In the past week, an abusive campaign was started–and thankfully stopped–on Facebook as well as Instagram.
Project Harpoon was launched supposedly to put an end to “skinny shaming,” claiming that: ”In current societal fashion, a recent trending surge of ‘pro-obesity’ and ‘fat acceptance’ have paved the way for many people to renounce exercise and personal healthcare in general.”
The alleged goal of this movement was to show people’s “thinner beauty.” Of course, to prove their point, they photo-shopped images of plus-size women to make them look skinnier. As if that was not offensive enough, beneath each post appeared an insulting, mean-spirited caption.
This is nothing but fat shaming in its purest form.
The irony is that the campaign itself was launched on the premise that size shaming, regardless of which end of the spectrum, is damaging and hostile to the parties who are targeted. And yet they engage in fat shaming and size shaming in their campaign against it for “skinny” people.
Fat shaming is real and extremely prevalent. Whether it’s celebrities on the red carpet who have not gotten rid of their baby weight fast enough, or young girls in high school who do not weigh 100 pounds, people, females primarily, are stigmatized, criticized and bullied every single day throughout our country due to their size.
Skinny shaming, on the other hand, if it does exist, exists as an extreme exception to the rule and on a small, skinny if you will, scale (pun intended). Skinny IS the ideal. It is what our culture pressures all women to be. It is what our society indicates is the answer to all issues. Want to be popular? Lose weight. Want to attract a husband, be successful at work, and be happy all the time? Wear a size zero. Want to be good? Go on a diet.
People are no more shamed for being skinny than for being wealthy. How many people are made fun of because they drive a top-of-the-line car, or wear a $5,000 watch? It just doesn’t happen.
In this project’s artificial zeal to encourage “skinny acceptance” through their campaign, they said: ”No shaming please. No hate speech please.”
The truth is if they had read their own words, Project Harpoon would have gone the way of similar detrimental ideas and never seen the light of day.
