Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is an American feminist writer, professor, editor and commentator. She is an associate professor of English at Purdue University, contributing op-ed writer at The New York Times, founder of Tiny Hardcore Press, essays editor for The Rumpus, and co-editor of PANK, a nonprofit literary arts collective...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
donald exception people
It's disheartening that people think that Donald Sterling is the outlier and that he's the exception and not the rule.
aims ignorant means movement people word
This is the real problem feminism faces. Too many people are willfully ignorant about what the word means and what the movement aims to achieve.
cut equate imposing line maybe people stepping writer
I cut an imposing figure. I am large, and I'm tall, and I have tattoos. I am actually really quiet and shy, but maybe people see me, and they don't want to step out of line, or equate disagreement with stepping out of line with a writer they like.
marathon outrage people shared social
After the Boston Marathon bombings, people shared grief and outrage on social media.
absolutely feminists people radical simply
People don't want to think... I mean, they don't! They just want to say, 'Oh, okay, feminists are humorless man-haters,' and that's simply not the case. There are radical people and radical ideas in absolutely every movement, but that doesn't mean they define the ideals.
attention best bring collective issues media needed offers opportunity outrage people share social speak
Social media is something of a double-edged sword. At its best, social media offers unprecedented opportunities for marginalized people to speak and bring much needed attention to the issues they face. At its worst, social media also offers 'everyone' an unprecedented opportunity to share in collective outrage without reflection.
issues people
Definitely, there is a sense in my writing that people now know me in a personal way. And to an extent, that's true because I write about very personal things, and I use the personal often to contextualize some of these sociopolitical issues that we're dealing with. And to an extent, they're right. They know something about me.
countries hard multiple people
It's so hard to write about countries like Haiti because there's truths behind the misperceptions people have. But there's so much more. There are multiple truths.
affection demands deserve entirely flawed known love perhaps seen sure utterly
I love, but I am not entirely sure how to be loved: how to be seen and known for the utterly flawed woman I am. It demands surrender. It demands acknowledging that I am not perfect, but perhaps I deserve affection anyway.
becomes dreams grail holy romantic supposed utopia walks
Long walks on the beach are the supposed holy grail of a romantic evening. The beach becomes a kind of utopia - the place where all our dreams come true.
bodies reads simply
In Haiti, beach bodies are simply bodies, and beach reads are simply books, because the beach is all around you.
feminism freely future hope marketing moving needs seductive sell women
Feminism is, I hope, a way to a better future for everyone who inhabits this world. Feminism should not be something that needs a seductive marketing campaign. The idea of women moving through the world as freely as men should sell itself.
ashamed change constantly physically sort themselves trying
I think that everyone in one way or another has some sort of body issue. There's something about themselves physically that they're not happy with, that they're ashamed of, that they keep constantly trying to change.
public treated
Public intellectuals are often put in the position of having their words, no matter how off-the-cuff, treated as doctrine.