#like pple do not talk abt enough how this show fails its characters of colour by having their lives revolve around white people

[the-greendalehumanbeings]

yeah as someone who was curious about how the love triangle wld play out, i was seriously disappointed at how conventional the whole thing was. i thought that edwina wld secretly know about the dowry and feel pressure to marry anthony in order to save her family. i was even interested in the sisterly conflict bc i thought it would be abt their relationship but instead it was all abt anthony.

they really did the sharma sisters and their sisterhood dirty! like their dynamic was a realistic one considering their age difference and kate being parentified but the show does not care to explore this dynamic. instead their relationship revolves around anthony. i think from episode 2 to 7 the only thing they did was talk about anthony (sidenote hate the scene where edwina cries over not hving anthony’s approval). the one conversation we see them have abt their dad is to do with anthony. MEANWHILE anthony gets a convo w gregory abt their dad that is actually meaningful and actually focuses on their father. even their conflict was ultimately centered around anthony. the show tries to claim that edwina is actually frustrated by all the lies kate has told her- but thats not how it plays out. for starters the thing that kate is guilty about is her feelings for anthony. even during their resolution edwina does not ask about the lies abt the dowry, or why she was kept so sheltered and not given all the information to allow her to make own decisions about her future.  or why kate thought she could make decisions for her (no hate to kate, but she was definitely willing to do that). instead the resolution involves edwina asks kate is about her feelings for anthony, before her whole speech. and in their last scene together, edwina tells kate to go to anthony. ultimately they did reduce the relationship between these sister to be about a white man. and both managed to reduce edwina to both an obstacle and a kathony shipper (like they claimed the books did).

yeah your right that we never see edwina feel stifled by kate or the role of the diamond. like the only time she pushes back is when anthony tells her she expresses herself in a agreeable manner. and the show made edwina so guileless & naive, that when she finally catches on i actually found it hard to believe. i read someone talking abt how edwina’s speech in ep 6 sounded like she was on an acid trip and lol i understand why. like i wanted edwina to be angry at the way everyone made decisions on her behalf with no regard to how she felt, the lies and for her to be angry at both kate and anthony. and actually regain some agency. but the show doesnt do any of these things. a lot of what she says makes no sense. instead all the blame is placed on kate, she is the one who is made to feel guilty about the whole thing. to a certain extent it makes sense bc she is her sister  but anthony being the cause of the wedding and escaping all the emotional fallout is very unsatisfying to watch.

its irritating how portions of fans want to pick a side and not a word is said abt anthony. imo ep 6 doesn’t make kate or edwina look bad- it makes anthony look bad. the scene where he goes to talk to edwina makes his character go from being an idiot (in an entertaining way) to being absolutely pathetic in the worst way. i think it was his utter cowardice. the truth was out, they were caught and he still couldnt take accountablility or have the decency to give edwina the truth. he even asks kate to convince edwina to marry him to save their families. and when kate blames herself, he does nothing to reassure her or step up and take the blame to spare the misery. he does not care abt edwina but he is meant to love kate. he just lets her take the blame. its a bit irritating afterwards how he is full of self pity- like whatever he does not care abt his family's rep but he doesn't even care abt the sharma's reputation which he helped fuck up. at a certain point it's confusing what kate even sees in him. he asks her sister to marry him, then immediately says he will cheat on her w kate and then later still tries to force the wedding through. then he wants to run away from a mess he created.  i mean from kate's POV he is a complete flake. he really doesnt even grovel enough. like the love triangle did anthony dirty (not that his flaws get any attention), but his character just comes across as a complete coward.

Can you expand on the whole Bridgerton, internalised misogyny love triangle thing. With the whole Edwina and Kate and Anthony thing. I would love to hear your analysis.

Sure! I'll try to do my best without repeating myself.

The definition of Internalized Misogyny/Sexism is a series of sexist and misogynistic behaviors exhibited toward women by other women.

The best example I can think of are songs like Misery Business by Paramore and Better than Revenge by Taylor Swift, basically it was RAMPANT in the early 2000s and 2010s.

And love triangles, in my opinion, are responsible for a lot of internalized misogyny because it directly pits one woman against another. Think of Elena/Caroline/Stefan from TVD or Serena/Nate/Blair from GG or Rachel/Finn/Quinn from Glee or Brooke/Lucas/Peyton from OTH the list is literally endless. Two women are in direct competition with one another for another man's interest and often times this man is white, privileged and playing with one girl's feelings over the other. Now why does this sound familiar...?

Essentially over the last ten or so years, however, there's been a movement to include love triangles without having the two women involved hate each other or to re-examine previous love triangles and try to understand why the two women couldn't be friends even though they were previously. As feminism evolved and we grew up we began to realize that pitting women against each other did more harm than good and those friendships that were ruined were often a result of shitty writing instead of genuinely thinking about how those characters would react in that situation.

The best example I can think of is Serena and Blair from gossip girl and Rachel and Quinn from Glee. As people rewatched the show they began to see how the women were characterized and felt sympathetic to their situation. Rachel was needy and had never been loved, Quinn was ostracized and needed someone she could rely on for both fatherhood and popularity. They had their flaws sure, but eventually the fandom discourse evolved from Rachel vs Quinn to, "Why couldn't these two be friends or talk to one another?"

Same with Blair and Serena. Both girls were lonely and Serena wanted a familiar relationship that would boost her social status imo, while Blair was tired of living in Serena's shadow and finally taking what was hers. And once we understood their motivations, we understood why they felt in competition with one another.

We get no such thing with Kate and Edwina. I've talked about this before, but both Kate and Edwina are woefully under explored in a season that was supposed to be all about them. We get no scenes from their POV, no mention of what informs their motivation. Why does Kate feel the need to shield Edwina so? Why does Edwina feel stifled by Kate? And because we don't get their motivations, we don't understand why they get mad at each other. We cannot feel sympathetic for either one because we did not spend enough time with them.

The most we get is Kate having to pick up the reins because of Mary's grief and Edwina is burdened by the expectations Kate places on her but we're never shown any of that. There is more time spent on Anthony's backstory instead, which makes us more sympathetic to him.

Now, I don't know if you know this, but a majority of the Bridgerton fandom is women and the reaction to Edwina's outburst toward Kate went two ways. People immediately chose sides and began exhibiting sexist behavior toward both women. Calling Edwina a brat, ungrateful, and naive while lifting Kate up, or calling Kate controlling, toxic, and projecting her own wants onto Edwina while lifting Edwina up. The fandom has been split into two different camps essentially, with many people unable to voice their criticisms of each character without being accused of being racist/sexist. But what really happened is we fell prey to our own internalized misogyny.

We lift one woman up while tearing the other down instead of actually critiquing what the issue is. Some people want Edwina to grovel and cry and roll over without saying a word and Others want Kate to be frozen out and yelled at and suffer more than she already has. It's remarkably like the ASOIAF fandom when it comes to Sansa and Arya, claiming that one is better than the other because of the behaviors they perform and the roles they were forced to fit into.

Kate is more masculine, Edwina is more feminine, therefore one must be superior to the other. It reduces both women to props instead of dynamic, complex characters with their own agency and that is internalized misogyny.

anyway, I hope this made sense!