Backlash Erupts Over YouTube Star's 'Dear Fat People' Video
Nicole Arbour posted a six-minute diatribe about obesity.
— -- A comedian’s fat-shaming video has sparked a social media controversy, causing a reality TV star to sound off and leading the comedian to claim her video was temporarily taken down by YouTube.
The controversy began with a six-minute video titled “Dear Fat People” posted last week by comedienne Nicole Arbour.
In the video, which has been viewed more than 20 million times and counting, Arbour says if obesity is considered a disease, then “so is being a shopaholic.”
"Fat-shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up. That's a race card with no race,” Arbour says in the video. “I’m not saying this to be an a**hole, I’m saying it because your friends should be saying it to you.”
Arbour’s comments led her to being called a “bully," with many posting their own YouTube videos in response.
"Fat shaming is not a thing," said YouTube user Shawn Halpin in his own video. "Why don't you tell that to the teenagers who killed themselves?"
Arbour's video led Whitney Thore, the star of TLC’s “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” to post her own Facebook video on Saturday to rebut Arbour’s.
“Fat-shaming is a thing, it’s a really big thing, no pun intended,” Thore said in her video. “It is the really nasty spawn of a larger parent problem called body-shaming.”
Thore told ABC News that even if Arbour was trying to make a point, she also created some very serious problems.
“There are a lot of reasons why people are overweight or obese,” Thore said. “This idea that shaming us will make us behave better is just ludicrous.”
Arbour claimed in a tweet Sunday that YouTube temporarily disabled her video, accusing the site of censorship.
YouTube told ABC News the website had corrected their error, writing, "In cases where a channel or video is incorrectly flagged by the community and subsequently removed, we work quickly to reinstate it."
Arbour told ABC News that she is sorry if her video offended children, but that the backlash will “absolutely not” prevent her from discussing sensitive topics. The comedienne has added a disclaimer on her YouTube channel, warning viewers about the content.
Arbour is also using Twitter to point out that not everyone disagrees with her video, re-tweeting people who have written to her claiming they are overweight and did not find the video offensive.