What has Roxane Gay been up to?

Don't think she's been up to much differently than usual, i.e. being unpleasant online. Oh! She did start her own masterclass to teach people how to write about social change. Cost something like $180 for her to tell people things like: "Have a sense of purpose when you write".

Roxane has a MASTER ASS!

[quote] Roxane has a MASTER ASS!

That should read MONSTER ass!

Summon her?

How? With a fudge cake?

I wonder if she knows how loved she is on DL.

Would she like us or would she just find us exhausting?

Roxane is a Datalounge icon.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

R5 - if she found out about the threads about her on here and just laughed, I would actually gain some respect for her. I suspect it will just add to her exhaustion though (but secretly she would love to get all riled up about it).

I think she has a newsletter you can subscribe to if you are so concerned in keeping in touch.

R5 She would pretend to laugh and pull the classic "Why are you so obsessed with me?" Then she'd be like "I'm tired, y'all" and announce she's taking a few days off. Her fans would plead for her not to go, she'd return 2 hours later and never mention it again.

Oh my god R9, I think you've got it EXACTLY!

Throwback: Serving Kittenish Realness

R11 I was eating breakfast when your post came up and now I'm choking on it, haha! What a hilarious pic!

R12: am glad to bring a little hilarity in these extremely stressful times

Seriously R13, with all that's going on these days, it's nice to know one can always come to a Roxane Gay thread for a good ol' chuckle.

I'm starting to slowly notice more people willing to "come for" Roxane now, call her out etc. As in people who generally like her. Someone has recently brought up her ethics in her professional life. Could this be the tide beginning to turn?

I think that both Roxane's haters and friends are jealous of her new found fame.

She's really getting to be well-known now, and I think that's why people are "coming" for her.

It's the crabs in the bucket syndrome. When the other crabs see one trying to escape from the bucket, they'll pull it back down.

LMAO R9. That is exactly what would happen!!!

I think she could be summoned by leaving a Dollar Tree pound cake out on the doorstep. On second thought, it'd have to be a case of Dollar Tree pound cakes.

Is Roxane a nice person?

I've never seen her on video or television, so I only know of her from Datalounge.

I haven't ever read anything saying that she's nasty or mean. They just make fun of her because she's a faux-intellectual.

Roxane frequently tells people on Twitter that she is nice. Like, literally says: "I'm nice." But going by her behaviour, she seems really miserable and unpleasant. Snaps at people without a thought. Loves to scold people for imagined transgressions. Is particularly unpleasant to people complimenting her, or trying to give her helpful advice, which she seems to view as some kind of violent attack (I guess because if someone tells her something, it implies to her that she doesn't already know it, and a lot of academics seem to hate the thought that they don't know EVERYTHING).

She's spent a good chunk of her time trying to ruin the careers of other authors, even though she would deny this. But she piles on at the slightest chance she can to help "take down" white female authors. Ask Kate Elizabeth Russell for example.

I think she's not a very nice person at all, but I'm sure she's fine to the people she's close to in life.

When you see her being interviewed or on panels she merely comes across as so very, very tired all the time at everything everyone else has to say.

Nobody that size is a happy, well-adjusted person.

Thanks for that explanation, R20.

She sounds absolutely horrible!

Quite big tits!

I met her before she was famous, when she was still the co-editor of PANK and writing non-fic essays for The Rumpus. She WAS nice, and she remembered me from some work of mine she'd published. I've encountered her a few more times in both professional and social settings and can't think of anything bad to say.

She's actually pretty mild-mannered in person. I think the fact that she is publicly imperfect and messy, and vocal and honest about her struggles with becoming famous, is what rubs some people the wrong way. And yeah, jealousy is part of it--not least because she's fat, black, and queer. Most folks aren't ready for someone "like that" to succeed, no matter how work they claim to be.

IMO she's a better speaker/panelist than writer, but there are writers who are far more mediocre and off-putting than her, who don't get nearly the same amount of flack. Garth Greenwell, for example.

*woke, not work. Ugh.

R24, thanks for sharing your experiences, that was very interesting to read.

Quite honestly, I myself am very keen for someone fat, black and queer to have that level of success (none of my criticisms of her have anything to do with elements like that and I would strongly disagree with someone who hated her on those things too). It would be great though if this success was achieved by someone who actually had talent and wasn't a rude, nasty cunt to people. I imagine it's the "sitting behind a computer thing". She probably is too nervous to be like that face to face, but when she can hit out on Twitter, she'll do that.

R26, I agree that her Twitter "bedside manner" can be self-aggrandizing and needlessly vicious at times, but in fairness she has a lot of steaming shit in her mentions. I think she struggles to read tone at times, and goes after people who's tweets were genuinely well-meaning or innocuous. I can see how a person stunted by trauma at a young age would be a "react first" kind of person. Not making excuses for all of her behavior, just saying I get it.

FWIW, she's appeared at a couple of festivals and events that were organized by friends of mine, and they had nothing but praise for her. Writers can be an absolute nightmare at those kind of things, but by all accounts Roxane was professional and even went above and beyond the time she was contracted for, etc. She also mentored a friend of mine (another black woman writer) early in her career--helped her network and so on. Did it in a very low-key, low-profile way, which, in my experience, is a major contrast to so many white male academics who bitterly fight over which of them gets to take credit for the success of their mentees and former students.

I don't really have a horse in this race, btw; I like her fine and enjoy her essays on pop culture, but I'm not a gushy fan who thinks she can do no wrong. Just sharing what I know.

[quote] She probably is too nervous to be like that face to face

I highly doubt that.

The woman is 6'3. She probably towers over most men, not to mention that her gargantuan size must be intimidating.

I'd be scared to piss her off, that's for sure.

Giant people usually aren't intimidated by much.

R27, thanks again. I do enjoy reading your posts and hearing about the real life aspect of Roxane, if that makes sense. This part, I think, is the real nub of it all:

[quote]I think she struggles to read tone at times

I appreciated your post very much. I don't deny that I criticise the woman, but I hope I never do unfairly, and I'm not closed off to the idea that there is more to her than you see online. (I have said in the past even that I think at the core of her, her heart is in the right place). I think I also am just happy to read that she treats people well in those situations you mentioned. I'm a sucker for positive stories like that.

She needs to do a Playboy centerfold.

I am so damned curious to see those big titties!

Someone's experiences with Roxane found online:

[quote]Oh at last I get to tell my Roxane Gay story! For one, she is a notorious bully and was close with a colleague of mine who was, surprise, a bully and an incredibly clout-obsessed and toxic coworker.

[quote]I worked in a capacity where I’d occasionally reach out to request blurbs from notable authors. Roxane Gay was (and maybe still is, but this was years ago) known for being willing to blurb and/or endorse just about anything, oftentimes seemingly without reading it. She was caught in the middle of backlash against a young author a few years ago. The young author had made some controversial (and according to those who would know, anti-Black and misogynist) statements in their book, which had a gigantic Roxane Gay blurb on cover calling the author the voice of their generation, or something like that.

Lol R31.

So she endorsed a racist and misogynist author?

Bwahahaha. What an idiot.

OMG, this is rich coming from her!

[quote]I’m sorry something in your life compels you to be needlessly cruel to people. I hope things get better.

Self-reflection? What self-reflection?

I can't stand the way the NYT indulges her.

Above every one of her NYT articles is a photo of her with her head resting on her hands and her eyes ROLLING back into her head.

Let's see a WHITE MALE reporter get away with that nonsense.

That photo is hilarious, R34. It's like she's saying: "Aren't I just so cute? Don't you just LOVE me?" and everyone looks at it like: "who thought THAT was professional?"

Tale as old as time...

Fan of Roxane's tries to compliment her. Roxane acts predictably. My god she's unpleasant!

[quote]I can't believe you read everything these assholes say. I hope you read this: I think you're wonderful.

[quote]Rachel, how do you suggest I not see tweets in my feed?

Roxane and her new Twitter buddy Saeed Jones seem to be having a grand ol' time ganging up on other Twitter users these days. It's quite a skill, deliberately misinterpreting what others say just so they can feel aggrieved about something.