Roxane Gay’s Brief But Spectacular take on effective ways of beg heard | PBS NewsHour

Contents:

• ‘I’LL ALWAYS BE A BAD FEMIST!’: ROXANE GAY ON LOVE, SUCCS – AND UPSETTG PIERS MAN
• ROXANE GAY
• WHAT TO READ IF YOU HAVEN'T YET READ ROXANE GAY
• ROXANE GAY: THE BAD FEMIST MANIFTO
• ROXANE GAY LISTS 13 RUL FOR FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS
• BE BIGGER, FIGHT HARR: ROXANE GAY ON A LIFETIME OF 'HUNGER'
• SIMPLE JTICE ROXANE GAY, STILL THE VICTIM
• ROXANE GAY: ‘GENR FASCISM IS ON THE RISE’
• ROXANE GAY’S BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR TAKE ON EFFECTIVE WAYS OF BEG HEARD

‘I’LL ALWAYS BE A BAD FEMIST!’: ROXANE GAY ON LOVE, SUCCS – AND UPSETTG PIERS MAN

Th was Roxane Gay propelled to the lerary stratosphere and – as such fairytal tend to go – sted to be forever after probed about the current state of, ne years on, do the wrer, edor, profsor, podster, cultural cric, and Gloria Steem Endowed Chair Media, Culture and Femist Studi at Rutgers Universy, New Jersey, still nsir herself a bad femist? “I thk I’m a better femist now than I was, ” says Gay when we meet on Zoom.

”It is mid-morng New York and Gay, 48, is drkg a takeaway cup of ffee the eav of the brownstone hoe she shar wh her wife Debbie Millman.

“I am a wonrful marriage, ” Gay tells me. ”As an terviewee, Gay keeps her distance. Such quali are too often terpreted as ldns or ferocy women, but the abidg imprsn Gay giv is of someone who is not gog to promise herself.

ROXANE GAY

”Last year Gay argued that ncel culture “is the bogeyman that people have e up wh to expla away bad behavur” and she prefers to thk terms of nsequence culture. ”In Bad Femist, Gay admted listeng to “thuggish rap … even though the lyrics are gradg to women and offend me to my re”. More recently she took her podst – The Roxane Gay Agenda, which she talks, mostly to Black women, about issu cludg race, femism, pop culture and polics – off Spotify over s “unfettered accs” to the “misrmatn” spread by Joe isn’t nsirg leavg Twter, notg that sce Elon Mk’s takeover the platform hasn’t “gotten measurably worse for me bee ’s always been terrible.

” The week after we speak Gay is one of nearly 1, 000 New York Tim ntributors to sign an open letter nmng the newspaper’s verage of trans, non-bary, and genr non-nformg people. ’”Gay is jugglg an overwhelmg number of projects: her podst and publishg imprt, film and TV scriptwrg (she was the first Black woman to wre for Marvel, penng the Black Panther: World of Wakanda ic seri), a book of wrg advice lled How to Be Heard, a llectn of TV cricism, a pilatn of opn piec for the New York Tim and the Guardian US, and “a few novels” – cludg a young adult novel and – y, the mours are te – a romance wh Channg Tatum. Her mother has stage four ncer and last year Gay’s brother, Joel, died sudnly at the age of 43.

”Gay and her two younger brothers grew up a lovg, relig, strict hoehold Omaha, Nebraska. ”‘The world feels entled to your trma’ … Hunger, Gay wrote spare and ntatory prose of what she had touched upon Bad Femist.

WHAT TO READ IF YOU HAVEN'T YET READ ROXANE GAY

After, Gay turned to food, and turned her body to a fortrs. By the end of Hunger, which remas the harst thg she’s ever done, Gay had ma a tentative peace wh her body. ”In 2018, Gay unrwent weight loss surgery.

“That’s one of the key thgs I talk about whenever I talk about wrg trma, ” Gay says.

”Roxane Gay will appear at the Women of the World ftival, Royal Ftival Hall, London, on 12 March and is on tour the UK at the Usher Hall, Edburgh (9 March), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (11 March), the Fom Alumni Audorium at the Universy of Exeter (14 March) and The Fom, Bath (15 March and will be livtreamed on Fane Onle. LattSearchMy Boss Ma Me Post ThisYour employer n put lims on what you put out on social media, but should not force you to spam your Roxane GayThe Thrill of the Office CshWhen everythg is still possible, take a moment to enjoy a work csh. Jt don’t do anythg unwise, or Roxane GayIt’s Work, Not Junr HighSometim ’s necsary to remd yourself that earng a livg shouldn’t be a populary Roxane Gay.

ROXANE GAY: THE BAD FEMIST MANIFTO

MoreRoxane Gay’s wrg appears “Bt Amerin Mystery Stori 2014, ” “Bt Amerin Short Stori 2012, ” “Bt Sex Wrg 2012, ” A Public Space, McSweeney’s, T Hoe, Oxford Amerin, Amerin Short Fictn, Virgia Quarterly Review and many others.

And how this film als wh fatns is egreg: exploative and at tim Roxane GayCops Don’t Belong at PriMorn Pri celebratns began wh a rebelln agast the police. We have not fotten Roxane Gay. This summer has been the summer of Roxane Gay, and the world is the better for .

As Gay told The Great Disntent, she started to publish her work "very refully" lerary journals the late '90s. And if all the chatter mak you want to dive to Gay's work, here are some fantastic says and stori by the wrer you n read now, for ee, to nvce you why you should be a Roxane Gay fangirl, Magaze: "Motherfuckers"A brief and quietly vastatg story about a kid named Gérard who mov to Ameri om Hai.

ROXANE GAY LISTS 13 RUL FOR FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS

Gay, who has Haian parents and grew up Nebraska “raised as a Haian-Amerin, ” imbu the short scen wh a potent mix of sendhand and firsthand sentence: “'Je te tte, ' he says.

”BuzzFeed: "Not Here to Make Friends"The tle is a monly tmpeted battle cry for female realy petors, whether they’re fightg for a bachelor or a molg ntract, but Gay to ame her wish for more unlikeable female characters lerature. "xoJane: "My Body is Wildly Undiscipled and I Deny Myself Nearly Everythg I Dire"In the aftermath of this year’s Biggt Loser fale, which a nttant lost what many nsired to be an unhealthy amount of weight, Gay nsired her own relatnship to her body. ” She ticks off a list of ways she tri to make her “wildly undiscipled” body more acceptable — by wearg dark cloth, by not eatg junk food public, and by nyg herself over and over problem of body image Ameri is real, and Gay is not aaid to reveal the parts of herself that don’t f to the typil female weight loss narrative of privatn → thns → happs.

”New York Magaze: "The 10 Bt Books About Morn Virgs"Ask a normal person for a list of book remendatns, and you’ll (probably) get one, but ask Gay for a list of book remendatns and she’ll give you a genre-hoppg digt of lerature that registers pretty much across the board on the high-low culture matrix. ” A ton of those piec me out after he scribed g Twter as “like wrg a novel whout the letter P, ” and all of them said he was out of touch, a lame du who jt didn’t get , yadda yadda Here To BuyWhat set Gay’s piece apart was that she criqued Franzen for ignorg somethg important — wrers who aren’t as succsful as Franzen need Twter to promote their books, munite wh their fellow thors, and build a lerary work.

BE BIGGER, FIGHT HARR: ROXANE GAY ON A LIFETIME OF 'HUNGER'

Gay’s bt advice about social media is to chill the F out. “Do somethg where you are willg to show that you give a damn, however you terpret givg a damn, ” Gay wr. '”The Hairp: "Adventur wh UPS Man"Those who follow Gay on Twter will know that she has an ongog flirtatn wh her UPS Man (whom she has sce moved away om — oh, the humany!

SIMPLE JTICE ROXANE GAY, STILL THE VICTIM

” Gay bemoans the lack of real, reprentative exampl of young adult women we have on televisn and the movi, referencg the new-at-the-time first season of Girls. Acrdg to Gay, the problem is not that Girls is a show ma by and about privileged whe people — the problem is that there are not enough other shows creatg stori that ls privileged and ls whe women n relate Here To WatchKey sentence: “Every girl or once-was-girl has a show that would be bt for her. ”Kill Author: "Important Thgs to Know About Career Girls"Gay’s femism is clearly legible her nonfictn, but her fictn bears , too, though sometim subtler ways.

ROXANE GAY: ‘GENR FASCISM IS ON THE RISE’

The now-funct journal Kill Author published Gay’s story s send issue, and reads like eher a cryptic third-person diary, an aspiratnal stctnal manual, or not om a spy, pendg on who you thk is sentence: “She tak dictatn and mak note not of what he says, but rather what she thks.

ROXANE GAY’S BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR TAKE ON EFFECTIVE WAYS OF BEG HEARD

”Frigg Magaze: "Law & Orr: The Complete Seri"Gay sps her love for Law & Orr — ”the exquise dramas of ()jtice” — to a agmented, hntg seri of vigt. Roxane Gay is the gold standard, and she’s takg along for the ri.

We should all be such bad rgay/Twter; Trae Patton/NBC; HBO; NBC.