There’s no one way to describe Roxane Gay. You can try – she’s a writer, professor, editor, social commentator, mentor and the founder of a publishing imprint, to name a few of her roles. But there’s no need to single out a description when the breadth of her work speaks for itself – and when Roxane is on hand to tell you all about it, as she does here in her conversation with Dua Lipa for the Service95 Book Club.
Given that March is Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day takes place on the 8th, this Monthly Read interview from Dua couldn’t be timelier, as she sits down with Roxane for a deep dive into her generation-defining essay collection, Bad Feminist.
With Roxane’s signature frankness, precision and humour, Bad Feminist interrogates what it means to claim the label of ‘feminist’ while also embracing nuance and imperfection. Throughout their exclusive conversation, Dua picks out some of her favourite essays from the 2014 collection for the two to dissect, spanning everything from pop culture and politics to race, body image, sexual violence and the expectations placed on women around the world.
Key moments to watch or listen out for include...
Dua & Roxane On How Feminism Has – And Hasn’t – Progressed
The pair get stuck in and unpack how the landscape of feminism has shifted in today’s climate – and also how it hasn’t. “One of the saddest things about Bad Feminist is most of the essays are still timely,” says the author, reflecting on how much of her commentary feels just as relevant now as it did when she first wrote it.
On The Brutal News Cycle & How Media Coverage Continues To Fail Women
Their conversation confronts today’s relentless news cycles head-on, from the ongoing fallout from the Epstein files to the ways in which media coverage of violence against women continues to fall devastatingly short. As Roxane puts it: “Men need to have some alone time and think, ‘Why am I like this and how can we be better?’ ... I want to create a world where we believe women are people.”
On What It Means To Be A Feminist In 2026
Beyond the slogan T-shirts and social media posts, Dua and Roxane discuss in depth what feminism really means for us now, and why meaningful cultural change still feels desperately out of reach, particularly against the backdrop of today’s headlines.
On How Books Can Bring Us Together
There are plenty of lighter moments, too! See Dua and Roxane bonding over their shared love of each having a book club, and the joy that building a community and uplifting other writers brings to them both. “I definitely feel like the least I can do is create opportunities for other writers, especially emerging writers, to get a foot in the door somehow. And it costs me nothing,” says Roxane. For her, creating space for others is, and always has been, non-negotiable.
And there’s so much more to discover. So sit back and take in one of the greatest voices of contemporary feminism giving her take on the world today, the work that still needs to be done to improve opportunities for women around the world and how, among all of this incredible work, she still finds time to fit in a daily game of Scrabble...
It just leaves us with one question: is Bad Feminist more relevant now than ever? We'll leave you to decide that for yourself...
Watch Dua and Roxane’s conversation on our YouTube here, or listen to it via the Service95 Book Club Podcast here.
