The “thicc” of it!
Earlier this week, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California shared a pic on social media (SEE HERE) of 11-year-old sea otter Abby, who is one of six resident females that trains orphaned otters to survive back in the wild.
Related: Watch This Asthmatic Sea Otter Learn How To Use An Inhaler!
However, in the post, the aquarium described the marine mammal as “thicc,” “an absolute unit,” and “chonk.” They wrote:
“Abby is a thicc girl What an absolute unit She c h o n k Look at the size of this lady OH LAWD SHE COMIN Another Internetism !”
In a separate tweet, they added the hashtag: “#bodypawsitivity.”
Almost immediately, the nonprofit received heat from social media users who thought the caption not only criticized Abby’s weight, but was also racially insensitive, as the aforementioned slang is often used to describe black women’s bodies.
Some even thought they were comparing the bodies of black women with the bodies of animals.
On Wednesday, the organization issued an apology on Twitter for their “problematic and insensitive” post. They wrote:
If our tweet alienated you, please know that we are deeply sorry, and that we offer our sincerest apologies. If you follow our feed, we often reference popular memes to talk about the ocean. In this case, the memes used had connotations we were unaware of until now. 2/4
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018
Our mission is to inspire conservation of the ocean, and we're thankful for your support as we try to advance that mission on social media. We're also thankful for those of you out there pointing out our blindspots and how we can improve. Thanks everyone. 4/4
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018
Nothing “pawsitive” about this!
[Image via WENN.]
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