Reader be warned, Bridgerton spoilers below.
Shonda Rhimes, the brilliant creator of highly successful Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder, partnered with Netflix to create what has now become the platforms most watched series, Bridgerton. The show is based on a series of eight romance novels by Julia Quinn, with the first novel written in 2000. Season one has been watched by over 82 million Netflix subscribers since its release in December 2020 and has already been renewed for a second season.
Bridgerton season one adapted the first novel, The Duke and I, which follows Daphne Bridgerton’s quest to find a suitor to marry during a structured courting season. The story conforms to many traditions from the Regency area, including the lack of recognition of women as independent and capable of doing more than just being a wife and mother. There are many aspects of the show that naturally induce eye rolling and gasping due to the reminder of how degrading those traditions and beliefs are. Nevertheless, the show is generally enjoyable.
A narrator, Lady Whistledown, offers an aspect of mystery every episode as she introduces new characters, discusses their intentions and uses her anonymity to share news (and gossip) through newsletters that grasp the attention of all of London. Daphne Bridgerton is the first daughter in her family to go through the courting process and based on the Queen’s evaluation of her beauty, she has much success and is predicted to be the most popular debutant that season. Based on complex family dynamics, she comes up with a plot with the very desirable but reserved bachelor Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. There are themes of romance, betrayal and sacrifice throughout the show, and there is also a lot of sex.
A few minutes into the debut episode, we get a preview of the type of very realistic sex scenes that are frequent throughout the show. I have mentioned that some of the traditions and gender-roles that are present in the show can raise a lot of 2021 woke audience eyebrows. Daphne has been brought up in an environment where sex is not discussed, her mother has assisted in outfit planning and coached her to act like a lady but never warned her daughter about the realities of sexual intimacy. She waits until her honeymoon and her character blossoms as she discovers the good and bad that arises from a marital and sexual relationship.
TW: Sexual Assault
There is one scene in particular, where she makes inquiries with her servant about how exactly a woman becomes pregnant. Her husband had warned her that he could not have children, but she didn’t exactly know why. Upon finding out that his pull-out method was likely preventing her from getting pregnant, in a passionate but somewhat passive-aggressive scene, she prevents him from pulling out. Daphne’s actions in this scene depict non-consensual sex, as her husband had plead out to her to wait, indicating she should get off. This didn’t come as a surprise to those that have read the novel series, as readers have expressed concern about this controversial part of the book. In my view, the decision to include this scene in the TV series shouldn’t be debated as controversial but rather should be called out for what it is, a graphic rape scene framed as passionate romance.
While not difficult to identify the issues behind this scene, it is certainly difficult to get such a conversation started. Daphne’s lack of knowledge about sex and her identity as a woman in that time period can make it easy to look past the reality of her actions, however the show was released during 2020 to a society that has a better developed understanding of sexual consent. Though adapted from a book that was written in 2000s, the show was co-produced by one of the most progressive and inclusive producers, Shonda Rhimes. In her successful American network TV shows, she is known to tackle difficult social and political issues while having a diverse cast. I am uncertain if this was an oversight, or if it was necessary to tell Daphne’s story and her evolution as a woman, including her realization that her mother did not provide her with important information about what it meant to be a married woman engaging in sexual acts. I also can’t help but wonder if this is also brushed off because here, it is a woman taking lead of the non-consensual act – are viewers brushing this off because the victim was a man?
If you have not watched it yet, I won’t entirely recommend that you do. Though thrown off by this problematic scene I finished the series and wasn’t left wanting more, as the mysterious aspect behind the narrator is resolved in the last scene. If you have watched it, and didn’t consider this scene as problematic, perhaps think about why – is it because the typical gender roles were reversed? Is it because it began as a consensual act? These are difficult conversations that viewers may not be ready to engage in, however, I think it is very important to be critical of the media that we consume.