When a light grey sweatshirt appeared on online shopping site Revolve on Wednesday, it was supposed to start a conversation.
And it did. Just not the one it intended to.
In less than 24 hours, images of the controversial item of clothing released to raise money for girls’ education were trending online for being fat-phobic, inappropriate and deeply offensive. So much so, the jumper has since been removed from the site and can no longer be purchased.
All because of its slogan:
“Being fat is not beautiful, it’s an excuse.”
Jesus Christ @REVOLVE what are you doing?! pic.twitter.com/Jtv0fHQEpI
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) September 12, 2018
Top Comments
As a “fat” woman I find this absolutely disgusting. And I don’t know how it could have been taken any other way. Even Paloma who relayed this story was shocked so clearly the way the campaign was going to be promoted was not told to them entirely- nobody would support this without any context. I didn’t even notice the “as told to” line under and even if I had, it doesn’t explain anything. I’m worried why anyone would pay $295 dollars on this....
Do they really think people are going to look closely enough to see the “as told to” part underneath? Complete cock up from start to finish.
I can see why people would be upset about a thin model wearing that particular message though, it looks quite mean. In context, knowing the story behind the messages, I get what they were going for. But if you just saw a person in the street walking past you with “being fat is not beautiful, it’s an excuse” written on their shirt - no context - it would be jarring. Not sure they’ve thought the whole thing through.
It looks mean because they are only seeing what they want, instead of the whole picture.
Surely reading the quote should make you want to read the reference too.
The context is right there on the shirt.
Well, kind of. If you walk past someone in the street and see that quote, the tiny “as told to” bit underneath is not as obvious- I didn’t notice it at first, until it was mentioned in the article and I went back and looked twice.
Even assuming your squinting abilities are good enough to be able to read the "as said to" part, what context does that really provide? It tells us that someone said it to someone else (who I've never heard of, incidentally). It doesn't tell me why they said it or that the jumper isn't endorsing the message. It's just confusing.