Anna McGuire
Sep 9, 2018 · 3 min read

Insatiable Only Satisfies Negative Body Stereotypes

As if young women aren’t inundated enough with harsh body stereotypes, the pilot episode of Insatiable adds onto the trend. Viewers watch as Patty’s weight and looks become the focal aspect of the show and wonder if it should be the focal point in their own lives too. By showing teens who are already self-conscious these ideas, Insatiable reinforces the damaging norm that girls must must be skinny and pretty in order to find success and happiness in their lives.

Patty’s character portrays a whole new level of body-shaming and jokes made at the expense of larger women. As Patty enters her gym class and begins to run, a snarky peer jeers, “It smells like bacon in here now.” Moments later, Patty passes out after telling her best friend that she hasn’t eaten in days. In just a minute long scene, the show makes a joke out of bullying and eating disorders. These subjects are serious, and should not have jokes made at their expense. In another scene Patty says, “I spent my entire adolescence hating my body, the target of bullying and cruel jokes. So, while my classmates were out losing their virginities, I was at home, stuffing another hole, binging my brains out and watching every Drew Barrymore movie ever made. With Nonnie, my only friend.” Patty is, once again, depicted as an isolated loser because of her weight. Viewers get the impression that overweight girls seem to deserve this treatment and status just because of how they look. By making the situations seem light-hearted and funny, viewers don’t see the true severity of these issues.

When Patty loses weight, it’s as if the gates of heaven opened for her. Suddenly the former fat girl gets positive attention and things begin to fall into place for her. Bob, her lawyer even decides to change his whole approach to fighting a lawsuit against her because, as he says, “Pretty girls don’t have to settle.” Patty then wins the lawsuit by seducing a witness, causing him to lie on the stand for her. This presents viewers with the idea that by fitting society’s stereotypes of being pretty, all their problems can be solved. This also enforces the norm that by simply being skinny, more success and happiness can be found.

The show tries to actually create a cultural transmission through giving Patty a speech about how girls don’t deserve poor treatment just because they’re fat. Very ironically, this comes after the show made a girl who was bullied and mistreated for being overweight into the main joke of the comedy. As a result of this, along with the successes Patty finds when she is skinny, viewers leave the episode feeling even more self conscious and determined to be deemed pretty by society. The shows target audience, teen girls, already deal with enough of these pressures from just living in today’s society. Insatiable enforces the norm that it’s ok for teens to place an unhealthy amount of time and attention on their weight because they will “benefit” from it in the long run. This is unacceptable and brings up the question: how many eating disorders and unhealthy habits must form before body positivity and acceptance finally cause a cultural transmission in our society?

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