When I started reading this book, I didn’t think I’d relate to so much of it. I knew it was about her body as a “woman of size,” and I knew a bit about Gay’s history as a victim/survivor of sexual violence, but I’m neither of these things, so was surprised. I thought this book would be difficult to read due to the subject matter, but somehow, she accomplishes the impossible and writes an accessible, honest, brave and powerful story of healing. She tells a […]
Memoir about Trauma, Shame, Food, and Body
When she was 12 years old, Roxane Gay was gang-raped by a group of boys from school, one of whom was a boy she had sort of been dating and loved. After that, she set out to eat and eat until her body was a “fortress” that could protect her and couldn’t be hurt. This was interesting for me to read because of the multiple lenses through which I was viewing it. There was the psychologist part of me who had a sort of detached […]
I feel a little lost here, but I still like it
Living in a pretty small, remote town, we make certain to take the kids (yeah…the kids) to a comic book store whenever we are in a bigger city. I walked in to one this winter, and all packaged up just like they knew I was coming, there were the six issues in the limited run World of Wakanda comic series. It hit all the right buttons: Black Panther, so hot right now! Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey, interesting feminist thinker and poet, first two black […]
What does it say about our culture that the desire for weight loss is considered a default feature of womanhood?
Sometimes when I talk to my students about their writing, I use the metaphor of diving and gymnastics routines, and how they are often (or used to be) graded on a curve of difficulty. So a very hard routine that falls short still get high marks over all. So the student who tried to use the “Mandela Effect” as proof of a multiverse gets a lot of credit trying something audacious, even when it comes up decidedly short. And the student who writes an uninspired […]
When your comfort becomes your affliction
I’d already read Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay when I saw her on The Daily Show talking about her newest book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (2017). The interview was great, and I was immediately interested in the book. There was a long wait list at the library, but I picked it up as soon as I could. “These are the ugliest, weakest, barest parts of me. This is my truth.” (2) Roxane Gay has been struggling with her weight since she was gang raped at twelve years […]
A raw and gripping memoir about body, desire, and longing
I read Bad Feminist for a previous CBR, and really liked it a lot. Roxane Gay’s voice is crucial in feminist discourse, and I highly recommend her to anyone who wants to be a better intersectional feminist. That said, Bad Feminist was billed to me as a hilarious book, and it absolutely is not. That’s not a knock on it, but the marketing. I did feel, however, that the marketing for Hunger was much more appropriate and left me more prepared for what I was […]
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