On Friday, everyone went bananas over an Instagram post by Robbie Tripp, a self-proclaimed TEDx speaker and man who bravely dared to declare that he loves his “curvy wife.” The photo depicts Tripp and the curvy wife in question, Sarah, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes on a beach. There was also...quite a bit of text:
“As a teenager, I was often teased by my friends for my attraction to girls on the thicker side, ones who were shorter and curvier, girls that the average (basic) bro might refer to as “chubby” or even ‘fat,’” he writes.
“Then, as I became a man and started to educate myself on issues such as feminism and how the media marginalizes women by portraying a very narrow and very specific standard of beauty (thin, tall, lean) I realized how many men have bought into that lie. For me, there is nothing sexier than this woman right here: thick thighs, big booty, cute little side roll, etc. Her shape and size won’t be the one featured on the cover of Cosmopolitan but it’s the one featured in my life and in my heart.”
As the day wore on, the reaction to the post pivoted from adoring to incensed. If Twitter hissing over his ersatz wokeness had a sound, it would be when you pour cold water into a grease-covered pan fresh off the stove.
But over the weekend, rage gave way to a pretty decent set of memes—and that is what I would like to focus on now.
In my opinion, this is the best possible outcome for anything that sparks internet backlash. Tripp himself seems to be taking the response in stride:
Who knows, maybe he’ll even get a TEDx talk out of this!