A "Dear Fat People" video rant which has captured the Internet and which many think is fat-shaming was temporarily shut down by YouTube, said comedian Nicole Arbour, its creator who says fat-shaming is an issue "made up" by fat people.
YouTube said the video's temporary disappearance was a mistake, not political correctness, and it's back up.
The profanity-laced six-minute video in which Arbour railed against "fat people" was posted a week ago and has received more than 2.1 million views -- and the ire of some for its bluntness in insensitivity.
E! News said the video has received another 19 million views on Facebook.
Caution: The video contains an occasional F-word.
"Fat-shaming is not a thing," Arbour said in the video. "Fat people made that up. There's a race card. There's a disability card. There's even a gay card, because gay people are discriminated against, wrongfully so. The gay card is covered in glitter."
A YouTube spokesman told
CNN that Arbour's channel was taken down Sunday by mistake and it was back up by Monday morning.
CNN said some of Arbour's critics charged that she shut down the channel herself to further capitalize on its publicity but she rejected the argument.
"(YouTube) shut me down," she said told CNN on Monday.
Whitney Way Thore, star of the TLC reality show "My Big Fat Fabulous Life," called Arbour's video "heinous." Even though Arbour said on her video she was not talking about people with a medical condition, Thore challenged that assumption charging that the comedian and would not know about the condition on sight.
WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO FAT PEOPLE ---> #DearFatPeople This is my response to Nicole Arbour's video (& all body shamers!) S2 of #MyBigFatFabLife premiers Wed. 9/9 at 9 on TLC! #NoBodyShame
Posted by Whitney Way Thore on Saturday, September 5, 2015
"I'm so glad you're not talking about me, except you are talking me because you can't tell a person's health by looking at them," Thore said in her video, which has received more than 14 million views on Facebook itself.
Lindy West of
The Guardian said that while she fights for Arbour to say what she wants, she called her criticism of fat people to get a laugh dated and tone deaf.
"Broadly speaking, even comedy has moved away from fat jokes that obvious," said West. "(Who's lazy again, by the way?) Arbour showed up late to a losing battle and declared victory. It is, frankly, embarrassing."
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