Review of Hunger- A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxane Gay.
Favourite Quote: ‘As a woman, as a fat woman, I am not supposed to take up space. And yet, as a feminist, I am encouraged to believe I can take up space.’
Roxane Gay’s Hunger will compel you to reform your views of fatness, body image, and belonging. As a victim of child rape, she tells her story of how she lost control over her body weight. Dependent on food for comfort and protection, she built her body into a protective yet isolating cage. She explains how fatness deters the advances of men with the knowledge that society deems fat as undesirable. Loneliness too affected her relationship with food, a longing to form lasting friendships crippled as she frequently relocated across America for her Father’s work. Food was a constant ally, in schools and universities which questioned her place because of her Haitian heritage. Gay’s intimate memoir shows how weight is influenced by changing episodes in life, however, it should not determine your place in society, nor does it determine your character or intellect.
Anecdotes and social commentary permeate the text, giving the reader an intimate view of Gay’s experience of body shaming. Her memoir illustrates countless incidents of mistreatment due to her size, from the Doctor encouraging her to get a gastric band, to the PR agent who makes a scene finding her an adequate seat. The world refuses to accommodate her body, ridiculing her every time she is in a public space, a restaurant, shopping for clothes, or travelling on an aeroplane. These experiences happen among friends and family, disguising their reactions as concern for her health and wellbeing. Strangers also treat her body as a public space, failing to hide their unsolicited opinion and offering weight loss advice as if she lacked common sense. These stories leave you in despair, inciting anger over the coldness of individual actions and conversations fuelled by the notion that fat is not feminine. However, they also inspire empathy and understanding, with the hope of rewriting the narrative of body image.
Gay situates her experience within the evolving storm of media comments on the female body. Her work provides an insight into how companies capitalise on weight loss, shown by celebrity personalities like Oprah, who celebrate finding their ‘real selves’ as though fat was a costume. Dieting is made into a competition, TV shows such as The Biggest Loser glorify the challenge of losing the most weight, whether or not this be done healthily. Fat is rebellious, it is a visual representation of a woman who refuses to conform to society’s expectations. These examples illustrate the notion that a woman’s worth is determined by how she looks. Gay is an established writer, professor, a daughter, a sister, however, her merits are cast away with daily reminders of her body size. There is hope yet as Gay dispels this toxic culture with evidence of her intellectual worth, her humour, her creativity displayed upon the pages, a visual representation that a woman’s contribution to society should not be defined by a dress size. She has an artistic and literary presence in the world that deserves the space to be acknowledged regardless of body image, gender, or heritage.
Hunger embodies writing as an act that supports women in resisting and dismantling the small spaces they have historically been confined to. Gay confronts and releases her trauma, unreservedly narrating her experience with weight and her search for belonging. Her work demonstrates to all women that they deserve the space to acknowledged, respected, and celebrated, both in the physical world and through their writing. I found this to be an inspiring and honest read, one which is necessary to understanding and transforming our obsession with weight.