Project Harpoon: Public service or Public Enemy #1?

A Facebook user heading the page “Project Harpoon” (a dig referencing the weapon used in whaling) is jonesing for attention, and using his or her amateur-at-best Photoshop skills to get it. The user has posted a series of professional shots (all taken without permission, we assume) showing the plus-size individuals in them-including famous models and actors-edited to have much thinner figures.

Model Tess Holliday is one of the plus-size women whose image the anonymous individual edited.

Users are invited to say which version they prefer, with the clear implication that the slimmer image is preferable. The “group” – what are they, even? – bills itself as “a collaborative art project open to interpretation”, and hails from the bowels of Reddit’s /r/thinnerbeauty subreddit, which dedicates its time to Photoshopping pictures of larger women to be skinny. The number of comments that thoroughly exhaust all talking points for every part of the woman’s body, who is on display, will revolt any reader. Fat acceptance should never be acceptable in today’s society’.

Plus size women, who have overcome their self-consciousness and awkwardness to post happy, curvy pictures of themselves are in for a rude shock.

Which could keep up on a hike with you?

“Meghan Trainor might be a lot more popular if she was what the industry wanted her to be!” the administrator of the page captioned an image of the Grammy-nominated singer.

“You must really hate something about yourselves to degrade and fat shame women you know nothing about”. Although health concerns are often cited as an excuse for body-shaming and bullying, medical experts have long noted that a person’s size is not necessarily indicative of his or her health.

“It is utterly appalling on so many levels”.

Project Harpoon may seem like one of the worst things on the internet right now – but given its roots on 4chan, it’s likely an act of trolling, created to offend.