The book explores, frankly and in detail, what it’s like to live in a body the world feels entitled to judge. Instead, she challenges society to end racial inequality altogether by being compassionate when tragedy strikes or injustice occurs.Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body tells the story of why and how she became morbidly obese. She also advocates that criminals and terrorists don’t have to fit into certain racial stereotypes. Gay writes at length about reproductive freedoms as an inalienable right instead of a political campaign issue. Part Four connects the themes of gender, race, and politics through a variety of stories and examples.
![roxane gay bad feminist essay excerpt rape roxane gay bad feminist essay excerpt rape](https://compote.slate.com/images/ee97667c-bcf4-4f9b-83d0-7ec090991c66.jpeg)
All of these portrayals are stereotypes that don’t accurately represent the black experience. She writes cultural criticism on The Help, Django Unchained, 12 Years A Slave, Fruitvale Station and Tyler Perry’s films. In her section on Race & Entertainment, Gay critiques the portrayal of African Americans in film and television. To conclude this section she talks about how fairy tale ideals demand women make disproportionate sacrifices for their relationships which can be dangerous if not done right. She also discusses how the entertainment industry contributes to rape culture through jokes about sexual violence or normalizing it altogether. She writes about LGBTQ+ rights and the fact that the male experience is still valued above the female experience when it comes to what literature is considered “highbrow art”. Gay touches on inequalities in a variety of spheres. In addition to these works she writes about her own experience with rape while in middle school. She also mentions other works such as The Bachelor, Sex in the City, A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Middlemarch by George Eliot, as well as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. These include Sweet Valley High (series), Miss America (film), Bridesmaids (movie), Girls (TV series), Play It As It Lays, Green Girl, Girlfriends, Twilight, and Fifty Shades of Grey. Gay critiques a number of books, movies, and television shows written by, for, and about women. Part Two focuses on gender equality and sexual violence. In this section of the book, Gay shares stories from her first year teaching and finding community through competitive Scrabble. For example, she is a tenure-track professor living in a small town. She also acknowledges that she is privileged in many ways.
![roxane gay bad feminist essay excerpt rape roxane gay bad feminist essay excerpt rape](https://d2mdqraew06hxz.cloudfront.net/_eightHundred/roxannegay.jpg)
In part one, Gay writes about her identity as a black woman. Instead of being essentialist (believing there is one right way), we should support inclusive feminism which acknowledges that everyone has different needs and experiences as well as different ways of expressing themselves, both philosophically and physically. But Roxane believes that women are imperfect and cannot be perfect all the time, so they shouldn’t have to try to be perfect in order to be good feminists. She doesn’t always agree with them or follow their rules. Roxane Gay is a feminist, but she’s not like the other feminists.