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'Cruel and humiliating': Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay calls out treatment by Mamamia

Jenny Noyes
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Acclaimed feminist author Roxane Gay has called out her "cruel and humiliating" treatment by Mia Freedman and Mamamia, after a podcast recorded when she was in Sydney last month was released on Sunday.

The podcast, in which Gay discusses her new memoir Hunger - about her challenges with size and a culture that demeans and refuses to accommodate fat people - was introduced by Freedman who aired sensitive claims about how the author was accommodated.

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Roxane Gay slams Mamamia

The acclaimed feminist author took to Twitter in response to a podcast and its description which she says was "cruel and humiliating".

"A lot of planning has to go into a visit from best-selling author, [US] college professor and writer, Roxane Gay," the podcast intro reads.

"Will she fit into the office lift? How many steps will she have to take to get to the interview? Is there a comfortable chair that will accommodate her six-foot-three, 'super-morbidly-obese' frame?"

In an accompanying article entitled "Why, for the first time, I have no photo from my interview with Roxane Gay" and which has since been removed from the Mamamia website, Freedman revealed "there were more than a dozen exchanges back and forth between my producer and her people and the details of them both broke my heart and opened my eyes."

Freedman then detailed this information, including requests for information about the lifts, stairs and chairs that the author would be seated in.

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"I would never normally breach the confidence of what goes on behind the scenes while organising an interview but in this case, it's a fundamental part of her story and what her book is about," Freedman wrote.

"You see, Roxane Gay is ... I'm searching for the right word to use here. I don't want to say fat so I'm going to use the official medical term: super morbidly obese."

In a series of tweets, Gay slammed the use of this information and language to introduce the podcast. "I am appalled by Mamamia," she wrote. "It was a shit show. I can walk a f---ing mile."

Gay also maintained that she never asked about lifts and only requested a sturdy chair.

"It is cruel and humiliating," she added in response to a comment from Ijeoma Oluo, editor of The Establishment, who wrote: "This is not how you talk about another human being, especially your own guest. Nobody should have to tell @mamamia that this isn't OK."

After being contacted by Fairfax Media for comment, Gay said "I've said what I need to say. This situation is disgusting and shameful and frankly it speaks for itself."

She later addressed the controversy during a filmed interview with The Wall Street Journal's Book Club on Tuesday morning in the US, saying she felt "horrible" about trending on Twitter over the issue.

Gay said her interview with Freedman ended with the Mamamia founder telling her about how they had tried to accommodate her, and a request for a photo, which was denied: "I didn't want to take a picture with her, because I don't enjoy having my picture taken, and she took it really personally."

She went on to describe her total bafflement at Freedman's speculation about whether she could fit in an elevator or how many steps she would have to walk:

"As if I don't live in the world, as if I haven't been on a book tour for three years ... it was just bizarre. So she's being rightly excoriated for it."

Twitter went into meltdown over the comments by Freedman, who was appointed chair of the National Body Image Advisory Group in 2009.

Former Mamamia writer Rosie Waterland has tweeted that she burst into tears when she saw the exchange.

"As a fat woman who used to work there, I felt like I had to say something. To Roxane Gay, and any other plus-size woman, or any woman, who struggles with her body image. I tried daily to make them understand this stuff," Waterland wrote in a tweet.

"Obviously I failed to teach them anything. It's just really sad."

Mamamia has since issued a statement apologising to Gay, saying "in this instance we've missed the mark in contributing to this discussion. We believe the conversations sparked by Roxane's book are vitally important for women to have, and are disappointed our execution hasn't contributed in the way we intended."

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