Hunger

Content Warning: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body describes and references rape and sexual violence, emotional abuse, and verbal abuse.

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (2017) is a memoir by Roxane Gay that addresses the emotional, physical, and psychological effects of sexual assault—and how they tie into self-image. Though Gay’s memoir centers her body, food, and self-image, she also confronts society’s fatphobia—the world’s unwillingness to accept fat people as they are due to assumptions about health and work ethic. Stories about fat people losing weight—and gaining society’s “acceptance” in the process—are framed as those with “happy endings.” In contrast, Gay’s story is one of trauma and the painful process of working toward acceptance.

Summary

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body stems from a single horrific event: When Roxane Gay was 12, a group of boys—one of them being her then “boyfriend,” whom she calls “Christopher”—gang raped her in an isolated cabin. Despite this betrayal, the bookish and shy Gay believed she was to blame for the assault.

In the years that followed, Gay ate to gain weight, to make herself less physically appealing to men who might do her harm. She withdrew from her family and had few friends to support her—the worst of these acquaintances and partners being emotionally abusive. The memoir recounts Gay slowly regaining a sense of self-worth and distancing herself from unhealthy relationships. She informs readers that her story is not about successful weight loss—rather, it is her story, a painful and truthful one.

In Part 1, Gay outlines the rest of her book: She seeks to challenge fatphobia and come to terms with her trauma and body.

In Part 2, Gay guides readers through her difficult adolescent years, as she struggled with loneliness and shame after being raped. She entered a series of toxic platonic and romantic relationships, but also experienced one of her first healthy romances.

In Part 3, Gay continues to discuss her cycle of emotionally abusive relationships, her family’s concern with her size, and society’s poor treatment of those living in fat bodies.

In Part 4, Gay chronicles her attempts at weight loss and continues to critique society’s poor treatment of those of size.

In Part 5, Gay tackles several issues, including her working toward a healthy relationship with food, her relationship with her family, her gender and sexuality, and the link between her public persona—fostered by her successful writing career—and reactions to her size.

Part 6, the final section, deals with themes such as fatphobia in medicine, racism and disability, and Gay’s musings on her rapist “Christopher.”