Public aquarium in California apologizes for describing sea otter as ‘thicc’

An aquarium sanctuary in California, USA, has apologized for describing one of its sea otters with a term familiar to some people today: “thicc.”

The Monterey Bay Aquarium had posted a photo of its sea otter named Abby on its Twitter posted Wednesday.

Aside from the sea otter looking cute for the camera, netizens noticed how the post described Abby: “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 (sic)!”

“Thicc” is a black slang describing a sexually attractive woman, specifically with a big butt and curvy waist.

The tweet garnered 11,000 retweets and almost 38,000 likes, as of this writing. It followed another tweet with the hashtag #bodypawsitivity.

However, the description did not sit well with some netizens who found the word insulting. This led to the aquarium to apologize for the post.

“If our tweet alienated you, please know that we are deeply sorry, and that we offer our sincerest apologies,” the aquarium said in another series of tweets made on Thursday.

“In particular, several terms referenced originated from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and specifically reference Black women’s bodies,” the aquarium explained. “Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended.”

While some did not like how the otter was described, others thought that Abby was cute, such as Misha Linn (@misha_linn).

Gabriel (@JeeVee84) juxtaposed Abby’s image with those of Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose and even US President Donald Trump to show their “level of thiccness.”

And Wendy C (@gwenniesmit) thought  the aquarium did not have to issue a public apology. “This is a light hearted and well intentioned tweet, and I for one LOVE IT!!” she expressed.

The aquarium’s curator of mammals, Christine DeAngelo, said the photo was taken in a bad angle. ““It’s just the angle of her hips and the way she’s rolled. She’s one of our most photogenic animals,” DeAngelo told The Los Angeles Times

She explained that the otter most likely had woken up from a nap when the photo was taken. Abby serves as a surrogate mother to orphan sea otter pups.  Katrina Hallare /ra

 

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