I live in a contradictory space where I should try to take up space but not too much of it, and not in the wrong way, where the wrong way is any way where my body is concerned.” And yet, as a feminist, I am encouraged to believe I can take up space. As a woman, as a fat woman, I am not supposed to take up space. “I am hyperconscious of how I take up space. I hope that by sharing my story, by joining a chorus of women and men who share their stories too, more people can become appropriately horrified by how much suffering is born of sexual violence, how far-reaching the repercussions can be.” That’s what matters and is even more a travesty here, that having this kind of story is utterly common. I am one woman who has experienced something countless women have experienced. I do not want pity or appreciation or advice. “If I must share my story, I want to do so on my terms, without the attention that inevitably follows.
“We don’t necessarily know how to hear stories about any kind of violence, because it is hard to accept that violence is as simple as it is complicated, that you can love someone who hurts you, that you can stay with someone who hurts you, that you can be hurt by someone who loves you, that you can be hurt by a complete stranger, that you can be hurt in so many terrible, intimate ways.”
Check out the quotes below to view a small collection of Hunger’s many brilliant highlights. Hunger in particular explores childhood trauma, obesity, feminism, race and relationships, making for difficult but necessary reading. I was a mess and then I grew up and away from that terrible day and became a different kind of mess-a woman doing the best she can to love well and be loved well, to live well and be human and good.”Īlso the author of Bad Feminist and Difficult Women, Gay consistently tackles volatile subjects in her writing. It’s ultimately a challenging book to describe, and Hunger’s through line is best explained by Gay’s writing itself: “When I was twelve years old I was raped and then I ate and ate and ate to build my body into a fortress. Yet saying that Gay’s memoir, Hunger, recounts her life is an oversimplification of the text. “Here I offer mine with a memoir of my body and my hunger.” What follows are 300 pages of pain, honesty, trauma, joy, loneliness, wisdom, despair and power that chronicle Gay’s life. The BMI is a term that sounds technical and inhumane, but it is a measure that allows the medical establishment to try and bring some discipline to undisciplined bodies.“Every body has a story and a history,” Roxane Gay writes in her new book.
#4 This book is about living in the world when you are not obese or morbidly obese, but super morbidly obese according to your body mass index. I was a body, and there were many of us in this world living bodies like mine. I left with a letter confirming that I'd completed the orientation session.
#3 I was weighed and measured, and a consultation with the doctor followed. It was supposed to solve all my problems, at least according to the doctors. I had to hear the benefits of the gastric bypass surgery, which was the only effective therapy for obesity.
I was 26 at the time and weighed 577 pounds. #2 I went to a Cleveland Clinic to have my weight measured. I do not have the strength or willpower to live up to the expectations of others, and so I have had to face my ugliest and weakest parts. Sample Book Insights: #1 I do not have a triumphant weight-loss story to tell. Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.