The Experience of a Fat Person in Online Spaces
Fury Basso-Davis | March 25, 2025
Photo by Maia Hannah-Drullard
CW: Mentions of weight, fatphobia, sex, rape and gore
Recently, anti-fat and fatphobic rhetoric has hit my TikTok For You Page (FYP), and I think it’s time we talk about anti-fatness online. I’m not sure where these videos have come from. I try my best to avoid content related to weight and weight loss on social media because I have seen how fat people have been treated and have even experienced comments about my weight in videos that are completely unrelated to weight.
The first time I saw this was in high school during the COVID-19 quarantine, in a video that has since been completely erased from the internet titled something along the lines of “The Top Half of a Fat Chick.” In this video, two men were talking about how unattractive they find the bottom half of a fat woman and would cut her in half to have sex with the top half of her. I never thought people could be so cruel, and it was one of the most horrifying and disgusting videos I have ever seen.
My next experience was when someone commented how Tyler The Creators' lyrics in “Tron Cat” were weird. The lyrics in question were “Victim, victim, honey, you're my fifth one Honey on that topping when I stuff you in my system, Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome,” The person’s comments were filled with hate and on their Instagram and people were calling them a beached whale. It made me think: why are people so cruel to fat people, especially online? What have we ever done to you to make you hate us so much?
Last week, a woman's TikTok post showed up on my page and she said “Why the fuck would brands carry 4X or 5X clothing? That’s insulting to the designer,” and added more rhetoric about how ‘you are designed to fit the clothes, not the other way around.’ That’s simply not true, clothes are designed to fit people. I went on a dive through her other videos and saw a trend of consistent fatphobic comments. No surprise there; she ranted about how being fat is a bad thing, and your punishment for not working out is being fat. After looking at her page some more, I discovered that the majority of videos are supposed to be motivational for weight loss, but in reality, her videos shame fat people for existing in their bodies.
The obsession with weight loss and weight loss drugs in America is insane, ranging from Ozempic to Hims&Hers, a non-FDA-approved weight loss drug. The early 2000s and '90s obsession with cocaine-chic is coming back, and it’s coming back hard. Even on the app YikYak, I have seen fatphobic comments about going “whale hunting” on campus.
I don’t understand the obsession over fat people and our bodies, and maybe I’m biased because I am fat myself, but it doesn’t mean I have to lose weight. I, like many other fat people, am not unhealthy just because of what I look like; it’s just how my body is, and promoting body positivity and living does not equate to “promoting obesity,” as many like to claim. I simply exist, and others do too, and in my opinion, it’s time for people to start minding their own business, especially when it comes to commenting on people's bodies. If you have ever been told to eat more, then you have an insight into what it’s like to be told to eat less. Your appearance is none of my business, so why is mine yours?
Sincerely,
A fat person.