#it’s only gonna get worse with benedict and sophie if she’s a woc

[aspoonfuloffiction]

How were the fans projecting? I'm not arguing. All I know is that people kept looking at the actress's social media accounts and thought that she was a racist for some reason. And everyone kept saying how Penelope was a racist too.

Me? The series has problems. The diversity they like to talk about is very skin deep but it's more of a societal problem.

It’s projecting because fans are putting their feelings about the characters onto the actors. Obsessively reading into anything and twisting crumbs of a celebrity’s social media presence to confirm their biases.

Do I think Penelope is racist? No. Because I don’t think narratively she’s specifically targeted people of color. Instead like you said-I think the show has a race problem. Penelope, a white woman, destroying Marina, a black woman’s, life by outings a pregnancy to cast her out of society is terrible to us, outside viewers of the show, but within the show the racial dynamics at play will not be brought up because the conceit of this story is that they don’t exist.

This also applies to Anthony and Daphne. Anthony bulldozes the lives of 2 brown women who’s futures if this show were historically accurate would both be ruined even with K/A ending up married. And yet in the very minimal amount that Anthony is held accountable him viewing brown women as an object and means to end is narratively problematic not bc they are brown only because they’re women. Daphne literally SAs her husband, a black man, and no one cares. In fact her actions are even justified in a conversation about the disparities in their relationship where gender and class are brought up but never race. There’s nothing wrong in universe with a white woman denying a poc bodily autonomy.

According to the narrative of the show the white privilege that Penelope Anthony and Daphne have simply doesn’t exist, there’s no difference in them and Marina, Kate, Edwina, or Simon on the basis of race (which is an insane storytelling choice but that’s a separate issue) therefore their actions are not considered racist. (Again insane)

But the fact that the biggest victims are Marina, Kate, Edwina, and Simon all people of color. That the two characters to not get an assured HEA in a story about happy endings are both women of color. And that white characters are rewarded for their actions against the poc in the show in every instance. Even if in universe these characters aren’t racist—this show out of universe definitely is.

[bluetiefling]

Yeah I have to assume any backlash against Simone is just jealousy fueled by racism. White women viewers especially can’t “relate” to her because she’s a WOC and she’s intimidatingly beautiful. She’s a goddess and a good actress, people are trying to find fault where there isn’t any. Even if Simone’s acting could be more raw/unpolished at times imo, she has a lot of natural charisma and screen presence, which you either have or you don’t. This was her first leading role and it was impressive. She’ll continue to improve with time and experience.

The Bridgerton fandom is unhinged and really racist. They called Regé uppity for leaving and seem to relish in his career slowing down since (and this is more of indictment of the industry than him). The appalling way Marina was received and how people are eager for her to be killed off to get out of the way for a HEA show Eloise doesn’t even want. The Edwina versus Kate AND Charithra versus Simone thing…If you dislike a character that’s your prerogative, but fans are clearly directing their ire for the character towards the actress!? And yes, it very much reads as if there can only be “one WOC” and to them Charithra is trespassing on what is Simone’s rightful spotlight or something. I want a queer Benedict but if they do cast Sophie she’ll likely be a WOC and I fear for how the fandom will pit her and Kate against one another.

she has a lot of natural charisma and screen presence, which you either have or you don’t.

Thissss. Simone's got that Thing.

Also the fandom is definitely only gonna get worse. There's already ppl I've seen turning on Kate and Simone because they're mad that s3 is apparently gonna feature her heavily (even though Kate and Anthony is all s3 is gonna have going for it because show p0lin blows). There's a lot of derogatory "you're a Sharma stan" namecalling going around which gives me the same rancid energy as them calling RJP "spoon". Fortunately for me I'm ready to check tf out and literally just supercut Kate content next time, and subjecting myself to fandom and p0lin as little as possible.

[iheartbookbran]

Anthony, Penelope, Marina and Colin deserved better...

Beware, rant ahead

Ok I wish I didn’t feel such strong need to continue beating this dead horse but oopsie, I will very much be beating it some more.

Like, my fave books of the Bridgerton series are Anthony’s and Colin’s books, so I’m seething about what they did with their characterizations, Anthony and Penelope in particular, because Colin’s only real sin was being boring, and if you remember how funny he’s in the books it makes me wanna fall on my knees and ask Chris Van Dusen whyyyy omg why would you do something like that to such a dynamic character. So yeah, Colin is boring af and a moron but at least he isn’t an asshole the way show Anthony and Penelope are, and I’ve seen people say that they can always be redeemed in future seasons, if we get them, but that’s exactly my problem, because they never had to be redeemed in the books, to begin with. Penelope more so than Anthony but let me begin by defending my boy.

Is he a jerk sometimes? Sure. Is he actively awful and uncaring towards those close to him, especially his family? Hell no, quite the opposite, in fact. Not to be controversial on main but in the books... he was right in not wanting Daphne to be courted by a man who he knew damn right had no intention of marrying her and as far as he was aware was only making her waste her time, and he was right in demanding Simon pay for compromising her honor. Could he have been more mindful of what Daphne had to say and listened to her wishes? Of course, but considering Simon and Daphne (both in the show and in the books) aren’t exactly masters in communication themselves, Anthony doesn’t come off as the biggest offender in that situation.

What he never did was force Daphne, or any of his sisters really, to do anything; if they didn’t like a guy then that guy was out of their lives no question asked, and he loved them enough to always have their best interests at heart, for his sisters and his brothers, to the point that even though he’s traumatized and thinks he’s gonna die young he’s still willing to get past that to do his duty and marry, because he doesn’t want to pass that burden on to his little brothers (so him deciding to leave all his responsibilities to Benedict so he can fck off with his mistress is... like, a choice lmao). In fact all the subplot with Siena felt like a choice on the writers part, like they truly liked Benedict and Sophie’s story so they just slapped it on Anthony so he could act all sad and sexy while they gave us foreshadowing with the subtlety of a warharmer that he’s ending up with Kate anyways (and that Benedict is ending with Sophie anyways too, so they would be using that storyline twice, unless they do make him bi and fall in love with a man, but maybe that’s too much of ask for this show), so what was Siena’s purpose in the story? Who tf knows not me.

Now Penelope, my god. Yes I know I joke Penny has never done anything wrong in her life, and I still love her, but she was wrong. Very much so. What she did was significantly worse than what Marina did, which I still don’t condone at all. Like yes, I still maintain that Marina tricking Colin into marriage was wrong (and I’ll go later on why that whole subplot was racist af), but what Penelope did could have not only ruined Marina and herself and her sisters reputations, but it was basically condemning an innocent unborn child to a life in the streets, that’s messed up. Even if Marina was rose-coloring her potential life with Colin and he might have grown to resent her, at least the baby would’ve been alright. And my problem with that whole subplot is that all of it was resolved so neatly, with Sir Phillip sweeping in to save the day so we don’t have to actually see what Penelope’s actions could have caused, but the implications are still very much there.

And I’m cracking my mind trying to figure out whether the showrunners just... really hate Colin’s book and Penelope as a character so they’re trying to inflict some kind of character assassination on her so they can get away with writing him off with another person without causing much outrage, or if they just thought there wasn’t enough ~drama~ or stakes on their book so they have to add them, and give him some kind of bullshit tragic romantic past to explain why he doesn’t want to marry, whereas in the books, the reason he doesn’t marry anyone is because he doesn’t feel like it, and that’s ok, there’s no need for every character to have a tragic backstory and to be riddled with angst; Colin is that character, he’s an easy going guy who’s just not interested in marriage until he falls in love with Penny AND THAT’S VALID, just because he doesn’t have the most complex motivations out there doesn’t mean he isn’t a compelling character. The stakes in his story after he discovers Penny is Whistledown are, as he points out, that she has insulted so many people there’s no way some of them wouldn’t want to retaliate if word came out, and he cares for her and doesn’t want her to get hurt (there’s also a dumb part about him being secretly jealous of her accomplishments as Whistledown, but thankfully he gets over that pretty quickly).

But while I am on that, it is true that Penelope wrote some uncharitable things about the mean people around her, but she never ever ruined someone’s reputation, let alone endanger the future of a child. Was she a bitch sometimes? Yeah, but she was also kind to a lot of people and her criticism was never unwarranted and never did more damage than maybe annoy a couple of girls like Cressida. I just hate the idea of this needing to turn into some sort of ~redemption arc~ for Penelope because, again, in the books she really didn’t have to make up for anything, definitely not to Colin, who was actually the one who had to do much of the heavy lifting in their relationship when he realized that he literally slept on her for years.

And now regarding Marina, like yes, she was wrong and I stand by that statement (but not as wrong as Penelope), but tbh I find it hard to be mad at her when they gave her such a racist storyline, as the scheming woc who gets pregnant out of wedlock and then tries to seduce the innocent white man, until the virtuous white girl needs to step up to save him. At least that’s what I thought initially as the writers intention, but honestly I’m not so sure anymore, I doubt they will continue to write her and Colin as a couple otherwise they would’ve bothered to show them interacting outside of her manipulating him and him acting like a bumbling idiot, the most sincere moment they had together was when he comforted her about the lie, but by that time this bitch (me) was empty and didn’t give a shit anymore. Literally all their other interactions where shown through Penelope’s POV to let us know she was sad, and Colin’s most significant scenes where again... with Penelope (because it isn’t as if he has a family and his own moments in the books outside of being an object for Penelope to pine after).

And as I said before, Marina had a—relatively—happy ending: married to a man she doesn’t love (just as she didn’t love Colin) but who will treat her right and care for her and her child in comfort. Is arguably a better ending than if she’d married Colin because now she doesn’t have to go through the trouble of explaining things to her new husband and run the risk of him resenting her forever. Phillip may not love her but he knows who he’s marrying and why he’s marrying her. That’s literally the same fate Marina had in the books, and it makes me wonder why, oh why would the writers do that.

Why create such a contrived plot to give a character who appears in one(1) chapter of an 8 books series then promptly dies, all at the expense of the characterization of one of the most beloved heroines of said books series? Why would you write this racist storyline for a character whose fate is dying? And now I’m horrified at the repercussions that can come with Marina committing su*cide like in canon, because the implications would be that Penelope would be responsible for it (and I hate the idea of blaming one person for the su*cide of another, fictional or otherwise, is harmful and we need to be careful with making such implications), which would make her even less redeemable or like, likable in general. Not to mention that would be like putting the final racist nail in Marina’s coffin by giving her that ending.

It makes me wonder, seriously, if Chris Van Dusen hated Romancing Mister Bridgerton that much, if he loathed the idea of writing a fat character finding love and getting sex that much. I just wanna know why lmfao.