Nicole Arbour speaking in her “Dear Fat People” YouTube video. Snapshot courtesy of youtube.com

A lot of students and I love watching music videos to the newest jams coming out on the radio.

When I have free time I find myself drawn to YouTube. There are so many Youtubers who say stuff I can relate to. They tend to be very good at pulling me into listening to the wide range of content.

Recently, my own personal YouTube adventure was stopped short as I became quite angry with the a particular YouTube video.

Nicole Arbour, a well-known YouTube “activist” and comedian decided to take her frustrations out on fat people. The video, “Dear Fat People” objectifies people who are overweight but it also fat shames in excessive quantities.

Her video managed to amass over 25 million views in the first week, stirring up tons of controversy. YouTube pulled her channel shortly after, but now it is restored.

You may be wondering why I am wasting my time calling Arbour out. The first reason is that she is unapologetic in any video that hurts people.

In an interview on The View, Arbour tried to defend her antics in the video, saying she was targeted because she is a woman and people hold different expectations for female comedians. I would argue the reason that Arbour received the backlash occurred because of the many accounts of bullying online and offline people receive to this extent every day.

The point is while she thought she might have been funny, the reality is the video  left many people hurting in the process. Whitney Thore who is a  reality star for TLC  on the show My Big Fat Fabulous Life, quickly came to the defense of plus sized individuals.

Many such as Whitney Thore, an activist of the “Body Acceptance Community” were quick to call Arbour out on her comments that aren’t very funny. In Arbour’s video, she says that  “Fat shaming is not a thing. That is something that fat people made up. It’s like pulling the race card without having the race.”

Now I am not saying that Arbour deserves some of the horrendous and rude comments in her video. What I suggest is that she applies context to her message, and how much of what she said can be taken as scandalous. Youtubers hold power within the social media field with what they post and what they say.

Arbour has a huge fan base and is one of those people whether she likes it or not. It is time that we begin to hold people who have a huge presence accountable for their actions. It’s my hope that the end videos are examined simply because of the consequences that they hold. Marginalized people such as those within this community are still prevalent in our society and it does matter what we say.

Amina Chinell-Mateen is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at aminakins101@gmail.com