Actor Nicola Coughlan recently confirmed that Bridgerton’s third season will focus on Penelope Featherington’s love story with Colin Bridgerton, setting the stage for the series to highlight yet another diverse point of view: a full-figured romantic lead. Bridgerton has successfully opened the genre of Regency-era romance to a much more diverse cast throughout its first two seasons. And while Coughlan isn’t a woman of color, she does represent a population consistently marginalized by Hollywood.
It is estimated that nearly 70 percent of women in the United States are plus-sized, or size 14 and up, but lead female roles go to much smaller women with disproportionate frequency. For decades, if a woman wished to work in film, be it on television or in movies, she really had only two options regarding her weight: lose it or take a secondary role. In the last 15 years or so, the industry has been expanding the roles available to curvaceous ladies, but the choices still aren’t ideal.
Since 1991 only four full-figured women have won Oscars: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Hudson, Mo’Nique, and Octavia Spencer. And three of them won for supporting roles. Leading roles for curvy ladies are out there, but they tend to fall into one of two categories. Either the role is one of comedy, often at the expense of the character’s size, or the plot centers around the character’s size. It’s rare to see an average-sized woman dealing with normal problems on-screen.
For the few ladies who have been lucky enough to land one of these rare non-weight-centered roles, the part is an anomaly in their portfolio. Even in the cases of ladies who play extremely successful roles in lucrative movies, those same stars find themselves struggling to repeat the success and sometimes even land roles at all. For example, Nikki Blonsky saw great success for her character in Hairspray, then struggled to find a leading place in mainstream movies again. Similar circumstances play out over and over, like with Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Mara Wilson (Mrs. Doubtfire, Matilda), just to name a few.
Their struggles don’t end with landing the job itself. These same ladies find themselves turned down by massive portions of the fashion industry associated with film, making it hard for plus-sized women to find gowns for red carpet events even after blazing success. Imagine going through all those struggles and facing all the bias to get onto the screen in the first place, only to be told you are unworthy of a simple service like being dressed. Some, like Melissa McCarthy, have gone so far as to create their own clothing lines to help make sure everyday women don’t face the same problems.
Add to that an even deeper industry bias at casting plus-sized individuals in lead romance roles. Romantic leads for husky males are sparse enough; roles for curvy females are almost unheard of. It can be hurtful to viewing audiences when the only representation of themselves they see on screen is a person of their weight portrayed as a joke who can never find love.
Enter the brilliance of an entire season of Bridgerton focused on the love life of an intelligent, driven character who just happens to be plus-sized. Penelope Featherington was already a critical character in the world of Netflix’s Bridgerton, not a bit of which had anything to do with her weight. Fans can hope that, just like everyone else in the series, her season will focus on matters of her heart and not those of her body, which is exactly how a romance should unfold.