As I’m sure many of you have seen, or at least heard through the grape vine, recently a video that called out fat shaming went viral. This video caused quite the outrage over the internet, and it’s understandable why.
The vlogger, Nicole Arbour, is infamous on YouTube for embracing the offensive side of comedy. While I may be guilty of laughing at a joke I later felt bad about, I can’t say I have any interest in watching any of her other videos after this one was posted.
In her video, Arbour claims, “Fat shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up. That’s the race card, with no race.” I’m sorry, what?
Let’s start with the fact that race and body weight are on two different spectrums here. (Also, who doesn’t have a race?)
Sure, overweight people may have come up with the term “fat shaming,” but do you know why? Because it’s actually a very real thing. Just because a person hasn’t experienced being shamed for their weight does not mean it does not exist. Be careful, Ms. Arbour, your privilege is showing. The privilege to have never been shamed for your weight, to have never walked down the street and heard the never-ending harassment from passersby, and to never have been called a whale or pig or been told to “put down the fork.” People can be cruel, and while you can remain ignorant to it, it does happen.
The fact of the matter is we live in a society that is surrounded by Photoshop, thin models and societal expectations of what we should look like. We see Carl’s Jr. ads that show Charlotte McKinney eating their latest burger, but the thing is we can’t all eat that burger and look like McKinney. In fact, McKinney probably doesn’t even look like McKinney in that ad because we all know advertising is famous for its overuse of Photoshop. The point I’m trying to get at here is that society has high standards for how we should look, and when we don’t fit those standards, we get called out for it—and yes, that includes those that are overweight.
You can’t sit around and claim that fat shaming doesn’t exist, when it exists even in the most subtle of ways in everyday life: the magazines, ads, movies, etc. Even actors and actresses get turned down for roles because of their weight. Melissa McCarthy (a wonderful role model and actress) is one of many who gets poked at by critics on a daily basis for her weight. Also, anyone remember the infamous Joan Rivers moment when she decided it was important to shame Adele for her weight during an interview with David Letterman?
In Arbour’s defense, this was all “satire,” she claims. However, I fail to see how that justifies saying awful things about a lot of people. Satire is humor typically used to point out people’s stupidity or vices. Have you watched the fall premiere of Scream Queens? That’s a satire! But you can’t go on camera and make offensive comments to a large population of people and then get defensive over backlash and claim satire.
You’re not funny or satirical, Arbour, you’re a bully.
For those of you who agree, comedian Shawn Halpin made a response video:
The privilege to have never been shamed for your weight,
that’s like saying you don’t know that fire hurts because you have never been burned,
It’s so funny that you complain about other people’s privilege as a white, middle-class person with access to so much food that getting fat is just part of life to you.
It’s a terrible insult to the history of social justice that you use the same words and ideologies to describe your privileged life as you would to describe starving black kids in Africa.
How about you try getting some thicker skin instead of a thicker waistline?