News

Founder of ‘positivity and wellness’ website criticised for rant about 'broke obese girls'

Picture:
Picture:
iStock and Twitter screengrab

A self-professed “blue collar millionaire” posted a thread in which she shared anecdotal stories about her life that disparaged both low-income people and those who are “obese.”

Melissa Jeanine wrote a thread in which she shared two stories in her life, and she began the tweet by saying:

Broke people are usually very low class, have extremely bad manners, have zero etiquette and no class at all whatsoever.

She went on to say that after her and her husband moved into an apartment, she baked cookies to give to her work friends. When she gave it to them, they “did not thank [her] for the cookies, they kept the container and never talked to me again.”

In another story, Jeanine recalled making a “gourmet dessert” for an employee’s birthday party at the insurance company she worked at.

“Our team” she wrote. “A bigger girl, was angry that I didn’t bring in a cake.”

Jeanine continued to rant about "rude, low class broke obese girl"

Both stories, which she used to make sweeping generalisations about low income, obese women happened fifteen years ago

She even put a picture of what her "gourmet dessert" looked like

Her Twitter thread didn’t go down well

People called her "positivity website" into question

And noticed lots of things wrong with her attempt to "make friends"

They questioned her motivations for making the cookies and gourmet desserts

"I bet her middle name is Karen"

"Money can't buy class"

Following the angry response her thread elicited, Jeanine wrote:

I don’t hate poor people.

But I definitely despise the poor person’s mentality and bad choices.

I spent my entire life around very smart people who chose to be poor because they didn’t believe in themselves.

But even her apology is classist

More: This Reddit theory may prove fans are wrong about who won ‘Game of Thrones’

More: Quentin Tarantino has started a fierce debate about the representation of women in film

The Conversation (0)
x