More Than 120,000 People Want Netflix To Cancel Its New ‘Fat-Shaming’ Show ‘Insatiable’
Roxanne Gay and Jameela Jamil have both criticised the show.
A petition to cancel Netflix’s new show ‘Insatiable’ has gathered more than 120,000 signatures on Change.org, with the show being criticised as both tone-deaf and fat-shaming.
Billed as a ‘dark revenge comedy’, Insatiable stars Disney actor Debby Ryan as “Fatty Patty,” a high school student who is bullied and ridiculed for her weight. However after having her mouth wired shut one summer, she returns to school as a thin person and decides to get revenge on her former tormentors. It’s a bizarre throwback to eighties glow-up films, with a fun new body-shaming angle.
Since the trailer dropped, there’s been pushback against the show, including the Change.org petition. It’s reminiscent of the outrage generated by Netflix’s popular teen drama 13 Reasons Why which was accused of portraying a problematic depiction of mental health and suicide.
The creator of the petition, Florence Given, wrote about why this show will have a negative impact.
“For so long, the narrative has told women and young impressionable girls that in order to be popular, have friends, to be desirable for the male gaze, and to some extent be a worthy human…that we must be thin.”
She continued.
“The toxicity of this series, is bigger than just this one particular series. This is not an isolated case, but part of a much larger problem that I can promise you every single woman has faced in her life, sitting somewhere on the scale of valuing their worth on their bodies, to be desirable objects for the male gaze. That is exactly what this series does. It perpetuates not only the toxicity of diet culture, but the objectification of women’s bodies.”
Watch the trailer for the show here:
Meanwhile stars of the show Debby Ryan and Alyssa Milano have taken to social media to defend the show, with Milano claiming:
“We are not shaming Patty, we are addressing (through comedy) the damage that occurs from fat shaming. I hope that clears it up.”
— debbyryan (@DebbyRyan) July 21, 2018
However, along with the petition, there’s been vocal opposition to Insatiable on social media.
Not very into the premise of Fatty Patty… a teenager stops eating and loses weight and then when “conventionally attractive” takes revenge on her schoolmates? This is still telling kids to lose weight to “win.” The fat shaming is inherent and pretty upsetting.
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) July 20, 2018
In other news, insatiable is bad for HELLA REASONS but y'all. The plot line is that her mouth was wired shut then she lost weight. WHO THE FUCK APPROVED.
Bad. Delete the whole thing. Fire the whole lot. Y'all are buckwild and ya spirits are musty.
— Bria S. Brown (@briasimonebrown) July 21, 2018
Ahhh yes, a fat girl could never stand up for herself while fat and of course she has to be assaulted and have her mouth wired shut before she becomes her best self, her skinny self. Good to know!
— roxane gay (@rgay) July 22, 2018