#that is my bridgerton coded lesbian

[paperglader]

self care is blocking someone just because they said that alicent looked ugly in blue

[misandriste]

ELOISE BRIDGERTON + being mistaken for a suitor

[thedailydescent]

Every time I see advertisements for the third season of Bridgerton I'm forever thankful I gave up that liberal covid escapism show after season 2 when I realized that we were actually supposed to be rooting for the main character who exposed a black pregnant teenager and a feminist activist, and that there would be no lasting consequence for that because this show is really all about preserving social order and maintaining the nuclear family. why look at class segregation when you can look at these shirtless colonizers.

[ladysophiebeckett]

eloise: can i bum a ride with u to scotland and sleep on ur regency couch?

francesca:

[thestarlightforge]

Yes, the world is often still a terrifying nightmare for queer people.

But.

Spring 2024 served up a full season of Ava & Deborah in Hacks S3, the always delightful Abbot Elementary for its S3, and Ncuti Gatwa Fifteenth Doctor kissing Jonathan Groff on Doctor Who.

Summertime delivered Poolverine in Deadpool 3, a season of excellence with Interview with the Vampire S2, the killer finales of Umbrella Academy and Star Trek: Discovery, the continued successor to She Ra & Steven Universe in My Adventures with Superman S2, a taste of a future queerer Bridgerton in S3, the interracial interabled lesbian wedding of the year in The Dragon Prince S6, and House of the Dragon blowing up the internet for two months gay with its wonderful shenanigans—from the sept scene, to GNC-coded Rhaenyra kissing Mysaria, to Alicent going full Virginia Woolf on a MF & then proposing elopement in a 4 AM break-in.

Spooky season has the return of Jac Schaeffer to the WandaVision fam—Billy Maximoff, Teddy Altman (who he’s explicitly dating) & a bevy of PEAK lesbian activity in Agatha All Along, coming out (ha) within a month of Heartstopper S3, and the series finales of What We Do In The Shadows and Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Then, we’ll close out the year with Harlivy in Harley Quinn S5, Lady Gaga as Harley in a musical in Folie a Deux, and MF-live action WICKED PT. 1.

And this isn’t even it, y’all. This doesn’t include countless anime, cartoons, and queer shows that are gaining ground now that they’re streaming (Kevin Can F**k Himself, ILYSM).

No, it isn’t perfect. Yes, I want more and better representation. (Especially for sapphics, BIPOC queers, disabled queers, trans and GNC folks.)

But there are reasons for hope. We are moving in the right direction. 🏳️‍🌈��️

[g0lightly]

I just finished Bridgerton S3 and tbh I don’t get why people are so quick to label Francesca as bi? Certain writing, directing, and acting choices make me think the intention is for her to realize her love for John is not romantic. I do think she loves him, but more in the sense that he is the first person to truly see her.

I think she’s more likely a lesbian with comphet (because hello it is the fucking 1800s) who didn’t know any better than to assign feelings of romance to a wonderful friendship. The look on her face after she kissed John at their wedding said it all imo. There’s also the fact that she’s very autistic coded and probably used to following scripts for social situations and fell into that on the marriage mart as well - v relatable tbh!!

As a lesbian who struggled with comphet well into the 21st century it blows my mind that people assume a woman from the 19th century likes men just bc she married one. Which sounds strange to say but it really isn’t if you are even a little bit familiar with lesbian history at that time (I recommend surpassing the love of men by Lillian faderman!). At the end of the day i really don’t care how ppl label a fictional character’s sexuality but I do need ppl to understand that to this day women marry men before they realize they’re lesbians bc of social norms, it’s not a wild concept

[blackthxrntree]

Bridgerton S3 Ep5 Spoilers Below

So hurray for me I got to see the premier of Episode 5 in Galway(mup nicola) tonight

It. Was. Amazing.

Awful to watch with my mother, nevertheless I persist.

(Proof for the naysayers)

Anyway I'm gonna cut here and tell all

SPOILERS BELOW

Kate and Anthony Baby!!!!!

Anthony remains the most pro pussy eating man ever (shocking /s)

Like Penelope I too have felt like I was about to pass out after making out with getting fingered by my friend (the camera angles in the first scene were amazing)

Cressida Cowper you poor poor girl I wish you could just be a lesbian in peace

Cressida Cowper you absolute moron

Eloise this is not all about you please stop scowling

The Polin sex scene in this episode is possibly the best intimate scene bridgerton has ever done.

This is the first time I've ever seen someone that looks like me depicted as an object of desire this woman is phenomenal

Speed Run Now:

Kate is an icon

Portia is a cunt

Violet is so real

The Queen is so extra

Lady Danbury and her eyebrows are side eyeing so hard this is so Martha's Mam coded

[diamonds-of-the-first-water]

so can i finally share my cressida lesbian headcanon 🥺

i know, i know she’s a bully.

if only there was a character who was super femme and was mean because she spent her whole life denying who she truly was and only finds true happiness when she comes to terms with being a lesbian

this excerpt from a PRIDE article is what made me think this could become canon

Jess said that she wants to bring queerness to the forefront in this series. one of the bridgertons could be queer, but seeing as they all end up in straight pairings i feel like it is more likely to be someone outside the family (though i am a fan of bi benedict)

along with this cressida has had an unusual amount of presence in the bridgerton promotions this season versus seasons 1 & 2. we’re also supposed to be seeing more of cressida’s home life which i assume will not be good.

my thought process is that like most of the girls in the ton she is being forced to find a man with a high enough rank regardless of whether she loves him or not. but cressida has always seen this as a means to an end. everytime we see her going after a man, it’s for the money or perception. if she married the prince she’d be a princess, if she married lord featherington she’d be rich (no one knew he was lying remember), and if she married colin she’d be a bridgerton and they are basically as close to royalty as one can get without marrying into the actual royal family. it has never been about love for her.

i mean read this quote and tell me it isn’t cressida coded.

“What I’ve realized is why I’m such a bitch all the time. I’m a bitch because I’m angry. I’m angry because I have all of these feelings, feelings for you, that I’m afraid of dealing with because I’m afraid of dealing with the consequences. I’m afraid of the talks and the looks.”

next season we see cressida once again going after a wealthy man, lord debling and he seems to be quite the catch. he is also extremely interested in penelope, not cressida.

i wonder if we’ll have a little polly honeycombe moment moment and she’ll have this realization with a girl she meets in the ton.

[misscrawfords]

Watched Bridgerton with a bit too much wine and a new cross-stitch. Immediate thoughts:

highly watchable. Four hours sped by. Whatever else it might be, it's a very addictive, winning formula. Liked it much more than I anticipated despite feeling that a) Penelope's unrequited friends-to-lovers fantasy is going to hit me very hard and b) Colin Bridgerton is not attractive and never will be.

Francesca Francesca Francesca!!! I don't remember much about her book and from the trailers/promo pics didn't think much of the new actress but I am now obsessed with Francesca. Adore her being autistic coded with a music special interest. Adore that for her. Adore the music. Absolutely everything. She's my girl!!!!!! Love her being silent with John. I'm so sad knowing what happens but I want this for her. I cant stop thinking about how he listened to her info dump about that violinist and then got the damn piece transcribed for her to play. I mean. Listen. My hear, you guys, my heart. I don't care about anything or anyone else!

Penelope's glow-up is awesome.

Love Alice and Will Mondrich. Again, did not see this coming but finding their storyline pretty cool.

Love that we get more Hyacinth. She's my favourite Bridgerton because when I read her book I related to her so hard I had some kind of life crisis, so the fact she has more to do and is growing up just fills me with joy.

Weirdly love the Featheringtons and the very bizarre inheritance/pregnancy plot. The girls don't know what sex is and neither do their loser husbands? The whole thing is so utterly off the wall, it's compelling! Their S02 plot was so dull but I'm finding this completely bonkers and compelling. Maybe it's the wine?

Cressida and Eloise??!!! Like, Cressida is ticking all my "mean rich bitch with unexpected trauma and hidden depths" box and I hate myself for it but there we go. Here for it. I hope she isn't completely villainised.

Eloise's development baffles me. I hate that she's all "I'm not like other girls" with the sewing and she seems to veer towards learning that maybe she can get on with girls and change and then she's dragged back into her insufferable superiority. And how is the character who is written like this supposed to end up as the stepmum to Marina Crane's children vegetating in the countryside? It does not make sense at all for show!Eloise. Actually the only thing that makes sense is to make her a lesbian, or at least bi, which would be in keeping with her "I don't fit in/I'm different" narrative. Otherwise... what? ngl I want Cressida/Eloise fanfic and I did not think that would be my takeaway from this show when I woke up today.

Colin is just not sexy. He's not sexy, he has an unsexy name (4th on my ranking of "how sexy are the Bridgerton boys' names" btw: 1 is Benedict obv - top tier sexy name; 2 is Anthony - mid-level but clearly worked for Cleopatra, has definite potential in the right circumstances; 3 is Gregory - not sexy especially if abbreviated but could work with a lot of effort in a particularly charming individual but Colin? Nope. Can you imagine screaming "COLIN!" in the heights of passion? No, didn't think so.) And I just don't buy him as a character. Why must maturity and new-found confidence equal having threesomes? He lacks coherency to me. Oh well. I don't hate him but I would take John Stirling's silence and top tier gift giving or Lord Debling's honesty, kindness, and dedicated to real interests over his... whatever it is is Colin has... any day.

Penelope's glow-up is great and she looks hot af and I'm here for it and her arc is certainly compelling but it's actually... not the most compelling part of the show for me. Whoops!

The dig about embroidery was very unnecessary.

Don't know what Benedict is doing in this plot but he's still very entertaining and has more character than Colin.

Yeah. I enjoyed it way more than expected and I only feel mildly heartbroken about the whole friends-to-lovers thing but that's probably the wine. Part 2 is released on my birthday so happy birthday to me, I guess!!

[permanent-rose]

This just dawned on me, but the parallels between the March sisters and the Bridgerton sisters are so incredibly obvious when you think about it.

Meg and Daphne are the eldest. They want to marry and have children, and they feel responsible for their siblings. They connect the most to their mothers and support them in their fathers absence. (That girl who is mean to Meg at the dance because the March family are abolitionists is so Cressida Cowper coded)

Meg's line "just because my dreams are different from yours doesn't mean they are unimportant" to Jo could have been seamlessly included from Daphne to Eloise.

Jo and Eloise are brilliant, headstrong, and articulate beyond what is expected of them. They share dreams about revolution, a life without marriage. Both are blunt and struggle socially. They are admired but profoundly lonely in their own way. (Also, both have been argued to be lesbian coded) They are suffocated by society but cannot escape it. Therefore, they lash out at their loved ones. (Eloise would totally burn Daphne's hair off before a ball).

Beth and Francesca are sweet and gentle, easily forgotten amidst the mayhem of their families. I can’t remember 100% but I'm fairly sure Franny is a talented pianist like Beth. They lend a compassionate ear and struggle with their health.

Amy and Hyacinth are rambunctious and passionate. They feel left behind when their siblings start growing up and leaving them. They dream of great adventure and go on travels away from their families where they get together with their husbands. (Hyacinth would totally burn a manuscript and then get very apologetic)

In conclusion, I'm going nuts about this, and I needed to scream into into the void.

[hamliet]

when does a relationship become queerbaiting? theres a book that i really like and the 2 male leads characters have a lot of storylines and arcs where they get closer and i think some of the tropes used can be similar to the typical romantic tropes, neither of them end up with anyone at the end of the story since its more about found family and the long journey the whole cast goes through. they even get shipped by another character as a running gag. personally i always saw it as being open to interpretation but recently the revised edition of the original novel came out and there were several lines those 2 characters had about each other that were kinda toned down, i didnt think much of it but i saw a post about how it was clearly baiting and the author was being homophobic for toning it down. i didnt think it counted as baiting since as far as i know, the novel was never advertised as anything with romance and the author never pretended they were gonna end up together. i am definitely a little weirded out by the decision to change those specific lines but a lot of the story stayed the same, including a lot about their relationship so idk what to think.

i guess im more confused on if it counts as baiting, or even substext??

Sooooo I am not the best person to ask about this, because I’m a cis woman who has thus far in life only been attracted in a romantic sense to cis men. I can talk a bit about baiting as a general concept in fiction, but you should definitely take it with some grains of salt. 

Baiting, for me, is like deliberately playing up an aspect writers have no intention on delivering on. Usually this is done for ratings, to tease fans, fanservice, etc, but without payoff, it is just bad writing. Red herrings are good in writing, but only can be successfully used if the actual result is more satisfying than the herring. This applies to writing in general, not just to romantic ships. However, when the baiting involves historically underrepresented groups for no reason other than to get fans to spend money consuming the story, I think we can all agree that becomes something more grotesque than just bad writing: it’s insensitive, socially irresponsible, frankly hurtful. 

Some common examples are Bridgerton which has a gay character, who is extremely minor, yet they played up this character in advertising. Also, Rizzoli and Isles I think actually had its producers mention deliberately playing up the lesbian subtext to hook the audience without ever intending on following through. 

That said, context also matters. Like, there are aspects of the culture of the work’s author, the target audience, and such that come into play here also (so like, romantic tropes differ by culture. For example, enemies to lovers is common in Asian stories but less in the west, and the “girl who pursues a guy” is extremely common in Japanese shonen in particular, while it is very much a cringe trope that almost never results in romance in American fiction. So if a writer reads, say, tropes that are common in America into a Japanese work and says it’s baiting, that’s quite possibly not the intent even if it may have been the experience of the reader. So even if there was no intent, there can still be hurt, and that hurt can be real, if that makes sense. 

The definition of what constitutes ‘baiting’ varies. I do think that, in true Tumblr fashion, the term gets thrown around a lot and loses its intended meaning, or is so rigidly defined that creators can meet the letter of the “not a bait” requirement while ignoring the spirit of it.

To start with the latter: regarding something hitting the letter of what most wouldn’t consider baiting yet not really the spirit, let’s look at The Rise of Skywalker. This movie had a genuine lesbian kiss in it... between two characters we’d never seen more than a glimpse of while others are celebrating around them. Since it has a kiss, it’s not baiting, right? Well... the director deliberately said in the lead-up to the film that he included it because he “wanted LGBT people to see themselves in the film.” If “see yourselves in the film” is like a nanosecond of background, then, like... idk. Baiting or not, it feels icky, and I know some people consider it baiting and some don’t even if they don’t like, love that representation. But I think this is more queerbaiting than like, Nobara and Maki, who don’t have explicit romantic coding. 

Going back to the former, in terms of ‘queerbaiting’ losing its intended meaning... I think there are a lot of really poorly written romantic ships out there, often het, while a lot of same-gender relationships are really well written regardless of whether there’s romantic coding within the text. The main emotional energy in stories with 90% male characters (as frankly many if not most stories are, great job world) is probably between two men. There’s just so much more potential with well-written characters who share a lot of screen time, so of course people are going to ship them. In my opinion, this does not inherently make it baiting, but it certainly creates an environment that lends itself to baiting even if the writers aren’t intending to do this. 

Like, you could say the main emotional energy in BNHA is Bakugou and Deku. However, Bakudeku is 100% not queerbaiting. It’ll never be canon romantically (I don’t even ship it lol). There has been nothing to imply romance between them even if the main emotional message can be seen in their development. Deku/Ochaco is likely to be canon, but there is a significant lack of genuine emotional energy between them (the story’s plots and themes don’t coalesce around their relationship), so it’s probably going to feel forced. In contrast, Naruto/Sasuke had an actual kiss in canon, which while played for laughs is a lot more direct romantic coding than anything between Bakugou/Deku. I actually don’t think the majority of Narusasu is baiting, but I definitely think that one moment in chapter like 3 was really poor fanservice for yaoi fans, and has not aged well at all. 

It is also the case that fans can confuse headcanons with what is actually in the text, and that just never ends well. For example, Clover and Qrow’s ship in RWBY: a lot of people read Clover as gay, which led to “bury your gays” outrage when he died. A member of the crew stated explicitly they had never intended for Clover to be a love interest for Qrow, and truthfully here was nothing strictly romantic in their relationship--nothing like a kiss or a declaration of love or a parallel to another romantic couple. Hence, I don’t personally consider it queerbaiting or bury your gays, but a lot of fans felt that it was and their pain is legitimate even if I think textually the argument isn’t there. The one thing I do think is true about this in particular is that there was also no strict platonic coding, which encourages headcanons. Clear writing, yo. It can help. 

Note the word “can” not “will,” because strict platonic coding doesn’t always fix things, either. In what was probably a reaction to the outrage over Clover’s death, you had extremely blatant platonic coding of Ruby and Penny’s relationship this season leading up to Penny’s death. Ruby refers to Penny as “our friend” three different times, wherein “friend” sends a platonic message and “our” sends an even stronger message that it’s not about the two of them despite the fact that their friendship is one of the sweetest and most interesting in the show. A lingering Ruby-Penny hug then is followed by a lingering Penny-Weiss hug, then Yang, then Blake, etc. The writers went out of their way to hit people over the head with “platonic” and yet they have still gotten accusations of bury your gays and queerbaiting because people will see what they want to see in a story. 

Seeing what you want to see in a story also isn’t inherently bad. People who are underrepresented are going to have to read themselves into stories because Lord knows writers ain’t incorporating them well enough if at all. It’s why “Mary Sues” are common in fanfiction, which is primarily written by people who are not straight white men: because where the hell else are we to see ourselves in fiction? So essentially the macrocosm of culture creates this problem, both in terms of baiting and the misuse of the term, and the only fix is a shit ton more good representation.

[chigirisprincess]

This may be kinda a strange question....but how are you able to consume cishet media without feeling jealous or upset?? :(((( pls tell me ur ways because this is something i struggle with so much. It’s so hard for me to see straight couples and be disappointed when the characters i hc as lesbian end up being straight and getting with a man :(( just reminds me that we have little to none good rep and that nothing is for us, but only for people attracted to men :((((((

honestly, i have nothing profound to say because it’s comphet and the fact that i’ve just sort of given up on hoping for good wlw rep. (don’t reblog)

i do feel angry and jealous, hell i felt jealous seeing that heartstopper got a netflix adaptation without knowing anything about it because all i want is for there to be a show like that where the main couple and characters are wlw, rather than them being side characters as awful as it is rather than being happy or even looking into the show to see that there was some sapphic representation.

and as for the comphet, sometimes it feels easier to just watch cishet couples fall in love and be romanced because all of the obstacles they face are easily over come and at the end of the day, they’ll be happy. and sometimes i just want to see a happy ending. even if it angers me to no end that queer coded women who end up with men and that i’ve spent a great deal of my life being angry because i always got my hopes up and at some point of just given up and i rely on fan content. and as i’m assuming this has to do with my constant raving of bridgerton it does bug me that in this fictional universe that homophobia still exists and that none of them are gonna be queer. but i let myself enjoy it and be swept up in the het romance because it’s uncomplicated and for a fleeting moment i get to feel normal

tho i will admit i don’t watch much tv, i really only watch youtube or twitch streams, and the stuff i do has minimal representation and so i rewatch it vs starting something new. most television is nauseatingly heteronormative and i just don’t watch it. bridgerton has been the exception and i have stomached through the great many sex scenes in season 1 which imo cheapened things but i digress.

i don’t know if any of this makes sense since truthfully i’ve never put any thought into this but trust me when i say, i do even if you see me coming on here and gushing of het media.

i choose to focus on what i enjoy and try to be positive even if on the inside i hurt.

because let me tell you, i’ve cried until i couldn’t breath because i was so upset that every wlw couple i’ve ever seen on tv one of them as died, or there was something that prevented them from being together ever. and honestly the lack of rep and discussion of comphet is there reason why it took me so long to realize i was lesbian and not bi.

and i don’t think there really is one way to consume media and not feel the slightest bit disheartened, because i feel disheartened and jealous and angry and i cry because i wish for good representation where the sapphic person may be in love and stay in love and not have to be torn apart from their partner. so i’m sorry if this isn’t helpful or you don’t understand what i’m saying but truthfully we’re always gonna feel this way until we get something really good. or … we find a plot so enjoyable that we can over look how het it is.