She wants fat shamers to experience the full weight of the law.
A plus-size model in France has launched a petition to outlaw fatphobia after getting ripped for her weight at a bakery.
“Will fatphobia ever really be punishable by law?” Harmony Albertini asked Jam Press regarding the petition, which she linked in her bio and promoted in multiple clips.
The content creator’s campaign was inspired after she went to a bakery in Montpellier to pick up a birthday cake that her partner had ordered online.
Albertini, who boasts 675,000 TikTok followers, was initially ecstatic and even uploaded a video praising the pastry mavens.
However, the influencer’s joy soon fizzled after she was forwarded a video of the cake-making process in which the audio had not been muted.
In the since-deleted clip, the couple who owned the bakery were heard making “shocking, fatphobic, misogynistic, and completely cruel remarks,” according to Albertini.
The dough-rolling duo had reportedly called the social media star a “slut” and a “fat potato” and analogized her to a “sperm whale” that would “explode the next day.”
“Aren’t you ashamed you still eat cakes when you weigh 23 stone?” the unnamed man vented on camera.
When Albertini tried to file a complaint with authorities, they said their hands were tied as the video wasn’t directly addressed to her.
“It was as if I had said to them, ‘They told me I was ugly,’” lamented Albertini, who claims she’s been fat-shamed since childhood. “They don’t understand what it’s about: ableism, people with health problems, undermining a person’s dignity.”
In accordance, the body positivity advocate established a petition to make weight bullying a crime.
“Article 225-1 of the [French] Penal Code prohibits discrimination based on physical appearance,” it read. “In theory, this covers discrimination against overweight people. But in practice, the word ‘fatphobia’ doesn’t exist in the law.”
She added, “As a result, victims don’t recognize themselves, institutions minimize it, and society continues to trivialize everyday violence.”
Per her anti-weight speech proposal, “fatphobia” would be included in the Penal Code as a criterion for discrimination, alongside sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
The document defined “fatphobia” as any “remarks, behavior, unfavorable treatment or incitement” related to their “weight, build or physical appearance related to their body size.”
The petition has 13,347 out of 100,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon.
Nonetheless, Albertini hopes that the campaign will help make a body-positive impact.
“Maybe we won’t get 100,000 signatures,” she said. “Maybe even with that, it won’t lead anywhere. But every attempt, whether individual or collective, is an act of reclaiming our dignity and our freedom.”
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