I love it when it says that, it’s super helpful just in case you weren’t clear… Thanks for coming out tonight to celebrate Eat Only When You’re Hungry: A Novel. In a lively and animated conversation with the illustrious Roxane Gay at Skylight Books, Hunter discusses the writing of her new novel-how she created her protagonist Greg in pursuit of a feeling how she grappled with the sociopolitical implications of her narrative’s perspective how she invented meaning from a place of absence. Against the backdrop of America’s fast food empire, Hunter shows how eating can expose both the gratifying freedom and the uncontrollable ugliness that straddles life in this country, threatening to transform the American Dream into an American nightmare. In Lindsay Hunter’s book Eat Only When You’re Hungry, a father travels through Florida in search of his missing son and is forced to face his own demons. Which authors have you had the pleasure of meeting? And what is your favourite Roxane Gay book? As always, share the reading love.As a symbol of both excess and access, food plays a large role in shaping American life and culture. I cannot wait for all the amazing things Gay will produce and write over the coming years. The ambience in the Old Botanical Garden in Zurich was beautiful and the poignant discussions backdropped by a summer sunset were divine. With all of that said, it was extremely amazing to meet Roxane and have her sign my copy of Hunger. So if you want to march for rights, check who’s rights you are marching for. Also, even though foreign workers make up around 30% of the Swiss workforce they do over 50% of the lowest income jobs in the country. Recent reports have shown that foreign women in Switzerland are the most unemployed group with 36%-40% being unemployed, and not all of these women are voluntarily unemployed. Not everyone can strike, and if people do strike and lose their jobs or have other ramifications there needs to be adequate support for those people. Lastly, when questions from the audience came up someone talked about the recent Frauenstreik or women’s strike in Switzerland, Gay talked about the need for accessibility in the movement.
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Women are often damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Losing weight is both glorified to the detriment of bodies in the mainstream ‘skinny’ media and sometimes vilified in the body positive movement. Ultimately, whatever someone decides to do for their body should be their own decision to make. Gay said that whilst it was ultimately the best choice for her mind and body, she also felt that other people in the body-/fat-positive movement were betrayed by her decision. She also talked about her recent decision to undergo weight loss surgery in 2018. Her discussions about her relationship with her body felt personal and yet universal and is a book that I would recommend for everyone. Thirdly, Gay’s novel Hunger: A memoir of (My) Body (find my in-depth review of the novel in the link) was a transformative memoir for me. I hope that I can let Gay’s words help me be more accountable to writing more honestly and giving myself the time to do so. It requires time, distance, growth, patience, and boundaries to write about trauma in a healthy way. When we want to write about trauma it can be extremely burdensome. And I felt personally attacked by this (insert awkward laugh emoji*). Secondly, Gay casually stated that when we don’t want to write about something, it is usually the exact thing we should be writing about.
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This isn’t to say that we should not challenge ourselves and try to do better and be better feminists, rather it means that we should forgive ourselves for not knowing everything and also allowing ourselves to grow. When the stakes are high, so too can be the bar with which we use to measure our feminism. Although, as Gay posits, we are fighting major and complex issues which require complex solutions. Feminism needs to be more inclusive of more women and different types of women. Firstly, that good feminism ≠ perfection. It is hard to sum up everything that was said, but I feel like there are some standout points that Gay made throughout the interview, which are important for all of us to remember and learn from.