This week, comedian Nicole Arbour posted a video on her YouTube channel about obese people and fat shaming. The video is titled "Dear Fat People" while Arbour was already notorious for her political incorrectness, she took the phrase to a whole new level. She begins her rant with "fat shaming is not a thing...fat people made that up" she goes on to explain how it's like the race card with no race and really they should just eat less. She also rants about a family at the airport who is obese and seem to get "special treatment" for their condition, including: skipping the security line because they said it hurt their knees to stand, getting a golf cart ride to their gate, and having other people switch seats so they could have aisle seating. She described them as "so fat, they were standing sweat fat with crisco coming out of their pores like a play-doh fun factory." She justifies the video saying she hopes it will shame people in to being more body conscience, as if they weren't already.
This video caused a media explosion, it received a multitude of negative reactions not only from YouTubers, but even from obese reality stars and fellow comedians. Shawn Halpin, a comedian, responded to the video saying that fat shaming was created by bullies who hate fat people and have never struggled with their own weight. Whitney Way Thore, star of TLC's "My Big Fat Fabulous Life" also made a YouTube response saying that you don't know the story behind each individual that caused them to gain weight, maybe they have a medical condition, death in the family, etc. Whitney, who struggles with PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) says it's what attributes to her obesity. She ends with "you can not tell a person's health, physically or otherwise, just by looking at them"
While I agree that the way the video was prefaced was extremely inappropriate and because it came from an attractive, skinny, blonde woman the concept was delegitimized, but I also think she had the right idea. The execution of the video was wrong, but obesity is, for the most part, self inflicted, and for people to give them special treatment definitely doesn't help in the goal to decrease nation-wide obesity. I actually have the biggest problem with Way Thore, because her entire show is prefaced of off her obesity and how she's living her life and trying to be healthy, and blames her obesity entirely on PCOS. While it may be a factor, I also know, as someone who also has the syndrome, that PCOS doesn't make you gain 300 pounds, and for her to say that it's the sole reason she is obese is just false, because the cameras are only rolling during her "fight against PCOS", but they're conveniently absent when she orders a pizza and eats the entire thing herself. So, while I know that a lot of people are going to be angry that I'm somewhat siding with politically incorrect Arbour, while I want to be completely objective, I can't help but acknowledge that she, to a degree, has a point.
This is not the first time we have seen a generalization like this, Donald Trump, a Republican Presidential candidate, and notorious racist, has also been extremely vocal about his take on the Mexican population in America. CBS News even has video of him saying "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said. "They're sending people that have lots of problems...they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." He defends his argument by saying that, reportedly, 80% of female mexican immigrants claim to have been sexually assaulted on their way to America. While it's obvious that racial discrimination is a real thing, and a very problematic one at that, for Trump to make such a blanket statement about an entire race is completely insulting, disgusting, and in my opinion, un-American, but then again, it's not so far off from what Arbour is saying about the obese community.
http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/09/06/fat-shaming-video-response-orig.cnn
So I saw the video and it was almost exactly as expected. This video was so sad. Mainly because of how funny this person thought they were. Which they were not. Claiming that they were trying to help fat people and other things like that is completely invalid. Look, I believe it's true that being overweight is bad. Terrible actually, and that if you can avoid it, you should do everything in your power to stop so. But what this person was going about wasn't help. It was making light of what literally haunts peoples lives. When somebody does something like this, you always gotta wonder what made them get to this point in their lives. Who hurt them. But mostly, do they know who they're hurting. It goes without saying that, not only do fat people know this, but i guarantee you they've all heard it pounded into their brains as bad and even worse than that. Being fat is not a good idea, but being Healthy is a major and very important life choice. If not done correctly (like starving and other) it can also lead to bad tendencies. Some people are just not ready for a major life decision like that, and need help getting to a point where they do. As a fairly fat person myself, I know how it is to ear this time and time again and want to change, but never knowing how, and eventually giving up into depression. Videos like this do not help. They hurt. Positivity Helps. Loving Oneself helps. And yes, being fat is bad for you, but literally no one can function if they're as depressed as something like this can make someone.
ReplyDelete-Gabriel David Giron Vives
Why does the end look weird? Did you copy/paste?
ReplyDeleteThis video is very hurtful and while I agree with the fact that obese people should be motivated to become healthier, this was not the way to inflict that upon someone struggling with obesity.
ReplyDeleteThis never ends. People often have good intentions but are awful at getting that across.
ReplyDelete-Adriana Hinojosa
DeleteUnpopular opinion alert! She had valid and invalid points. A valid point being, genetics do stop at one point, and although you can be obese and healthy HEALTH RISKS STILL REMAIN! One thing I didn't enjoy hearing her prate on was her airplane experience and her encounter with an obese family.The respect she lacked for this stranger was cruel and reflected poorly on her character. - Cassidy Jones
ReplyDelete