This is such an important point for the fight against fatphobia: you never know why or how someone became fat. Roxane is a fierce critic of rape culture and she showed how the mental health issues stemming from that event catalyzed her weight gain. She wrote that she ate to make her body a fortress that would be impermeable and make her feel safe from male desire. Shattered, she kept it to herself for fear of disappointing her parents and learned to cope by eating. At 12 years old, she was gang-raped by a boy she thought was her boyfriend and his friends. Roxane details the traumatic, life-altering experience that set off her life-long weight journey. She captured my heart through her memoir 'Hunger.' Hunger is a poignant and striking recount of Roxane's life, as told through her experiences with her body. Both brilliant and charming, Haitian-American academic Gay rose to cultural prominence by writing articles for websites and journals including the New Yorker.
In this blog post I will reflect on the work of a feminist and activist who is at the intersection of both: Roxane Gay.
These are sizeism or fatphobia and anti-Blackness: I would argue that they are two forms of discrimination that many seem to proudly exhibit. Indeed, in our society there are at least two forms of discrimination that are so accepted, many do not blink an eye at them.
