{"id":184477,"date":"2018-10-06T22:35:41","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T02:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=184477"},"modified":"2018-10-06T22:35:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T02:35:41","slug":"walmart-says-third-party-bathing-suit-ad-for-fat-girls-was-a-translation-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/06\/walmart-says-third-party-bathing-suit-ad-for-fat-girls-was-a-translation-error\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart says third party bathing suit ad ‘for fat girls’ was a translation error"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In an emailed statement, Walmart spokeswoman Diane Medeiros said the description was caused by a translation error on the part of a third-party seller. (File Photo<\/a>: Jeff Hitchcock\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SAINT JOHN, N.B. \u2014 Walmart\u00a0Canada\u00a0is apologizing for a now-removed advertisement promoting an item with the term “fat women swimsuit” in the title.<\/p>\n

The third-party ad for a modest, plus-sized floral print bathing suit described the product as the “best choice for fat girls to spend hot summer.”<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Walmart spokeswoman Diane Medeiros said the description was caused by a translation error on the part of a third-party seller.<\/p>\n

“The descriptions of this swimsuit, sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, do not represent Walmart’s values,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“We have removed the product from Walmart.ca and sincerely apologize for any unintended offence this has caused our customers.”<\/p>\n

Saint John, N.B.-based stylist Amanda Hanson first saw the ad on Friday morning when some of the women she works with brought it to her attention.<\/p>\n

Hanson, who said she’s an avid promoter of body positivity and acceptance, said she was troubled by the seller’s use of a word that is commonly used to insult overweight women.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of emotion, and negativity, and a lot of bullying that’s happened to women over the years about their size, whether it’s from family members, boyfriends or other females,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of shame and upset associated with the word ‘fat.”‘<\/p>\n

In recent years, some people have taken to embracing the word “fat,” proudly using it to describe their body types.<\/p>\n

But Hanson said that’s their choice, and others may still find the word offensive because of its negative connotations.<\/p>\n

“When you think about it, it’s a descriptor word, just like you would use ‘skinny,’ or ‘blonde,’ or tall, or ‘short,”‘ she said.<\/p>\n

“But because women who are larger have not been properly represented in society in a long time, and women have been shamed for their size for so long, the definition of ‘fat’ is considered a negative one.”<\/p>\n

While she understands it’s an issue on the part of the third-party seller, Hanson said the error raises questions about how the retail giant monitors the third-party sellers on its website.<\/p>\n

“The apology is fine, taking it down is fine, but I want to know what they’re going to do to fix it in the future,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAINT JOHN, N.B. \u2014 Walmart\u00a0Canada\u00a0is apologizing for a now-removed advertisement promoting an item with the term “fat women swimsuit” in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":184479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-alex-cooke","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}