Welp.

[Content Note: Fat-shaming; body policing; bullying.]

This is definitely one of those articles about which, if I weren't on tour with the Twitching Digits, I would totally be writing a 2,000-word screed riddled with profanity. But I'll just quickly make two observations and then turn it over to you in comments for the shredding it deserves.

1. I'm particularly struck by the framing of the article—which is that it's people who react to the image who are the "bullies," but not the person who says "what's your excuse for not looking like me," as if every person is obliged to look like her and capable of doing so. (I'm sure there are people who actually did say nasty, indefensible things, but the framing here is that it's only dissenters, even those who took issue in good faith, who are "bullies.") Not everyone has the ability to look like her; not everyone has the desire to look like her; and no one is required to look like her. The implicit expectation that every fat person should have "an excuse" for not looking like her is hateful, eliminationist garbage. And if eliminationism doesn't count as "bullying," the word has lost all meaning.

2. I also love how it's just supposed to be taken as read that "I don't give a fuck, that's why" is definitely not considered a legit excuse for not looking like X. Which underlines how body policing and fat shaming is not really at all about the health (and certainly not the mental health) of the person being hated, but about the aesthetic preferences of the people doing the hating.