Roxane Gay is brilliant and articulate. Early in the book I felt a great pity for her because of the event that she suffered as a 12-year-old girl which greatly contributed to her weight problem.
But the book is about so much more than that, and it is heavily stuffed with Gay’s strong opinions. I don’t deny her right to these opinions, some of which seem almost militant.
Her worldview is a little skewed from the point of a fat person’s eyes, glaring, almost daring someone to slight her on that basis.
She recounts an event she participated in with Gloria Steinem in which the sign language interpreter blocked the audience’s view of Gay and Steinem. As the audience complained, the sign language interpreter sought to reposition herself but Gay told her not to move. This was supposedly such a wonderful thing Gay did for the hearing impaired audience members.
What happened to the rights of the rest of the people in the audience, whose experience was diminished because they were not able to see these keynote speakers? Couldn’t a way be found to accommodate the small minority as well as the larger audience? Why do small minorities need special rights to the detriment of the larger population? THIS seems to be an unfortunate trend in our society.
A lot of issues are discussed in this book, but because I do not mention one here please do not think I do not care about rape, or eating disorders, etc.
#obesity #overcomer @HarperPerennial @rgay