Roxane Gay: Sex, Love, and Soul Mates

"I'm a woman and I'm queer and I'm Black and I'm fat. I try to inhabit all of these identities in my writing."

Here’s something exciting: a couple of months ago we turned five.

I remember what a thrill it was in 2016 that on top of making it to episode five (five!), I was getting to talk for an hour with one of my favorite queer authors, Michelle Tea. Back then, I was still having to explain to people what a podcast was, so to be here now, five years later, having conducted over 200 interviews is pretty wild.

Thankyouthankyouthankyou for listening.

To celebrate our five-year anniversary, I wanted to reshare one of my favorite interviews. People always ask who I’m dying to talk to and for years Roxane Gay was at the top of my list. With books like Bad Feminist and Hunger, with her essays in The New York Times, she’s become one of the most influential writers of our time. (We discuss this piece called “Where the Hell Is the Love of My Life?” if you want to check it out.) Her work consistently shines a light on the things we’re missing when we talk about gender, sexual violence, fatness, and our bodies, in general.

In the interview, Roxane talks about the challenges that come with writing about love, how she's entering into her sexual prime now in her 40s, and her place in the modern queer canon. Click here to listen.

"Because so many people see fatness as unattractive, as unhealthy, as unhappy, it's very hard for people to consider fatness in anything beyond what the diet industry and the fitness industry tell us. That can be really frustrating and really painful because what do we do about our sexuality when the world does not want to consider us sexual?"

And I have a small favor to ask if you listen to LGBTQ&A on Spotify: please open the app on your phone (it has to be on mobile, not desktop), click the little three dots on our homepage, click “Rate Show”, and give us five stars. This will let Spotify know that you like LGBTQ&A and will help us get seen (and heard) a lot more.

Here’s a handy graphic that I made this morning while sitting on my parents’ couch.

Welp. I just noticed that you can see what I’m listening to. Shoutout to Sì (Delux), the exquisite 2018 album by Andrea Bocelli.

Anyway, back to me, giving us a quick five-star review on Spotify is a big help.

Thank you for doing that.

And thank you for listening to LGBTQ&A these last five years.

I’m looking forward to sharing all the new things we have planned for the next five.

Happy New Year.
Lots of love.

xo
Jeffrey
@jeffmasters1