50 fat stories we could tell beyond ‘Insatiable’
Earlier this month, Netflix released the trailer for Insatiable, a new show about a fat high schooler who becomes thin after having her jaw wired shut, and then uses her newfound thinness to exact revenge on her former bullies. Fat people, people with eating disorders, and parents alike responded in a wave of shock, dismay, concern, anger, exhaustion and fear. (For those new to this controversy, Vox has a roundup of responses to the show’s trailer, including my letter to the show’s writers and the petition to cancel the show.)
But the problem posed here isn’t limited to Insatiable — the Netflix show is just the most recent in a long and storied tradition of weight loss storylines. Friends, New Girl, Just Friends, America’s Sweethearts and more have all utilized major weight loss stories as character development, punchlines, plot devices and more. Frequently, when we see fat lead characters on screen, they are played by thin actors wearing fat suits. This is Us, a notable exception to the fat suit pattern here, famously inserted weight loss requirements into Chrissy Metz’s contract.
Regardless of the project, the messages of weight loss storylines are overwhelmingly the same. A fat character’s life is in shambles. They are pitifully unattractive, painfully awkward with love interests, routinely bullied or mocked, and often, they are…
