Roxane Gay at the Wheeler Centre

Watch this interesting video featuring Roxane Gay at the Wheeler Centre. I had the good fortune to meet Roxane briefly at a book event, and she is warm, proud of her Haitian roots, down to earth, and a talented critic of popular culture. Gay discusses feminism, race, class, and popular culture in this engaging conversation.

Bad Feminist

Everyone should read Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay for cultural and feminist criticism. She has a gift with words and retains her humor throughout. She even manages to make subject matter that would usually bore me to death interesting or engaging, such as the essay exploring her love for competitive Scrabble. Who would would have thought Scrabble could be so entertaining, funny, and meaningful? She also grapples with issues of body, sexism, rape culture, popular culture, film, and race, illustrating that no topic is beyond her grasp. She deftly critiques films dealing with slavery or black history (The Help, Django Unchained, 12 Years a Slave), analyzes popular literature (including the seemingly meaningless or trite, such as Fifty Shades of Grey or The Hunger Games) and manages to find depth and merit in all.

She weaves together her own life story with several chapters, thereby inviting the reader to see how we are all a collection of messy contradictions that make us 'bad feminists,' therefore offering a way for us all to embrace ideals espousing gender equality while remaining human. Thus, Gay can enjoy or at least accept that listening to misogynistic lyrics in popular music, or feeling fettered by some gender stereotypes, does not disqualify one from being a feminist. In addition, she critiques classism, heteronormativity, racism, and other flaws in much of mainstream feminism, while remaining open-minded and calling for building bridges. Perhaps the only flaw in the text was not due to the author, but my own ignorance of much popular culture, which made some essays a challenge to 'get' because I knew nothing of the subject matter. Nonetheless, Gay's style stayed accessible throughout, a true triumph. Moreover, Gay gave me her copy of the text!

Seeing Roxane Gay

I had the rare fortune of meeting and hearing Roxane Gay speak this week. It was a beautiful opportunity, and free at a local bookstore. Gay spoke for a little less than 90 minutes about popular culture, her essays, her love for The Hunger Games, sexism, and the need for open dialogue among different waves of feminism to strengthen the 'ocean.' In short, she was brilliant, down to earth, accessible, humorous, and warm. Although I had only read An Untamed State, I knew right away this is a writer whose nonfiction and fiction writing go hand in hand, especially since both share her gift for storytelling. After the talk, I endeavored to purchase her Bad Feminist to get an autograph but, alas, the store sold out quickly. Being the amazing person that she is, Roxane Gay gave me a copy of her book for free and was glad to meet fellow Haitians! I also asked her about how her Haitian background shaped her feminism and briefly discussed how An Untamed State was semi-autobiographical with great delight. I knew as my mother and I happily left the bookstore that tonight would be one of the highlights of the summer.