Barstool, a sports site that has had more than its share of backlash over sexist and questionable articles, decided it would be a good idea to publish an article fat-shaming Rihanna, of all people.
“So you see her pushing 180 and it’s a tough world to stomach. With all the fat acceptance and “love me as I am” crowd… bam we’re in a world where all the hottest girls look like the humans in Wall-E. And just in time for summer too,” wrote author Spags.
Obviously, the article sparked almost instant backlash. Who fat-shames Rihanna?
The article has since been deleted, but the apology that Barstool put forward hardly even qualifies as an apology, more of an attempt to blame the whole controversy on the writer and then wash their hands of the whole thing.
Dave Portnoy issued a statement announcing the decision to delete the article, but he spent the rest of the time saying it was deleted because it wasn’t funny, not because it was wrong to post in the first place, saying that there were “lots of feminists not happy about it.”
https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/869607278374027264
I've yet to come across one male employee at barstool that isn't shaped like a lump of raw dough so congratulations you played yourself.
— ⚓️ (@livyrozay) May 30, 2017
“If Big Cat or PFT or KFC or I write this blog, I’ll defend it to the death. They have earned that trust and loyalty from me,” Portnoy declared. “I hired them because I think they are all legitimacy hilarious people. However, as I’ve said many times, Spags wasn’t originally hired to be a personality at Barstool. He should not be writing blogs that we as a company end up having to defend.”
Portnoy concluded, “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that somewhere down the line this blog will be dug up again and used as an example of our extreme sexism. Frankly that’s not a hill I’m willing to die on.”
Rihanna fans did not like my blog calling her fat and now I'm being cyberbullied 😩 pic.twitter.com/iuvYIwW8gr
— Chris Spags (@ChrisSpags) May 30, 2017