Ben Affleck Claps Back At A Fat-Shaming Article, Breaks Silence On His Back Tattoo

Ben Affleck is not letting body-shamers get under his skin. The Justice League actor took to Twitter to respond to this week’s New Yorker article titled “The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck,” which ridiculed Affleck’s shirtless appearance on the beach in Honolulu. But the 45-year-old actor wants the article’s author, Naomi Fry, to know that there’s nothing “sad” here, according to the Huffington Post.

Affleck, who typically stays away from social media, surprised his nearly 3 million followers on Twitter by responding to the 800-word article that described the father of three as an “exhausted father” with a gut that is “pooching outward.” Fry, who fried Affleck’s shirtless appearance on the Honolulu beach, described the paparazzi photos as one of many “despondent” photos of the actor since he split from his wife of 10 years, Jennifer Garner, in 2015.

The photos in question were taken while Ben Affleck and the rest of the Triple Frontier crew were filming the Netflix movie. The snaps put Affleck’s mysterious back tattoo, which the actor previously claimed was “fake for a movie,” on full display. Fry didn’t let the tattoo go unnoticed, and described it as “enormous” and “garish” in her article.

But Ben Affleck’s back tattoo was not the only thing that drew criticism from the New Yorker author. Fry also ridiculed the prominence of Affleck’s waistline, writing that “his gut is pooching outward in a way that, in a more enlightened country like, say, France, would perhaps be considered virile, not unlike the lusty Gerard Depardieu in his prime but, in fitness-fascist America, tends to read as Homer Simpsonesque.”

Fry also compared Affleck to a “shy teen at the local pool” who carefully covers his imperfections with a towel. In the photos, Affleck is seen standing with a blue-gray towel wrapped around his midsection. But Fry went the extra mile in her efforts to criticize Affleck. Besides his looks, the author also lambasted the actor for his “suddenly flailing” career and wrote that his appearance suggests “the coming fall of man.”

Responding to the mean-spirited article, Ben Affleck took to Twitter to let everyone know that he is “doing just fine,” adding, “Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos,” basically summarizing Fry’s description of him in one sentence.

@NewYorker I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.

— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) March 29, 2018

This wasn’t the first time Ben Affleck’s back tattoo has come under increased scrutiny. In 2015, photos of the large, multicolored body ink of a phoenix rising from the ashes surfaced online, but the actor claimed it was fake and for a movie at the time.