They express disbelief that fatness (a word they seem uncomfortable saying, or even alluding to) is any kind of obstacle to being a writer. Folks are often surprised when I make this point. As with so many other categories of identity-race, gender, sexual orientation-that lack of visibility is very much at odds with the makeup of the general population. The intersection of these realizations-that I hadn’t expected her to be fat, that I was so moved and excited that she was, that internalized fatphobia has such incredible power-surprised and disturbed me.Īs a fat writer, I have always been aware of how rarely I see other fat writers. Here was a woman I admired so acutely, in a body I wasn’t expecting, a body that in some ways looked like mine.
The first time I saw Roxane Gay, at a reading in Philadelphia for her book An Untamed State, I felt like I’d been pinched.
