Mia Freedman has finally fronted up and apologised to Roxane Gay over her insensitive and downright rude podcast interview with the feminist author – and accompanying article – published yesterday.
After shit hit the fan over the podcast’s description (it included Freedman wondering if Gay could “fit in the elevator”, and that’s just one example), Mamamia retracted the article and later issued a statement explaining why it had chosen to publish this content. Notably, however, it didn’t actually use the word “sorry”, nor did it make a single reference to Freedman.
The Mamamia founder and publisher has now penned a separate piece, explaining that the “last 24 hours have been an extraordinarily searing lesson” and that she is “deeply, deeply sorry” for her actions.
“I am beyond mortified, horrified and ashamed that I could have, in any way contributed to Roxane Gay feeling anything other than fierce, brilliant and beautiful,” she wrote.
It’s not the first time Freedman has found herself at the centre of such a storm – remember when she defined “racist blackface” vs “respectful blackface”? – but it is perhaps the first time, at least in this writer’s memory, that she has acknowledged that not every story is hers to tell.
“The last 24 hours have been an extraordinarily searing lesson. I should never have been so cavalier in revealing details about my interview with Roxane Gay that should have remained private. I understand that now,” she writes.
“I made many mistakes. The first and worst was not understanding the difference between Roxane writing in her book, Hunger, about her experiences and difficulties of trying to navigate the world and me talking about that experience from the outside, from my perspective.
“I mistakenly assumed that because she spoke about it, I could too. But this is not my story to tell and I should not have included it in the intro to the podcast or the podcast description. It was disrespectful and it upset her and for that I am deeply, deeply sorry. Unconditionally sorry.”
Overnight, Gay addressed in the furore in a live Facebook interview with the Wall Street Journal, calling Freedman’s decision to write about her weight in that manner as “weird”, “uncomfortable” and “petty”.
“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 told host Christopher Farley.
“So when the podcast came out yesterday, she wrote this long write-up about how she had to wonder if the elevator – if I could fit in the elevator, like something that has never, ever occurred to me in my life. And how many steps to the recording studio, and so on and so forth, as if I don’t live in the world, as if I have not been on book tour for three years, y’know – I go to the gym like a normal person. It was just bizarre.
“So she is being rightly excoriated for it, this really humiliating thing. And she’s saying, ‘Well this is what her publicist did’. I actually just have a lot of anxiety about performance spaces so I like to know where I’m going, so my publicist will ask questions like ‘what is the venue like’, so I will be prepared before I have to walk on stage in front of 1,800 people.
“And she decided that she was doing some sort of public service by writing about this, and it was weird, and it was uncomfortable, and I think just petty.”
You can read Freedman’s full apology below.
I made many mistakes. The first and worst was not understanding the difference between Roxane writing in her book, Hunger, about her experiences and difficulties of trying to navigate the world and me talking about that experience from the outside, from my perspective.
I mistakenly assumed that because she spoke about it, I could too. But this is not my story to tell and I should not have included it in the intro to the podcast or the podcast description. It was disrespectful and it upset her and for that I am deeply, deeply sorry. Unconditionally sorry.
Reading Roxane’s book Hunger taught me so much and opened my eyes to what life can be like for her and other women of her size. Because they are so much more than that.
It’s something I’ve fought for my entire career in the media, a more diverse portrayal of women. More acceptance for different body shapes. An end to body shaming. The irony of me upsetting and distressing someone who has been so influential and instrumental in the way I view feminism and body image is not lost on me. I am beyond mortified, horrified and ashamed that I could have, in any way contributed to Roxane Gay feeling anything other than fierce, brilliant and beautiful. Because that’s what she is and that is what I’ve always thought her to be.
Please buy her book, Hunger. It’s incredible.
(Agreed on that last bit – get it here.)
Photo: El Pics / Getty.
