Project Harpoon: The 'deplorable' site photoshopping larger women skinny A Facebook group that photoshops larger women to look skinny has been heavily criticised for promoting unhealthy body images and fat-shaming

‘Project Harpoon’ is a social media group that describes itself with the hashtags #InnerBeauty, #ThinnerBeauty and #SkinnyAcceptance.

But those don’t really do it justice.

The hashtags #FatShaming or #PerpetuatingBodyImageIssues would be far more appropriate.

Project Harpoon, which has a Facebook page with more than 10,000 likes along with an Instagram account, shames larger women.

It takes photos of celebrities, or real women sent in by its followers, and photoshops them to look thin.

They’re normally accompanied with captions such as ‘mum to model’, and ‘from blocking the view to enhancing it’.

The idea was initially borne out of an equally nasty Reddit thread called ‘thinner beauty’ that asked users to submit their own photoshopped women.
Just like other ‘shaming’ groups such as Women Who Eat On Tubes, it’s been criticised for singling out women.
Occasionally men will be featured, but the overwhelming majority of images feature women.
It’s no wonder that the account has been getting a lot of hate from women who called it ‘deplorable’, ‘pathetic’ and are calling for Facebook and Instagram to shut it down.
Plus-size model Tess Holliday, whose image has been featured on the site, told E! News: "It's abominable that this [Facebook page] is using my image without permission to promote themselves.
"This kind of hit piece is exactly why I started #effyourbeautystandards. I am asking my followers to boycott this [page] and any others like it. Loving yourself is the most powerful message we all need to stand behind."

Other women are also fighting back by commenting on the images saying just how beautiful the women look in original photos.
The positive comments are now outnumbering the nasty ones.
One Facebook user, Rachel Tonu, wrote: “Not only are you targeting women with your shallow, narrow minded views of what beauty and attractiveness is, you're also perpetrating hatred of diversity and differences.
“Additionally, invading and intruding on individual's right to privacy, in the worst form. Bullying of your kind is low, degrading and despite any amount of likes you may have received from equally small minded people- your behaviour will never be accepted or tolerated without some kind of fight.”
Another summed it up saying: “This is hate speech.”