Nicole Arbour is not backing down.
Arbour drew the ire of the Internet earlier this month when she posted a video mocking “fat people” to YouTube.
Titled “Dear Fat People,” the six-minute clip shows the comedian insisting fat shaming doesn’t exist, and includes controversial remarks that ultimately led to Arbour’s Youtube page being temporarily shut down by Google.
“Fat-shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up,” says Nicole in the September 3 video. “If we offend you so much that you lose weight, I’m OK with that…I’ll sleep at night.”
Arbour lost her job as a choreographer in an upcoming film project following the video’s release.
“I’m gay. I was bullied a lot as a kid. I am no stranger to ridicule and loneliness,” said director Pat Mills, who fired Arbour after watching her video.
“It’s fat-phobic and awful. It went on for over six minutes. I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I was so upset I was shaking like Shelley Duvall in The Shining,” Mills continued.
“I’m not apologizing for this video,” she told TIME. “I feel it’s really important…that we make fun of everybody. I think [what] brings us together and unites us as people is that we can poke fun at all of us.”
Moreover, Arbour says her video is just an “intense form of truth telling.”
“I find seeing someone’s head being blown off offensive. I find children starving in a country with more than enough food offensive. I find women’s bodies being mutilated for religious purposes, that is offensive to me. But words and satire I don’t find offensive,” she said.
“Dear Fat People” has garnered more than 4.9 million views on YouTube since its Sept. 3 release.
Starcasm reports Arbour lost 18,000 YouTube followers over the weekend, from 196,000 to 178,000, but according to her feed as of Monday morning she had 192,430 followers.
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