Over the years, Gay lost and gained weight. I could become more solid, stronger, safer.” “I ate because I understood that I could take up more space. No longer feeling safe and not knowing how to talk to her family about what happened, she turned to food. The story of Gay’s hunger and unruly body begins when she was 12 years old and raped by a group of boys. “Women continue to try to bend themselves to societal will,” she notes.
In this brave confessional, she offers a searing critique of the media and the weight-loss industry, both of which are programmed to convince women to shape themselves into an idealized image. Gay is renowned for exploring the intersections between race, gender, and popular culture in her writing. It is a powerful lie to equate thinness with self-worth,” writes best-selling author Roxane Gay in her latest book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.
