Love, drama and size: why Penelope Featherington’s weight shouldn’t matter – but still does

If you type ‘Bridgerton fat girl’ into Google images, the much-beloved character and protagonist of the newly released season three, Penelope Featherington, will fill your screen. Equally, upon researching simply her character name, Google promptly suggested to me questions such as ‘is Penelope Featherington curvy in the books?’ and ‘how much weight did Penelope lose in Bridgerton?’. Played by the talented, smart, and funny Nicola Coughlan, also a major star of the hit series Derry Girls, the genius behind Penelope has spent a large part of her career under scrutiny for the shape and size of her body. In further investigation and upon typing ‘Nicola Coughlan’ into Google, the very first suggestion I was given, was her weight. This online and societal obsession with women’s weight stems beyond the world of Bridgerton. Despite this scrutiny yet to have diminished Coughlan’s spirit and drive as an actress, countless other female stars suffer hate and critique for not conforming to the stereotypical, slim, period romantic drama female lead.

Why is it that a man’s desire for a larger woman is so strictly questioned

As season three of Bridgerton approached, fans were beyond excited once it was revealed that good friends, Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington, would be the new romantic leads. Much like its predecessors, this new season was binged by many and quickly reached Netflix’s top 10 list of most-watched shows of all time. However, in the wake of its new fame also came new online hatred and critique.

In an article by journalist, Zoe Strimpel, she writes about Coughlan: “She’s not shapely – which can work as sexy even in Hollywood; she’s fat. There’s nothing wrong with fat – it’s hardly a moral shortcoming – but a zest for quality and diversity (and in this case good acting) just isn’t enough to make a fat girl who wins the prince remotely plausible.” This blatant fatphobia caused a vast amount of outrage online, as it succeeds in highlighting not just Hollywood’s often fatphobic female castings, but also our own fatphobic tendencies as an audience. Why is it that a man’s desire for a larger woman is so strictly questioned, and yet should the roles be reversed, no one seems to bat an eye?

Controversy has only sparked now that the woman is not slimmer than her partner

The very use of language such as ‘mixed-weight relationships’ holds strongly negative connotations. By declaring Coughlan and Newton’s, who plays Colin Bridgerton, relationship as ‘mixed-weight’, this reinforces the internet’s hatred for big women and our incredulity at the notion that big women are indeed sexy and are desired just as much as slim women who also take to the screen. In truth, ‘mixed-weight’ relationships have been on our screens long before Coughlan and Newton, however, controversy has only sparked now that the woman is not slimmer than her partner. As Eleanor Dye so astutely writes, “From willowy Marge Simpson and her doughnut-loving husband Homer to beloved TV dad Phil and his wife Vivian in Fresh Prince of Bel Air, ‘mixed-weight’ couples on screen are such an integral part of popular culture, they’ve barely merited comment.” It is only now that a woman has taken on the historically male role of being bigger than their partner, that this romantic trope has even been given a label, even though Coughlan’s weight does not factor as an important feature in her character’s narrative or romantic journey.

Coughlan’s profound on-screen relationship with Newton debunks the notion that big women are not sexy or desired, as Bridgerton once again breaks stereotypes

Our fascination with a woman’s weight and appearance is unfortunately nothing new. Online critique and scrutiny branch from the hair on a woman’s body, to the size and shape of her breasts: not a single feature goes unexamined. Big women are constantly cast strategically by Hollywood to fulfil the ‘funny, fat friend’ role prescribed upon them. Pitch Perfect’s Fat Amy, Austin and Ally’s Trish, and the consistent fatphobia ringing throughout the timeless series, Friends, in which ‘Fat Monica’ is repeatedly ridiculed and compared to the older, ‘more attractive’, and notably slimmer Monica, are just a small pick of ways in which we as audiences have been conditioned to believe big women are incapable of love, and provide nothing more than comedic relief. After spending two seasons as ‘the friend’, Coughlan has finally taken to the screen as the romantic lead, and she has done so with passion, humility, perception, and intelligence. Coughlan’s profound on-screen relationship with Newton debunks the notion that big women are not sexy or desired, as Bridgerton once again breaks stereotypes and provides audiences with new, exciting forms of on-screen love.