#FatShamingWeek

I found myself scrolling through the current hashtag trends on Twitter the other day, expecting to see much of the usual, #harrystylesfavouritefood and #pleasemarrymejustin.

But sadly this week those fan girl favourites were accompanied by a far more sinister trend; #fatshamingweek.

In everyday life, it would never be considered socially acceptable to approach a friend, or a stranger even, and open conversation with “you’re looking a bit chubby love, maybe you should lose some weight”.

So quite why it’s acceptable under the pretence of a #, is beyond me. Surely no-one with an ounce of social conscience or any self-respect would ever so blatantly attack people who are amongst the worst affected by global self-esteem issues.

Return of the Kings? More like Return of the Douchebags…

Twitter has been praised as a medium for social change, so why does it sound more like a script from Mean Girls?

The campaign was started by a men’s rights website called Return of the Kings. The site claims Fat Shaming Week was a ‘corpulent success’ whilst running’s several joint articles with titles such as ‘5 Reasons Fat people are Evil’, ‘5 Ways to Bully Fat Sluts on a Date’, and my personal favourite ‘Obesity is a Bigger Threat Than Al-Qaeda’.

Clearly the authors have their priorities straight when it comes to ‘men’s rights’.

The Keyboard warriors were out in force sporting a vicious attack on anyone with a BMI over 25 tweeting such gems as ‘#FatShamingWeek does an important service…it helps women identify the guys who they will never, ever sleep with. Guys too for that matter’.

Taking pictures of fat people in public has been dubbed street shaming – it is in fact a disgusting example of bullying.

Thankfully as disgusting tweets in support of the perpetrators flooded in, the less narrow-minded members of society spoke out. Condemning the trend and promoting healthy body image, they turned a negative attack into a positive movement.

Some tweeters gave us sharp and funny responses ‘#FatShamingWeek is the stupidest thing I’ve heard all week and is only aimed at women so let’s do one for men #PrematureEjaculationWeek’.

Twitter provides a platform for individuals to voice their daily opinions and thoughts but those who use this space to shame, bully and abuse others into changing the way they look are the ones who should be ashamed.