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Too Fat For Facebook: Photo Banned For Depicting Body In 'Undesirable Manner' (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Guardian: Facebook has apologized for banning a photo of a plus-sized model and telling the feminist group that posted the image that it depicts "body parts in an undesirable manner". Cherchez la Femme, an Australian group that hosts popular culture talkshows with "an unapologetically feminist angle", said Facebook rejected an advert featuring Tess Holliday, a plus-sized model wearing a bikini, telling the group it violated the company's "ad guidelines". After the group appealed against the rejection, Facebook's ad team initially defended the decision, writing that the photo failed to comply with the social networking site's "health and fitness policy". "Ads may not depict a state of health or body weight as being perfect or extremely undesirable," Facebook wrote. "Ads like these are not allowed since they make viewers feel bad about themselves. Instead, we recommend using an image of a relevant activity, such as running or riding a bike." In a statement on Monday, Facebook apologized for its original stance and said it had determined that the photo does comply with its guidelines.Facebook said that its team scans millions of ad images every week, and sometimes understandably misses out on a few.

33 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by Nova+Express · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...their busy schedule of banning conservatives for daring to say that they ban conservatives to determine what an appropriate bikini body is...

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    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

    1. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by beh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It does confirm that it was the right decision to close and delete my facebook account 3 or 4 weeks after using facebook and still not seeing the point of it.

      Now seeing how busy facebook seems to become in policing what its users might want to see, good riddance Facebook... ...not nearly ruing as much having signed up here a "while" ago... ;-)

    2. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well I for one welcome our new bikini-clad land-whale overlords.

    3. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by GungaDan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I fail to see the need to be fair to that 350+ pound beshemoth. She left 'plus sized' behind a tenth of a ton ago. If it is harmful to show young girls images of models considered too thin to be healthy, it must be equally harmful to show images of "models" that are three cupcakes away from losing a foot, or exploding their overburdened hearts. The "healthy at every size" thing is dangerous nonsense.

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    4. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by GungaDan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Fat Self Acceptance" is one thing and "Fat Acceptance" is quite another. I have no problem with the former. The latter, however, is nothing more than misery attempting to create company for itself by encouraging morbid obesity in others. That's harmful, disgusting and frankly intolerable.

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    5. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by Dins · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I "deactivated" my account a couple years ago. My only regret is that I didn't follow various guides to delete it completely, or as completely as can happen. But logging back in to the account in order to delete it at this point is not something I want to do so I'm letting sleeping dogs lie.

      I hate Facebook more than is probably rational, though. Both for solid IT nerd reasons like the rest of us but also because it had a huge hand in ruining my marriage. Yes there were other issues there, but Facebook certainly didn't help.

    6. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You really fail to see the point of fat acceptance.

      Fat acceptance is exactly as harmful as pro-ana/pro-mia or promoting smoking.

      --
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    7. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or maybe "fat acceptance" leads to inaction because, what the heck, it's okay to step on a scale and for it to say "One at a time, please."

      Nobody should be complacent being way past morbidly obese. You can say you're a happy happy hippo all you want, but you'll be a dead dead hippo if you don't take action.

      Obesity is the #2 killer nowadays. Keep this up, it will be #1.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    8. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by GungaDan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Morbid obesity is not an activity, and it has negative (not zero) value to you and everyone else in terms of tangible societal cost (mostly in health care).

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    9. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by twotacocombo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Once someone labels themselves as Fat and Ugly then they lose hope and stops trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

      So I was fat once. 260 was my high water mark. One day I thought to myself "Holy shit, I'm fat as fuck and this sucks". Know what I did? Something. Through diet and exercise, I lost 70 pounds. Labeling myself fat gave me the motivation to not be fat. If I had thought "I'm fat and I'm OK with this", I'd still be fat, probably fatter.

      I also worked for several years doing shitty low paying jobs. One day I said "Holy shit, this job fucking sucks" and I went back to school to start a career. If I had said "This job sucks, but I'm fine with it" I'd probably be 400 pounds, or dead.

      Without realizing how low you are, you may never find a reason to crawl out of it. Labeling yourself as fat, or a failure, or whatever, is not a negative thing. It all depends on what you do with that realization. You can bitch out, or you can do something about it. Your call, but don't blame society for making you 'feel bad' and then give up.

    10. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, it is important to be realistic about where you are, while at the same time realizing that you can always be more than that. If anything, that should be the message here. If someone is fat, then call a spade a spade, but remain supportive of their struggle to become healthier and also uphold their confidence that they are a person who, no matter what their weight is, is a good person. It's just that they are a good person with a disease they should fight, not just accept.

      On the other hand, there's obese and there's perfect. No one is going to go from fat to Hollywood hot, and not even stars do that without a full staff and a lot of money. The goal should always what makes you healthier and more comfortable. Don't let "perfect" become the enemy of "good".

    11. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by Tanktalus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I do not think being this fat is health or sexy but I a sure as hell there are people that do

      False equivalence. You're treating two things, one subjective (what's sexy) and one objective (what's healthy) as if they were equivalent. They aren't.

      This feminist group is doing likewise. Acceptance of unhealthy obesity is tantamount to abuse. It's statistical murder. Instead of encouraging people (let's face it here, they're focused on women, but the same applies to men as well) who are obese to, you know, do the work to get to an objectively healthy body weight and save their lives, they're encouraging these women to revel in their obesity and thereby shorten these women's lives. And that's pro-woman?

      If you're into BBW, all the power to ya. But don't pretend like you're doing those women any long-term favours. You're participating in their deaths just as surely as if you stuffed the twinkie in their mouth yourself.

      As to Facebook, they should really stay the fuck out of it. Allow groups who promote healthy body images to flourish. The proper response to negative speech like this group's is positive speech, not banning.

    12. Re:How nice of Facebook to take time out of... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Too bad you didn't actually read beyond the headline so you could make a quick, but inaccurate, retort.

      The results were based on a survey, rather than experimental data, so you can't make conclusions about whether the fat-shaming actually caused the weight gain.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. Re:I doubt it was innocent mistake by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > For some reason there's a huge number of people who absolutely hate on people who are fat.

    No, there's a huge number of people who hate on people who are fat that say it's perfectly healthy to be fat.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  3. Re:I doubt it was innocent mistake by sanosuke001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They didn't make a mistake; Tess Holliday is obese and tells everyone that its okay. It's not okay, its unhealthy (I know, I'm the same way and know I need to get in shape; I'm not trying to by a hypocrite) it is hard to get back in shape and I don't blame her for being fat but I do blame her and her kind for perpetuating the "healthy at any weight" bullshit on the internet. She's not fat, she's obese; she's unhealthy and allowing her to tell people that it's okay is not okay. I know it's not okay for me to be obese, either, but I'm not telling people that it is.

    Facebook, for once, did the right thing the first time; she shouldn't be allowed in an ad just like anorexic models shouldn't be either. Reversing their decision was the mistake.

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    -SaNo
  4. internet scandal of the week by known_coward_69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    99% of us don't care

  5. Facebook vs. Feminists by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a bit like a reverse Alien vs. Predator.

    Whoever loses
    We win

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. Quickie Mart by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Facebook is like a convenience store. You go there for specific and fairly basic reasons: share photos with families and friends, let them know what's going on in your life, message each other and arrange get togethers...probably 90% of what a person does on Facebook.

    But, like a convenience store, the places is polluted with hundreds of items you have no interest in and would never buy or use. And if you did actually want any of it, you sure as hell wouldn't get it from a convenience store....or Facebook.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  7. Is this really healthy? by diakka · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll bet that nobody would kick up much of a fuss if they decided to ban a photo of an anorexic model. Tess Holiday, being morbidly obese, obviously suffers from disordered eating due to a food addiction, yet is paraded around as some kind of paragon of moral virtue, while pictures of women with anorexia would be censored for being harmful to little girls. But seriously, do you think that presenting a morbidly obese woman as a socially acceptable norm sends girls a message about body image that is any less harmful?

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    -- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
    1. Re:Is this really healthy? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's a complex topic (I keep saying that about things...).

      There's a fairly-curvy model out there who did a bunch of ads pushing back on fat shaming, claiming she's proud to be fat. SHE'S HAWT. Seriously. She has firm abs. She's got larger, padded, but firm thighs. She has a narrow waist, broad hips, and an overall-feminine form. She is the depiction of beauty in old Greek art. This is not a fat chick.

      That should tell you something about this whole political wargarble.

      People are going out with 600-pound land whales shaped like miniature cattle and claiming they're healthy and proud and there's nothing wrong with them. Bullshit. They're morbidly obese. "Morbidly" does not mean "I disagree with this because it hurts my little feelings"; it means "you are exposed to severe health problems."

      Fat people are unhealthy. The additional belly fat causes more heart burn, leading to esophageal cancer and bad teeth (and halitosis). They're more at-risk for diabeetus. Their hearts have to work harder, but aren't equipped to work harder--larger, more buff people have made more work for their hearts while making their hearts stronger--and so are more prone to failure. Their metabolism isn't burning all the crap away, so their blood cholesterol is more likely to clot and get stuck in odd places (coronary arteries, cranial arteries, etc., heart attacks and strokes are bad). They also smell bad--we can put smokers on that list, too.

      That's what "morbidly obese" is: you're fat to the point of serious damage to yourself.

      On top of all that, what makes a good body image is not what you think about your body; it's what society thinks about it. What *we* find attractive is what *is* attractive. There's fat-chick dudes who go riding the hog, and that's their business, and you and them can get along just fine; but when 98% of all dudes are telling you you're way too fat and not attractive, that means you're way too fat and not attractive. It's the same as if I started insisting all girls are supposed to want to have sex with me because I'm pantie-melting hot--I can keep saying it, but it's not gonna get any more true unless I start doing some serious push-ups. Stick with your fat fetish man and stop telling us all what we're supposed to think about it.

  8. Screw Tess Holiday, she's a scammer by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 4, Interesting
    She has scammed her supporters numerous times the below text was taken from this link, to see the image gallery from the Reddit chain click here.

    There's no doubt in my mind that you all know who Tess Holliday is. Founder of "Eff your beauty standards", plus size model, (apparent) body positivity icon.. oh, and scam artist! In November 2014 hundreds of her loyal fans purchased shirts with her "EYBS" branding emblazoned on them,also under the impression that a portion of the proceeds would be donated to a Domestic Violence charity (many fans have said that the reason they were able to justify spending $40 on a shirt is that they were glad that some of the money would to go a DV charity). Not only did hundreds of fans NEVER receive their shirts/merchandise, but not a single cent went to charity. Fans asked Holliday why they hadn't received their items yet via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, only to be blocked by her (Tess herself has admitted that she is in control of all of her social media accounts).

    After several attemps by many disappointed fans, the Facebook group "Eff your Customer Service" began. With now 450 members, Holliday could no longer ignore the fans who had rallied against her.

    The clothing company Redress took on Holliday's EYBS merchandising responsibilities, and tried their best to reimburse customers.

    Still, many were disappointed that none of the proceeds from their purchases were going to the DV charity as they had been lead to believe. Holliday claims that the reason for this is because EYBS operated at a loss, despite doing their own packing, advertising and selling shirts at $40 each. Fans asked her why she couldn't just donate some of her own fortune to the charity to write her wrongs, however no comment was made. Holliday (whose real name is Ryann Maegan) claims to earn 6 figures, and her constant updates on her expensive lifestyle understandably angered fans who were left with no refund, no shirt, and no DV charity contribution.

    Of course, making donations to things like Amber Rose's Slutwalk is no problem!

    Holliday's scamming/thievery goes even further, as this image suggests. The identity of the person who made this comment is protected, as this Facebook group was a secret group where people could talk about their experiences with her without facing scrutiny from Holliday and her friends, who are constantly harassing anybody who speaks out about her.

    Holliday is also known as a horrible person to work with. Despite claiming to be against traditional beauty standards and standing up for body positivity, many photographers who have worked with her in the past have said that they will never choose to work with her again.

    Additionally, the plus size clothing company Torrid have severed ties with Holliday for a number of reasons.

    In a Buzzfeed video, Holliday is seen claiming to be a size 22, while complaining about the fit of a pair of size 28 Torrid shorts, despite having modelled for them in the past.

    Lastly, Holliday's general stalking-behaviour of people speaking out about her says a lot about what kind of person she is. She knows she's doing wrong, and she knows that people can tear her down if they need to.

    tl;dr, Don't hate Tess Holliday because she's fat, hate her because she's a scam artist, liar, and generally a bad person.

    Her response to this? Blame everyone but herself in the press like here in People magazine, the comments sections are particularly informative about the fact that not everything has been addressed. Any group associated with this person is enabling a scam artist.

    1. Re:Screw Tess Holiday, she's a scammer by sinij · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Any group associated with this person is enabling a scam artist.

      Criticizing her in public forum is almost impossible. She is a) feminist b) plus sized person c) public advocate. No matter what she does to you, just preemptively apologize and hopefully SJW lynch mob won't completely ruin your life.

  9. Re:I doubt it was innocent mistake by Shortguy881 · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, there's a huge number of people who hate on people who are fat that say it's perfectly healthy to be fat.

    Self-righteous fitness nuts who think they can lecture people on how to eat and diet.

    Self-loathing fat person who lacks self control...

    --
    Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
  10. Please help me understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I just want to be clear about what is being discussed here:

    1) The feminist group wants to show photos of half-naked obese women because it helps to "destroy" the concept of the perfect body?

    (Already, I'm completely lost. How does this work exactly? Men see a fat woman in a bikini, and start to get turned on -- thereby changing the standards of beauty? Would that work with other images too?)

    2) The feminist group wants men to stop "objectifying women" physically, so they are using a photograph of a fat woman in a bikini to help us stop thinking about women ... in terms of their physical bodies.

    (Swoooooooosh!...that was some kind of feminist logic doing a low-altitude fly-by somewhere near my head)

    1. Re: Please help me understand by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The point comes off to me as being that some people aren't happy with the fact that most males have their own ideas about what is attractive to them (which sometimes includes other males while excluding all females) and that often means no attractiveness to certain body types, of which being grossly overweight often falls out of bounds (which if you consider evolution, that actually does make sense.)

      I don't think it is right or wrong for anybody to have a particular thing that they're attractive to and thus want to prefer it, rather, it just is, and that's life. However I do think it is wrong for people to shame other people for not wanting a relationship with a certain segment of the population. For example, if you're white and you don't want to ever date a black person, that is perfectly acceptable.

    2. Re:Please help me understand by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's like how I try to convince women that a being a fat, alcoholic slob is attractive by posting pictures of myself passed out naked on the street.

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    3. Re: Please help me understand by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not about individual's preferences.

      Here's a tip though. The novelty of having a magazine body wears off quickly. And it doesn't guarantee good sex either. It certainly doesn't correlate with a good personally or good relationship either. Once the lights are off, once you get into doing things together... there are more important things.

      Also, there is something wrong with not ever wanting to date a black person. What possible reason could there be other than racism? Black people have all body types, all personality types... if it's just skin colour, that's terrible.

      That might be the way you want things to be, but our biology doesn't work that way. Believe it or not, it is completely impossible for a male to control whether or not he has an erection and thus can even have intercourse. It truly is an involuntary function, much like your heartbeat. Sure, you can produce the circumstances that cause you to have an erection, just like you can run to cause your heart to beat faster, but it still remains out of your control. This is also why it's possible for a female to rape a male, triggering involuntary ejaculation. Similar biological processes determine what the male would rather have in a mate, and that can exclude any number of things, big or small, from hair color to personality.

      Likewise, it's not racist to have no attraction to somebody of the opposite race, just as it's not sexist for homosexuals to have no attraction to the opposite sex.

    4. Re: Please help me understand by William+Baric · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I wish I could be like you and control my ejaculation through thought alone. That way, instead of having to watch porn and waste 5 minutes masturbating, I could just think about it and tada! Instant orgasm!

      When I think about all the money I spent, all the time I wasted, and all the shit I had to do simply to have sex... I sincerely envy you.

    5. Re: Please help me understand by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wish I could be like you and control my ejaculation through thought alone. That way, instead of having to watch porn and waste 5 minutes masturbating, I could just think about it and tada! Instant orgasm!

      The Internet has some pictures of fat chicks in bikinis if that would help.

    6. Re: Please help me understand by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Err, no. I see people talking about black skin and light skin in the conversation. That's skin colour, not race. You do know that there's more than one race with black skin, don't you? Just like there's more than one race with light skin.

      Well if you want to be a dick and split hairs over semantics then you're wrong because humans are just one race.

  11. Re:I doubt it was innocent mistake by Vermonter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, but unless you recently started your strict calorie limit of 1500 per day, or you are exceptionally short, or you have some bizarre medical condition, there is no way your are being honest. If you are overweight, it means you are eating more energy than you body needs, and so it stores the extra energy as fat. If, every day, you eat only what is required for your body to maintain a healthy weight, then your body will move towards that weight, whether you are underweight or overweight to begin with. I'm not trying to "body shame" you, or any of that crap. If you are fat and happy, then it's no skin off my back. But don't sit here and tell me you eat 1500 calories per day and you're still overweight. Dishonestly like that may convince someone who is unhappy being fat that "it's just the way their body is and they can't change it".

  12. I'm so sorry... by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a free ride when you've already paid

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  13. Re:I doubt it was innocent mistake by barc0001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Based on your height, weight and age that you stated elsewhere, you resting mass intake is 2800 calories per day. Even if your body freaked out and dropped that by 800 calories you're still looking at 2000 calories per day for maintenance. Which is last time I checked, still greater than 1500.

    Then there's the question of adding exercise to the equation. Moving around takes energy, there's no way around that.