What it is to be a Woman

Reading Roxanne Gay’s Bad Feminist” really encouraged me to reflect on some of the discussions that have taken place in class this semester. In Bad Feminist: Take One Gay writes,
Essential feminism suggests anger, humorlessness, militancy, unwavering principles, and a prescribed set of rules for how to be a proper feminist woman, or at least a proper white, heterosexual feminist woman—hate pornography, unilaterally decry the objectification of woman, don’t cater to the male gaze, hate men, hate sex, focus on career, don’t shave.
This quote stands out to me because before I entered this class, and for some time during, when I heard the term feminist, I associated it to these things. In one discussion in class, the idea came up that, to be a feminist, one could not shave their legs or care for a family. Not that I got the understanding that anyone thought those things were true, but it shows how truly engrained these ideas are in us; the fact that a classroom full of privately educated women still pondered what it meant to be a “good feminist”. From the collection of essays be Roxanne Gay, I get the feeling that she is completely opposed to this idea. At one point, she even talks about women not being “good women”. It seems that she does not agree that there is a right or wrong way to be a woman and although she proclaims that she is a “bad feminist”, I am not completely sure that she thinks there is a good and bad way to fights for equal rights.

            While reading this book, I learned that it is very important to critically read any work, no matter how you feel about the author or what they stand for. Just because a person claims they are a feminist, as a woman, I do not have to agree with their ideas. Disagreeing with another woman does not equate to disagreeing with all women; it simply means that there is a conversation and discussion that can be had that has all opportunities to educate and make the march towards equality stronger.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 7, 2017 at 5:28 PM

    I love how you say "there is a conversation and discussion that can be had" when it comes to disagreeing, because that's true, principles like feminism isn't where one credible person says "i think feminism is this", and everyone follows. Especially with the stigmas and so many ways to misconstrued what feminism means to all people, it's so important for the movement to move forward to being open with the way feminism is expressed.

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