Rejection: Fiction

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, sexual content, graphic violence, mental illness, racism, sexual violence, bullying, and emotional abuse.

The Feminist is the title character of the first story in Tulathimutte’s collection. He is characterized as a white man who centers his identity exclusively on feminism and gender dynamics. This makes him overly deferential to women and skeptical of other men. The Feminist is vocal about his worldview to show women that they can trust him. However, it also obfuscates any other aspects of his personality, which is why it is impossible for him to form a meaningful connection with the women he is interested in. Heightening this absence of other personality elements is the author’s choice to depict The Feminist without a name. (In “Main Character,” The Feminist’s name is revealed to be Craig.)

The Feminist carries the misguided belief that virtue-signaling entitles him to love and sex. Because he keeps failing at getting into a relationship, he seeks pity as a consolation prize to validate his efforts. He relies on his only friend, Bee from “Main Character,” to give him that pity, convinced that Bee’s degree of intersectional marginalization as an agender queer person of color elevates the sympathy they extend.