Dear Nicole Arbour and Fat People

Dear Nicole Arbour and Fat People (image courtesy of www.zap2it.com) The criticism Arbour has received has also been thoughtful and in some cases funny. Notable YouTuber David So has made a response video titled “Dear Skinny People” satirizing Arbour’s own video and pointing out obvious problems with Arbour’s video. The controversy has been a mixed bag for Arbour herself. Some claims have come forward that she was fired from a potential movie deal after the director saw the video, but confirmation was lacking on sides. Time magazine has said that Arbour meant the video to be a deliberate overreaction and satire in and of itself, poking fun at obese people rather than outright shaming them. Interestingly enough in Time, they claimed Arbour had 159,000 subscribers, but as of the writing of this article the number was nearer to 209,000. Most people have criticized this response in a twofold way. Firstly, the suggestion that this is a joke, even on a comedy channel, seems a bit odd. The video is very deliberate and not actually very amusing. There seems to simply be shock value in this video, not satire. The difference is that satire seeks to change the problem to be mocked in the video, in this instance fat shaming. The problem with this video is that it has not fulfilled the role it set out to fill that of a social indicator of a larger problem using humor. The second concern raised is whether this is tactful enough to even be effective at getting a meaningful response. The video certainly has been a spark to talk about larger problems. The issue of obesity is not a new one by any stretch of the imagination. America has been getting fatter according to a study published by the Jama Network Journal. Every day we seem to have some reminder that we Americans are fat. Just look at how other nations see us. They imagine a rude white obese guy with a beer in one hand and an American flag in the other. Well then would it interest the world to know that the majority of American adults are not obese? According to the CDC, 35 percent of America is obese. That is a large group of Americans: 78.6 million people to be exact. It is, you will note however, not the majority of Americans. America’s popular image is therefore reflective of a minority of people and not an accurate representation of America. At the same time, that group of Americans that experience obesity are a large minority and as such this is not a small problem. It is, like most however, not a simple problem. America’s obesity epidemic is disproportionately focused in the Southern and Midwestern states with Mississippi and West Virginia receiving  the highest average BMI ratings by the CDC consistently. (image courtesy of the CDC) These states correspondingly have the lowest GDP consistently. This link between poverty and obesity is well established. So the idea that it is just laziness or lack of exercise that leads to obesity is not entirely true. The cause is more rooted in diet and socio-economic status since the latter directly affects the former. The interesting thing to note is the socio-economic status and diet link in this problem. College students are an increasingly at-risk group for obesity. According to work done by the Journal of American College Health, college students have lifestyle factors, like those of disparaged citizens in West Virginia and Mississippi that adversely affected their BMI. The students studied pointed to being worried about or obsessing over food as well as lack of physical exercise as possible causes. Although the rate of approximately 22 percent obese was not as high as in other parts of the U.S., it is troubling to note that fat deposits put onto one’s body in early adulthood become increasingly difficult to remove because of lifestyle changes. Most adults seeking a college education will lead largely sedentary lives, sitting down for extended periods. This leads to back pain, decreased productivity, and more weight gain. While Arbour has stirred up much controversy with her viral video, she has also done the amazing job of sparking a more profound discussion of how we treat the obese, how we respond to this epidemic, and how we ourselves can fight bad habits to promote our own health and wellbeing.