Nicole Arbour’s YouTube Channel Disabled Over Fat-Shaming ‘Obesity Crisis’ Video [Opinion, Updated]
Nicole Arbour, a comedian from Hamilton, Ontario, has had her YouTube account disabled over a fat-shaming video she describes as addressing the “obesity crisis” as per CNN.
The video, which achieved half a million views before Arbour’s account was disabled, was titled Dear Fat People and claimed, among other things, that fat-shaming isn’t real.
“Fat shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up.”
Since having her account shut down, Arbour has proposed that she is the “first comedian to be censored on YouTube.”
While Arbour seems to be confused about the fact that fat-shaming isn’t comedy, she certainly is far from the first comedian to have her YouTube account suspended. Among others, Martin Billany (better known as LittleKuriboh) has had his YouTube account suspended on and off since its inception.
That said, Arbour perhaps needs to develop some self-awareness. In the same piece, she speaks up to say that other groups wrongly face abuse, but she chooses some pretty poor ways to put it, and she doesn’t seem to take criticism well; comments on Dear Fat People were blocked right from the beginning, and she seems to spend a lot of her time throwing slurs at anyone who has the temerity to get offended about, well, anything.
Here are a few more choice quotes from Nicole Arbour’s YouTube video, courtesy of Medical Daily.
“Are you going to tell the doctor that they’re being mean, and fat-shaming you when they say you have f-ing heart disease?”
“There’s a race card. There’s a disability card. There’s even a gay card because gay people are discriminated against, wrongfully so. The gay card is covered in glitter.”
The video is still available in its entirety on her Facebook page, where you can also see more posts and videos on the theme of how nobody should ever get offended at anything.
Of course, Arbour’s video has prompted plenty of backlash, including some very on-point Facebook comments that a lot of people seem to be in agreement with.
Well, you’re more or less right there, Nicole. Pretty much everyone does have body issues.
What you’re missing is that there’s two ways to respond to that. One is kind. One is horrible.
Guess which one your video is?
UPDATE: Sources on Twitter have allegedly discovered that Arbour’s account wasn’t censored at all; rather, it was set to private by the owner, who then claimed censorship.
For the record, here is what a banned youtube account looks like. screenshot taken 30 seconds ago. pic.twitter.com/R4m5DaBkv3
— Boogie2988 (@Boogie2988) September 6, 2015
@Boogie2988 and this is what an account set to private looks like. pic.twitter.com/4yyEd7AjTP
— Boogie2988 (@Boogie2988) September 6, 2015
Thanks to user @DiscordianKitty for pointing this out.
[Images courtesy Nicole Arbour, via Facebook]