Bristol Palin Disputes That Kathy Griffin Left Fashion Police Over Refusal To Bash Bodies

Bristol Palin is calling Kathy Griffin out on claims she left Fashion Police because of pressure to mock people’s bodies. Bristol says that doesn’t fit with her own experience, when Griffin mocked her weight during Bristol’s Dancing With The Stars run.

Griffin posted a notice on her Facebook page on Thursday, saying she was leaving the show over creative differences. She hinted at an expectation to mock people’s body types, and her own refusal to do so. Two excerpts from her statement, reproduced below, illustrate this insinuation.

“I am a freedom-loving female and gay rights activist who loves to find the funny in all people, attitudes, beliefs, and appearances, but only when the context permits intelligent humor. I thought that I could bring my brand of humor to Fashion Police so that beautiful people in beautiful dresses could be teased when appropriate. My brand of humor, while unrepentant and unafraid, is all about CONTEXT. THere is plenty to make fun of in pop culture without bringing people’s bodies into it.

But I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance toward difference.”

However, Bristol Palin took issue with this assertion, citing on her blog a presentation in 2010, in which Griffin goes on and on about Bristol’s weight, even as her audience of U.S. soldiers expresses disapproval.

Bristol shares this Fox News clip, asking, “Hey, Kathy, remember this?”

The performance in question was, of course, over four years ago, but Bristol’s long memory may be less a demonstration of her ability to hold a grudge, and more of how body-shaming sticks with its victims.

Whether or not Kathy Griffin remembers the jabs at Bristol’s weight, and whether or not she has or would express any regret for the statements, it’s still been over four years. In four years, a lot can happen to a person’s worldview. It’s entirely possible that Griffin has, at some point in the past four years, or even in the past few weeks, while she’s been a part of Fashion Police, come to new conclusions about how she discusses other people’s bodies.

Of course, it could just be the outward dressing Griffin is placing on her departure from the show — where else but television is a career move so public?

As for Bristol Palin, does Kathy Griffin owe her an apology for body-shaming comments four years in the past? It’s clear that the remarks still sting.

[Photo by: Jemal Countess/Getty Images]