Incase you live under a rock, or aren't as internet crazy as
Are you pissed yet?
No?
Rewatch it.
Still not pissed?
Do not read further.
When I first started seeing the Tweets and comments from other Youtubers about loving yourself and having a bad sense of humor not meaning success I had no idea what was going on. And then Tyler Oakley just straight tagged Nicole on Twitter about this video and I decided to see what the uproar was. To be honest I started the video laughing because I admit, I have the sense of humor of a ten year old boy. But the second her video started with "I already made a bunch of people mad" (Or something, because I refuse to watch her video a third time) I knew I got myself int some deep shit, and I knew I was going to be pissed. What I felt, however, after I stupidly gave her another view on her video was not what I expected.
Pissed? Not even a little.
Disgusted. Hurt. Horrified.
You don't need to be what society considers "fat" to talk about your weight. If you talked to a doctor they would tell you I'm not "fat", nor even close to "obese". Here's my question though:
Why the FUCK is "fat" a negative word?
It's an adjective.
It's not a curse word.
It shouldn't be an insult.
It shouldn't be a connotation to ugly.
Fat does not mean you are a lesser human being.
I sat staring at my laptop after watching her video and my mouth was very literally hanging open. I wanted to comment on the video asking what she would think of me at the gym. Yes, I'm not big, but I'm extremely out of shape. Like, can't even make it through a two minute song at the bar dancing without sweating and losing my breathe out of shape. Imagine me at the gym trying to WALK on the treadmill, never mind running? But oh wait, you can't comment on Nicole's video. She disabled the comments. Convenient.
Nicole, here is a little PSA for you: You are a human being, too. (Well, maybe not but let's just go with what seems to be true here). As a public figure, you have been on the receiving-end of hate comments. People on the internet can be ruthless when they are behind a keyboard and a fake avi. Yet you become one of those ruthless people but your face right out there and tried to call it satire. You know that we are all just trying to get by every minute of the day without having someone make us feel like shit, or without seeing something on the web that makes us feel like shit. We are living in the social media world where filters and photoshop are the new beauty norm. There is nothing wrong with any of that. You don't see me sitting here talking about girls who wear loads of makeup are a bunch of phonies. Yet you thought it would be OK to make a video shaming fat people. I'm not considered "fat" by doctors, yet I am probably THE most out of shape human you could meet. Wanna hear a fun fact? Half the reason I quit my restaurant job is because one of my managers bullied me because I had no upper-body strength to carry a full tray of food. Yup. But would Nicole ever say something about that in her video? No. Because I'm not considered fat. And that's a problem.
We all struggle. It doesn't matter our shape or size or color of our skin, we struggle. Because we are human. We all have something we are ashamed of about our bodies. Society has brainwashed us into believing skinny is beautiful and fat is ugly. Being skinny doesn't mean your the next Ninja Warrior. Being fat doesn't mean you're going to have a heart attack in the middle of work. We are all fucking beautiful. We are all allowed to wear whatever god damn outfit we want. It doesn't matter if we are skinny shits and want to wear a tiny, string bikini, but the minute a bigger person wants to wear that same string bikini she becomes the center of people's conversations, stares, and photographs.
WHY? WHY. WHY. WHY.
You are putting another human being on display like she is in a zoo. Not a museum to be admired, but a zoo where she is pitied like an animal.
It's 2015, people. I cannot comprehend the fact that some humans still have not grasped the fact that we are all on this Earth together and we are all just trying to make it by and make a living and find our own happiness. We are making it difficult for people to find peace with their bodies because we have let society brainwash our minds. It shouldn't matter if we are fat or skinny or toned or flabby. We should be there to support one another. To want to see each other achieve our goals. Life shouldn't be about competition, but about harmony among one another. Life will be a hell of a lot more peaceful if we just got over ourselves and realized that the materialistic things in life shouldn't matter even a little bit. It's about our souls, our hearts, and what we want to offer to our neighbors.
Dear Nicole Arbour: You may have gotten your fifteen minutes of fame and your video may have reached five million views, but you also showed the world how ignorance leads you absolutely nowhere. The amount of response videos from YouTubers that I admire and watch made me feel much better about my reaction to your video. I hope you learn from your mistakes and realize that you have extreme potential to be a comedian, but tearing down other humans is not the way to do it.
Be nice to people.
Edit:
I forgot to put Grace's video in this, because she was a HUGE reason why I even posted this in the first place. She words the way in which I felt after I watched the video the first time PERFECTLY. Grace is also like me and doesn't talk much about extremely personal matters and I just feel as though Grace did an amazing thing for posting this video. So please, please also watch this.
