Making fun of Fat People at a Gym is an abomination. Full Stop.

Ok, so I write this blog a while ago but kept in unpublished in my blog archives for the whole month of April. I did not publish it because I was scared that the words I wrote wasn't good enough to describe something so serious, but today I reread  it and decided to post it.

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See this beautiful, inspiring, strong, kind-hearted person in this photo? 

She shaved her long hair off for Leukaemia's worlds greatest shave, she won George Town Citizen of the year for Youth  in 2011, she created a successful walking group for youth to socialize in a healthy, welcoming environment, she was a chorus member in Launceston College's production of Back to the 80's, she has her certificate in Community Services, she was a vegetarian for over five years,  she won the Soroptimist International award in year six and ten ( if you ask her why, she will say it was because she was a teachers' pet despite winning at different schools), she donates to charity, and volunteers for mental health organisations.

I know because that is my sister.

She is my hero.
My sister is on a mission to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle.
She has been on this mission for as long as I can remember.  She has never been content with her body and being called 'fat' during school and being told she could not ride on rides at Luna Park only motivated her more to complete her mission even more.

On March 30th she went to her local Gym in Melbourne.She  got on the treadmill, put in her earphones and started running. A routine she has done for an a few hours , several times a week without any interruptions On this day, instead of running her usual workout in peace, she was interrupted by two girls who sat in the corner of her Gym  boisterously giggling with their phones pointed in her direction.

They started taking photos of my sister running as fast as she could, all sweaty with a gigantic sweat stain developing on her back . 

One of these photos  made their way online with bold text saying:  "Making fun of a fat person at gym is like making fun of a homeless person at a job fair" 

These girls decided to personally target my sister because of the size of her body and post this photo with bold, white text onto social media.
Would I be seeing the same text written on a photo of my sister if she was of a smaller figure?
No.
The girls have used the phrase  'fat person' to describe my sister to brand her and humiliate her and it is not OK.  It makes me infuriated .
How can somebody be so cruel?

The first time my sister saw this photo she posted a heatbreaking status online stating that " it [the photo] made me feel horrible and I wanted to cry," . And I do not blame her, a photo  she certainly did not give consent to, where she was branded a 'fat person' and was obviously being humiliated  was circulating the internet and she had no control over it.

As a society, we are addicted viewing social media, especially on our mobile phones (Trust me, I annoyingly hear " put your phones away" at least twice  every school day) We are addicted with viewing  videos and photos that are displayed on our social media screens. Viral videos and memes just like this are shared without second thought. People often forget that the photographs and videos they are sharing, commenting, and liking have real people in them. These people in these videos and photos are not actors, they are real people who have real lives and real people who have real feelings and deserve to be treated  fairly. 

But the horrible truth is we just need to open out Facebook pages to see an image that is being shared, liked, and reacted to, just like this one where victimizing and objectifying is treated as a form of entertainment. 

and it's just not OK. 

I am mad because I am sick and tired  of people thinking it is OK to victimize others. I am sick and tired of seeing acts of bullying on my social media feeds. When is bullying ever OK?

The first time I saw it, I honestly thought that it would be the last time.
but it wasn't.

On Monday morning I woke up and scrolled through my Facebook feed before I threw the blankets over me, got up out of bed, and got ready for the day. I normally just see photos of babies and cats or babies with cats, but this day I saw something I did not want to ever see. 

On the Facebook group Sleepy Panda  displayed this same photo.

 It had been slightly edited  and given a white header with the text 'sleepy panda' , and a small illustration of a panda on the top left side, laying down in it's stomach with a black thought cloud above it's head with small 'zZzZzZz' displayed in the bubble,
Still, despite the small changes, it was still the same image. 

The same image of my sister.

 In a matter of 9 hours it had received   330 shares, 23 comments, and over 2000 likes. 

When I saw it I nearly threw my phone across the dim bedroom and cried. I was so upset. 
 How can people press their 'like' buttons  and encourage  this malicious behaviour? 

How can people  condemn this behaviour by sharing it?

How can people support this behaviour by commenting? 

How can people not relies that this is bullying? 

Society needs to wake up and stop being so mean on the internet.

I'm begging: If you see it. Report it. Help me get it off the internet. I do not want it on there, my family does not want it on there, and my sister does not want it on there.
Help me make Social Media a safe place for others.

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UPDATE- May 

The photo on the Facebook page 'Sleepy Panda' still stands. It has over 403 shares, 4.1 reactions, and an abundance amount of comments. 

My sister ignored it. And I want to give her a gold platinum trophy for bravery and courage. 

Why are we living in a society that embraces online bullying, where images like this are common to see on our social media pages?  

We all need to watch Superwomen's (aka: Lilly Singh)  video published on 21st April called  How to NOT be a jerk on the internet  (press on the link to go, I am super techie and I have linked it to the page) it portrays the same message I am trying to get across. 

That we are living an a generation of people who are addicted with viral content that isn't always nice. 

Nobody deserves to be victiomized. Nobody deserves to be put into a situation they do not want to be in. When we share, comment, and react we are supporting the bullying of the person/people in the photograth or video. 

Why do we do that? Can't we just live in a world where everybody is safe? 

Where my sister can go to her Gym without being targeted and made a subject of an online meme. 

“All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries." -The Help