If you’re looking for a show to binge this semester, look no further than Netflix’s new show, “Insatiable” starring Debby Ryan. This show is simultaneous the worst but also the best show to watch on Netflix at the moment. It combines everything you want in a show, love, drama, dry humor and also Debby Ryan of course!
After watching only one episode, I was completely and utterly disgusted. Not only did this show portray horrible and unrealistic body image issues, it managed to toy with the role of feminism for young women at the same time. But for some reason, I was hooked. Insatiable is Netflix’s newest dark comedy, which focuses on Patty Bledell’s (Debby Ryan) journey from a fat girl with eating problems to a beauty queen after being discovered by Bob Armstrong (Dallas Roberts). Bob Armstrong is a former beauty queen coach who is looking forward to getting back into the coaching game. He sees Patty as a way to do just that. Throughout the course of one episode, Patty manages to lose almost all of her weight in just three months! However, not all of her problems are solved after dropping all of her weight, she now has this crazy desire to destroy anyone in her path who was mean to her when she was fat.
What is interesting about this show is not that Patty is one of those sweet and innocent girls who just wants someone to see her for who she truly is, the show portrays her as a nasty, revengeful high school girl, who is out to get anyone who has crossed her when she was overweight. This story is one as old as time. As someone who has struggled with their weight almost their entire life, this show, in its entirety is unrealistic. In the very first episode, Patty loses seventy pounds after getting herself punched by a homeless guy, as an attempt to feel better about herself. Further along in the season, Patty develops a crush on Bob, who is happily married to Coralee (Alyssa Milano). As an unhealthy coping mechanism, she decides to comfort herself in the only way she knows how; by entering herself in an eating contest. She also takes several steps toward attempting to ruin Bob and Coralee’s marriage. This part I was particularly enthralled with. I was surprised at the lengths Patty went to in order to get her way. Just because she was skinny now, doesn’t mean she had sink down to the levels of the people who made her life miserable before. This in itself tells young girls that the only way to handle yourself is to throw yourself into food, and aggression for that matter. Insatiable is sending the wrong message to a female audience, that violence and fat shaming are the way to treat women in our society. This also tells young girls that being nasty and seeking revenge is the appropriate response to someone who mistreats you. Girls should be taught to love themselves no matter what their shape is, not because they lost all of their weight and now have a ruthless desire to be horrible.
Photo 1: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnellrod/42140283950/in/photolist-2ahHj7…
Photo 2: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnellrod/29227690307/in/photolist-2ahHj7…