Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.

In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.

Feel me, see me, hear me, reach me —
Peculiar benefits —
Typical first year professor —
To scratch, claw or grope clumsily or frantically —
How to be friends with another woman —
Girls, girls, girls —
I once was Miss America —
Garish, glorious spectacles —
Not here to make friends —
How we all lose —
Reaching for catharsis : getting fat right (or wrong) and Diana Spechler’s Skinny —
The smooth surfaces of idyll —
The careless language of sexual violence —
What we hunger for —
The illusion of safety/the safety of illusion —
The spectacle of broken men —
A tale of three coming out stories —
Beyond the measure of men —
Some jokes are funnier than others —
Dear young ladies who love Chris Brown —
So much they would let him beat them —
Blurred lines, indeed —
The trouble with Prince Charming, or, He who trespassed against us —
The solace of preparing fried foods and other quaint remembrances from 1960s Mississippi : thoughts on The help —
Surviving Django —
Beyond the struggle narrative —
The morality of Tyler Perry —
The last day of a young black man —
When less is more —
The politics of respectability —
When Twitter does what journalism cannot —
The alienable rights of women —
Holding out for a hero —
A tale of two profiles —
The racism we all carry —
Tragedy, call, compassion, response —
Bad feminist : take one —
Bad feminist : take two