Nicole Arbour, Sofy BeFresh And Fat-Shaming: A Case For Measured Outrage
Even well-meaning anger can leave unintended victims in its wake. We spoke to someone who's currently deep inside the internet outrage vortex.
Nicole Arbour, the creator of the hugely controversial ‘Dear Fat People’ video, has definitely had an intense few weeks. After causing widespread offence with derogatory comments and allegations that “fat-shaming isn’t a thing,” her YouTube channel was reportedly shut down, she was heavily criticised online, interrogated by the media, and near-eviscerated on The View. While she continually babbled jokes and refused to apologise, Raven Symone looked ready to pull some kind of crossbow out from under the desk.
Now, Arbour’s released a new (and perhaps equally as objectionable) video about abortion and the outrage has started up anew. With little sensitivity and an enthusiastic disregard for the views of others, Arbour’s become an easy, almost cartoonish target for the internet to lock onto and destroy. But, the truth is those big, outlandish villains don’t come along often. In most cases, righting perceived injustices — even with something as flatly offensive as fat-shaming — requires a little more thought, reasoning and tact.
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A Bloody Outrage
Last month, a controversial series of advertisements appeared on Australian TV for Unicharm’s Sofy BeFresh sanitary pads. As part of the brand’s ‘Ugh Moments’ campaign, the ads feature a thin woman who receives an alert on her phone, reminding her that her period is due. She’s then confronted with her ‘period self’: a doppelganger with a bad attitude who happens to be several sizes larger.
The backlash was immediate online and in the media with many claiming the ad perpetuated tired stereotypes of menstruating women as emotional and aggressive, with even more concerning implications for larger women.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Liam Mannix drew attention to Twitter users’ distaste with the negative portrayal of the larger actress. “Periods – they make you fat and mean,” he wrote, incredulously. Mamamia‘s Joanna Robin decreed it a step backwards in body positivity and mocked the ad. “Because fat people are gross and unclean, don’t you know?” she wrote. And, though the ad got some love from noted period enthusiast Joe Hildebrand on Channel 10’s Studio 10 morning show, his co-host Jessica Rowe pointedly asked: “Why, just because you have your period, does it mean you’re suddenly fatter and plainer?”
This criticism then went global with those at US publication AdWeek labelling it “easily the year’s most offensive ad aimed at women”. Here, they argued the less-desirable, “monstrously unstable” version of the heroine was “a living symbol of fat-shaming”.
Of course, this is all pretty familiar. If you scroll down your newsfeed at any time, you could find anger-provoking headlines about the plight of Syrian refugees or a photoshopped model, occasionally treated with comparable levels of indignation. To show just how constant this is, Slate visually tracked what everyone outraged about for each day of 2014 — the scope, from racial violence to pop culture scandals, is staggering.
In many cases this can be positive. Last week Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim teenager who was arrested and suspended from school for building a clock, now has a global fan base and vocal support from Barack Obama, Google, and NASA. The public shame directed at his school and local police officers is a harsh spotlight on racial profiling and will give other authorities a reason to think twice before abusing their power.
But in the rush to create this kind of genuine change, things can get slightly muddled. With anger being a compelling, shareable and highly profitable publishing tactic the media’s attempts to get lucrative page traffic can often overshadow the cause itself.
In the case of Sofy BeFresh much of the criticism was warranted, but one thing was forgotten. Despite the flurry of media around the ad, no journalist ever approached the actress who played the “fat girl” for comment.
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When You Find Yourself At The Centre Of Online Outrage
Rose Flanagan is the 23-year-old emerging Melbourne actress at the centre of the controversy. You might have seen her in ABC’s recent series Glitch, or as Lauren the “fat lesbian boarder” in J’amie: Private School Girl.
Speaking about the whole ordeal, Flanagan told us she noticed a few negative tweets after the ad’s premiere, but didn’t think anything of it until they were used in a BuzzFeed post titled ‘This Menstrual Pad Commercial Manages to Both Fat-Shame and Period-Shame Women‘.
“I don’t think they meant it as a personal thing, but it came across as quite critical of me,” she says.
That article in fact prompted a surge of public discussion with mixed responses to the ad. Many women really liked the concept:
Everyone is all offended by the #sofybefresh commercial but I thought it was hilarious lol it's obviously exaggerating.
— Kate Morgan (@Kthornn) August 20, 2015
Surely it's ok to laugh about our period? Or am I being naive? #sofybefresh
— melissa (@melmck3) August 20, 2015
I'm a fat girl that found the #sofybefresh commercial funny. I don't get period angry, but I do like #periodsnacking #fatjokes #morbidhumor
— Forklift Jones (@ForkliftJones) August 20, 2015
Others were particularly harsh:
Oh wow. So according to #sofybefresh when you're on the rag you're a shameful fat bitch. Fat shaming women. Shaming women. Period. Sick.
— Sam (@SamLianne) August 20, 2015
Careful Unicharm. A crazy, emotional, hormonal, fat woman might come for you. #sofybefresh pic.twitter.com/KDDtrWffLy
— Noeleene Yap (@noellemyap) August 20, 2015
Periods are gross as are fat women – at least according to #sofybefresh
— Hayley Hughes (@fashionhayley) August 19, 2015
“I was a bit disheartened by seeing that, particularly from other women,” Flanagan says. “I share a lot of feminist views and values myself, so I sort of found it quite bewildering that these were the women that were calling me ‘fat’ and ‘disgusting’ and ‘unattractive’. In the process of standing up for women, I think a lot of critics managed to objectify and demonise me and my body shape.”
“I didn’t expect it to cause as much controversy as it did. Particularly because I don’t see myself as some of the things that people started describing me as.”
Contrary to public opinion, I actually reckon I'm a massive babe #sofybefresh #periodshaming #fatshaming
— Rose Flanagan (@roseflan) September 9, 2015
Flanagan notes that, during the casting process, there were actually actresses of many shapes and sizes auditioning for her role.
“Certainly when I was being cast, and when I was on the shoot, there wasn’t any mention of it being anything to do with size or weight,” she says. “It was more to do with the feeling, that ‘ugh’ of when you’re on your period and playing that role up … I compared it to the Snickers ad: ‘you’re not yourself when you’re hungry’.”
“In hindsight, I can see people have made a lot of points now, so I can see where people are coming from.”
Flanagan also says that although she’s had issues with her body image in the past, she’s now confident with who she is and how she looks.
“I think if I was still in that place, it would have been a lot harder to cope with,” she says. “[All this] kind of dredged things up [but it’s been] quite a cathartic experience, having all these words that I feared people would think of me splashed in my face. And they don’t really hurt me.”
Flanagan is clearly tougher than most; the rest of us would probably still be curled in a foetal position under a pile of blankets, but her experience is interesting.
Over the past few years, the powerful sway of public criticism on the internet has made many changes for the better. We have the freedom to be critical, to listen, to discuss and adapt and learn. It’s just worth remembering that the world’s not made up of Nicole Arbours. Often issues are complicated, there are vested interests, and everyday people can be sucked into the outrage vortex.
We should always feel free to speak out when we feel angry or misrepresented – but we also need to be wary of creating more victims in the process.