The Trouble with Bridgerton
This is both your spoiler and trigger warning and my preface that I love historical romance. I am not here to hate on the show for the sake of it, generally I really enjoyed it.
Even though like I said I've read literally hundreds of historical romances over the years, many Regency books, I hadn't read the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn until recently (and I'm only up to book 5 of 8). In terms of quality overall the books are fine - they're humorous, they have some great characters and they have at least one or two token love (read: sex) scenes per book. If you hadn't already heard, the first season of Bridgerton is essentially an adaptation of the first book in the series The Duke and I which follows the romance of Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset. I'm sure you've heard of them.
Rape
The first thing that I really want to address, which personally bothers me the most, is the rape scene. Didn't realise there was one in the show? Exactly the problem.
In episode 6 you'll probably recall that Daphne, painfully naive, comes to the realisation that Simon can actually biologically have children but instead chooses not to and consistently pulls out during sex to prevent Daphne from falling pregnant. Furious that he's lied to her (which he technically hasn't except by omission), she decides to test the theory by instigating sex and deliberately prevents him from being able to pull out in time. If you're paying attention, you'll notice that Simon both verbally and physically tries to stop her and when it is over he is so upset he reverts to a stutter which he trained to overcome in his youth. I'm sorry to say that this is the definition of rape.
The act might not have been violent, it might have been an act carried out by a woman to a man, and though he didn't say the word 'stop' he made all the cues necessary that he did not consent. And that is not ok.
There are many times where there can be grey areas in what constitutes a rape or not, but a lot of the time its actually pretty clear. Though the whole thing grosses me out and makes me really not a fan of Daphne (who, let's face it, always sucked anyway), that isn't to say that using this rape in the story can't be done to the show's benefit. I.e. the characters could have addressed and it should have created a better conservation out in the real world. Rape is horrible and extremely triggering to many people so I get that many people don't like talking about - but if we never address it, we can't do better. This was a good opportunity to do better and failed. The amount of people online who I've seen either didn't notice or didn't care really bothers me. If the gender roles had been reversed and Daphne had been the one who was raped, this absolutely would be different.
Now, to those who have read The Duke and I, this scene actually plays out arguably a lot worse. In the book, Simon and Daphne have already been fighting about the fact that he lied. After a wild night, Daphne puts a a very drunk Simon to bed and then takes advantage of the situation. In terms of what we might consider to be assault, this is definitely a lot clearer but by toning down both the act and the context in which it takes place and then not addressing in universe it makes the whole thing so much worse. Making rape subtle and then not addressing it in context, whether intended or not, works to make it in a sense acceptable and harder to comprehend in the real world. Male rape in general, particularly when committed by women, is hard to prosecute or address due to longstanding connotations of masculinity and pride. Men are far less likely to report than women and are often bullied if they do for being 'lesser' men or for not 'appreciating' the female attention. A really example of this is the movie Horrible Bosses when Jennifer Anniston's character is constantly sexually harassing and straight up attempts to assault one of the main characters whilst his mates tease him about it because she is so attractive and tell him just to sleep with her. Yikes.
The point I am trying to make is that though rape, like murder, is an awful thing to portray on screen it can have its place in storytelling and the resulting conversation that comes from it. There are many cases when actors who've portrayed these sorts of events in film have been changed by the experience and have both encouraged and contributed to the conversation around it from a new perspective. Some great examples of this is James Marsters during Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sam Claflin during The Nightingale, who both have publically addressed their experiences and how its impacted them.
My issue with Bridgerton is not that the rape happened, its that the show which only premiered over the holidays did not address it. Instead, its basically been swept under the rug because people didn't notice, no one in the show mentioned it, and people just wanted to enjoy the show. YIKES. I get just wanting to like a show because its fluff, but still.
I recommend this video for perspective and how they could have fixed this.
Race
As a white woman, I'm not the best person to really get into this one though it did bother me. Essentially, the colour-blind casting was great for diversity until they tried to make up some awkward explanation for it in universe that made no sense. All they did was address the diversity and highlight that it was still lacking.
In a historical fantasy having a diverse cast is totally fine if they aren't going for historical accuracy. But when you try to explain it, with a throwaway line from Lady Danbury, all you do is raise more questions. Historically, many of the European (not just English) elite owned plantations, slaves and/or made money in Africa/the Caribbean/Far East with trade in some capacity. That's how they were so rich and could afford their lavish lifestyles in addition to their multiple properties. It's a gross part of history we don't like to talk about but it doesn't make it less so. So, when you try to justify having a diverse cast (which in a historical fantasy doesn't really need to be justified) in this way you've now created a huge plot hole.
There are a lot of other aspects of race that were pretty clumsily/poorly handled, but here's a link to a panel of women of colour discussing the issues instead.
Queer-Baiting
I did notice this one, too, but like with race I'm not the best person to address it. Queer Baiting is a problem that has arisen over the years particularly in shows like Sherlock and Supernatural when show runners deliberately dangled the prospect of LGBT couples in promotional material and marketing but never followed through. Youtube commentator, Sarah Z, does a really good job of explaining it in her video here if you are interested in exploring the concept further.
In Bridgerton, especially if you haven't read the books, I'd understand if you were stanning Benedict to be gay. Sure, why not.
Except that he's the hero of the third book, An Offer From a Gentleman, which is a Cinderella retelling and so far my favourite book in the series. He also is suddenly shagging the fake French modiste halfway through the series so he's not actually made out to be gay. He could be considered bi at the least, but aside from a befriending an artist who turns out to be gay, Benedict isn't portrayed as anything but cool with it. This becomes queer baiting when the singular gay kiss scene is featured in the trailer and for a half second it really tries to make you think their might be a relationship forming between Benedict and the artist. Except after that episode you never see the artist again and Benedict hooks up with the modiste.
This is problematic because it begins early on in the show to reel in an LGBT audience then abandons the storyline completely.
I'm happy for multiple LGBT characters, that would be great in future seasons, but this was some shameless queer-baiting.
Historical Inaccuracy
This last one is more of a nitpick because I am a nerd more than anything, but just in case anyone didn't quite get it - this is a historical romantic fantasy. Though a lot of detail has been given to costumes, story-telling and the time period, there are some glaringly obvious things that stand out to me that I always find annoying.
This countdown touches the surface of historical fact and fiction, whilst if you're a sucker for costume accuracy I recommend this video here.
It's important to me that you understand that I did otherwise enjoy the show. As a historical romance connoisseur, I really appreciated seeing a generally good adaptation of the historical romance genre on screen with a big budget, a beautiful cast and a good outcome for future seasons. Though I don't like Simon or Daphne, let alone them as a couple, I appreciated the smut scenes for what they were and their place in the story (a good historical romance needs it). I just think that it extremely important to acknowledge the issues the show has so that we can learn and do better in the future.
I hope we get more seasons featuring the other Bridgerton siblings, the first book in the series really is the worst one, and I can see those better (less problematic) romances come to life on the small screen, too.
If you're looking for recommendations of books to read to get your historical romance fix I recommend the following which are some of my favourite authors and series. Take the older publications with a grain of salt since they are not without problems of their own.
Bar Cynster Series by Stephanie Laurens (Australian author!)
Mallory family by Johanna Lindsey
Connie Mason books (definitely many are problematic in hindsight so just a warning there)
Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt
*There are many, many more out there so if there's a specific type of historical romance, or even romance in general, you are looking for please feel free to ask and I'm happy to recommend something for you.
Sam xox
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