Feminism is at the core of my person. I study it, I live it, and I for damn sure preach it. I will gladly engage in some fierce feminist discourse and no, I won’t shut up about it. I’m that one girl in your seminar class who won’t stop bringing up gender roles. And yes, I’m that girl at the party who demands to play by the same rules as the boys in beer pong. I will always be that girl and I will always be a feminist.
But wait. I’m not the feminist who can quote Audre Lorde on the spot. (It’s a work in progress) I’m not the feminist who has all the answers. And I am definitely not the flawless feminist that you want me to be. I’m a bad feminist and it’s a damn good thing.
The idea of being a “bad feminist” comes from the glorious Roxane Gay; she’s a professor, renowned author, and yep you guessed it, a feminist! I had the privilege of seeing Roxane speak at Saint Mary’s last week and I’m still trying to figure out how to break the news to my boyfriend that I’m in love with this woman. She spoke about race, sexuality, writing, and her sexy UPS delivery man. She read essays from her book, “Bad Feminist” and evoked the humanness of being a feminist.
Being a feminist is a full-time job and the patriarchy is your creepy boss. Society at large is working their absolute hardest to keeping women of various intersections of identity from reaching their full potential, for if we do we are impeding on more than just their territory, but their privilege, their egos, and their downright ignorance. I’m working hard to reach my way to the top only to be right back down and I’m tired. I’m tired of being the good feminist everyone expects me to be.
I’m a bad feminist ... like really bad. I’m a feminist who listens to disgustingly objectifying rap music. I’m a feminist who sometimes bites her tongue when she hears a sexist joke. I’m a feminist who forgets her privilege. I’m a feminist who is barely surviving her Feminist Theory course! The list goes on (and on and on), but despite all these things I am a feminist through and through. Roxane Gay said it best when she declared that she “would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.” I’m right there with you, Roxane.
I’m a bad feminist and a pretty badass one at that.
