Over the Labor Day weekend, many people were up in arms over Nicole Arbour’s new video, “Dear Fat People." In her six-minute long revelation, Arbour mercilessly criticizes the lifestyle of obese Americans.
Her remarks have sparked outrage across the country, with popular networks like E! Online, Entertainment Weekly, Fox News and CNN reporting the carnage. The majority of feedback deems Arbour cruel, noting that she was out of line and that her comments were distinctly fat-shaming.
The content itself validates people’s outrage. Arbour’s commentary leans toward hateful and catty. At one point in the video, she cruelly jokes, “What are you going to do, fat people? What are you going to do? You going to chase me? I can get away from you by walking at a reasonable pace.”
In her video, it’s comments like these that are pushing the masses to call her a bully. Arbour has fought back against these accusations with claims that she’s simply a tough-love kind of woman.
Arbour and her supporters insist that people need thicker skin. “Dear Fat People," according to Arbour herself, was intended to start a conversation about obesity and healthy a lifestyle and was never meant to offend people with real health issues.
Regardless of this, her viewers cannot help but notice her insensitivity, for which she is now paying for via bad publicity. Arbour seems to be taking the criticism in stride, posting in her own defence regularly from her Twitter with the hashtag #GOTEAM.
Prior to the sensational video, Arbour was a relatively unknown online figure on social media. Arbour states she is a comedian, actress, writer, choreographer and entertainer.
Is “Dear Fat People” fat-shaming, or is this a poorly aimed wake-up call?
