In today’s society, online bullying and social abuse has increased more than ever. And unfortunately, it will continue to rise. For many, it can take as long as five seconds to comment something negative, but it may take the person receiving that comment five days, weeks, or months getting over it. It might take awhile for the Meena, the animated fictional character from the movie Sing, to get over the fat-shaming, name-calling, also known as #Meenaslander. 

Meena is the Sing franchise’s vocal powerhouse elephant character, voiced by singer Tori Kelly. She is one of the numerous anthropomorphized animal candidates in the 2016 film Sing, who compete in an American Idol-style singing competition, and also appears in the sequel, Sing 2, which opened in theaters last December. Meena is a bashful young teen with a lot of singing talent who eventually gains the confidence to perform on the show. However, in recent weeks, she’s become one of the most despised personalities on TikTok, owing to a scene in which she sings “Happy Birthday” in an unusual manner.

Over 78.7 million people have seen the hashtag #meenaslander and over 64.1 million people have seen the hashtag #meenatheelephant. In one video, Meena is tortured in many ways, including a video where she was put in a blender and another in which TikTok user @footlettucefungus bought a Meena doll on Amazon and soaked her trunk in toilet water and later sewed her ears to her face. The caption read: “sewing her ears on because she wants to hide in them so badly.” 

While scrolling  more and more on Tiktok I came across a video that compares young Ariana Grande singing “Happy Birthday” to her brother Frankie in a similar way as Meena, this video was discovered by TikTok user @likeamoonlight. Of course it looks way different when it comes to singing to your little brother Happy Birthday as in which you’re signing it to our grandfather. Although Ariana Grande has some vocals it will support the idea that the only reason she sang like that was due to her career. 

While bullying a cartoon character may seem funny, things have gotten out of hand. Many users started offending Meena all over social media while others argued that the criticism of Meena was unfair and problematic.

I opened the comment section and I noticed many disgusting comments in the comment sections that talked about her size and appearance. For example, comments like “She is so extra for what?, stop making it about yourself you pick me obese elephant.” Also other comments like “She probably added another layer of water”, from TikTok video user @meenaislife. This has crossed a line. Although Meena is a fictional character,  #Meenaslander still revealed a very real thinking in society. Through #Meenaslander, TikTok users exposed their backwards and hateful body-shaming ideas, and that is not okay.