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This makes me so angry and sad

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I was in Target on my way to look for double-sided tape, but this card stopped me in my tracks. Can we as a society stop making disparaging comments about any kind of body type? Or appearance in general? I'm sorry, it's supposed to be funny, but it's not. I'm offended and I'm not even skinny.

(Oh, the inside says "Eat more cake. JK Happy Birthday.)

I'm tempted to write a letter to the publisher.

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Urgent

24 replies

Latest reply was from RunnerChick

Anonymous

Horrible!

Raisin

Veteran

Yah I agree it's not right to disparage anyone of any size. I wish it was ok that we all come in different sizes. I think people forget that you can still hurt a persons feelings by making fun of their size or weight even if they are small.

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

It just plain bad taste.

lynne

Veteran

Agreed. One of my pet peeves is when magazines or manufacturers or ads use the term "real women" to describe sizes 16 and up. Size 6, 16, or whatever, we're all real women.

Gaylene

Veteran

Hmm, I don't like that card either, but I think the majority of "humorous" cards are probably offensive to the group being lampooned. Most of the "humor" on these cards seems to involve making men look like crass idiots, older people look like half-witted gargoyles, and women look like brainless, self-absorbed zombies.

I'm not into sticky, sweet sentimentalism, but when did ridiculing others become such a popular way of amusing ourselves when we want to celebrate an occasion?

<<OK, rant is now over>>

Lisa

Veteran

Poor taste to me too.

Kristin L

Veteran

I agree. We are all "real women" and we come in all shapes and sizes.

Aziraphale

Veteran

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree. I am the shape and size of a twelve-year-old. There is nothing I can do about it. Am I not a "real woman"?

This sort of thing makes me crazy. No wonder we all feel judged.

nancylee

Veteran

Janet, I couldn't agree with you more. This type of rudeness (ridiculing others, like Gaylene said) seems to be more and more acceptable these days.

This card reminds me of an equally offensive little girl's tee-shirt that was popular about 10 years ago....it said: "Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them." As the mother of a young boy at the time, I found it horrifying. Can you imagine a tee shirt for boys that said that about girls?

The line between joking and outright meanness seems to be blurring.

Amy

(website)

Veteran

Agree 101%

Anonymous

Very poor taste indeed. Downright offensive, actually.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

What Gaylene said.

As bad taste as it is - cards make disrespectful comments about age, personality, your appearance, your budget, about being blonde, and anything at all all the time. This one just happens to be about body type, no?

I'm not condoning it AT ALL. Just kind of is what it is, if that makes sense.

I laughed at the card - and then rolled my eyes. I laugh at all the blonde jokes too. And I'm blonde.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Agreed with all of these comments!

Nancylee, I remember that! I thought it was horrible too.

And as for the term "real women" -- well, unless you're a cyborg, I'd say you're real no matter what size or shape!

Angie, IKWYM about the whole genre of "insult" card humor, but I think what struck me about this was the Mean Girls attitude -- an attack on a perceived "other." I'd be just as appalled at a card that attacked the opposite end of the weight spectrum, or any other physical trait.

Also, sad to say, I'm not surprised that this exists. Just dismayed. I hope no one buys them and they're discontinued.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I hear you, Janet. That Mean Girls attitude made me see red IN A BIG WAY.

rachylou

Veteran

Venom and hen pecking is so... 1950s.

Deborah

Veteran

Janet this is not funny at all. In an age where bullying is so prevalent, this is inexcusable.

unfrumped

Veteran

I send so few commercial cards now because there is almost nothing out there that is truly clever without involving some crass or adolescent type of humor that I don't want to be promoting. I still send notes, but just write something.

Mochi

Veteran

That bothers me too, Janet. And it was probably even contrived by someone who's male or in any case a bottom-of-the-food-chain writer who took a stab and thought it would be a funny thing that would hit home with people, but hasn't got a clue.

Sad.

Thistle

Veteran

Awful card. Not funny.

Frankly, I have stopped sending too commercial cards. Most are crass and not funny at all. I often wonder who would ever send them. A blank card where I write HappyBirthday and a little note has been the way I've gone for a bit now.

ManidipaM

Veteran

Ugh. What Gaylene said, too.

Most days, like Angie, I try to ignore it, shake my head and shrug my shoulders at the overwhelming *commonness* of this kind of stupidity --- but some days it gets my dander up enough to start ranting on Facebook or Google+, or fire off an irate email (I remember the T-shirts Nancy mentions too: the company had others equally as bad). So if you do decide to write to the publisher, you have my full virtual support.

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

I see this as a card someone would give to their skinny friend, poking fun at them. I'm not a skinny girl, but have been at other times in my life and I don't think I would be offended by this, I just wouldn't think it is funny. I would think it says more about the giver than about me.

I remember this cartoon where two hippos are looking at a svelte gazelle at a watering hole. One hippo says to the other, "I hate her." Now that was funny.

rae

(website)

Veteran

This is why I keep buying blank cards...

Who are you supposed to give this card TO, anyway? If you give it to anyone who doesn't see themselves as skinny, you're basically calling her fat, right? And if you give it to a girl who thinks she's thin, you're saying she sucks...?

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Rae, I thought that too!

Just out of curiosity, when i had a spare moment yesterday I googled the card to find the publisher, and I found a rant by a girl who had been given the card by her sister. Apparently, the recipient had been working on her diet and exercise routine to get healthier and lose weight, and her sister seemed to be intimidated by that. The recipient was NOT amused in the least. So yeah, a nice little tool for passive-aggressive maniplulation.

I don't buy many greeting cards anymore either, but I also just can't get behind mean-spirited ones. I prefer to send my own and write my own personalized message, unless I find something that's just so totally fitting for one person that I can't resist.

RunnerChick

As a one-time skinny girl struggling with body/ image issues that date back to the time I was at the receiving end of comments like this one, this card deeply offends me!