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Book ClubsBad Feminist by Roxane Gay - Feminist or Not?
I do apologise for the radio silence for the past week. I've been swamped with work, so I haven't been able to participate on Ovarit as much as I would like. That said, I'm very glad that reception for Feminist or Not has been positive! It may be a challenge to get comments from readers on the spot, but I think it's important for women to have a space of our own to discuss whether or not a book is actually promoting feminism or if it's just pretending to be.
Moving on, this week's book is also well known, though perhaps for the wrong reasons; Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.
(A reminder that last week's discussion was on We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Join in if you can!)
Some rules before we begin:
Feminist or Not will only occur within o/Books, even if the book would be a better fit in o/FeministBooks. This is because a fair amount of the books we will cover do not belong in o/FeministBooks, and it is better to keep this discussion in one circle, rather than going back and forth.
Only books published from 2010 onward will be covered. This is because the TRA nonsense that mucks up the Feminism tag on GoodReads did not really emerge until the 2010's. I'm sure we can all agree that Virginia Woolf wouldn't give in to the TRAs, for example. ;P
While discussing the author outside of the context of the book is allowed (and in some cases required), I encourage discussion to be focused on the book itself. This is because some authors make repeat appearances, and I wouldn't want discussions to plateau just because all the talking points were established!
While I might reply to a comment, I will refrain from participating directly to the conversation. This is because I want to avoid any bias.
This section will be copy-and-pasted every Sunday.
So Ovarit, is Bad Feminist Feminist or Not?
I REALLY love this series, OP! Please keep it up, I'll be following along.
As for my vote, I want to say not. I read this many years ago so I don't remember it very clearly, but I remember it reading more like a chopped-up autobiography than a piece of feminist theory. It was more about her experience with feminism than anything else. On that note, I want to mention that it was pretty navel-gazey, not something I look for when reading feminist literature.
Missed this one earlier, glad I found it. I read this one so long ago, I couldn’t remember much about it. I think the title is a reaction to the spirit of that time, when any intelligent woman was assumed to be a feminist by default and there were certain standards of behavior and thought we all supposedly adhered to. I think Roxane Gay believe(d/s) herself to be a feminist but admits to falling short by many feminist standards, the way we all do by virtue of living in the patriarchy. What she does here is different from choice feminism, where everything any woman does is feminist. She acknowledges where she falls short and does not claim those shortcomings are feminist actions or choices, but she still calls herself a feminist because she believes in feminism as a movement and an ideal.
TL;DR: yes, feminist.
Not. Imo she takes a useful point (there is no sense in trying to be perfect, especially when it’s to the detriment of being good) and takes it so far that it’s just absurd - into the land of every woman is a feminist, the label means nothing, there are no parameters, every action is feminist.