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Bad Feminist
Bad Feminist
Roxane Gay | 2014 | Biography
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A mixed bag of essays
Roxane Gay is a gifted writer no doubt, but like a lot of her more prominent work, there are huge amounts of autobiographical information that didn't seem completely relevant.

Her essays on the intersection of feminism with misogynistic pop culture was incredibly on point, exploring E.L. James' infamous BDSM novel Fifty Shades of Grey, as well as other popular novels such as Twilight. She briefly mentions rape culture and how all of the above feeds into this notion.

Similarly her discussion on how race is portrayed in major Hollywood motion pictures is accurately disturbing - showing how African Americans are used in plots as a way to prop up white protagonists (The Help, Django Unchained).

Some of her other chapters seemed disconnected as if they were put in the book because there was no other place for it. This appears in the chapter on Scrabble. (Playing Scrabble doesn't make you a bad feminist).

There were a lot of haphazard thoughts that didn't quite thread together with the rest of the book ie. abortion rights, and male politicians' views on body autonomy. Gay was pretty adamant on her views on this, which appeared to showcase her opinion that she truly is a feminist.

The underlying message was that you may have flaws by enjoying aspects of pop culture, but as long as you are aware of how important it is that women receive equal rights, you can be any kind of feminist. But the book does feel as if she's trying to prove it to herself and to the world which seems rather unnecessary. We believe you Roxane.
  
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
2017 | Action
Loud, dumb, eye pleasing action (2 more)
Jason Statham and a baby
The Rock coaching girls' soccer
RIP Paul Walker (2 more)
We want Han Seoul-Oh back
10-year-old autonomous cars?
Over the Top and a Little Too Far
Contains spoilers, click to show
I put up with the endless runway (was it a Möbius strip?) in Fast 6. That alone should prove I have a very high tolerance for movies that really put the concept of "suspension of disbelief" to the test. The Fate of the Furious, however, had more than a few moments that left me unable to suspend my disbelief. A movie about cars should not have a whole scene showing 10-year-old cars being controlled autonomously (I specifically remember seeing 2005-ish Volkswagen Jetta in a World War Z zombie swarm of driverless cars). Even most cars being produced in 2017 would not have this capability. Also, why would Jeep/Chrysler want their cars prominently featured in a scene involving a hacker taking control of cars in order to create mass destruction and chaos? Just a thought, and I digress. There are more unbelievable moments in the movie, nothing out of the ordinary for a Fast and Furious movie though (winning a race in reverse, anyone?). It's great dumb fun, as always, and if you don't care about all the physics and reality breaking nonsense it's a wild ride. For me though, it feels as if the Fast and the Furious franchise has finally jumped the shark, or should I say submarine? I will say this though, this one scene near the end of the movie involving Jason Statham and a baby was worth the price of admission alone.