Fat-shaming comedy has no place on screen in 2018

Insatiable , the insufferable new “black comedy” from Netflix Originals, is anything but original. Slammed by critics and hammered on Twitter, the show with a fat-girl-slim trope is now the subject of a large Change.org petition to have it canned .

A little context: Insatiable is set in a US high school, and it’s based on a newly-thin-girl-gets-revenge narrative starring a bunch of antiquated characters who still make fat jokes. The show stars Patty, a girl who has her jaw wired shut after being punched by a homeless guy. But don’t worry, she gets hot. Quick, pass me my popcorn. I simply cannot imagine what happens next.

Critical krakens awoke to the unwoke plot and the internet started asking questions. Just what was Netflix thinking, and how did a show like this get commissioned in 2018 as a Netflix Original? The backlash suggests that maybe its commissioners should have read a single word of newsprint before signing the contract.

Alyssa Milano, an actress on the show, took to Twitter to defend the cries of WTAF are you doing? “We are not shaming Patty. We are addressing (through comedy) the damage that occurs from fat-shaming. I hope that clears it up.”

Hi Alyssa, no. No, it doesn’t clear it up. You’re acting in a show where the payoff is you have to be thin to get people’s attention and be desired. It’s all a bit Shallow Hal, isn’t it Alyssa?

Fat-shaming isn’t a new thing. It’s always been there, but commissioning shows such as Insatiable in 2018 must stop. They continue a cycle of anxiety around bodies that a vast part of culture is trying to move on from. But the more we watch, the more Netflix grows and the more content it produces.

This year so far the service has released 88 per cent more original programming than it did last year. As a rule, Netflix doesn’t release its own data or much insight into how it commissions, so the question of how it could create a show that is the equivalent of Heat magazine’s hoop of shame is still unclear.

So what’s the alternative? Other than, oh I don’t know, reading a book. How about Glow , which has been critically acclaimed as one of the best shows to come from Netflix Originals. Set in the Eighties and based on a real-life American women’s wrestling league, Glow — or Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling if you’re feeling formal — embodies a realness that Insatiable could only dream of.

Starring 15 women of all shapes and sizes, it doesn’t compromise, it doesn’t split the characters into brains or beauty and it doesn’t link personality types to dress sizes. The show also tackles a host of real themes from the Eighties, many of which are relevant today, including sexual discrimination at work — what would now be #MeToo — in a smart, 2018 way and not the dumbed-down “hot girls get attention” way that Insatiable projects. Alyssa, fancy a Netflix and chill with Glow this weekend? Call me.