Monterey Bay Aquarium Apologizes For Calling An Otter ‘Thicc’ And ‘Chonky’ on Twitter
OutdoorHub Reporters 12.21.18
California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium apologizes after coming under fire for using colloquial language in a tweet about one of their otters, “Abby.”
The tweet shows a photo of the otter with a caption joking about the animal’s size. However, Christine DeAngelo, the aquarium’s curator of mammals, confirms the otter is 11 years old and weighs a healthy 46 lbs. The animal is also one of five female sea otters at Monterey Bay who trains other pups on skills needed to survive in the wild – like opening clams and mussels as well as grooming their coats.
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 ! pic.twitter.com/s5fav2gu09— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 18, 2018
The Los Angeles Times reports stranded or abandoned sea otters are often brought to the facility and taken care of until they’re mature enough (about 8 weeks old) to be introduced to Abby’s enclosure. After roughly 26 weeks old, the pups are then weened and socialized with other adolescent sea otters before being released back into the wild.
Not long after posting the tweet, the aquarium was called out on Twitter for describing the otter with “language from memes originating in black culture and African American vernacular English (AAVE).”
The outrage grew so quickly that the Monterey Bay Aquarium issued an apology through a string of tweets Wednesday:
Hey everyone. It has come to our attention that some of the references in this tweet are problematic and insensitive. We’re posting here in the thread so that people who have engaged with this tweet will join us in our learning moment. 1/4
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018
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
In particular, several terms referenced originated from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and specifically reference Black women’s bodies. Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended. We need to do better. 3/4
— 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
So if you came here hoping solely on seeing a cute photo of an otter, sorry, it’s just not that simple these days.
Even after issuing their apology, the aquarium still found themselves in hot water, however the tone of the complaints was a bit different this time around:
@MontereyAq Would you PLEASE stop apologizing for that otter meme?! It was funny and amazing and you didn’t denigrate women with your AAVE language. Geesh.
— criticallyfunny (@uncannycritic) December 20, 2018
Do. Not. Apologize. To. Bullies.
— Mungojerrie (@Paltolich) December 20, 2018
🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ 1) at this point this is meme vernacular. Do you know how many random things I’ve seen described as “thicc” or “a unit?” 2) this is not comparing African Americans to animals. It’s comparing animals to humans, which is a VERY common behavior.
— HH (@Hawkalyptica) December 20, 2018
