We take Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie more seriously because she has intellectual credibility, grace and a sense of gravitas about her. The issue with celebrities as pop stars is that, all too often, they become the be-all and end-all of feminism instead of an introduction to feminism.

Look at her housing initiatives in Houston. I find Beyonce to be one hell of a feminist, because she boldly claims her feminism, and when she's out of the public eye she does all kinds of useful, intersectional things. What makes us more likely to see Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as feminist than Beyonce, or Taylor Swift for that matter?Ī: We tend to diminish pop stars because we see them only as the image they project - fun, flirty, sexy, whatever. Q: You've defended Beyonce as a feminist. Nothing is perfectly feminist and, frankly, that shouldn't be the bar, but 'Magic Mike XXL' is as satisfying a moviegoing experience as I've ever had. Black women's sexuality was acknowledged. Women of all shapes and sizes were celebrated. Certainly, the movie was heterocentric, but the female gaze was courted from the first moment of the movie to the last. Their sexuality was not mocked or exploited. Women weren't treated as inconsequential decorative objects. 'Magic Mike XXL' simply felt like a feminist movie. Q: Speaking of bad feminism, are you still into Channing Tatum? Your odes to him on Tumblr and Twitter have been something to behold, as was your recap of 'Magic Mike XXL.' Help us look through the bad feminist lens to see what you see and what makes it feminist.Ī: I will always be into Channing Tatum. In this interview, conducted via email, Gay talks about finding feminism in unlikely places, the need to take care of ourselves and her unabashed love of all things Ina Garten. Gay will also interview Erica Jong at the keynote event Friday night, appear on the State of Publishing for People of Color panel Saturday and give a reading and talk on Sunday. Among them are Celeste Ng ('Everything I Never Told You') and James Hannaham ('Delicious Foods').

The AJC Decatur Book Festival invited Roxane Gay to curate a selection of authors to appear at the Labor Day weekend event. After an hour or so, you’ll see the author of “Bad Feminist: Essays” and “An Untamed State” taking on not just the pop culture narratives that dominate so much of social media, but her own biases, fears and joys.īut it’s her full-length essays, exploring what it means to be fully engaged with the world and the culture around her, that have garnered this novelist, critic and associate professor of English at Purdue University a devoted following.

For information go to If you want to get a good sense of what best-selling author and self-proclaimed “bad feminist” Roxane Gay is thinking at any given moment, just follow her Twitter and Tumblr feeds.

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