Roxanne Gay

[Georgepds]

Good article by Roxanne Gay... Her writing is beautiful,and new to me. Two stories where she writes about her weight are on line.

The Body Is Unruly

I wrote a book, Hunger, about my body. I wrote about being fat. I wrote the story of my body, of how trauma irrevocably shaped that story…

gay.medium.com

The Body Is Unruly

The Body That Understands What Fullness Is

Roxane Gay on getting weight reduction surgery

gay.medium.com

What Fullness Is


She is known most for a book called hunger, which I have not read yet. The passages I've read in reviews are powerful indeed

 

[hilary1617]

Thanks for sharing! I feel that in the first article she perfectly captured the sense of frustration I'm sure we've all felt when strangers spew forth an unwelcome litany of judgment and weight-loss instructions, as if our bodies are any of their business. It's maddening and certainly something I don't miss at all.

 

[JackieOnLine]

I've read some of her writing but none of her books - yes, her words are powerful.

did y'all see this? because it made me snort!

A nutritionist cautioned us not to visit online forums about bariatric surgery

 

[Georgepds]

I've read some of her writing but none of her books - yes, her words are powerful.

did y'all see this? because it made me snort!

A nutritionist cautioned us not to visit online forums about bariatric surgery

I saw it too... I wonder what in particular they were worried about..the patient getting cold feet maybe ( which I find really hard to imagine, it's such a pain to get accepted or pay for obesity surgery in the frst place)

 

[southernlady]

I saw it too... I wonder what in particular they were worried about..the patient getting cold feet maybe ( which I find really hard to imagine, it's such a pain to get accepted or pay for obesity surgery in the frst place)

Not cold feet but the “wrong” nutritional info. They want us to be sheeple.

 

[Georgepds]

Thanks for sharing! I feel that in the first article she perfectly captured the sense of frustration I'm sure we've all felt when strangers spew forth an unwelcome litany of judgment and weight-loss instructions, as if our bodies are any of their business. It's maddening and certainly something I don't miss at all.

The one thing she captures differently from my experience is self judgement. At 50, I was at my peak weight (~350 lbs) and had to land a new job. I was worried silly my weight and age would bar me from work

As luck would have it, I was also publishing a lot in a a narrow domain. The people who wanted to work with me could care less what I weighed or how old I was. I got two offers in two weeks.

It's an example of how we can get in our own way. I did not get so much in my way I did not try, long ago I learned to let others count me out, and not count myself out... but I did worry about it.. and weight and age were the problem in my mind

RG is clearly accomplished, and does not seem to get in her own way, despite remarkable difficulties, some of which have nothing to do with her weight

In her writing she clearly calls a jerk a jerk... where I seem to have imagined a world of jerks.. who probably exist.. but did not intersect my professional life

Would that we could all flourish like she does despite impediments

 

[Georgepds]

The one thing she captures differently from my experience is self judgement. At 50, I was at my peak weight (~350 lbs) and had to land a new job. I was worried silly my weight and age would bar me from work

As luck would have it, I was also publishing a lot in a a narrow domain. The people who wanted to work with me could care less what I weighed or how old I was. I got two offers in two weeks.

It's an example of how we can get in our own way. I did not get so much in my way I did not try, long ago I learned to let others count me out, and not count myself out... but I did worry about it.. and weight and age were the problem in my mind

RG is clearly accomplished, and does not seem to get in her own way, despite remarkable difficulties, some of which have nothing to do with her weight

In her writing she clearly calls a jerk a jerk... where I seem to have imagined a world of jerks.. who probably exist.. but did not intersect my professional life

Would that we could all flourish like she does despite impediments

The experience may be different for men


"An overweight woman may expect to be harassed (such as called names or insulted), encounter physical barriers (like being unable to fit into public seats), or be discriminated against (such as receiving perceived poorer service at restaurants or stores) on average about three times a day. Obese men report three times less discrimination than women of the same size, so it may be only a daily occurrence for them."


From "How not to diet" by M Greger

 

[hilary1617]

The one thing she captures differently from my experience is self judgement. At 50, I was at my peak weight (~350 lbs) and had to land a new job. I was worried silly my weight and age would bar me from work

As luck would have it, I was also publishing a lot in a a narrow domain. The people who wanted to work with me could care less what I weighed or how old I was. I got two offers in two weeks.

It's an example of how we can get in our own way. I did not get so much in my way I did not try, long ago I learned to let others count me out, and not count myself out... but I did worry about it.. and weight and age were the problem in my mind

RG is clearly accomplished, and does not seem to get in her own way, despite remarkable difficulties, some of which have nothing to do with her weight

In her writing she clearly calls a jerk a jerk... where I seem to have imagined a world of jerks.. who probably exist.. but did not intersect my professional life

Would that we could all flourish like she does despite impediments

We tend to be our own worst enemies. RG seems to provide a great example of knowing one's own worth and acting with confidence.

Like you, I'm one of the lucky ones whose size hasn't proven to be an impediment to career. Actually, for me it may have helped, as when SMO, it seemed as if I my physical wrappping became invisible or neutral in a way that allowed my accomplishments/capabilities to take center stage. When "normal" (both before massive weight gain and after DS), my appearance/gender seems to come into play more.

It's great to see human potential unfettered by the insecurities that many of us possess. She's an inspiration, for sure.

 

[Munchkin]

Thanks for posting this. I read both of them.

No matter how badly the world treats us, we treat ourselves ten times worse.

 

[Georgepds]

Just got her essays, Bad Feminist, from Alibris

They are both delightful ( the one on her as a scrabble nerd) and insightful (the review of Skinny and fat camp)

I wish I was her student... She has the good essayist's knack of appearing to engage in a conversation, when, in fact, it's a monologue.

Her work reminds me of Orwell's essays... though the subject matter point of view and politics are different. It's a way of making the personal political(or cultural). There is one point in Down and Out ... where Orwell talks of the embarrassment of eating his lunch off a paper napkin on a park bench in front of a pretty girl.It is both personnal, male display, and political, not having enough resources to eat properly.

In a similar way, Roxane (one n by the way) criticizes the character in Skinny as being unable to imagine a Fat person having athletic sex, of even being any fatter than 30 pounds overweight. Here the burden of popular culture as we live it is made personal.

The intersection of the world as it is and the life we must live in it is what draws me to both essayists. It's great to find a good read

Recommended if you are looking. Each essay is ~ 10 pages, so it's not like tackling Summa Theologiae or the Guide for the Perplexed

 

[Georgepds]

Not cold feet but the “wrong” nutritional info. They want us to be sheeple.

Just curious.... what do you consider the "party line" on right nutrition

Post surgery diet , the info I got was

1. take your vitamins , including ~2000 mg of Ca-Citrate, and Fe pills
2. get 90 grams of protein a day
3. get 64 oz of fluid

That's it. Not a word about vegetables, fruit, nuts or fish, all the stuff JAMA says you need to keep your heart ticking well, or avoiding salt, sugar sweetened beverages, or processed meats for the same reason... never mind the finer details on fiber or what you might try to avoid colon cancer (which took out my my poor Uncle Vic)

Association Between Diet and Cardiometabolic Mortality in the United States

This nutritional epidemiology study uses NHANES data to estimate associations between dietary components and mortality due to heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes among US adults between 2002 and 2012.

jamanetwork.com

 

[southernlady]

Just curious.... what do you consider the "party line" on right nutrition

Post surgery diet , the info I got was

1. take your vitamins , including ~2000 mg of Ca-Citrate, and Fe pills
2. get 90 grams of protein a day
3. get 64 oz of fluid

That's it. Not a word about vegetables, fruit, nuts or fish, all the stuff JAMA says you need to keep your heart ticking well, or avoiding salt, sugar sweetened beverages, or processed meats for the same reason... never mind the finer details on fiber or what you might try to avoid colon cancer (which took out my my poor Uncle Vic)

Association Between Diet and Cardiometabolic Mortality in the United States

This nutritional epidemiology study uses NHANES data to estimate associations between dietary components and mortality due to heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes among US adults between 2002 and 2012.

jamanetwork.com

DS vitamin study

This spring and summer many of the 5 year plus DS vets participated in a study on our vitamins and resulting lab values. The study was presented. It’s article A458. https://www.soard.org/article/S1550-7289(19)30777-4/fulltext I don’t have full text access so I don’t see it all. But what I do...

bariatricfacts.org