I forgot to post a mini review on #Bridgerton.
Good points. Really good depiction of how eldest sons pretty much ruled everyone's life. Great multicultural take on Austen tropes. The costumes of the Featherington girls are amazing.
Downsides: It seems as if the societal change happened only in recent generations. Which makes the multiculturalism somewhat unbelievable. The solid working class servants are pretty invisible. The lovelorn girl is intelligent but plump. Why oh why? The girls with questionable mores and ethics are dark complexioned and fall into the 'tragic light-skinned mulatto' basin. Heroine is only blonde among siblings. Eldest son's love for his mistress is shown as primarily sexual with no internal commentary or balance like a sweet gentle picnic. Diva, she may be but the depiction of mistress is seamy wallowing and slummy. Not sure if these are all in the book and meta or even commented upon but it all makes me wonder. Playing with a genre means being hyper trope wary and often i wondered why these things weren't changed, updated, commented on, or thought through.
Not a lot of depth here at all. I remember a professor of mine telling hs how tobspot the jewish, racially tainted unworthy heroine in one book. The line was "Her hair had no sheen." The literature major in me likes the playfulness of Bridgerton but the same lit major in me just cringes at how entrenched racism, patriarchy, and judgmentalism is in a book which is using the cloak of multiculturalism. Heck, we even have a gay storyline. But of course the gay folk is an artist and a pretty young lord. It feels free from racism in a blatant way but it retains racism in and unthinking way. It feels as if it's pro woman but the judgment of women is still in it, especially good and bad women and skin or hair coloring. It feels well thought out but it's really fluff. I did enjoy the fluff but i had to put away my mind and my offense several times.
I hoped a black production company would have been more insightful and aware.
There's something i encounter in stories. The missing character. Even worse than the missing scene, the missing character can make or break a book. The thing that could have made Bridgerton more racially balanced i think would be if there were a young black duchess in the story as someone looking for a suitor. In Thackerays Vanity Fair , there was Miss Schwartz a bi racial daughter of a Jewish character. She was mentioned in passing, with a bit of a sneer but her presence in the story intrigued me. I strongly believe that if the Duke had a sister the story would have to question some of its tropes of race, morals, and beauty. The duke would still retain his bitterness against his dad who was obsessed with having a son. The older sister would have issues too, and Duke would be protector of and friend to an aristo sister. And duchess would be a good balance to the biracial country cousin. I understand country cousin issues in regency novels but i dont like the fact that the country cousin who had such loose morals was black and was thus technically pushed away and deemed unworthy of the marriage pool. Duke's protector is also unmarried. This kind of subtle putting away people from the wrong race ethnic group or religion is done a lot. I remember for instance how they dealt with the Jewish character in The Big Chill. It's so dang common and it shows the writers subtle disdain and racism even though they try to seem enlightened.There's something i encounter in stories. The missing character. Even worse than the missing scene, the missing character can make or break a book. The thing that could have made Bridgerton more racially balanced i think would be if there were a young black duchess in the story as someone looking for a suitor. In Thackerays Vanity Fair , there was Miss Schwartz a bi racial daughter of a Jewish character. She was mentioned in passing, with a bit of a sneer but her presence in the story intrigued me. I strongly believe that if the Duke had a sister the story would have to question some of its tropes of race, morals, and beauty. The duke would still retain his bitterness against his dad who was obsessed with having a son. The older sister would have issues too, and Duke would be protector of and friend to an aristo sister. And duchess would be a good balance to the biracial country cousin. I understand country cousin issues in regency novels but i dont like the fact that the country cousin who had such loose morals was black and was thus technically pushed away and deemed unworthy of the marriage pool. Duke's protector is also unmarried. This kind of subtle putting away people from the wrong race ethnic group or religion is done a lot. I remember for instance how they dealt with the Jewish character in The Big Chill. It's so dang common and it shows the writers subtle disdain and racism even though they try to seem enlightened.
No comments:
Post a Comment