As a skinny person (and target of attempted mall abduction when I was 21), I don’t find it offensive. But I don’t find it funny, either. It sort of falls flat. I do think you’re over-reacting, but if you called the shop and pointed out that their sign might creep out some college parents (moms), they might see your point and come up with something better for their sign. (They also might think you’re crazy and over-reacting.)
I suppose you could also say it is “fat shaming”-- because aren’t they implying that fat people are not attractive to sexual predators?
I find it mildly amusing. I will admit that when I went to Mexico, I told people I wasn’t too afraid of being kidnaped because I didn’t think I’d fit into the trunk of a car.
@jym626, I think you’re right about that. It was frightening to walk around town even after the person was caught. I hadn’t actually thought about it in over 30 years, or the fact that it happened not long after someone tried to grab my brother while we were at the local shopping center. He was able to get away, but they never found who did it. I wonder how I could have forgotten something like that. Now I understand why the sign upset me so much.
“suppose you could also say it is “fat shaming”-- because aren’t they implying that fat people are not attractive to sexual predators?”
No, they’re implying that fat people would be harder to overpower / drag into a car.
They AREN’T fat shaming because they WANT people to be comfortable with having a few extra pounds (from eating their delicious pastry). Fat shaming would be making fun of people who indulged too much. They are doing precisely the opposite.
I have to say that I think that jokes about kidnapping aren’t funny, and neither are most fat jokes. I think the sign is lame. But it doesn’t rise to the level of offensiveness.
About the only funny thing about kidnapping I ever recall reading is The Ransom of Red Chief, which is hilarious:
And this is perhaps the only fat joke I find witty:
"A corpulent maiden named Kroll
Had a notion exceedingly droll:
At a masquerade ball,
Dressed in nothing at all,
She backed in as a Parker House roll. "
Thank you, jym626 and Pizzagirl. Now that I realize why it bothered me, it doesn’t bother me quite so much. I guess it’s easier to face our fears when we’re grown. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that my brother is a 6’3" career Air Force officer. Not too many people mess with him now.
I used to tell my kids that they had to stay right beside me in parking lots and when crossing the street because nobody would want to hit me because they would get a big dent in their car… and one day my then three-year-old son said, “True, true, Mama, you are a little overweight.”
fwiw, my “fat shaming” comment (#40) was supposed to be an example of the extremes people will go to over-interpret and take offense at everything these days. I don’t REALLY think the pastry place is fat shaming. ( I need to use winky faces more often–seems like whenever I try to make a joke on CC, someone takes it seriously and has to “correct” it.)
