OK, so I was watching a video on Youtube today by a woman named Nicole Arbour that was titled "Dear Fat People" in which she went on a rant filled insult spree towards fat people. For those of you who don't know who she is, Nicole is a self-proclaimed comedienne who does Youtube videos, among other things. She tried to claim that her video was actually meant to be taken as satire or meant to be taken as comedy, same thing really. The only problem she had was that most of the people who watched her video were actually pretty pissed by it. Now from what I could tell after watching various videos with criticism of her video it seems the reason so many people got so angry was because her video, that she claimed was supposed to be comedy remember, just really wasn't all that funny.
Now, I have seen a lot of videos that were made to counter her arguments that she made in the video. Most of those who made counter arguments to her video seemed more concerned with how she was trying to say she was trying to "help" fat people not be so fat by ridiculing them. And honestly I found their counter arguments to be pretty accurate, even though Arbour does try and pull a CYA moment and make brief 5 second disclaimer about people with actual health issues that cause the obesity they experience. Because what she was doing is something that people on the Internet called concern trolling. For those of you who don't know what concern trolling is, it is the practice of insulting or demeaning someone else by pretending to actually be concerned for them. This tactic is not only insulting to the one being shown "concern" but it is also dishonest of the person who is using it, because they're trying to hide their prejudice behind a wall of faux concern for the people they're trying to ridicule or demean. And she actually compounded this idiotic idea by claiming she just being funny, saying it was meant to be satire or comedy.
I am not going to spend a whole bunch of time on this and I'm not even going to share her video because quite frankly I don't think the video deserves to be shown any more than it already has been. But if you wanna see it, it is on Youtube under "Dear Fat People" and you can watch it if you like. What I am going to do however, is give my opinion on her video and her performance as a comedienne. Now what you are about to hear is probably going to surprise a lot of people, primarily because I am a 350 pound person who was not offended by what she said about fat people. I was however extremely offended by the fact that this woman just was not funny in the least. Now the reason I told you how much I weigh is because I want you to understand that this is coming from an actual fat ass. I am hoping the fact that I'm sharing just how much I weigh will be an illustration of just how much I don't care what people like Arbour think about how much I weigh.
There have been a number of comedians and comediennes who have made a decent living or even become famous by basing their career off of being an insult comic. People like George Carlin, Lisa Lampenelli, and Don Rickles, come to mind and have made an entire career of simply insulting people, the difference between Carlin and the like and Nicole Arbour is that Carlin the others was actually pretty funny. Not only was Nicole not funny but her entire routine was predicated on the insulting and dehumanizing of fat people as if they have no feelings or as if their feelings do not matter at all. It would seem that Nicole doesn't seem to realize that if you insult people, demean them, dehumanize them, and ridicule them simply for being fat it will not make them eat less but it will likely to cause them to eat more. Which is only adding to the problem.
Another thing that doesn't seem to be taken into consideration is the fact that there are such things as food addictions. I've actually seen people who are commenting on her videos make the comparison to alcoholism and drug addiction, basically saying if a person was addicted to alcohol or drugs would you be nice to them or would you show "tough love" and try to help them quit their addiction to alcohol or drugs even if it meant insulting them? Now, for people with common sense it would seem almost self evident that a food addiction would be a slight bit harder to over come, especially since neither alcohol or drugs are required in order to stay alive. Food however, is required in order to stay alive. And given the amount of chemicals and other preservatives that are in our foods and drinks and given how addictive they can be, is it really surprising that a food addiction would be hard for people to get over? Especially considering how easily someone is able to get their hands on cheap fast food?
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