sorry edwina đ€·đ»ââïžđ€·đ»ââïž#bridgerton @bridgerton pic.twitter.com/32mDviHx9C
â Jonny Bailey Memes (@baileysmemes) March 27, 2022
I enjoyed Netflixâs Bridgerton, but it has some classic cheater tropes. Letâs discuss: the Great Love That Is Bigger Than Us Both. The Shrew Who Deserves Her Husbandâs Wandering Dick. And My Children Are Thrilled That Iâve Known Happiness.
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I confess when it comes to my viewing habits, I am a hopeless Anglophile. Give me the misadventures of foppish aristocrats in their stately homes! Jane Austen. Cozy murder mysteries. Every Dickens adaptation. Lady Violetâs withering stares in Downton Abbey. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. (Okay, Iâll take Benedict Cumberbatch too, on hot buttered toast.) Swoon.
This BritBox predilection, however, requires me to quash my critical thinking. Iâm not a fan of the monarchy or imperialism, yet damn, I want a Capability Brown garden and a ladyâs maid. So it was only a matter of time before I watched Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimesâ adaptation of Julia Quinnâs romance novels.
This time I had to quash Chump Lady, my alter ego.
Bridgerton is a Regency pick-me quadrille. Every plot line centers on whether or not some waist-coated dandy will choose a bride and thereby validate her existence. Itâs not quite the Bachelor with Palladian architecture, but it does require you to smother your inner Andrea Dworkin with a jacquard silk pillow.
I donât have an inner Andrea Dworkin, Tracy.
Moreâs the shame. Anyway, itâs a historical romance. So, put aside your judgement about male heirs, primogeniture, and womenâs autonomy. Rege-Jean Page appears shirtless as the Duke of Hastings and Iâve lost all sentient thought.
I thought you were going to snark about Bridgerton tropes.
Daphne looks like an under-developed 12 year old and I absolutely do not understand this pairing.
Bridgerton cheating tropes. Hello?
Sigh.
The Great Love That Is Bigger Than Us Both
Warning: This post contains spoilers of Season 2 of Bridgerton.
The set up: Kate Sharma is the dutiful older sister of Edwina Sharma, who is slated to marry the Bridgerton Viscount and first born son, Anthony. As a f*ckboy who visits prostitutes, Anthony does not wish to settle down and marry. But someone has to produce an heir, so he agrees to marry Edwina, the chump, whose only ambition is to be pleasant and pick out wedding china. Alas, Anthony is attracted to the wildly unmarriageable older sister Kate, who rides horses. (She is a feisty mustang! Who cares not for domestic home furnishings! She has contrarian opinions!)
The trope: Their love is too great to deny. Itâs a force bigger than them both. They must succumb!
Cheat with your sisterâs fiancĂ©? HEY, IT IS A FORCE BIGGER THAN THEM BOTH! Canât you see the way they look at each other? The smoldering glances? You cannot hold them responsible for the fickle fate of lust. These two crazy kids were meant for each other.
Thereâs also speechifying about duty over happiness. For reasons known only to the show runners, Anthony proposes to Edwina and nearly has a sham wedding. Look, itâs not Edwinaâs fault that sheâs not as enchanting as Kate. Kate has tried very hard not to be intoxicatingly gorgeous. Edwina will just have to be a good sport and recognize her obsolescence.
Edwina asks: âWas I so blind?â
Not: âWhy the f*ck did you lead me on, Anthony?â
are you two aware youâre at a family dinner #Kanthony #Bridgerton pic.twitter.com/FW3Sq5EFww
â kristen đ (@swaying_daisies) March 29, 2022
As chumps go, Edwinaâs faults are that sheâs perfect, dutiful, and willing to marry a man she doesnât love. (In fairness, landing a husband is the entire point of her existence.) At least sheâs not a complete harridan who drove her husband to cheat like Lady Vivian Ledger.
The Shrew Who Deserves Her Husbandâs Wandering Dick
Warning: spoiler alert for Queen Charlotte!
The setup: Lady Vivian (mother to the future Lady Bridgerton) is a sour-faced racist who doesnât want her family consorting with brown-skinned people like Queen Charlotte and her court.
The cheater trope: The chump must be detestable. This way, the cheater Lord Ledger looks positively saintly by contrast. And what better way to welcome the African diaspora into your social circle, than to f*ck a fellow noblemanâs wife.
(Okay, in fairness he waits until Lord Danbury is dead, but he too is detestable.)
Lord Ledger isnât a bitch like his wife. No, heâs kind and forward thinking! He calls his daughter Violet âBrainâ affectionately. (Which is why she grows up to be a neurosurgeon broodmare of eight children.) He breaks the racial barrier by asking Lady Danbury to dance. (Cue THE LOVE THAT IS BIGGER THAN US BOTH trope.) Then he takes her for a nature walk, seduces her, and gives her a party hat.
Does Lady Vivian get a party hat?
Who? No. Weâve established that she sucks. Ergo her husbandâs dick is free to wander. We are ROOTING for his dick to wander. Which is whyâŠ
My Children Are Thrilled That Iâve Known Happiness
Years later, Lady Violet Bridgerton realizes that Lady Danbury, her dearest and oldest family friend, had an affair with her father when she discovers the party hat. The kind of party hat that her dad used to make for her.
(My cynical Chump Lady take on this is that Lord Ledgerâs glue stick got around. He probably made a lot of party hats for a lot of singular âspecialâ women.)
But Lady Violet is not disturbed by this discovery. She and Lady Agatha Danbury are closer for having both loved Lord Ledger. Even Lady Violet understands that her mother sucked and deserved to be cheated on. What matters most is that Agatha and Lord Ledger knew happiness. However fleetingly.
@aynsley_broom Replying to @Laura Iâm sorry but this works too wellđ đ #queencharlotteabridgertonstory #lordledger #agathadanbury ⏠original sound â đ
Isnât this what every cheater wants? For everyone to be happy that theyâre happy? Alas, Lord Ledger stays with his hatchet-faced wife For The Children and Lady Danbury just has her party hat to keep her company. Edwina goes back to India and finds a husband. No hard feelings for Kate, she just conveniently lives a subcontinent away. The perfect chump to the end â out of sight and out of mind.