Today in Fat Hatin'

[Trigger warning for fat hatred, discussion of dieting and body image, and dehumanization of fat people.]

Sometimes people ask me why I don't fund the site with content-driven advertising, and I explain that content-driven advertising is incompatible with maintaining Shakesville as a safe space. Below the fold is an example of the would-be-hilarious-if-it-weren't-so-tragic content-driven advertising that is served to my email.


[Click to embiggen.]
On left, the black silhouette of a fat woman whose body is not totally dissimilar in shape to my own. Over the silhouette, across the torso, is printed in white text: "30+ Pounds Overweight?" Next to the silhouette is text reading: "Lose 30 lbs during summer? Try [redacted] free. Thousands of Women are dropping pounds with [redacted]! Try it free! Click to lose." On the right, is the image of a thin, young, white woman, smiling. She appears after a flash animation wipes away the fat silhouette, leaving her in its place.

Now, apart from the fact that there is significantly more than a 30-pound difference between those two figures, and the fact that this is an advertisement for some weight loss product that doesn't work and/or will do damage to the bodies of its users, and the fact that the "free" has an asterisk next to it, indicating that women will end up paying money for the privilege of potentially destroying their bodies with this product (remember Fen-Phen?), let us just take a moment to appreciate the message here: Fat women are just shadows, just monstrous shapes, not even human, and they only become real people with faces and smiles and clothes and happiness if they stop being fat.

This is the ad content I get served because I talk about fat people being deserving of love and respect, from themselves and everyone else.

lolsob.