I seem to have approached Roxane Gay's work backwards; I began with her novel 'An Untamed State' which I very much enjoyed, and have only now amassed a collection of her essays and shorter fiction stories. But, I'm aware that this is pretty much 'required reading' for any feminist, especially since Gay is such a powerhouse of a voice in the feminist community.

Gay touches on topics from every scope of our lives; from popular culture and their portrayal of POC, to her work as a professor and her fear of public speaking, or her obsession with The Hunger Games trilogy. At the core of this is an exploration of feminism as it stood when the collection was released and how Gay herself approaches feminism. She coins the term 'bad feminist' as a way to explain that though we'd all quite like to be activists fighting the patriarchy with our bare fists every second of every day, we can't all fit into the cultivated image of 'the feminist'.

I genuinely enjoyed this collection; her writing is hard hitting but often quite comforting. Being a film student, I especially enjoyed her explorations of 'The Help' and 'Django Unchained' (the latter being a film I definitely shared her views on as I am not the biggest Tarantino fan). They provided me with a new opinion, something else for me to think about. 'The Help' is a book and film I really enjoyed, but Gay's essay has now made me want to go back and appreciate it again.

What was important to me about this collection of essays was that I felt like I learned something from it. I was forced to rethink the way I view popular culture. More than anything, it made me want to meet Roxane Gay and just talk with her about life and literature and a thousand other things. I am eagerly anticipating getting to read her other works that I own. I think she's an excellent writer and incredibly inspiring.