Bridgerton season 3: The new season of the fan favourite show finally releasing and fans reliving the ‘Bridgerton’ fever. This season not only gives the audience a brilliant love story to marvel at but also showcases how real body positivity is done, and it’s not the ‘over-the-hype conversations and banners’. It’s simple, real, and subtle.
As Penelope and Colin take the spotlight this season, the conversations around the show don’t just end at the lavish costumes and beautiful characters, the over-the-top wigs and their significance, the Bridgerton family and their dumb children not seeing the signs till they are shoved on them; they also circle back to Penelope's size, weight, and apparent ‘unconventional’ body type.
Nicola Coughlan is busy fielding questions about her “bravery” for acting the part of a desirable lead character—the unspoken implication being that this is despite her body type. It’s called out unconventional due to how our screens lack the exploration and romanticisation of bigger bodies, romanticising them not to point out 'Look, this also happens; we did it’ instead in a calm, subtle manner of expression where the message isn't shoved and doesn't end up being the only character arc of the said character. They are more than that one thing, and they just end up becoming comfortable on their own instead of going through a ‘transformation’.
'Bridgerton' characters are known to go through a ‘glow-up’ when their story is about to take centre stage, and this season, Penelope did too. The beautiful addition was how the showrunner, Jess Brownell, was determined that Penelope’s body should not be part of the transformation and that her confidence should be the biggest glow-up for her.
“I think Penelope’s outer appearance has nothing to do with her story,” Brownell told Refinery29 Australia. “Her story is absolutely about her internal journey; that’s what matters.” Fans also pointed out that in the book, Colin didn't notice Penelope until she was slim and had lost out on her fat, claiming that this was a positive and fresh change in the show.
Actress Nicola Coughlan also mentioned time and again how Penelope’s size shouldn’t be a part of the conversation. ‘Bridgerton’ has brilliantly managed to capture body positivity at its finest. Penelope’s size wasn't subjected to any conversation, change, or discrimination; it was normal. It was how it should be in real life, and they managed to capture it. Colin was attracted to her, and that was it. She is a successful gossip columnist who learned to be herself this season, and that is what her story was, and fans are loving it.
The realism of this portrayal is leaving the fans in love. While some fans are connecting to the character and finally seeing the representation that took so long already to reach our screens, another section of people are also making it a big deal, missing the point, and the actress is trying to make it entirely.
Throughout the last month, with the press tour of ‘Bridgerton’ in full swing, the actress had to address the conversation surrounding her size and body type numerous times, and fans are applauding Nicola for the way she handles them and intelligently answers them. In one interview, she was seen talking about how she very much asked to be naked on screen. “You know, it is hard because I think women with my body type—women with perfect breasts,” Coughlan said jokingly. “We don’t get to see ourselves on screen enough.”
In a separate interview with Stylist magazine, she said, “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘fuck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.” Coughlan added that she wanted to “look back on this and remember how fucking hot I looked.” Fans are loving her, and rightfully so.
Coughlan is a symbol of anti-representation. She or her character isn’t a poster child for a cause or a “type,” and she’s not a preacher of self-love or acceptance to anyone. In a world plagued by self-love quotes, diets, ozempic, surgeries, and transformations taking place everywhere, she simply likes looking at herself and wants to show herself off. It’s not so much her body as everything else that she offers, just like it should be.