Women are dogged by the idea of perfection. We have to have it all. We have to be the ideal everything. We can’t cut corners, we can’t not be polished and polite, we can’t not be ambitious but you can’t be too ambitious either. Feminism can get caught up in that. It’s easy to be told “you’re not doing feminism right.” It can be easy to think you’re not doing feminism right – it’s one of the reasons, I think, many women are reluctant to call themselves feminist. If you’re not constantly out beating the drum for equality and in people’s faces about how women are equal, you must not be a feminist. (And if you’re doing those things, you must be an awfully unpleasant person to be around, so why would you *want* to be a feminist – but that’s another rant.)
So I appreciate Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay’s book of essays about doing your best at feminism. No one – probably not even Gloria Steinem – is a “perfect” feminist, and what the hell does being a “perfect” feminist mean anyway? Who knows? More importantly, who cares? We are all doing our best to live our lives, asking for or demanding equality in the process.
Recommended.