The Portable Feminist Reader

by Roxane Gay (Editor)

A dynamic and strikingly relevant look at a feminist canon as expansive rather than definitive

A Penguin Classic

For Roxane Gay, a feminist canon is subjective and always evolving. A feminist canon represents a long history of feminist scholarship, embraces skepticism, and invites robust discussion and debate. Selected writings by ancient, historic, and more recent feminist voices include Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, Anna Julia Cooper, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Dorothy Allison, Leslie Feinberg, Eileen Myles, Mona Eltahawy, bell hooks, Sarah Ahmed, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, The Guerrilla Girls, and many more. With an introduction, headnotes, and an inspired list of multimedia recommendations, Roxane Gay presents multicultural perspectives, ecofeminism, feminism and disability, feminist labor, gender perspectives, and Black feminism. Through the Portable Feminist Reader, readers explore the state of American feminism, its successes and failures, and what feminism looks like in practice, as a complex, contradictory, personal and political, and ever-growing legacy of feminist thought.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Essays, Politics, Sociology, History, Anthologies

672 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2025

About the author

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. Her newsletter, The Audacity, where she also hosts The Audacious Book Club, can be found at audacity.substack.com.

Reviews

[Sameena Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fantastic collection of essays that delve into feminism. I am really grateful to have been sent a copy of this - will write a larger review sometime but I love the intersectionality of this text and how much feminist theory it covers.

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply a wonderful collection of essays from such diverse writers on subjects of varying demographics yet equally altogether important of an immense quality. The lack of editor interference was a great choice for this anthology, since the brief introductions from Gay that begin each essay give only the most relevant details about the author their writings. This lets the essays speak for themselves, directing the aim intended by the author into the minds of the reader and letting their ideas run wild through the page, most of the these essays being particularly radical towards the end and despite their crazy ideas, most of the time they are right, and I that is what I love about this anthology. Wollstonecraft did good her Vindication, and I do admire and love that piece of work very much so, but Gay's provided essays hit all the different marks of socioeconomic feminism, geofeminism, radical feminism, Black feminism, political feminism, that it is impossible not to learn something new upon each and every one of the six-hundred twenty pages provided. The back of the book sums up this collection well: it establishes the state of modern / contemporary feminism, its struggles, its strengths, its problems and solutions, its different viewpoints and gray areas; nutshell: illuminating, radical, prophetic (hopefully).

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and thoughtful collection- cannot wait to use this in my feminist theory course!

[Caris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid selection of feminist writings, but anthologies are very difficult to “rate”. Complicating it further, I can’t stress enough the importance of a publication like this by a major publishing house, in our current political climate. Read this book!

In my humble opinion, a few of the strongest texts were “The Higher Education of Women” by Anna Julia Cooper – an absolute classic and one of the most eloquent critical works I’ve ever read. And “Volcano Dreams” by Gabrielle Bellot, a beautiful piece that examines trans embodiment through the landscapes of the body and the earth. Other 5 stars for me were Crenshaw, Willis, Lorde, Huerta, Stinson, and the Combahee River Collective Statement.

The weakest texts were “Under Western Eyes” by Chandra Mohanty and "The Meaning of Serena Williams" by Claudia Rankine. The former is inaccessible and uses a lot of space to say what intersectional feminists have said better. (The two following works by Muslim writers Lila Abu-Lughod and Mona Eltahawy are good examples). Rankine’s work on the other hand, reads to me more like a fan gushing about getting to meet her hero (which could be sweet), but I felt like it missed the tone of both the rest of the volume, and the specific message that the preceding essay takes from Serena Williams, which was better articulated.

A note on the editing: I really wish there were publication dates included with each of the entries for context as I read through. Additionally—and I don’t want to assume why this is the case, but perhaps Gay is just more familiar with some material than others—there is a significant imbalance across the works included. The “gender considerations” section seems to be dedicated to queer or gender-non-conforming voices… however, it feels more like a patchwork of “other” texts than a thoughtful selection of, for example, transfeminist works. On the contrary, sections like Black Feminism are very robust, and Black writers are represented throughout the rest of the volume as well (which was a strength). The same criticism applies to “Multicultural Perspectives”, which ironically seeks to challenge orientalism but winds up lumping so many diverse voices into one group.

Anyway, Gay’s introduction was excellent, and her brief blurbs on each writer were helpful. That’s about all I can say in a short review of such a broad book. If you care about justice and liberation at all, please read it!

[Molly Sutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt like I was in college again and I loved it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant mix of old and new, canonical and cutting-edge, this is the feminist reader you didn't know you needed. But you do, you need this book! Whether it's re-reading an old favorite, or encountering new voices and new ideas, this is a great compilation. And it is portable, for those of us who still prefer printed books -- it's definitely thick, but still fits nicely in the hand.

I would probably have read a book with this title no matter who edited it, but since the editor is Roxane Gay, I knew I would want to get my hands on it sooner rather than later. Fortunately, my library obliged, and it came much quicker than expected. She's done such a brilliant job, I can see that I'm going to need to buy a copy.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When exposure of violence becomes the origin of violence, then the violence that is exposed is not revealed” - Killing Joy by Sara Ahmed

Probably the most important book I’ve ever read. Feels like I just took a college course in feminism, and I loved every second of it.

[Karen Ashmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I generally read most books from the library unless a book is a critical addition to my home library. This book is one of those. I came of age during the burgeoning era of civil and women’s rights and this book personified my growth. Not only am I fan of editor Roxane Gay, I was a leader in the movement.

This book is a collection of essays that were important in the development of the feminist movement. The book is divided into the following sections:
1) Laying a foundation - which included fundamental concepts such as Kimberle Crenshaw’s definition of intersectionality and Peggy McIntosh’s classic, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”.
2) Early feminist texts - way early
3) Multicultural perspectives - including major works from Cherie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, who wrote “This Bridge Called My Back”, which exemplified intersectionality long before Crenshaw invented the word. This book totally changed my life. Yes it was that amazing.
4) Feminist labors - which focused on class issues and the politics of housework.
5) Gender considerations - trans and lesbian issues
6) Black Feminism - which I am proud to say I have read all the authors in this section: Davis, Lorde, hooks, Cottom, Cooper, Rankine, and Irby.
7) Sexual politics - especially related to sex workers, rape, and sexual harassment.
8) Feminist Praxis - women with disabilities
9) Looking Back and Looking Ahead

I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone who needs a better understanding of the birth and evolution of the movement for the rights of women of color.

[Justine Cucchi-Dietlin]

Whew, this one took a while! I felt this anthology did a great job in what it set out to do: assemble essential readings from each wave of feminism that are representative of that era or a theme. I didn't give this one a rating because some of the essays are great, some are just okay, and others are plain bad. However, I think that's what made this a great feminist anthology. Each author approached feminism in a different way, and some authors directly disagreed with each other. I think that's perfect for a collection like this and offers the reader many opinions on a large social movement that has evolved over time.

[Darya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great collection of essays and it meant even more to read this book knowing that Roxane Gay curated it and wrote the forward. My biggest piece of advice (and maybe one I’ll try to follow more myself in the future) is to not feel pressured to read this book in any sort of order. The anthology is structured chronologically and I wish I had started with the essays I was most excited with first, rather than trying to go from page 1 - finish. That aside, I think Gay assembled this collection with a lot of thought and intention, so it’s certainly a book I want to keep around on my bookshelf and come back to.

[Kristen Pollard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one needs to be read slowly, but definitely worth the time. There are so many powerful ideas in here and it's a great survey of feminist thinking. I especially enjoyed the additions on disability and indigenous rights -- two areas that I didn't know as much about. Living in Asia, I do wish there'd been more global perspectives, but maybe there's room there for a second volume.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIVE STARS FIVE STARS FIVE STARS. I want to give a copy of this collection to everyone I know. my only complaint is that it didn't just continue going forever? It ended? Roxane Gay, I will throw all my money at you for a second volume.

[Antonia M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy Allison and Leslie Feinberg’s pieces (to name two that stuck out) moved me deeply.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot recommend this book highly enough - such a thoughtful curation of works from a broad diversity of perspectives and genres.

[Charlotte Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read! Roxane Gay has selected a fantastic range of feminist texts that at times funny and always intersectional and in conversation with one another.

[Quinn Mizushima · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am now more knowledgeable on feminism then I believe I could have ever reached.

Thank you Roxane Gay for this wonderful collection.

[Tessy Consentino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this book! It has a bit of everything.

[Jenny Yates · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of feminist writings is varied, but it has a lot of gems. There are some classic essays from the early days, while others deal with all areas of intersectional feminism. Some of them were a bit too academic for me, and I admit to some skimming - but I found most of them vital and exciting.

[ymorii · Rating 5 out of 5]

the feminist canon & gender studies course I never took at university