Roxane Gay says Mia Freedman is being ‘rightly excoriated’ for her comments during podcast interview

MIA Freedman has broken her silence over her ‘cruel’ comments about best-selling author Roxane Gay, who maintains the backlash is justified.

Mia Freedman has apologised after being criticised for her comments about an overweight American author. Picture: John Fotiadis

AMERICAN author Roxane Gay says Mamamia founder Mia Freedman is being “rightly excoriated” for her “cruel and humiliating” comments about Gay’s weight issues during a podcast interview.

Gay, a New York Times best-selling author, appeared on Freedman’s No Filter podcast to promote her new book Hunger, a memoir discussing her lifelong battle with her body. Gay is six-foot-three and at her heaviest weighed 261kg - she is medically classified as super morbidly obese.

Freedman was criticised for revealing sensitive details about some of the negotiations between Gay’s publisher and the Mamamia podcast producer.

“Her size is incredibly imposing [Gay is six foot three]. This is a logistical nightmare for her, there’s no other way to put it,” Freedman said on the podcast.

Roxane Gay during an interview with The Wall Street Journal to promote her new book Hunger.

“The requirements that we had to go back and forth with her publishers ... were extremely detailed,” she said.

“How many steps were there from the kerb to the end of the building? Were there any stairs? How many? How big was the lift and was there a goods lift? How many steps from the lift to the podcast studio?

“There was also a lot of talk about chairs — making sure we had one sturdy enough that would both hold her weight and make sure she was comfortable for the duration of the interview.”

Just hours after the interview and accompanying online story went live on Monday, Gay tweeted to her 211,000 Twitter followers that she found Mamamia’s discussion of these issues to be “cruel and humiliating”.

“I am appalled by Mamamia. It was a s*** show. I can walk a f***ing mile,” Gay tweeted.

“‘Can she fit into the lift?’ Shame on you Mamamia,” she added. “It is cruel and humiliating.”

The story has attracted international attention, even featuring in the New York Times.

Author Roxane Gay. Picture: Jay Grabiec

Mamamia removed the story from its website, edited the podcast description and issued an statement late Tuesday evening. Freedman said she is “deeply apologetic” and that she “missed the mark”.

On Wednesday morning, Freedman issued a personal apology to Gay.

“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,” Freedman wrote.”

“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.

“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

Picture: Jay Grabiec

Both Gay and Freedman were trending on Twitter on Tuesday as thousands of social media users weighed into the debate, most criticising Freedman for her insensitivity.

During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gay said she felt “horrible” about the “huge scandal” that was happening in Australia, but said Freedman was being “rightly excoriated”.

“I felt horrible about trending because I wanted today [the day her book launched] to be a good day and it’s kind of a crappy day because there’s this huge scandal happening in Australia,” she said.

“We [she and Freedman] chatted and at the end she said ‘We had to do all sorts of things to prepare for your arrival.

“And I actually only had one request, which is to have a good chair, a good, sturdy chair with either no arms or wide arms. So I was really baffled as to what she meant. 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.

“So when the podcast came out ... she wrote this long write-up about how she had to wonder if I could fit in the elevator, something that has never occurred to me in my life. 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 haven’t been on book tour for three years. I got to the gym like a normal person, it was just bizarre. And so she is being rightly excoriated for it.

“She decided that she was doing some sort of public service by writing about this and it was weird and it’s uncomfortable and I think just petty.”

Mia Freedman at the Mamamia offices in Surry Hills. Picture: John Fotiadis

In the No Filter podcast, Gay herself talked about how her size can make it difficult for her to negotiate public spaces.

“It’s very stressful because you just never know is there a space that is going to accommodate me,” Gay said.

“Are there going to be sturdy chairs? Are the chairs going to have arms? How wide are the arms? How low is the chair?

“It’s just a constant series of questions that you are asking yourself every single day before you go into any space and it’s exhausting because people don’t think, they just assume that everyone fits in the world that they do.”

Gay, a college professor, is the author of Bad Feminist and has travelled to Australia several times before. She has appeared on Q&A and given talks at the popular All About Women and Sydney Writers’ Festival events.

Mia Freedman was the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and briefly worked at Channel Nine before she founded the Mamamia Women’s Network with her husband.

Mia Freedman declined to comment to News.com.au.