My Big Fat Fabulous Life star Whitney Way Thore is no stranger to trolls.
She’s a woman, she is fat, and she’s a reality star — a triple threat that attracts vicious commentary on social media.
But this time, the hate that she’s getting ostensibly isn’t about her body, but about her actions.
Did Whitney totally betray her friend?
On the most recent episode of My Big Fat Fabulous Life, Whitney Way Thore had to make a difficult decision.
She had the unenviable task of firing her bestie, Ashley, from her administrative role at her No BS Active company.
It wasn’t a firing for cause — Ashley was let go because of a change to the business structure.
Whitney was bringing on a new team that came with the new app that she was launching.
Ashley’s role was suddenly redundant.
But Ashley didn’t seem to have any forewarning before this bombshell was dropped on her during the episode.
Ashley seemed blindsided and even upset.
After all, Whitney had initially "begged" her to help with the company.
Fans and viewers were furious, and took to social media to give Whitney a piece of their collective minds.
"I used to love you but firing Ashley when she has a child?" challenged one angry commenter.
"Are you out of your mind?" that comment continued. "Karma will get your selfish ass."
Another, much worse commenter wrote: "Just kill yourself, Ashley would never do that to you."
Whitney shared a collage representing a small sample of the "feedback" that she had received on social media.
She also included a lengthy response.
"There’s almost nothing I hate more than defending myself on the internet to strangers but, here we are," Whitney began.
"This kind of abuse is not okay," Whitney correctly pointed out.
"It’s not okay to do it to a reality tv personality," she emphasized, "or to someone you’ve never met."
Whitney added: "and coincidentally, I’m both."
"What the show neglected to show is that @ashdanbay has had a full-time job," Whitney wrote.
She shared that this has been the case "since before she began working on No BS Active admin on the side."
"And," Whitney spelled out, "she still has the same job almost a year later."
"She did not lose her livelihood;" Whitney said.
She admitted that, instead, "she lost a couple hundred extra bucks a month."
Whitney acknowledged: "I realize that the show made it look like No BS Active was her only job."
"But," Whitney urged, "I would really implore some of y’all to use your critical thinking skills."
She hopes that viewers can "understand that tv is entertainment."
"And," Whitney reminded her followers, "you may not (imagine this!) know everything from watching an edited 45-minute episode."
Whitney noted that these are episodes that are "crafted by people in an editing bay in Los Angeles."
"Probably gonna get in trouble for saying that," she predicted.
"But," Whitney expressed, "it is not easy to deal with s–t season after season."
"But mostly, just stop hurling abuse at people online, you know?" Whitney asked.
"Last time I checked, my friends and I actually liked each other," she expressed.
"And," Whitney concluded, "we’re all still employed."
Obviously, it’s heartbreaking when anyone suddenly loses their employment, especially without great wrongdoing.
But that’s not what happened here. A few hundreds dollars a month isn’t nothing, but it’s good to hear that Ashley isn’t destitute.
No matter what Whitney did or was imagined to have done by viewers, however, many of the comments that she received were cruel and out of line.