Bad Feminist Essays

One of my closest friends recently suggested that I read "Bad Feminist Essays" by Roxane Gay. She told me that all of the feminist societies at the, probably very liberal, universities that she was visiting in america were reading this book. Naturally, as I do identify as a feminist, and like to be an "open-minded inquirer" (bonus points to those of you who get the reference) I decided that I would take my amazon gift cards I received as part of an academic award for 11th grade last year, and invest in a good old book. 

Now, anyone who actually knows me went absolutely crazy when they saw what I had done. 

Guys. 

Izzy....

bought...

a...

book!*gasps 

To those of you who I have not had the pleasure to meet yet, I should explain why my buying a book is an incredibly rare event. I have dyslexia and throughout my entire academic career I relied on my older sister's past book projects or summaries and the helping hand of Sparknotes, Cliffnotes, lit charts and the likes in order to survive. Its not that I dislike reading in the sense that the topics aren't interesting to me. For me, the physical act of reading and trying to comprehend what I read, is so incredibly strenuous, frustrating, nerve wracking, sometimes impossible seeming, and difficult for me that I don't find pleasure in reading. 

Imagine if you would have to re-read a page three times over. At the same your classmates audibly express how much faster they are than you, by obviously flicking the pages over with pride. Those long evenings spent crying over books that I tried to hard to understand, yet didn't seem to be able to understand are why I find myself grabbing for the film version of a famous novel instead of the actual book. But more about my struggles as a dyslexic in another post. As this one is meant to be about reading a book, and not the absence of said activity. 

Moving on from the short explanation of my interested in books, or lack there of. I want to get to the point, which is not to give a comprehensive review on the book (you guys don't actually think I've finished reading it yet lmao) but instead, a spilling of my thoughts and some sort of academic mind dump. 

Generally speaking, this book has done many things for me. It has allowed me to gain a completely different perspective on feminism. Learning about feminism and its meaning from the perspective of an african american woman, has done so much for me in terms of freeing me from this very one-sided ignorance. The idea of intersectional feminism where instead of preaching white feminism, as Emma Watson commonly does, is quite fascinating. 

Feminism shouldn't just be about empowering white woman, but every woman. And in order to do this, we have to acknowledge our own privilege and where we stand in relation to others. In the grand scheme of things this translates to being more of an open-minded feminist. Thinking not only about woman who are similar to you in class, ability, wealth, culture, religion, health etc. but woman from all walks of life. The key goal is to understand that some feminist solutions might seem completely achievable for some, but not for others. The only way you can see how you are preaching a solution unattainable for others, is if you acknowledge your privilege and how you might be able to benefit from such a solution but others might not be able to. May this be because you cease to realize that your way of thinking completely excludes one group of woman, for example by suggesting a solution to a problem that would only cater to wealthy abled people. 

Topics like intersectional feminism are amongst the many that I have found interest in when reading "Bad Feminist Essays". Another, more physical aspect of the novel which I find very practical is that it is divided into chapters. These chapters are written in the style essays. Which essentially allows you to flip through the book and randomly select whichever essay you want without having to worry about context. As many of you might have already guessed, THIS IS ABSOLUTE HEAVEN FOR DYSLEXICS. 

1. When your reading in public you look pretty smart starting somewhere towards the end of the book, making it seem like you're a well read individual 

2. I can spend weeks focusing on one essay alone without feeling the need to move on or read something else. 

Every chapter is unique in its own way, and thats one of the reasons I'm still avidly reading the book till this day. 

However there are times when I read something and disagree with what is being said. This is when I text my friend to say that we have to hang out and have an educational discussion about this, because who knows, I might be misunderstanding it. But more on that in another post!