“I have seen so much discourse circulating online about Bridgerton and the relationship between Penelope (and) Colin,” begins a post by Chicago-based plus-size vintage and modern clothing retailer, Luv Sick Plus. “An unfortunate post on Threads said this would never happen and was so unrealistic. I have my own feelings on the show and characters… but one thing I know for 100% certainty, is that fat people have and always will be loved & lusted after.”
The post references the primary plotline for season three of Shonda Rhimes’ wildly popular Netflix show, Bridgerton. The mixed-weight romance between Penelope Featherington, played by actress Nicola Coughlan, and Colin Bridgerton, played by Luke Newton, defies romance plotline convention. It does more than that, though. This love story creates friction around the socially acceptable limits of desire and desirability, doing what Rhimes does best — unveiling unsettling truths about human relationships. In this case, the truth is that thin people (yes, dare I say, even straight men with cash and cachet) desire, love and marry people who are larger than they are all of the time.
Already a show that has broken records and offered refreshingly new takes on the period piece genre, this season of Bridgerton delivers yet again. The internet has been in rare form, however, when it comes to the union of Penelope and Colin, affectionately nicknamed “Polin.”
In a recent article penned by Zoe Strimpel for The Spectator titled “Bridgerton’s Big Fantasy,” Strimpel declares that Coughlan is “not hot,” and proceeds to fat-shame her. Strimpel writes, “Coughlan is an actress of great value, and might be adored, but she is simply not plausible as the friend who would catch the handsome rich aristocrat Colin Bridgerton’s eye in that way.” It’s important to examine Strimpel’s writing because it offers a glimpse into the nuanced beliefs and rules that are part of fatphobia — because it’s fatphobia that’s at the core of why “Polin” has created such a tizzy.
