Tess Holliday is no stranger to fat shaming online. The model and activist has spent much of career advocating against fat bias and harmful stereotypes, and as a result, she’s become the literal definition of a clapback queen. Her most recent post, for example, proves that if you troll Holliday, she will troll you right back — and better. In a new Instagram video with her friend, makeup artist Alyssa Anderson, she revealed that one of the most common comments she gets on social media is to “lay off the Big Macs.”
“Me and my bestie @alyssamarieartistry get this comment all the time “ALL U DO IS EAT BIG MACS,” she wrote in the caption of the video. The thing is, she’d never actually eaten a Big Mac before filming this post. “She’s the worst fat person in the world because she has not eaten so many staple fat foods,” Alyssa joked in the clip. “And the Big Mac is one of them that she’s yet to enjoy.” So, apparently while stoned, they ordered $80 worth of McDonald’s and decided to film Holliday eating her first-ever burger from the fast food chain.
Camera in frame and Big Mac in hand, Holliday admitted it wasn’t what she was expecting, but then she takes her first bite and instantly gets the hype. “Wow, that’s delicious. Wow… It’s very messy, but I would 100% eat these every day like the internet says,” she joked. “I am so sad I had never had a Big Mac before.”
Holliday took to the caption to explain that plus-size people often use humor to deal with hurtful stereotypes. “Just further proof that plus size folks stay winning bc if there’s one thing we are good at it’s turning trauma into comedy ,” she wrote. Her followers agreed. “Bahaha I love seeing you make the people who make these comments feel stupid af,” wrote one. “Zooted! This is the best. And thank you for breaking unhealthy stereotypes about all bodies,” another added.
Of course, not everything Holliday deals with can be laughed off. In May, the model revealed that she had been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that goes dangerously undiagnosed in plus-size people, and in a new essay for TODAY, published earlier this month, Holliday opened up further about her diagnosis. “There are people who believe I was saying this to get attention. I’ve had some people say, ‘You’re doing this to stay relevant.’ I laugh because I know it’s untrue, but it’s so indicative of what a large problem this is,” she wrote.
“To get a diagnosis when there is so much weight bias and stigma in the medical industry is difficult. It’s tough when you hear the word anorexia and it’s only equated with one kind of image. It’s detrimental to so many people, including myself…. It’s hard to deal with something for which there isn’t enough support. Having a diagnosis has been liberating and it has made me feel less alone, but the confused look on people’s faces when I say anorexia or the stares I get if it comes up in conversation — that’s hard.”
You might also like: Amy Schumer Shares Swimsuit Photo After Revealing She Had Liposuction Surgery