Sesali Bowen

Sesali Bowen coined the term trap feminism, her argument that Black women and queer people in trap music have long been doing feminist work on their own terms, misogynoir and contradictions included, while mainstream feminism looks past them. She grew up on the South Side of Chicago, took a gender studies master's at Georgia State, wrote for Feministing, and became an entertainment editor at Refinery29, where she helped build Unbothered, its platform for Black women. Her work has run in the national press. Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist, brought out by Amistad in October 2021, is her first book, half memoir and half cultural criticism, moving between Blackness, queerness, body size, friendship and money, and it takes mainstream feminist organisations to task on race. With Pierre Phipps she has co-hosted Purse First, a podcast on female and queer rap.