Dear Nicole Arbour,
I am a fat person watching your video and I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on the content that you confidently and boldly posted for everyone to see. The title of your video, 'Dear Fat People' sounds controversial to begin with. But one could take it another way too. I have no idea what your intentions were when making this video, but you caused an uproar loud enough for me to hear over the sound my chewing.
The first point I would like to bring up is your solution to the problem, "you're too fat and you should stop eating". Sounds like an amazing solution to tell the young minds of the internet. You are fat so stop eating. You are telling people to starve themselves skinny. I am not a dietitian, nor have I completed a diet successfully, but I always heard that eating six small meals a day can help you lose weight. Starving yourself sends your body into a starvation mode so anything and everything you eat will be stored as fat. So you are telling us to stop eating so we can gain weight. Intelligent decision, really.
Cool points to you for adding a statistic, but try adding a source with that statistic. Sources are important so we know you are not making up random facts. I mean, we learned this in school, but I'm guessing all your English teachers were fat so you felt the need to not listen to them. Also, I enjoy your definition of fat shaming: "Shame people who have bad habits until they [effing] stop" is a wonderful idea but imagine the emotional trauma they endure while being shamed. Never being able to look at their bodies in a positive light while being the socially acceptable skinny, or having a sliver of confidence being bigger. This may be a hard one.
Assisted suicide is remarkably beautiful. That is really what this video is, assisted suicide. Watching this video and having you call us fat, it's like a revelation! I mean, I have been called fat for majority of my life and for the first time I am finally hearing it. My family never told me this at all. Neither have my doctors, my friends, or people that I want a relationship with. I have never been told by anyone in my life that I am too fat, I need to lose weight, or maybe if I was skinnier I might have someone to love me. I am so grateful that you brought this to my attention. Your solution to this new found dilemna I am having is to lose weight by exercising and eating healthy. That is something I never thought about or that I have not heard of in my whole existence.
I love the witty way you explained plus size. It was so eye opening. I mean, when I am in the fitting room trying on clothes and looking in the mirror, I never feel moments of doubt or sadness. There were never moments when I wanted to cry because of how I looked or feeling ashamed of who I am because I am not the same size as all my skinny friends. There were never moments of wanting something that looked adorable but I could not have it because they did not have it in plus sizes. Thank you for telling me things that I did not know. I will not even comment about your "fat family" story.
Overall, I understand the message of your video but I just do not agree with the tone of it. Yes, people should want to live a healthier lifestyle. Yes, being around longer with family and friends is important because we only have one body, one life, and we should live it in a happy and healthy manner. But making people feel ashamed of their size because you think it was appropriate at the time was not right and it was very hurtful. After watching your video, I thought about not eating again. Not to lose weight or anything, because of feeling so ashamed and depressed over how I look and feel when I just started to gain confidence of my appearance.
You trying to be my ride or die friend and tell me I am fat is unnecessary. My mirror tells me that every day. Whenever I meet someone new, their look of disgust tells me every day. When I am trying to feel pretty for a moment in time and I see my body, that lets me know. When I am going clothes shopping with my friends who are in the single digits and having to make a lie about how I do not feel like trying on clothes when really, I can not wear anything in the store they shop at because I am fat, reminds me. There are reminders everywhere and the reminder you gave me was really unneeded. Thanks but no thanks.
Currently Fat and Shamed,
Selena
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