Not That Bad

Roxane Gay edits an anthology of essays on living among people who push women to rank the harassment, violence and aggression they have faced, and to ask whether what happened to them counts. Women who speak out are often doubted, dismissed, mocked or shamed, and the collection takes that response as its starting point.

The contributors are a mix of established and newer writers, performers and critics. Actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union appear alongside writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz and Claire Schwartz. Some pieces were written for this volume and others have appeared elsewhere.

The range is wide. One essay looks at the rape epidemic within the refugee crisis, while others are first-person accounts of child molestation. Many pieces are deeply personal, and the tone throughout is direct, with no softening of what is described.

This is non-fiction, a multi-voice collection rather than a single argument, and it is hard going in places because of its subject matter.

It suits readers who want testimony and cultural criticism side by side, and those who have read Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me. Its closing stance is plain: the idea that an experience was not that bad should no longer be accepted as good enough.