San Antonio City Councilwomen, billboards fire back at Charles Barkley

SAN ANTONIO — Three San Antonio City Councilwomen fired back at NBA hall of famer and TNT basketball analyst Charles Barkley on Monday for comments he made last week about “big ol' women” in the Alamo City and calling San Antonio a “gold mine for Weight Watchers.”

“The proud women of San Antonio need to have a little chat with you,” said District 2 Councilwoman Ivy Taylor in a YouTube video.

Shirley Gonzales, District 5 councilwoman, points out in the video posted Monday that San Antonio's obesity rate recently fell below the state's average, “for the first time since you first wore those tight shorts in the 80's.”

San Antonio and Bexar County's obesity rate plunged from 35.1 percent to 28.5 percent between 2010 and 2012, according to city data.

Mural painted on San Pedro Ave beauty salon pokes fun at Charles Barkley Mural painted on San Pedro Ave beauty salon pokes fun at Charles Barkley Photo: Joy Mollnar Photo: Joy Mollnar Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close San Antonio City Councilwomen, billboards fire back at Charles Barkley 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Barkley, who is a paid spokesman for Weight Wathchers, has in past years made similar comments about women in San Antonio being obese, eating Churros and the city's famed River Walk being a “dirty creek.”

On Sunday, Barkley, also known as the “Round Mound of Rebound” refused to apologize for the comments on TNT, saying “turn off the TV.”

In the YouTube video, a group of five young girls are featured telling Barkley that “you don't define us, we define ourselves ... smart strong and bold.”

Would your grandmother be proud of those comments, one of the girls asks.

“So Charles, let's agree this joke is old, stop dissing the women and girls of San Antonio, stop dissing our beautiful city, and one more thing ... Go Spurs Go,” Gonzales, Taylor and District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran said.

Clear Channel Communications posted a billboard on U.S. 281 near Loop 1604 with the hashtag #NoSir and Barkley's face. Last week, local women began a social media campaign with the hashtag #proudSAwoman posting photos of themselves, and firing back at Barkley.

A mural painted on the storefront of Beauty Storm Salon on San Pedro Avenue showed a cartoon figure of Barkley wearing a “Los Spurs” shirt with his belly hanging out and eating a taco with the hashtag #NoSir.

kparker@express-news.net