Abject Bodies Reclaiming Equality: Educating Fat Awareness through Uncomfortable Truths in Roxane Gay's Memoir Hunger

Abstract

The study examines Roxane Gay's memoir Hunger, A Memoir of (My) Body and its complicated portrayal of the feminine fat body through the critical lens of Kristeva’s concept of Abjection. Using close textual analysis, the paper depicts how Gay, a sexual assault survivor who battles obesity, employs her personal narrative to challenge deeply rooted cultural expectations about fat women's bodies. Fat studies and concept of Abjection provide theoretical framework for understanding how her memoir Hunger, A Memoir of (My) Body depicts the psychological and physical impacts of traumatic experiences of being Fat. The paper argues how Gay’s exploration of body politics, fatness, and body image issues may be examined through the lens of Kristeva’s abjection. Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection emphasizes the centrality of the repulsion caused by physical experience, and explains consequent sociological and environmental behaviors. Abjection, a psychoanalytical phenomenon is conceptualized as an acute state of revulsion and the subsequent rejection of disgusting source. The concept of abjection intersects with the phenomenology of being fat. Hunger, A Memoir of (My) Body moves beyond human experience to become an effective tool for fat social justice. This is especially pertinent in South Asia, where similar societal pressures and expectations regarding women's bodies persist. To empower South Asian women, educational programs can effectively use a framework that promotes self-acceptance and remove the strain of cultural expectations, as proposed by Gay's memoir.