shy away from the truth, nor does she sugarcoat it. The essays are serious, entertaining, thought-provoking, and brave. She likes music that degrades women and watches movies that “tell stories of men as if men’s stories are the only stories that matter.” The sentiment that we are all flawed is what carries the collection. In the introduction, Gay embraces the label of “bad feminist” because she is flawed and human. In Roxane Gay’s new collection of essays, Bad Feminist, she tackles not only what it is to be a feminist (and a bad one, at that), but also what it means to be a human being.
