2.5 stars. The title of this book is what made me buy it. I personally have been made to feel like a bad feminist because i took my husband's last name, because i'm not sure if i agree with forcing companies to buy health insurance for their employees, because i staunchly love makeup and fashion, etc. Before i bought it, though, i read the essay by the same name that's available on the internet. It rang very true with me, and it convinced me that even though i feel like i don't fit the profile for a feminist, i still am one. I wanted to hear Roxane Gay expound upon feminism, because i've lost touch with it and she seemed like someone i might actually want to listen to. 
 I hesitated, though, after i downloaded the preview. The first essay had nothing to do with feminism. Still, i decided that if i liked and respected Gay's Bad Feminism essay as much as i did, i ought to listen to what else she has to say, about whatever she thinks is important. Race, pop culture, whatever. So i took the plunge. 
 Unfortunately, the Bad Feminist essay just about covers her thoughts on the matter. It is barely expounded upon in this book. There were a couple of fun stories and a whole lot of angry passionate essays and a lot of discussions of specific items of current pop culture and how they make the author feel, and not a lot of discussion about the state of feminism and the identity of the modern feminist. I was really hoping to find in this book a real critique of feminism and the way that it tends to get outraged over nothing, but Gay's stance is actually pretty supportive of all the little offenses that feminists tend to take. So i suppose it opened my mind a little bit there. I still find it frustrating that feminists tend to often be the ones vilifying femininity, and i was hoping to see someone talk about that topic. Not really discussed in this book. 
 While variety is good, Gay's insight on the various topics she covered ranged from keen to rather off-base. There were things that she wrote about a little too poetically without explaining what the hell she even meant. I know it's hard to be objective about something you're passionate about, but if you can't write about it in a way that might change people's minds on the subject, then what's the point? I guess i'm just not the audience for political rants. If i wanted to read that stuff, i would read blogs. This book felt very much like a collection of blog posts, which i think might actually be what it is. From a book, i want more substance. 
 That's a very vague way of critiquing this book, but suffice it to say it wasn't really what i wanted it to be. Go read the essay Bad Feminist and save your eight bucks.