Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 12, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"What does it say about our culture that the desire for weight loss is considered a default feature of womanhood?"

"In yet another commercial, Oprah somberly says, 'Inside every overweight woman is a woman she knows she can be.' This is a popular notion, the idea that the fat among us are carrying a thin woman inside. Each time I see this particular commercial, I think, I ate that thin woman and she was delicious but unsatisfying. And then I think about how fucked up it is to promote this idea that our truest selves are thin women hiding in our fat bodies like impostors, usurpers, illegitimates."

"Fat shaming is real, constant, and rather pointed. There are a shocking number of people who believe they can simply torment fat people into weight loss and disciplining their bodies or disappearing their bodies from the public sphere. They believe they are medical experts, listing a litany of health problems associated with fatness as personal affronts. These tormentors bind themselves in righteousness when they point out the obvious - that our bodies are unruly, defiant, fat. When people try to shame me for being fat, I feel rage. I get stubborn. I want to make myself fatter to spite the shamers..."

"I am stronger than I am broken."

"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. 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."

Review:
This book was raw and honest in a way that I could never dream to be. Reading this book was a deeply personal experience for me and I'm not certain that I'm fully ready to review it yet. I do want to say thank you so much for writing this book Dr. Gay!