Nicole Arbour Fired From Movie In Wake Of “Dear Fat People” Video Controversy

by Olivia Truffaut-WongSeptember 12, 2015, 6:43 pmNews, News Feed >

Nicole Arbour was reportedly fired from working on the film, Don’t Talk to Irene, after her controversial “Dear Fat People” YouTube video went viral.

Nicole Arbour Fired From Movie Job After “Dear Fat People” Vid

Arbour, a stand up comedian and YouTuber, was reportedly fired from her job choreographing an anti-bullying dance film titled Don’t Talk to Irene after her “Dear Fat People” video went viral. The video, which many believe to be a severe example of online bullying and fat-shaming, went viral earlier this week, and caught the attention of Don’t Talk to Irene director Pat Mills.

“’Dear Fat People’ is an unfunny and cruel fat-shaming video that guises itself about being about ‘health.’ It’s fat-phobic and awful. It went on for over six minutes. I felt like I had been punched in the gut,” Mills said of the video.

Arbour, however, denied that she had been fired as a result of her video, releasing a statement claiming she had never committed to the job in the first place. “I have never formally been attached to this project. We had spoken of it, and last I heard the team was doing a re-write. Pat Mills is using my YouTube story as a reason to get a low budget film that has not yet even started production press,” Arbour said in a statement.

Nichole Arbour “Dear Fat People”

Arbour originally posted her controversial video on Sept. 3, and it quickly sparked debate over the nature of the video and fat-shaming. In her video, Arbour opens saying that “fat-shaming is not a thing,” and goes on to tell people who are “obese” that they are not taking their health seriously. Arbour’s self-proclaimed “comedy” continues by comparing overweight people to zombies and trashing the body positive movement currently taking over social media.

“OMG the hashtags #BodyPositive. If you want to be positive to your body, work out and eat well. That’s being positive to your body. You really think if enough of you hashtag something bad for you, it makes it okay?” she said in the video.

Though Arbour insists her video was “satire,” most audiences failed to see the funny side of her video. Abrour claimed that after users allegedly reported her videos as offensive, YouTube took down her video and later disabled her channel.

It’s unclear whether or not Arbour’s channel was really disabled by YouTube. The site has not commented on the issue, and Arbour’s channel was back after less than 24 hours. Some suspect that Arbour could have removed her videos from YouTube herself in an effort to gain more publicity. Whatever the case, Arbour used the YouTube drama to position herself as “the first comedian in the history of YouTube to be censored.”

Arbour has stood by her video, but did apologize to any children who might have been offended by her video, saying that her comedy was intended for adult audiences only. “I never intended for kids to be watching it and I’m sorry if any kids who didn’t understand that I’m a comedian were shocked or upset,” Arbour told BuzzFeed.

However, on her Twitter account, Arbour had previously blamed her fellow YouTubers who called out her video on their channels for exposing the fat-shaming video to younger audiences. “I’m really sorry that YouTubers with pre-teen and kid audiences have shared my adult aimed comedy videos. Was never meant for kids,” she wrote on Tuesday.

Chrissy Teigen, Ashley Graham Slam Nicole Arbour

Many fellow YouTubers and celebrities have called out Arbour’s video as fat-shaming, including models Ashley Graham and Chrissy Teigen, who both spoke out against the video.

Graham, a plus-size model and body acceptance advocate, dismissed Arbour’s intentions with the video, saying, “I am not an advocate for bulimia, anorexia or obesity, but I am an advocate for women and empowering women and making sure that women around me feel comfortable and confident. That is not something she is about!”

And Teigen also shut down Arbour’s video, telling People Now, “Yes, Nicole, there is such a thing as fat-shaming, and you’re doing it right now.”

Teigen continued, noting that it’s troubling because even all the negative reactions to the video are still giving Arbour what she wants: publicity. “We’ve just given her this platform to feel like her opinion does matter, and so no matter if we’re talking negatively about it or positively, she’s winning. So that’s the worst part about it,” Teigen added.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.