A few thoughts about the defenses of and responses to the Insatiable trailer. I won't go into this too deeply because I feel like this is stuff every fat person, especially fat women, have said over and over and over again and we aren't listened to, anyway.
Yes, it's terrible that girls are body-shamed from a young age. However, body-shaming and fat-shaming aren't the exact same issue. "Feeling" fat or being called fat when you're not isn't being fat shamed. Fat is not a "feeling".
Suggesting that fat people be listened to over the voices of non-fats on issues directly relating to fat people isn't "gatekeeping" who is and isn't fat. It's drawing a line between "I don't like being called fat" and "I don't like being dehumanized because I'm fat."
Discussions of fatness will *always* be tied to discussions of eating disorders because many, many fat people have eating disorders or have had them in the past. Do not use, "But girls might get EAAATING DISOOOOORDERS!" as an attempt to silence fat people's legitimate criticisms.
(Also, stop using "teen girls get eating disorders" as your defense of every fatphobic piece of media out there. ANYONE can get an eating disorder. And there's something creepy about reinforcing what teen girls *should* be in crisis over to support your arguments.)
The show uses an unintentional injury as the vehicle to weight loss. Consider how common that fantasy is. I don't know any fat people who at some point in the lives haven't joked about getting a disease or injury that would cause them to lose weight.
(That's not an invitation to @ me about how YOU have never done that and NO ONE YOU KNOW has ever done that. Good for you, here's your trophy.)
No matter how satirical the show is, it relies on harming fat people to make a point about body shaming. Fat people, women especially, are consistently sacrificed on the altar of non-fat egos to make non-fat people feel better about themselves. We get to be angry about that.
Your feelings of self-loathing about your own body are your own problems. Do not ask fat people to sit quietly by and allow you to exploit our bodies for your "self-esteem" and "empowerment" when those things are just fantasies that one day everyone will find you hot.
I truly believe that the most damaging aspect of media like Insatiable is the perpetuation of the idea that the thing all fat women want deep, deep down is to be sexually objectified by society. That our end goal is to force everyone to find us outrageously fuckable and popular.
No matter what a fat woman is talking about, be it accessible public spaces, medical neglect, employment equality, some bozo barges in with, "YOU CAN'T FORCE PEOPLE TO THINK YOU'RE SEXY!" Mainstream depictions of fatness, especially "body positive" ones, is where that comes from.
So, if you look at a show like Insatiable and you think, wow, that's going to make me feel good about myself, watch it. But realize that you're willing to perpetuate the very thing that's harming you at the expense of people it harms more in order to get that "empowerment."
