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Waterloo-which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866-was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. But that doesn’t make other stories less valid, especially since untreated and invalidated eating disorders can be so dangerous. It’s easier to talk about your story when it’s obvious and cookie-cutter and elicits validation and money from insurance companies and the general public. However, I feel we need to have the courage to break out of this small mold. People are scared their stories aren’t valid so they don’t tell them, and I totally get why. Weight and weight loss have a genetic component that’s not discussed. I believe a major reason why stories like mine and Gay’s aren’t heard is because of the stigma and danger that comes from the single story narrative that leaves out so many demographics, including people of different weight ranges. Those stories are important, but I’ve heard them too many times before.
#ROXANE GAY HUNGER THE MEANING OF HUNGER FULL#
I’m entirely too full of stories about emaciated women in hospitals and specific details about how sick someone was. I hunger for stories about weight gain and overeating and trauma. That’s one of the reasons why Gay’s book is so important. Being thin will, supposedly, make us wholly happy.
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We are told that we cannot be happy until we are thin - no matter how successful we are - and that by being thin, we are instantly happy, despite what else is going on in our lives. That we need to discipline them with rules. She also argues that women, especially, are raised and conditioned to think that our bodies are a problem that need to be solved, something we need to lessen. She has shame about her body and has realized she no longer needs to be fat ( fat is a descriptor, not a bad word) in order to feel safe, but pulling back is harder than she expected. It’s not easy to live in a larger body, especially in a world with thin privilege. However, she struggled with her body’s size. Despite her parents’ attempts to try to help her lose weight, Gay purposely gained it all back. She ate and became bigger in order to feel safer. Gay, a black woman, was gang-raped at the age of 12 and spent many of her years eating and eating in hopes of becoming larger and less conventionally attractive.