Let’s start with what should be blatantly obvious: This is disgusting. This is harassment. This is objectively terrible. This should never, ever, happen. While people who are the victims of this are allowed to handle it in whatever way they prefer, nobody is obligated to tolerate this in any way, nobody is obligated to look for “best intentions,” nobody is obligated to put up with this or hold back their profanity-laced rant. And that would be true even if there was a chance in hell that their products would lead to long-term weight loss.
People are allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies. People are, at least for now, allowed to sell weight loss methods that almost never work. None of that, in any way, justifies something like this:
Private message that says the following (all spelling and grammar from the original.) “Hi Ashleigh, I’ve just been here looking through your photos and I’ve noticed since after Christmas your face looks a little fuller, I don’t mean to cause offence this happens to a lot of people! I don’t no if you know but I work for [redacted] and we have some amazing products that will benefit you in loosing the weight. If you would like to discuss more please reply to this message and we can get things sorted asap [smiley face emoji] Thank you x
Ignore/Delete/Block
Say nothing to the person, block them and move on with your life.
Reply
This could be anything from heartfelt paragraph about the dangers of fatphobia, and the chances that this person could be sending e-mail to people whose eating disorders will be triggered, to a fully annotated paper about Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size. Or you could just say “How fucking dare you? This could not be more inappropriate and you need to stop doing this right now!”
Report
Send their information to the company that they are representing. Perhaps something like:
“I wanted to let you know that [insert name and social media link] is representing your company poorly by sending unsolicited messages like this [quote message.] Obviously you know that this is inappropriate, offensive, and in addition to being fatphobic could end up triggering eating disorders. I hope you’ll address this before more people are harmed.”
You can also report them to the social media site that they used to send it.
Name and Shame
They are so comfortable sending this out, surely they won’t mind if you let other people know about this fabulous opportunity. Take a screenshot and send it on its way on social media.
Again, you get to decide how you deal with this, all I care about is that you know that it is well and truly bullshit. If you have other ideas for responses, please feel free to leave them in the comments!
Like this blog? Here’s more cool stuff:
Become a Member! For ten bucks a month you can support fat activism and get deals from size positive businesses as a thank you. Click here for details
Book and Dance Class Sale! I’m on a journey to complete an IRONMAN triathlon, and I’m having a sale on all my books, DVDs, and digital downloads to help pay for it. You get books and dance classes, I get spandex clothes and bike parts. Everybody wins! If you want, you can check it out here!
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
I’m training for an IRONMAN! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
via Dances With Fat http://ift.tt/2iP8QRN
