From funny girl to sexy star, Bridgerton's Penelope shifts how curvy women are shown on screen

Nicola Coughlan says it's tough having perfect breasts.

The actress who plays Penelope Featherington in Season 3 of Netflix's hit series Bridgertonadmitted as much during a Q&A in Dublinlastweek.A male member of the audiencehad just told Coughlanhe thought she was "very brave for this role."

In the second half of theseason, which comesout Thursday, Coughlan, like other female leads,willappear in compromisingsex scenes. But unlike the leads in Seasons 1 and 2 of the racy drama set inRegency-era London,Coughlanhas been the target of comments and criticisms about her curvier body.

And the audience member's comment was just one examplein an industry where women's bodies are still freely discussed, criticized and shamed.

"You know, it is hard, because I think women with my body type women with perfect breasts we don't get to see ourselves on screen enough," Coughlansaidas the audience cheered.

"I'm very proud as a member of the perfect breasts community," she added. "I hope you enjoy seeing them."

There's been a lot of buzz about the third season of Netflix's steamy period piece asfan-favouritecharacter Penelope gets promotedfrom introverted observer tofemale lead. That movehas been applauded by fans andcritics alikefor its body positivity, not just in terms of representation of larger body types, but for showing Penelope as romantic, desirable and sexy.

In a media landscape where celebrities and characters are still often fat-shamed, and larger female characters are frequentlyused for comic relief, many people online have said they find Coughlan's portrayal in Bridgertonvalidating.

In a TikTok video with6.6 million views,Ishioma Odinjor jokes about "feeling seen" after watching a sizzling carriage scene.Inanother video with seven million views, aTikTok user with the handle Lady Kendra Beethanks the show for portraying larger characters gracefully and respectfully.

Diversifying the way a female lead can look is a powerful form of representation for those who don't look like a Hollywood starlet, whichis most people,said Shauna Pomerantz, a professor of child and youth studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who studies media, youth and pop culture.

"Penelope Featherington shows that all women can be sexy and deserving of love, but also that all women can be sexual,"Pomerantztold CBCNews.

There's been an ideal of thinnessportrayed in the media since about the 1960s that womenhave felt they need to attain, and not just to be beautiful, but to be valued, said Amanda Ravary,anassistant professor of psychology atBishop's University inSherbrooke, Que., who studiesweight stigma.

"Toactually see somebody who doesnot fit this very restrictive and unattainable thin ideal body beingactually portrayed in a positive light is justincredibly refreshing."

The 'funny fat girl' trope

But Pomerantzalso saysshedoesn't see a wider, linear shift in the media landscape not when most lead actresses still look a certain way, and when there's so much backlash when someone who looksdifferent is cast in a major role.

"In spite of efforts to reduce 'fat shaming'and diversify Hollywood ...the trope around the sexy, skinny female lead who deserves and gets love remains fairly consistent."

The ideal body type in Hollywood is still overwhelmingly one that is thin,according to a2022 report byThe Representation Project, a U.S.advocacy group that seeks to end stereotypes in the media. That reportfound only 6.7 per cent of characters in the pastdecade'smost popular films were fat, and none of them were in lead roles. (The report's authorsnote thatthey use the word fat "because it's not an insult.")

The numbers were similar in television, where only 6.6per cent of female leads were fat, and, as in film, weremore likely to be portrayed as funny or "stupid."

"Fat women characters are rarely portrayed as romantic interests and are frequently treated as 'sexually unappealing.' They are often depicted as 'sidekicks,'and are used as 'props against which thinner women are compared, judgedand valued,'" the report noted.

The "funny fat girl" trope is used often in popular movies and shows, where actors like Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson were oftenthe targetof jokes. "Fat Monica" on the iconic 1990s show Friends is another memorable example, where slender actor Courtney Cox would don a fatsuit for laughs.

Larger characters can also besaddled with plotlines that centre around their size, like Chrissy Metz's struggle with her weight on This isUs. Or they lose weight and then become desirable, another common tropeused, for example, in the 2018 seriesInsatiable.

Spoilers for Part 1of Season 3below:

That's one trope London-basedculture and film criticLeila Latifsaidshe's grateful Bridgerton didn't fall back on, even though, in the books that inspired the series, the Penelope character loses "two stone," or about 28 pounds, before Colin Bridgerton notices her.

In the Netflix series,although she does get a makeover that involves form-fitting dresses, along with sleeker hairstyles and makeup,Penelope's size stays the same.

"It'sabout her confidence, it's about the fact that she actually believes, over the course of the series, actually discovers that being herself is a verycompelling person," Latif told CBC Commotion in May.

Comments 'disappointing and reductive'

While there has been more of a shift recently with curvier lead characters, there's also been viewer backlash. ActressRene Rappwascriticized for her bodyin the recent remaking of Mean Girls, Amy Schumerwasaccused of having a "puffy face" while promoting Season 2 of Life and Beth.

Last month, Irish singer and songwriter CMAT posted on X that"the BBC had to turn comments off a video of me performing at big weekend because so many people were calling me fat in the comments."

Coughlan, who shot to global fame playing Clare in theseries Derry Girls,has previously asked people not to comment on her body, and to focus on her acting.

But when the firstpart of Bridgerton Season 3was released, Coughlanwas criticized on both social media(where it was also debated whethershe'sreally plus-sized) and traditional media, where it got ugly in at leastone notable example.

A columnist for the U.K.'s The Spectatorwrote on May 24 that "a zest for equality and diversity (and in this case good acting) just isn't enough to make a fat girl who wins the prince remotely plausible."

"She's not shapely which can work as sexy even in Hollywood; she's fat."

That article was widely lambasted, but the comments about her body have continued. Coughlanhas called the discourse "disappointing and reductive."

"It's insulting because I worked hard on this show; a year of fittings and dance lessons and shooting, I barely saw my family, I gave it my absolute all. And then I start doing press and all people want to talk about is my body?" she told Stylist.

'Amazingly empowering'

The second half of Season 3,like previous seasons,promises to be steamy.

Coughlan herself ensured it, according to Stylistmagazine, as she pushed to appear nude.

"There's one scene where I'm very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice," she told the magazine.

"It was amazingly empowering."

Lena Dunham, who wrote and starred in HBO's Girls (2012-2017),had a similar response to the scathing criticisms about showcasingher naked body in the series, Pomerantz noted she would just appear naked more often.

This kind of celebrity clap-back to weight-shaming messages has a positive effect onimplicit weight bias in women, Ravarysaid.And Coughlan's comment about her "perfect breasts" in response to being called brave fits perfectly into that category, she added.

What Pomerantzsaid she'd like to see is more of a middle ground,where a curvy female lead isn't hyper-sexualized by, say, having larger breasts, but is "larger, sexual, normalized, and also taken seriously."

Still, she said, "Penelope Featherington comes pretty close to checking these boxes."

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