By Al Mazzoli, Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Nov. 6, Bryn Mawr students gathered in Great Hall for the 2018 edition of the Emily Balch Speaker Series, featuring Roxane Gay. Gay, the author of several books and articles, and a prominent feminist and black rights activist, sat at the front of the hall as a slideshow cycled through pictures of Gay and her achievements.
For such an accomplished figure, Gay created a warm and welcoming mood by making a lot of jokes. When someone said that the Great Hall was long, she said “that’s what she said.” When she started talking about being contacted by Marvel, she made a quip that she didn’t know it was Marvel at first; she thought the email was from a small startup with the same name. In the same breath in which she joked about Marvel, she addressed their poor diversity strategies, which set the tone for the rest of the night; serious topics in social activism, tempered by humor.
From the issue of diversity at Marvel to the plus-sized movement, the topics of the night spanned many hot button social activist issues, but the central focus was feminism. Gay explained how “some people claim [the title Feminist] and don’t do the work.” Amongst these, she listed women who claim to be feminists but vote against women’s interests. In all her talk about feminism, she reminded the audience again and again that no matter how approaches and ideas about feminism might have changed over the years, the basic goals of the movement still haven’t been met. At the end of the day, she said, women are still fighting for basic bodily autonomy, to which several students snapped and clapped to show support.
When asked what she hopes people will take from her work, she said that people read selectively, and she doesn’t concern herself too much with what people might take from it. She talked about writing, saying that “most fiction is propelled by desire,” because that is what motivates characters. She explained that every character wants something, and that narrative tension comes from putting obstacles in the path between the character and what they want. She also stressed the value in following one’s curiosity in order to find one’s place in the world.
In everything she talked about, she made it clear that she identifies as black first. Her first audience is always black women, her second audience is queer women. At one point, she looked out at the faculty and said, “are there no black faculty here?” At this, there were cheers and whoops from the crowd. She said that normally when she talks at colleges, “they bring out all of their black faculty—all four of them.” She said that in any situation in which she needs to fight for diversity, she starts with blackness, then “work[s] [her] way down oppressions.” Gay has been in many situations in which she needed to fight for diversity. Talking about discrimination in the publishing industry, she said that people didn’t put her face on the cover of her work because she’s a plus-sized woman of color, and this affected how much money she got on her first two book deals. Even then, she recognized her privilege in being as famous as she is, and stated that as a famous, black woman of color, she was “the exception and not the rule.” She brought up that people are okay with her fatness because she’s well-known. But she said, “you should be okay with my fatness because my fatness is glorious.”
Gay explained that her activism always remained intersectional and that to her, feminism and intersectionality are synonyms. Not only was she talking about feminism, but she was talking about feminism as a person of color, and racism as a woman, an LGBT woman, and a plus-sized woman. In her discussions about feminism, she said that for her, “there is no feminism that does not include trans people and gender nonconforming people.”
The mood of the night was also laced with anxiety, as people checked their phones for the results of the midterm elections. Gay had a lot to say about voting and politics. She said that she understood why one might be disillusioned with voting and politics in America right now, and that she was disillusioned too. However, she stressed that being disillusioned isn’t an excuse to not vote, and that people have to do what they can to change things.
In everything she talked about, she gave ideas for change. About the #MeToo movement and rape culture, she said that “we have to hold ourselves accountable at some point.” About privilege disparities, she said that people with privilege need to stop taking it for granted, and stop feeling guilty about it, but use it to cause change. About feminism, she said we need to bring “more women to the feminist table” on a global scale, and then actually listen to their contributions.
Near the end of the night, Gay said, “the only thing I have control over is what I say and what I do.” She made it clear that she feels a responsibility to say and do everything she can to enact positive change in the world, and she encouraged the rest of us to follow suit.
Photo credit: Time Magazine
