Nicole Arbour is still facing fierce criticism for her controversial “Dear Fat People” video – and, according to Toronto-based director Pat Mills, the now infamous fat-shaming video has cost her a job.
According to a statement from the director, Arbour was up for the job of choreographer for his upcoming film Don’t Talk to Irene. The film is described as a “body-positive teen movie” about a girl who dreams of being a cheerleader, but is bullied for being fat.
“I was randomly checking Facebook and a comment on a video popped up. The video is called ‘Dear Fat People’ – it’s an unfunny and cruel fat-shaming video that guises itself about being about ‘health’. Its fat phobic and awful,” said Mills in a statement sent to Global News.
“It went on for over for six minutes. I felt like I had been punched in the gut.”
READ MORE: Canadian YouTube comedian Nicole Arbour under fire for fat-shaming video
Arbour’s so-called fat-shaming video went viral last week, garnering over 20 million views and 177,000 likes on Facebook alone.
In the video Arbour goes on a six-minute rant poking fun at the idea of fat-shaming and ridiculing overweight people.
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“Fat shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up – that’s the race card with no race,” Arbour said in the video. “If we offend you so much that you lose weight, I’m OK with that. You are killing yourself.”
While Arbour maintains the video is satire – and has refused to apologize to those offended by her jokes – many have called the video damaging and offensive to overweight people.
“Bullies like Nicole Arbour are the reason I am making this movie,” said Mills.
“It’s very odd that we live in a world now where people post their opinions on YouTube (to get views), but they cannot say these opinions to our faces. My film celebrates being different. It celebrates not fitting in. I want to arm teen girls of all sizes with confidence. People like Nicole Arbour strip this confidence away”
Arbour took to Twitter Thursday to deny any involvement in the film.
Arbour isn’t backing down
Arbour has continued to defend herself on social media since controversy over her video began.
In an interview with Time magazine, Arbour said that she doesn’t see her comments as bullying but as a form of intense “truth-telling,” adding that she feels making fun of people is important.
“I feel it’s really important that we make fun of everybody,” she told Time. “I think [what] brings us together and unites us as people is that we can poke fun at all of us.”
According to her Twitter page, Arbour is busy working on new content for her YouTube page.
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