Culture

Mamamia Has Apologised For Their “Cruel” Roxane Gay Interview, But It Definitely Hasn’t Helped

"In no way did Mamamia ever intend to make Roxane Gay feel disrespected."

by Tom Clift  14 June 2017

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Mamamia has responded to the growing furore surrounding their tone-deaf interview with feminist writer Roxane Gay.

The women’s website yesterday found itself at the centre of controversy after founder Mia Freedman disclosed certain requests made by Gay’s publicist ahead of the author’s appearance on Freedman’s podcast, No Filter. Specifically, Gay asked not to be filmed or photographed during the interview and to be provided with a sturdy chair. Freedman also added speculation about whether she would fit in the office’s lift or be able to walk the required steps, which were reportedly not conveyed by Gay’s team.

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“I would normally never breach the confidence of what goes on behind the scenes when organising an interview, but in this case I’ve thought a lot about it and it’s a fundamental part of her story,” said Freedman in the introduction to the podcast. “You see, Roxane Gay is — I’m searching for the right word here, I don’t want to say ‘fat’ even though she uses the word ‘fat’ about herself — I’m going to use the official medical term, super morbidly obese.”

Freedman’s remarks, as well as her decision to disclose the requests of Gay’s publicist, have been widely condemned. Gay herself describing the comments as “cruel and humiliating.”

Yesterday evening, Mamamia issued a statement addressing the controversy.

“As a publisher that’s consistently championed body diversity and representation in the media, we believe the conversations sparked by Roxane’s book are vitally important for women, and are disappointed our execution of this story hasn’t contributed in the way we intended,” reads the posts on the Mamamia homepage. “We’re deeply apologetic that in this instance we’ve missed the mark.”

The post also addressed Freedman’s decision to reveal Gay’s private requests. “We felt that this was an important issue that was integral to understanding Roxane’s point of view in the world and helping people learn about and empathise with a perspective they may never have considered – just as she writes in her book,” it reads.

“In no way did Mamamia ever intend to make Roxane Gay feel disrespected and we apologise unequivocally that that was the unintended consequence… We are mortified to think she would ever believe this to be the case or that we have upset someone we so deeply admire and respect.”

It’s not going over well. Firstly, “missed the mark” seems like a pretty generous way of describing what went down. Secondly, apologies tend to play better when you don’t spend half the time justifying what was done. Thirdly, there’s a world of difference between admitting you disrespected someone and apologising for making someone “feel disrespected”.

It’s also worth pointing out that the statement is attributed to the Mamamia Team. Freedman herself does not appear to spoken publicly about the issue.

Meanwhile, former Mamamia writer Rosie Waterland had this to say.

Gay, for her part, seems to be ready to put the gross experience behind her.

Speaking to The New York Times, the author said she was disappointed that the controversy had overshadowed her work. “That’s not what I wanted for my book or for myself,” she said.

She did, however, call the podcast a good example of “what fat-phobia looks like and just how careless people can be.”

Gay also appeared on last night’s episode of The Daily Show. Maybe we’re imagining things but it does kind of feel like this tweet was at least partially meant for Freedman.