But, before I let loose, I should tell you what made me so excited to write, me someone who traditionally doesn't love writing. Bad Feminist was a recommendation. It was always on my to read list. I was continuously told this book would be perfect for me. Then the Women's March, the walk to mecca, happened this weekend and my feminist heart was a flutter. I knew this was something amazing and I wanted to keep the celebration going with reading. I knew this book was going to instantly increase my happiness. Spoiler Alert: It did not disappoint.
Roxanne Gay first addresses the major elephant. A lot of women (and most men) are embarrassed about being labeled a feminist. Hey, Pierce Morgan just used the term Feminazi. I was actually called that same word in a facebook war. Before reading this book I would have been embarrassed but now I am actually proud. We're embarrassed about feminism but Roxanne Gay has reevaluate the word. There's Feminism and there is Feminism. Feminism is formal and academic and it's what most of us cringe at. feminism is laid back, it's an ideal we know we won't live up to but we'll try our best. Sometimes we'll do great and sometimes we'll fail and that's ok. But we'll keep trying but we're all bad Feminists but maybe we can be pretty great feminists.
So start's Gay's collection of essays. She infuses pop culture into her tales and I had to rethink my thoughts on the HBO series Girls and my views on Tyler Perry. She also made me uncomfortable because, I am privileged but being privilege doesn't mean I'm not discriminated again or oppressed, if anything it positions me to better understand my oppression and discrimination. She also wraps race into this. As a white woman, it did make me question things and seeing how race and gender collide is important to. I learned about rape culture, I learned about pop culture's ignorance about women and race and how they can help or they can perpetuate stereotypes. But more important, I learned to speak up.
This political atmosphere, this Trump America, is awful for me as a female and as a lesbian. Since that laughingstock got control of the world's biggest democracy I've faced some serious threats to my civil liberties. I have been told my right to choose should be taken away, this from a man who wants to grab women by their pussies, you cannot tell me he never forced a woman to get an abortion. That Planned Parenthood, an organization that offers healthcare to millions of women should be taken away. I was told that I should not have access to birth control if I so wanted it. A bill is being brought to Congressional committee that says businesses should have the right to discriminate and oppress me as a lesbian and as a woman if they want to because to not do so is denying someone else their religious freedom. Ok, well can I start discriminating people because they are conservative, or I think they're dumb, or they're Christian, or they have green eyes?
So no, I don't live in good times, but hey, I just read The Crucible, so I'm ready to fight. I'm not going to chew my nails and worry. I'm going to fight back. I'm going to call my Senator and complain about education and this new wall (who is paying for this wall?), the repealing of Obamacare. I'm not going to avoid posting articles or my opinions on Social Media because I'm nervous and worried about offending people or being too loud or too annoying (this is me being afraid of voicing my opinion because as a female why should I matter?). I will fight back with those who are arrogant and mean and feel it ok to call me a sheep or a Feminazi or tell me I'm going to hell. I'll post articles too, because I want us all to be educated. I'm going to fight. I'm going to have a voice. I'm going to have conversations with my friends, my family, coworkers, total strangers! I'm going to get educated but I'm going to fight like a girl, because they're pretty damn good fighters.
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