"In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are zroutinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bulliedy for speaking out. Highlighting the stories of well-known actors, writers, and experts, as well as new voices being published for the first time, Not That Bad covers a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation and street harassment. Often deeply personal and always unflinchingly honest, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that "not that bad" must no longer be good enough."--Page [2] of cover

Fragments / Aubrey Hirsch -- Slaughterhouse Island / Jill Christman -- & the truth is, I have no story / Claire Schwartz -- Luckiest MILF in Brooklyn / Lynn Melnick -- Spectator: my family, my rapist, and mourning online / Brandon Taylor -- Sun / Emma Smith-Stevens -- Sixty-three days / AJ McKenna -- Only the lonely / Lisa Mecham -- What I told myself / Vanessa Mártir -- Stasis / Ally Sheedy -- Ways we are taught to be a girl / xTx -- Floccinaucinihilipilification / So Mayer -- Life ruiner / Nora Salem -- All the angry women / Lyz Lenz -- Good girls / Amy Jo Burns -- Utmost resistance: law and the queer woman or How I sat in a classroom and listened to my male classmates debate how to define force and consent / V.L. Seek -- Bodies against borders / Michelle Chen -- Wiping the stain clean / Gabrielle Union -- What we didn't say / Liz Rosema -- I said yes / Anthony Frame -- Knowing better / Samhita Mukhopadhyay -- Not that loud: quiet encounters with rape culture / Miriam Zoila Pérez -- Why I stopped / Zoë Medeiros -- Picture perfect / Sharisse Tracey -- To get out from under it / Stacey May Fowles -- Reaping what rape culture sows: live from the killing fields of growing up female in America / Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes -- Invisible light waves / Meredith Talusan -- Getting home / Nicole Boyce -- Why I didn't say no / Elissa Bassist