Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 is still in our minds…and TV! This batch of episodes has made us laugh, cry, get emotional, and enjoy like never before, but it has also done something else. It has shown the world that plus-size women are sexy and attractive, and deserve to be loved, desired, and have any man at their feet. If you want to discover more, keep reading! Ready?
Here we go!
Non-Supportive Messages
I’m a plus-size woman. Unfortunately, I grew up in a non-supportive family and in an environment that rejected my size, and my extra pounds, that rejected me. I was bullied at school and reached such a level of despair that suicidal thoughts were more frequent than I feel comfortable remembering.
My only escape was writing and television. Many times, with tears in my eyes from whatever mockery I had had to endure that day, I would come home and watch my comfort show so that I could escape reality for a few minutes. Sometimes everything was so overwhelming that I had to write down what I was feeling, and then I would hide it so that no one would find it. I was very good at hiding things, like my loneliness and my sadness.
My day was filled with people reminding me that I was too big for anyone to look at me twice or consider me attractive. There was something wrong with me and women like me were only good for being made fun of, that’s the message they were bombarding me with. And not just me, but all women like me.
So, the older I got, the less desired and attractive I felt, the more I wanted to prove to myself that that wasn’t true. I wanted to feel that people like me could be desirable, that we could be sexy, and attractive, and get the most popular guy in high school, even if it was only in fictional stories. I wanted to see myself represented in my shows, in my movies, and in my favorite romantic books.
But, soon, I discovered that this was an illusion.
The Representation of Plus-Size Women in the Industry
For the film and television industry, we’re a mockery. We’re that easy joke that they introduce into any show or movie because they think it’s funny and doesn’t offend anyone — case in point, the fat suit Courteney Cox wore in Friends to play ‘Fat Monica.
Furthermore, the industry has two ways of representing non-normative bodies: the protagonist’s fun best friend or the protagonist’s rude best friend. Sometimes both combined. And, of course, in both situations, the character eats a lot and only thinks about food.
But we’re rarely the stars and much less do we manage to have a love story. Even when women with a non-normative body are the leads, their plot usually focuses on weight and, in the vast majority of cases, how to lose it.
Of course, where the rule is, there are exceptions. Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) from This is Us, who even though her plot is focused on her weight, realistically tells the vicissitudes of living with a non-normative body, The Hustle, Pitch Perfect (in which Rebel Wilson is one of the leads and has a love story) and My Mad Fat Diary — this show should be shown in high schools, it’s ART — come to my mind.
However, if we look at the few occasions when the industry tries to break out of the mold, we discover that most are shadowed by the same stereotypes we already know.
Romantic books are no exception. It’s challenging to find romantic books, contemporary or historical, whose lead is a woman with a non-normative body. Most of the few there are about how that woman loses weight and thus gets the guy to notice her, distorting the entire message these books are supposed to give.
So you see, even when they try to represent us, they fail us.
Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mr. Bridgerton suffers from this same flaw. If you look back in the book, Penelope loses a lot of weight over the years, and only then, does her story with Colin develop. Despite this, Penelope is the closest thing to someone like us in the Bridgerton universe, so, short of bread, cakes are good.
Bridgerton Season 3 As Hope for Change
Because of this, when they announced that Bridgerton season 3 would develop the story of Penelope and Colin AKA Polin, I was excited and a little scared. The show has changed countless things from the original books, but would they dare change Penelope’s weight loss? My fear increased when I saw several images of Nicola Coughlan repeatedly going to the gym.
She’s beautiful and couldn’t stand the idea of Nicola being forced to change something that she didn’t need to change just because of fatphobia. But Bridgerton Season 3 didn’t do that. On the contrary, they enhanced Nicola’s natural beauty in all aspects, from wardrobe to makeup and hair. There are three moments in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 that are representative of this: the cake moment, Colin’s dream, and the carriage scene.
During the cake scene, in Bridgerton Season 3 we see how an innocent and everyday gesture from Penelope drives Colin crazy with desire in such a way that he cannot stop looking at her lips and, later, he tastes the cake just to imagine what Penelope’s lips would taste like.
Colin desires her, he craves to be with her. The show doesn’t point out Penelope’s body at any point because that doesn’t matter, there’s nothing wrong with it. Penelope is shown here to be desirable and sexy in her own right.
Colin’s dream follows the same path. The scene focuses on Colin’s feelings and his desire for Penelope to feel the same way he does, his desire for her. Again, the scene clearly shows how Colin years for her and, with it, that Penelope is desirable in her own right.
Bridgerton Season 3 As a Paradigm Shift
The carriage scene goes one step further. Colin’s face…the longing, the desire, the raw lust, his hunger for her, and how he enjoys when Penelope touches him… The scene starts out being about them caressing, kissing, discovering, and exploring each other for the first time, but then it becomes all about her, about her pleasure.
The way Colin touches Penelope, not leaving an inch of skin untouched, looking at her as he does so, so she can see how she makes him feel, how hungry and thirsty he is for her, the consent Colin asks of Penelope before going any further…and the way Colin touches her there, right there, taking her to heaven, making her faint with pleasure while Colin feels her falling apart in his hands. It’s everything to Penelope. For her. Her consent matters, and her pleasure matters. She matters.
At this moment, Penelope is not only shown as desirable, but also sexy, hot, daring, and, most importantly, deserving of that attention, that a man like Colin Bridgerton is on his knees surrendering to her, loving her, and desiring her, giving her pleasure, and making her feel like no one had ever made her feel.
And all of this, for women like us who grew up with the message that there was something wrong with us and that we couldn’t be desirable, is something tremendously important, it’s a paradigm shift. And they’re only the first four episodes.
But, beyond the steamy scenes, Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 shows us that we should not and do not have to settle. Lord Debling wanted to marry Penelope but he wasn’t interested in knowing her, understanding her, or coming to love her. He wasn’t interested in her. Still, Portia pressured Penelope to say “yes” because Penelope, in her eyes, couldn’t hope for anything better.
In the end, Penelope chooses not to settle for an empty life and values herself enough to know that she deserves more. She deserved love, a real connection, and true happiness. We don’t have to settle for less. We don’t deserve less. A powerful message, indeed.
Bridgerton Season 3 represented us without stereotypes and redefined who is desirable in our society before an audience of millions of people. And I couldn’t be more proud. Does this solve everything? Of course not. There will continue to be people who criticize our bodies, who ask for fewer sex scenes because it bothers them to see us in steamy situations, characters full of stereotypes, or vile articles that spit hatred just because we dare to feel and value ourselves. But it’s a beginning.
It’s the first time that a woman with a non-normative body is the star of a steamy romance. It’s the first time that we felt truly represented in a romantic story and it’s the first time that we felt that the message with which we were hammered throughout our childhood and adolescence was a lie disguised as fatphobia. I wish our generation had had this reference while growing up and I’m happy that millions of girls and teenagers around the world have it today.
Nicola Coughlan said that Season 3 is for the wallflowers, for the marginalized, for those who always thought they didn’t deserve to be loved or desired, and, as one of them, I agree. Bridgerton Season 3 is for the wallflowers. Period.
Bridgerton Season 3 part 1 is available to stream on Netflix.
What do you think about the portrayal of plus-size women in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1? Share it with us in the comments below!
CATCH UP ON ALL OUR SEASON THREE COVERAGE
REVIEWS
- EPISODE 1 REVIEW
- EPISODE 2 REVIEW
- EPISODE 3 REVIEW
- EPISODE 4 REVIEW
- EPISODE 5 REVIEW
- EPISODE 6 REVIEW
- EPISODE 7 REVIEW
- EPISODE 8 REVIEW
EDITORIALS
- PLUS-SIZE WOMAN PORTRAYAL
- MIRROR SCENE
- PENELOISE CONFLICT
- PLUS-SIZE WOMEN WOUNDS
- CRESSIDA
- QUEEN CHARLOTTE & BRIMSELY
- FRANCESCA REINTRODUCTION
- LORD DEBLING OR COLIN BRIDGERTON?
- LORD DEBLING
- BENOPHIE SEASON 4
INTERVIEWS
Excellent article.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoy it 🙂