Feminism for BadassesBad Feminist. By Roxane Gay. New York: Harper, 2014.

Abstract

R oxane Gay’s Bad Feminist takes away the trepidation that so many young people feel about identifying with the term “feminist.” On a very regular basis, whether I’m teaching a 100 level women’s and gender studies course or interacting with students whom I meet at conferences and panels, the line “I’m not a feminist, but . . .” seems to crop up. The “but” always precedes a litany of affirmations of antisexist politics, a desire for equality, and even a radical commitment to gender nonconformity. So I always scratch my head, wondering why the moniker “feminist” raises the hackles of so many, even when they clearly have antisexist, antipatriarchal politics. I have settled on the idea that many young people don’t see “feminism” as just a set of politics but as an identity that they must take on and perform. And no one wants to fail at living out identities that we choose to adopt. Particularly for young women of color, there is already a struggle to exist comfortably in the skin we are in. Feminism, it seems, comes saddled with its own baggage as an identity politic. So when I saw that Gay’s Bad Feminist was set to drop, I eagerly anticipated it and then ran out to the store as soon as it was available. I love the defiance of the title and the content. I love the freedom that this book gives, the space it makes for those of us who are about that feminist life but who eff it up on a regular basis. In an era when we are experiencing a renewal of the war on women, through a severe reduction in access to abortion clinics and a pervasive rape culture that seems to have seen no abatement, women, cis and trans alike, need feminism more than ever. This, for instance, is what I tell people when they get upset that Beyonce now identifies as a feminist. Many want to pull her feminist card because she has myriad contradictions. And to them, I say, “I do a million and one things that are unfeminist each and every day. But I also actively work to resist the pull of sexism and patriarchy in my life and the lives of others.” We cannot keep pulling each other’s feminist cards because of our contradictions. And even though many see Beyonce as a bad feminist, I see her