Calling Your Cat a Chonker is Not Cute, it's Fat Shaming

The Tweet That Started it All

Let’s unpack the inciting tweet of the cat fat-shaming movement. In order to do this, we must look at the original poster. Their name is Gamer Grandma, which tells us a number of things. First off, the fact that they are a gamer explains a lot about their nonchalant attitude towards racism. The expression goes: hate the player not the game, but when the players are full of hate, I can’t help but blame the game. You may ask, wait how is GG a racist? Well its quite simple they are engaged in digital black face. If you look at this person’s profile picture, you can see that they are just some pasty white guy. They are engaged in internet white dudes’ favorite pastime, jive talk. Speaking in jive is the practice of white people performing mistrial by playing an exaggerated black persona online.

What Does All This Have to Do With My Funny Internet Cat Pictures

The fact is, it’s our history that defines us. When a meme is spawned in hate, it will always be corrupted by it. It’s just icing on the problematic cake that the size shaming of cats was jump started by a racist white man. The real problem is, sites like StayHipp.com go around spreading false information. They describe ‘chonker‘ as a term of endearment. First of all, how can a person claim to be speaking for animals? Last time I checked, only those on the receiving end, can decide if they find a name endearing. At this point, people need to start letting their pets speak for themselves, and stop exploiting them for money and fame.

Step 1 Exploit Cats… Step 3 Profit

Your pet is not your product. I get it, you took a funny picture of your cat’s large girth, and you want to post it for internet points. You really shouldn’t do that though. Not only is it exploitative, but it also completely strips your cat of any civil liberties. If you really feel like your cat is part of the family, you have to treat them with respect. Furthermore, not only are you posting your pictures of your cat without their permission, but you are actively inciting harassment. You may not know it, but when you post your cat on hate sub-reddits, like Absolute Unit, you are just working to normalize fat-phobia. In 2020, let’s not do that anymore, thanks.