Street roots., October 10, 2014, Page 13, Image 13

Street roots
13
O c t 10, 2014
Feminism schism
A uthor Roxane Gay doesn’t quite fi t into the fem inist mold
BY KATHERINE LUCK
. CONTRIBUTING WRITER
eminist author Roxane Gay has
something in common with many 21st
century women.
“I sometimes cringe .when I am referred
to as a feminist, as if I should be ashamed
of my feminism or as if the word ‘feminist’
is an insult,” she says.
So she came up with a different label for
herself. Roxane Gay is a self-professed “bad
feminist.”
“I am a bad feminist because I never.
want to be placed on a feminist pedestal,”
Gay writes in “Bad Feminist,” her new
collection of essays. “People who are placed
on pedestals are expected to pose,
perfectly.... Consider me already knocked
off.”
Gay’s essays are like emails from a funny,
edgy, slightly manic friend you lost touch
with after college. They?re topical,
imperfect, sometimes outrageous, but
always entertaining. As a cultural critic, Gay
covers a wide swath of pop culture ground,
from Tyler Perry movies to HBO’s “Girls”
to the. Miss America pageant. Many of the
essays, Gay notes, were written while “Law
& Order: SVU” played in the background, a
TV show that Gay appreciates and loathes
in equal measure for its frank portrayal of
sexual violence against women.
Gay’s resistance to being labeled a
feminist — even a “bad” feminist — began
during her teens and lasted through her
20s. To young Gay, feminism meant’“anger,
humorlessness, militancy, unwavering
principles and a prescribed set of rules for
how to be a proper feminist woman, or at
least a p ro p er white, h eterosexual fem inist
B
Bad Feminist
by Roxane Gay
short story collection, Gay has opened
herself u p to the notion that feminism may
not reconcile all the contradictions in her
life, but it is a key part of her identity. Still,
she has grappled with the demands of what
she perceives as traditional feminism.
“I fall short as a feminist. I feel like I am
riot as committed *as I need to be, that I am
not living up to feminist ideals because of
who and how I choose to be,” Gay notes.
Who Gay is and how she chooses to be
form the primary subjects of the bulk of her
essays, which were originally published by
outlets as diverse as the topics they cover:
from high-brow literary journals such as
Virginia Quarterly Review and Iron Horse
Literary Review, to irreverent websites
including Bookslut, Jezebel and BuzzFeed.
Gay weaves failed relationships, conflicts
with her students, her obsession with
Scrabble and her middl school sexual
assault into analysis of the cultural
implications of “The Real Housewives”
franchise, rape jokes, “Fifty Shades of
Grey,” and “The Hunger Games” Series. By
the end of “Bad Feminist,” the reader feels
as if she knows Gay like a close friend.
While Gay is deeply insightful at times in
“Bad Feminist” and her opinions come
across as carefully considered, lier scrutiny
of today’s feminist landscape is not of a
consistent high quality. She explains that
this is because she tries to keep her “bad”
feminism simple and acknowledges, “I am
not terribly well versed in feminist history. I
am not as well read in key feminist texts as
I would like to be. I have certain interests"'
an d p e rso n a lity tra its an d o p in io n s th a t m ay
w o m an .”
no t fall in line With m ainstream feminism,
The child of Haitian immigrants, Gay’s
early years were defined by contrasts: upper
middle-class American neighborhoods, the
adventures of the idealized blonde girls of
the “Sweet Valley High” book series, and a
successful career in academia on one hand,
repeated rejections because of her skin
color, alienation from her parents’
homeland and accusations of being an
“affirmative action” college student on the
other. Today, as an English professor,
prolific blogger and author of a novel and
but I am still a feminist.”
Whether Gay’s bad feminist moniker will
catch on with American women remains to
be seen. But for Gay, it’s the only label that
fits her.
“Ko matter what issues I have with
feminism, I am a feminist,” Gay concludes.
“I would rather be a bad feminist than no
feminist at all.”
Reprinted from Street Roots sister paper,
Real Change News, Seattle, Wash.
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Migrants Walk
by G.B.
Step by step
The migrants walk
Bruised and battered feet
Weak and weary bodies
Hot days, cool evenings
Sleep during the day
March during the night
Quick breaks
Dangerous movements
Through the desert, through the sand
Don’t be seen
Can’t be heard
A hopeful mother, an obedient child
Slaves to a promise, slaves to a dream
The obstacles seem worth it
Better than the violence
Better than the death
Left behind
There has been
something
by Ed Edmo
Sometimes it is a song
Sometimes it is a whisper
Sometimes it appears to be. an animal
Then other times
Weeping
I hear it
There has been Something
That has disappeared
From my mother earth
I’m not sure what it was
But
Sometimes at night
I can hear it in the wind
Or
It comes to me
In my dreams
Like
The smell of salmon
Cooking