At least every month we get a viral video that causes so much controversy, and this month we saw Nicole Arbour’s video called “Dear Fat people.” The video got over 25 million views on Facebook, as well as over 4 million on YouTube. The video got so much negative feedback and flagging to the point of Nicole having her YouTube channel shut down. She was slammed with media attention, including from CNN, because of how poor in taste the video was.
According to Nicole’s side of the story, she’s claiming that she’s trying to motivate fat people to lose weight by saying the truth. Sadly, the truth she’s claiming to use is by all means bullying, and the fact that she’s calling herself a comedian is even more offensive! The video is far from funny, and it will literally give you second hand embarrassment.
While I find the video extremely offensive on so many levels, even though I’m considered skinny, many claimed fat people found it funny and said comedy is allowed to be offensive. Being a South Park fanatic, I sure do enjoy my share of offensive comedy, yet I still found Nicole’s video offensive. So what gives? What’s the difference between “tough love” and being offensive?
Nicole’s video lacks a very important aspect, empathy. If you think about it, the message behind her video is entirely true. The main message is that if you keep eating unhealthy food, and you’re overweight to the point of affecting your own healthy, you have a problem and should fix yourself. I think everyone agrees with that. She never mentioned how fat people reached to this level. She never encouraged people to lose weight, or cared about their health. Not to mention, everything that was said in this video could be happening with anyone, not just fat people.
If you ever want to encourage someone to lose weight and be healthy, it’s very important to have empathy and not make the same mistake that Nicole did. This isn’t just about weight loss, it’s the same with everything. If you discourage someone by making fun of them in an offensive way, make them feel belittled, make them feel like a joke, and ever make them feel disgusting, it will make things worse for them. They’ll feel like they’re in a hopeless situation, and even if they had the will to lose weight, they will give up. This is how bullying works, and bullying isn’t funny!
