Woot! Fatphobic!
Woot! is a rather swell shopping deal site: they sell one closeout product each day. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Most products are accompanied by witty and/or funny descriptions - some of them are really done.
Nevertheless, Bill was disturbed by the description for yesterday's Woot. Here's the archived version.
We’d just opened an email with a very lucrative offer from a widow in Cote d’Ivoire when our reveries were interrupted by a visit from a stranger. Obese, panting, the beer-company logo on his t-shirt stretched and distorted, flesh spilling from both the top and bottom of his sweatshorts, the unexpected caller flopped onto the bench. We feared for our safety as the bench trembled under the strain.
Awesome. In addition, the fat man: has crumbs in his mustache, is a "slob", is portrayed as stupid, and has sweaty dollar bills in his tube socks. (Hilarious!) When this fictitious fat man mentions a girlfriend, the narrator says, "We doubted the existence of this so-called girlfriend...."
It's pretty much every awful fat stereotype you can imagine, rolled up into one. Bill notes that Woot CEO Matt Rutledge defended the product description when Bill complained about it. You might want to read the description and write them about it.
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I'm curious as to how it's possible to defend that, but I can probably guess pretty acurately. How is it even intended as a funny story if they spend the whole time being disgusted and annoyed by a fat stereotype? Either way, I'm not sad at all I'm just finding out Woot even exists...however, probably not a great strategy to get word out about your company.
I'm always amazed that a business would stoop to this level. For the sake of argument, if we assume the popular belief that there is an obesity epidemic, I can't understand why Woot! would want to alienate so many potential customers.
I wrote them. Not a ranting letter or anything, because those often get discarded, but a letter that just expressed my disappointment that they would be so unthinking as to offend their fat customers with a piece like that.
and yet, at the end, they're willing to take the guy's money.
humiliate him, put up with his stupidity, question why anyone would possibly put up with him for more than ten seconds, by g-d-it, take that sucker's money.
~Maggie~
But, oh, the irony, considering this person just ate at Appleby's and then uses the royal "we." It makes me think of a narcissistic car salesman, although I hate to offend carsalesmen that way.
wow. that's so bizarre. i thought i was the only one who knew about Woot! i read that yesterday and was pretty turned of from their site. even if they DO have pretty good deals on electronics and such.
