Petition Underway To Cancel New 'Fat-Shaming' Netflix Show 'Insatiable'

More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition to stop the release of new Netflix show Insatiable, after a trailer for the series has been met with widespread criticism.

The show depicts the life of protagonist Patty (played by Debby Ryan), an overweight teenager who, after losing weight and therefore becoming 'attractive', takes revenge on the bullies who made her life unbearable.

Netflix describes the show as a 'dark, twisted revenge comedy' - however the show has been accused of fat-shaming young women and now a change.org petition has called for it to be cancelled ahead of its release on 10 August.

Florence Given, the woman behind the petition, said: "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.

Netflix

"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 of 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.

"We still have time to stop this series from being released, and causing a devastation of self-doubt in the minds of young girls who think that to be happy and be worthy, they need to lose weight."

Netflix

Florence also believes that the series will cause a spark in eating disorders and 'perpetuate the further objectification of women's bodies'.

Debby Ryan, who wears a fat suit in the scenes shot before Patty has slimmed down, has defended Insatiable on Twitter, saying: "Satire is a way to poke fun at the hardest things, bring darkness into the light, and enter difficult conversations.

"The humour is not in the fat-shaming. The redemption is in identifying the bullies and saying 'this is not okay'. We're not in the business of fat shaming. We're out to turn a sharp eye on broken, harmful systems that equate thinness with worth."

She goes on to say: "I hope fans will wait and watch the show before passing judgement. If you go for this ride, I think you'll recognise both yourself and the things that make you mad about our fractured and beauty-obsessed culture."

Topics: TV and Film, US Entertainment, Netflix

Megan Walsh

Megan is a freelance journalist and sub-editor with a BAHons degree in Journalism and Communications. Since graduating from London Metropolitan University, she has worked as a sub-editor and writer for Candis Magazine and later contributed to publications such as The Skinny, Creative Tourist and Huffington Post, among others.