By: Peter Xiao
On June 11th, Remi Bader posted a TikTok video about how she was kicked out of Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk because of her weight. She was laughed at for her weight and told she wouldn’t be able to ride a horse at the ranch.
At first, the actions from the ranch seemed reasonable as the guidelines on their website say that “horses can’t comfortably bear more than 20% of their weight.” Bader recognizes this and knows some ranches have weight requirements, but she explains that she shared her experience at the ranch to the public because of “the way I was spoken [to] and laughed at … and the way I was treated overall.”
A teenage worker made a video in response to one of Bader’s comments in her video, saying, “When you’re not a fat b—- you can ride at Deep Hollow Ranch.” Deep Hollow Ranch later gave an apology and stated that the employee’s video “in no way represents nor is aligned with” their views.
The event was an unfortunate example of fat-shaming, the unjust mistreatment of fat people because of their larger bodies. This mistreatment is on the rise, with over 40% of American adults saying that they had experiences with weight-based teasing. It will continue to be on the rise as obesity rates increase, with the CDC finding that 41.9% of adult Americans are obese.
Eventually, fat-shaming can turn into discrimination based on weight, which causes low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and even eating disorders. This can then cause a vicious cycle, with the person facing discrimination oftentimes gaining more weight. Behavior changes can follow, which can include developing a binge-eating disorder, a serious issue that Bader herself suffers with.
The negative emotions that could arise from the discrimination can lead to someone excluding themselves from participating in some activities as well. Swiss and German scientists discovered that negative experiences and fear of discrimination are top reasons as to why obese people stopped doing certain activities such as swimming in public pools or working out in a gym. Some also resort to doing activities in more isolated areas, such as running and cycling in a forest.
The environments that obese people live in also discriminate against them. This ranges from too small public chairs to not having large enough clothing ranges for themselves.
Fat-shaming likely won’t be a problem ending soon, and more experiences like Bader’s are bound to come to light. However, if people understand how fat-shaming can cause emotional and psychological damage to obese people, it could make all the difference in protecting people from that damage.
Sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tik-tok-influencer-remi-bader-horse-ranch-incident-weight-even-darker-rcna33991 https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/remi-bader-says-ranch-wouldnt-allow-ride-horses-due-weight-rcna33330?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
