Gratuitous Fat Shaming

We really don’t need this. In Monday’s presidential debate, Donald Trump threw up a little fat shaming, just for the heck of it, in the midst of a conversation about cyber security:

She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia. But I don’t—maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.

This is hardly surprising. Trump is sensitive about the size of his hands. He talks about his opponents being “crazy” or “little.” So fat shaming is pretty consistent with his campaign strategy. #400poundhacker started trending on Twitter immediately. Does that mean it worked for him or made him a joke? Probably a bit of both.

Still, can we hope that this nonsense will dry up and go away?

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Donald Trump, photograph © Gage Skidmore / flickr

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September 27, 2016