But despite her own accomplishments, Gay doesn’t always view herself in the same light. She admires her opinionated nature, and believes that had her mother not chosen to stay home to raise her and her brothers, she could have achieved anything with her brilliance and humor. Her mother, she says, is the most daring woman in her life. In fact, the voice that matters most to Gay is the voice of her mother. "I’m thinking about all of us before I ever, in my life, think about a white man and what the hell he thinks.” So I always put that first before anything else, because when I’m walking down the street people see my blackness first-and my size." She also thinks about people of color, in general, as well as those with different abilities, queer people, and "all of those who don’t get enough of a voice," she says. I start with black women because I think black women are the least respected and least heard voices in the world. "In general I write for marginalized people. The distinction is necessary, even though, as a fierce believer in intersectionality, she feels it unfair to parcel out identity in this way. On the page I’m just trying to be myself,” she clarifies), Gay acknowledges that she mainly writes for black women and the LGBTQ+ community. Her queer black womanhood is important to note, because although she tries not to think of her audience when she writes (“You start to pander, to be disingenuous. She is a human being and a queer black woman. "I really wish people would see fat people as humans."Ĭertainly, Roxane Gay is more than just her body. I wish people had more empathy and consideration for different types of bodies and didn’t immediately start to approach fat bodies as, ‘Oh, this is a problem and this problem needs to be solved.’ That’s just such a bad way to go about treating other human beings." "A lot of times people see fatness as sickness and that’s not necessarily the case, just like thinness is not necessarily equated with health. "They are not all necessarily diseased," she continues. Our bodies are vulnerable, our bodies are strong they matter just like other bodies," says Gay, whose third book, Hunger, is a powerful memoir about food, weight, and self-image. "I really wish people would see fat people as humans.
Gay deals with a lot of pushback from the world about her body, and despite her growing level of recognition, she is constantly expected to answer for it. Particularly fat bodies, and the way the world treats them. Still, when it comes to the subject of bodies, Gay is always armed with a lightning rod response. But when you're first starting out, you're always expected to have an immediate response, often for 'exposure,'" she reveals. "Now I’m allowed to be more thoughtful in how I respond to things. "It's singing for your supper." Fortunately, with three best-selling books under her belt, she is at a place in her career where she can be reflective, taking more time to formulate her opinions-a privilege she would like to see extended to other thinkers today. "When something terrible happens, people expect me to have an immediate response," says Gay. And that’s exhilarating," she says, adding, "I can be very daring on Twitter." This, though, has led to some impossible expectations from readers and fans, who often demand her to be, what she calls, an opinion vending machine. "I’m pretty shy and quiet, but writing is a place where I don’t have to be shy or quiet.
Gay, who grew up in Nebraska, admits that it is in her writing-on social media or otherwise-that she feels the most seen and heard. Or the time she simply responded, "GOOGLE ME". Often, people come for her simply because she is fat, black, and a (vocal) woman with a platform, but her comebacks are the tweets of legend: Like the time a troll declared her 140-character response to a topic insufficient, and she answered that her reply would be through The New York Times-and it was. The best-selling author, who quickly became a hero for millennial women-myself included-with Bad Feminist in 2014 and Difficult Women last winter, is known for her social media clapbacks. “On Twitter, I just don’t give a fuck,” Roxane Gay tells me on the phone with a laugh. Here, Keah Brown talks to best-selling author Roxane Gay about some uncomfortable truths for our 2017 Women Who Dare series.
They dare to do the impossible, encouraging young visionaries to break-not just push-boundaries, inspiring people around the world to fight for what they believe in. The new generation of #WomenWhoDare are those who refuse to conform.