Viral Fat-Shaming Video Brought Major Controversy to YouTuber’s Career
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct information about Nicole Arbour’s career.
These days, being famous from a viral video is not such a difficult task thanks to the internet. However, it also does not take much for a wrong move to hurt someone’s career.
For instance, one woman experienced backlash after posting a six-minute video. Read on to find out why the video was so controversial.
Nicole Arbour posted a controversial video called ‘Dear Fat People’
Nicole Arbour is a YouTuber who started uploading videos online in the late 2000s. Arbour attracted many fans for several years for her blunt humor, though that ended up backfiring in 2015. That year, she gained notoriety when she uploaded a video called “Dear Fat People.”
The video showed Arbour speaking to the camera as she condemned overweight and obese people. And Arbour did not hold back on sharing her thoughts.
“Fat-shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up. That’s a race card with no race,” Arbour said at one point. “I’m not saying this to be an a**hole. I’m saying it because your friends should be saying it to you.”
Nicole Arbour received a lot of backlash after posting her video
Arbour’s video did not sit well with a lot of people on the internet. Many critics slammed Arbour for promoting anti-fat bias and adding to the stigma that overweight and obese people already face.
For example, model Ashley Graham told E! News that Arbour’s video was “disgusting” and said she was “tired of body shaming.”
“I am an advocate for women and empowering women and making sure that women around me feel comfortable and confident,” Graham said. “That is not something she is about!”
Meanwhile, Whitney Thore, the star of TLC’s My Big Fat Fabulous Life, also called out Arbour for her insensitivity.
“There are a lot of reasons why people are overweight or obese,” Thore told ABC News. “This idea that shaming us will make us behave better is just ludicrous.”
Nicole Arbour defended herself after the backlash
Arbour did not stay quiet after receiving backlash. She went on to defend herself. According to Time, the YouTuber maintained that her video was meant to be satire and said she felt it was “really important that we make fun of everybody.”
“I think [what] brings us together and unites us as people is that we can poke fun at all of us,” Arbour told Time.
Arbour went on to say that rather than her words being construed as offensive or bullying, she hoped her truth-telling would motivate people to be healthier.
“I find seeing someone’s head being blown off offensive,” she said. “I find children starving in a country with more than enough food offensive. I find women’s bodies being mutilated for religious purposes, that is offensive to me. But words and satire I don’t find offensive.”
