Shrill is a Hulu Original, starring Aidy Bryant as Annie, a young woman navigating her career, love life, and familial dynamics alongside body politics. Shrill explores the way fulfillment and happiness are measured in reference to women’s bodies and their agency in controlling them. One of the ways this manifests is through Annie’s relationship with her mom, who pushes dieting on her because she assumes that Annie is discontent with her figure because she is not thin. This is also evident in Annie’s relationship with her anonymous troll, who she eventually learns suffered childhood trauma from fat shaming and bullying, and projects onto Annie his emotional repression. So while Annie is learning how to live in her embodiment, she is constantly victimized to the policing of her body, behavior, and emotions, especially in relation to food.
Shrill forced self reflection because it took a different approach to telling a story about fatness, that is not in proximity to losing weight. In the media, we are trained to pity anyone that deviates from thinness and to weaponize healthiness in order to deem what bodies are desirable. Annie was able to reclaim her identity as a fat woman and make space for her existence in unwelcoming environments, including her job. Her story perfectly balanced her struggles but also her agency. It absolutely forced me to think about the ways I enforce fatphobia and impose ideals onto others bodies, and to sit with the reality that health and thinness are not synonymous. Wellness looks different for different people.
