Netflix
It’s a tale that dates back to the dawn of high school dramas: a teenage girl goes from overweight outcast to thin beauty queen who seeks revenge on her bullies.
That’s the exact plot of Netflix’s new series Insatiable, which tells the story of Patty (played by Debby Ryan), a teenager who is relentlessly bullied at high school before getting her jaw wired shut over the school holidays, losing weight, and returning to school looking like a conventionally attractive babe.
Netflix has dubbed it a “coming of rage story,” but Twitter users have called it “disgusting,” “trash” and “pretty upsetting” for its apparent fatphobic plot.
Plus-sized fashion blogger Stephanie Yeboah criticised the plot for doing “nothing to promote or progress the body positivity movement at all.”
“Portraying a fat person as the ‘joke’ character before they lose weight, against their will, who eventually becomes respected and popular is damaging and irresponsible,” Yeboah told the BBC.
But the stars of the series have defended the show and urged viewers to give it a go.
Alyssa Milano, who plays the social-climbing wife of Patty’s beauty pageant coach, tweeted, “We are not shaming Patty. We are addressing (through comedy) the damage that occurs from fat shaming. I hope that clears it up.”
Ryan, who wore a fat-suit for her role, wrote on Instagram that her character’s size wasn’t used as a punch line. “The humor [sic] is not in the fat-shaming (or thin-shaming, slut-shaming, virgin-shaming…). The redemption is in identifying the bullies and saying ‘this is not okay,’” she said.
Likewise, the creator of the series Lauren Gussis tweeted, “The show is a cautionary tale about how damaging it can be to believe the outsides are more important – to judge without going deeper. Please give the show a chance.”
Viewers can do just that on Friday, August 10 when Insatiable hits Netflix.
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