Growing up, we are often told what to do with our bodies – women especially. We are told how to dress, act, speak, and eat. This message comes from many sources, including our parents, social media, and movies/TV shows. One TV show that communicates these social norms to teen girls is Insatiable. It shows women in a negative light in a variety of ways. Fat women are unhappy, inhuman and undesirable; skinny women are manipulative and willing to do anything for a man. Another message communicated by Insatiable is that, for women, romantic relationships with men are more valuable than female friendships.
Insatiable follows a high school student named Patty Bladell, played by Debby Ryan – a former Disney channel star, who already has a large following of pre-teen girls. Patty spends much of her life struggling with her weight until she breaks her jaw and is forced to go onto a liquid diet that causes her to lose 70 lbs. Once she becomes skinny everyone starts paying attention to her, including Bob Armstrong, a local lawyer and beauty pageant coach.
Debby Ryan as “Fatty Patty” vs. “Sexy Patty”
Insatiable reinforces the idea that there is a wrong way for women’s bodies to be—fat and unhealthy—and a right way for women’s bodies to be—skinny, pretty, young, and sexy. Regardless of their weight, all women’s bodies are objectified, showing their power and agency coming from external factors such as appearance. Fat women are portrayed as unhealthy and undesirable; skinny women are portrayed as selfish and boy obsessed.
These messages are communicated through scenes involving “Fatty Patty” and “Sexy Patty.” The scenes involving Fatty Patty alway portray fatness in a negative light. She is seen binge eating at home on a Friday night with her best friend instead of going to a football game. She says, “So, while my classmates were out losing their virginity, I was at home, stuffing another hole…” (“Pilot” 1:002 ). That links being sexually desirable and active to being skinny. It also denigrates a strong female friendship and places more value on heterosexual relations. There are also several instances when Patty is compared to a pig. Someone pasted a photo of her face taped to a pig on her locker, and she received the comment, “Smells like bacon,” (“Pilot” 2:34) from skinny girls. This is comparing Patty to an animal and dehumanizing her. Pigs are known for being dirty animals so comparing her to one conveys the message that being fat is “dirty.” Being fat is also associated with being unhealthy. When Patty starts her laps in gym class, she passes out after 15 seconds. Throughout the episode, flashbacks of Debby Ryan in a fat suit reminds the audience how bad Patty’s life was when she was fat. It instills the idea that being fat is undesirable, dirty and unhealthy within younger and teenage girls.
Just as Fatty Patty is used here as a cautionary tale, Sexy Patty is used to show how women use their sexuality to attain their end goal: men. Patty’s main goal is to get with Bob Armstrong, who is an older, married man and an accused child molester. Rather than being cautious, she makes light of this by saying, “Which means I might actually have a shot [at being with him]” (“Pilot” 12:35). Patty goes to great lengths to achieve her goal. Now that she is skinny she understands that she can use her sexuality as a tool to achieve this. Patty seduces a clerk at a convenience store to get him to commit a felony on her and Bob’s behalf. Patty also harms other women to achieve her goal. When Patty and Bob’s wife, Coralee, first meet, Patty calls Coralee “A shrew” (“Pilot” 20:45). Then, Patty says, “I was already driving a wedge between them. Long Island Lolita would have been proud” (“Pilot” 20:50). This is an allusion to Amy Fisher who had an affair with Joey Buttafuco when she was 16 and he was 38. Fisher shot Buttafuco’s wife in the hope she would be able to be with Joey. Coralee also objectifies Patty, based on her appearance. She tells Bob, “She looks like an underage hooker” (“Pilot” 20:15) immediately focusing on Patty’s sexual appearance.
The title of this show, Insatiable, has multiple meanings. Patty is always hungry and wants to eat, but cannot eat everything she wants due to the fear she will get fat again (which apparently is the worst thing imaginable). Insatiable also refers to women being hungry for power, often with the ultimate goal of being with men.
While Insatiable can be seen as a parody, the images and messages about women, their bodies, and how they achieve agency (or not) are pervasive. Even though these messages are ostensibly being ridiculed, the intended audience of pre-teen girls may not realize that much of it is satire. Insatiable is “funny” but its humor is based on negative ideas and stereotypes that are harmful to women, especially young viewers who don’t have a well-developed lens of media literacy and who will not understand that this is a parody not a guidebook on how women should behave.
Citations: “Pilot.” Insatiable, created by Lauren Gussis, season 1, episode 1, Netflix, 2018.
Thank you so much for this post! I think many people don’t realize how problematic this show is (including me when I originally watched it a couple of years ago), in the way that you described and many other ways, and they might be indirectly influenced by its fatphobic content. The show creates an environment where being sexy must be equal to getting with a man, and being fat must be equal to unhappiness. I really like how you mention Debby’s previous presence on Disney Channel, playing a few main character roles in movies for children and teenagers. It is expected for younger audience to follow her and watch this show as well, where they are met with weight bias, messages that being fat equals being undesirable, and also that pursuing a man should be a woman’s goal. We should strive to expose and address problematic nature of TV shows and movies so that more people are aware of how they can be influenced by the media.
I was so happy to read your post on Insatiable! This show came out in 2018, and I feel like no one really talked about how problematic it really is. I remember my friends and I watching this show when I was in middle school. Looking back, it was really not a good thing for us to be watching at that time in our lives. Like you said, even if this show was meant to be a parody or satirical, much of its audience (like myself in middle school) was too young to recognize that, so instead we were just being fed these gross and unrealistic goals about high school, our bodies, and what we should do with them. At the time I remember this show being damaging to me. Like many in middle school, I was struggling with my body image, and the ideas of only being healthy, happy, and desirable when skinny portrayed in this show, only made me struggle more. While this show was not obviously the sole cause of my body image struggles, it was one huge piece of media that definitely contributed. Especially now, looking back, I still really don’t understand the point of this show. Even when I watched it back then, it is honestly one of the most random and frankly just not well done pieces of media I have ever watched. It is all over the place. And I thought we were past the whole fat and ugly to skinny and pretty girl pipeline as the main plot of a show, but apparently not, because that is what the whole show is based on. On top of this hurtful main idea, there are so many problematic side pieces that are honestly not talked about. Like the main character trying to get with a man extremely older than her, who is accused of being a child molester. That extreme idea is just a side story in this show but is extremely problematic.
I completely agree with you and Victoria. I watched only a couple episodes of this show when it premiered and honestly it made me feel really bad about myself. The constant fat jokes and bullying surrounding Patty just kept pounding the idea that “fat is ugly and bad” into my mind at a young age. Women’s fear of gaining weight stems directly from shows like these. Even when Patty was “skinny” she was still so anxious about gaining weight back, which just demonstrates how losing weight does not solve any body image issues.
I started watching “Insatiable” a few years ago when it first came out but only got a few episodes in and then never finished it because I honestly forgot it existed. I hadn’t thought about it again until reading your post and I can’t believe I didn’t realize how horrible so much of the messaging in this show is. Media like this is a huge part of the problem of fatphobia in society, especially American society. Thinking back to the Fat Studies reading we did earlier in the semester, shows like this teach people to fear becoming fat and to avoid it at all costs. This idea has become so ingrained in our society that even kids would rather lose an arm than become fat and I can’t even express how incredibly sad that is.
I remember hearing about significant backlash upon the release of the show. I honestly can’t imagine how this show got as far as it got without one actress, producer, director, or outside influence shutting it down. While a show that makes a powerful statement about fat phobia sounds super interesting to me, the problem lies around the comedy built around the bodies and the habits of fat people. Sometimes I’m shocked that this conversation even needs to happen in the 2020s.
I agree with everything that you’ve said. It’s also crazy how this show depicts a young girl struggling with an eating disorder in such a lighthearted and sarcastic way. The character is not shown any empathy or is not provided with nay help. She magically stops binge eating and becomes thin. Losing weight is the only motivation and end goal shown through the series. There is also a part in the series where Patty has a relapse and gains a massive amount of weight in a span of a few days. Not only is that physically and realistically impossible, but it also potrays an unhealthy relationship with food. Girls watching this show may become afraid of eating, thinking that they would gain weight in that inaccurate way.
I remember binging this show on Netflix and enjoying it. I didn’t really think too much about it except that it was another high school story of a girl who was once bullied coming out on top. Internally I knew that it was an issue, but I didn’t really examine it until your analysis. Thank you for your take and analysis of how harmful this show’s story is.
I also watched this show and at times I did find myself questioning how it made it to netflix considering the negative messages regarding body positivity, amongst the many topics, that are brought up in the show. At times, I felt self conscious about myself and my own body while watching this show. If I felt this way after watching the show, then many other viewers probably felt similar feelings. Considering that this show is being promoted to a teen audience, this is only sending negative messages regarding body image to these teen viewers.