Netflix show Insatiable is set to drop on the streaming service on Friday 10 August, despite accusations it "fat-shames" and TV fans starting a petition to get it banned.
The series, created by Lauren Gussis and starring Debby Ryan and Alyssa Milano, sees a teenage girl, Patty, being bullied and ignored due to her being overweight.
Then, Patty is punched in the face and forced her to wear a cage around her mouth and have her jaw wired shut, meaning she cannot eat and dramatically loses weight.
She then becomes popular among her peers and decides to exact her revenge on the classmates who bullied – through entering beauty pageants and beating them all as punishment for their insults.
The show has been branded a "train wreck" by critics with only an 11% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with only one critic admitting to enjoy the show.
It has been called "offensive and boring" by others, as it even includes an Asian girl using the "n-word" while singing along to a rap song.
Some viewers have been so shocked by the show they started a petition to get it banned, which was signed by more than 225,000 people.
The description on the petition on Change.org called the show "toxic" and questioned its message to teenage girls, calling it "insidious and sinister."
The description read: "For so long, the narrative has told women and young impressionable girls that in order to be popular, have friends, to be desirable for the male gaze, and to some extent be a worthy human…that we must be thin.
"The toxicity of this series, is bigger than just this one particular series. This is not an isolated case, but part of a much larger problem that I can promise you every single woman has faced in her life, sitting somewhere on the scale of valuing their worth on their bodies, to be desirable objects for the male gaze. That is exactly what this series does. It perpetuates not only the toxicity of diet culture, but the objectification of women’s bodies.
"This series needs to be cancelled. The damage control of releasing this series will be far worse, insidious and sinister for teenage girls, than it will be damaging for Netflix in their loss of profit.
"The release is set to be the 10th of August, we still have time to stop this series from being released, and causing a devastation of self-doubt in the minds of young girls who will think that to be happy and be worthy, they need to lose weight.
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"This series will cause eating disorders, and perpetuate the further objectification of women’s bodies. The trailer has already triggered people with eating disorders. Let’s stop this, and protect further damage."
Netflix responded to these claims, saying the show would go on despite the dramatic backlash its premise received.
According to Indiewire , an original content executive at Netflix said the show’s creator "felt very strongly about exploring those issues, based on her experience, in an over-the-top satirical way," saying the ultimate message was to be "comfortable with yourself."
Insatiable drops on Netflix on Friday 10 August.
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