Bridgerton Season 5: Interracial Lesbians In The 1800s

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While the focus of Bridgerton Season 5 has finally been released

and Netflix is out doing themselves here.

They have a racewap, a gender swap, and a sexuality swap for Season 5.

And this is created a huge debate one line that I'm apparently in the center of.

Let's talk about it.

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Today we're going to be talking about Bridgerton Season 5.

We've spoken about Bridgerton on this channel at length for many a reason.

They do like to racewap in Bridgerton.

They do love to rewrite history in Bridgerton and actually say that the history

is what they are depicting in their show.

And now we have Season 5, which will feature a romance between Francesca and Michaela.

This will be an interracial lesbian romance set in 1800s, England.

But if you point that out, okay, the fandom of Bridgerton,

the stands are going to come for your neck.

Okay, I posted on X an interracial lesbian relationship set

in the 1800s, England.

And people didn't like that I said that.

First and foremost, let me let you know that I know what Bridgerton is.

It's a fictionalized story set in Regency, England, the 1800s.

And they've been known to play around with the race and representation of the show.

In fact, it is one of the few tenants of this show that they are going to push

representation as much as they possibly can.

And they've been doing so since day one.

The writers, directors, show rotters, the actors on this show are very clear

that representation is their mission.

We would love to not have to be having this conversation anymore.

We just love the world to be somewhere where you can be differently

able to nobody remarks upon it in the show.

You can be whatever sexuality, whatever class.

Just being in a room with three other Asian women,

I felt like I didn't have to represent.

I could just be myself and focus on the character and focus on the work,

focusing on the work.

Bridgerton's a game changer.

No doubt at all.

What's so amazing about Bridgerton is the power representation.

You see bisexual representation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

When do you think that kind of queer representation would have helped you the most in life?

Being out and proud is really important.

But also just to be myself, just to be that person who just is,

who likes to cycle, who goes to Morrison, Sainsbury's,

you know what I mean?

Just to have that normal life.

But yes, I am gay.

It shouldn't be questioned.

It shouldn't be discussed, you know, as a thing.

It just is. It's who I am.

And that empowers people to empower themselves in their own sexuality,

whatever that may be.

I wouldn't say that I'm an advocate.

You know, I don't go to all the events.

I just live my life with pride.

That is a level of activism, living authentic.

There you go.

As yourself.

Yeah, so there you have it.

This is a form of activism set forward by this show

to push representation as much as possible.

But also, we don't want to have the conversation about that representation.

So when you point out that this is in complete

incongruence with the actual history of the 1800s,

you're going to get called a homophob and a racist, just plan for that.

And I'm not saying that it's not okay for Bridgerton and Netflix

to create a project like this.

All I'm saying is that it's forced.

And if you want forced representation all around you at all times,

welcome to 2026 because that's what we have now.

And for group of people that say they don't want the conversation

surrounding sexuality to be at the core of anything they're doing,

they sure make sexuality the core of every conversation that they're having.

With that being said, let's get into the conversation

that's now being had surrounding season five.

And if you've watched Bridgerton, you knew that at some point

this was going to be a relationship that was focused on in the series.

Now, the season synopsis reads, quote,

two years after losing her beloved husband, John.

Francesca decides to re-enter the marriage

mark for practical reasons.

But when John's cousin, Michaela, returns to London,

to tend to the Kilmar in estate,

Fran's complicated feelings will have her questioning

whether to stick to her pragmatic intentions

or pursue her internal passions.

Now, it's important to note that not only

is this out of congruence with history,

which doesn't matter because this is a fictionalized show,

it's out of congruence with the actual source material

that Bridgerton is based off of.

Francesca is meant to fall in love with a character by the name Michael Sterling,

who is not only a man, but also a white man

described in the series as having wavy black hair and gray eyes.

And I'm sorry, but let's be so f***ing for real.

Nothing could feel more forced than stepping into the source material,

taking the name Michael and simply switching it from Michaela

and then having the person be black also.

So now we have black, lesbian, noble woman in the 1800s.

I'm assuming season six is going to be something like

biracial trans quadriplegic non-binary

who has a secret furry interest or something like that.

But I guess that's fine if you don't care about the original source material

or the original story that you thought you were signing up for.

Hollywood rarely cares, I guess, about the original source material

or the story that we signed up for.

They are consistently asking you to suspend your disbelief

and suspend what you know about the story.

But Bridgerton goes a little bit further than this,

and they do it quite often.

With their whole Queen Charlotte spin off story

where they tell the love story of Queen Charlotte and King George,

you have actresses from the show saying that

Queen Charlotte was actually historically black, completely false.

Queen Charlotte is not fictionalised as a woman of colour.

Queen Charlotte was a woman of colour.

So you just have to do your historical research

and you will see that is true.

They complained when she came to the English court.

They complained about her ugly thick lips

and her ugly wide nose and her mulatto skin

and they powdered her down when they painted her.

So she is an actual person.

What's happened with the show that's been fantastic is

Shonda does what Shonda does and she says,

what if we put Queen Charlotte into these series of books

in which she does not appear?

And what impact does that have on the court

and the story that we tell?

What you're seeing is a version of history

that is a more realistic version of history.

Although it's a fiction, it's not a documentary

and it gives us an opportunity

to play these characters of status

and it gives the audience you guys

an opportunity for us to see ourselves

in a historical drama in a different way.

So there you have it.

Is Bridgetan meant to be something that's completely fictionalised

or are they telling you a more realistic version of history?

Some of the actors are getting their wires crossed

I believe on those talking points.

And in this clip she openly admits

that Shonda rhymes is taking these books,

the inspiration for this series.

These beloved pieces of IP

that so many people are looking forward to seeing play out on screen

and she's throwing in characters that weren't there

and then the actors as you play those characters

are saying, wait a minute,

these people were actually historical figures

and they were black.

And don't worry, we did our historical research

on that particular topic.

You can check out this video.

She wasn't black.

Now with all that being said,

we should simply be able to have these conversations.

And yes, if you make it a conversation,

we will make it a conversation.

And you shouldn't be called a homophobic or a racist

for pointing out some of the inconsistencies

in the creation of this show.

They're saying it to your face

at the forcing representation.

They're rewriting history right in front of your face.

They're basically saying we take the books

and we're playing around with the original source material.

But if you want to talk about that

and have a conversation regarding that,

you're gonna be called a homophobic racist

who hates black lesbians.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say,

you're not those things.

You're probably just somebody

who doesn't want this forced representation

being shoved in your throat at any given day.

And maybe you just like the original

bridging story and you wanted to see that play out.

But let's talk about the reason that you can't

and you won't because I don't see people

bringing up this point.

That corporations like Netflix are actually forcing

the diversity, equity, and inclusion

that you are watching on screen.

If you go to Netflix's website,

you can pull up their inclusion

in our workforce report.

And they publish this data,

I believe every year now,

where they detail just how much forced representation

they are putting in each and every one of your projects.

Now, this can be on any given identity characteristic

from being a woman to having a certain sexuality,

to being trans, to being disabled.

Netflix is constantly working behind the scenes

to push these identities further

in any given project that comes across the desk

of those working at the corporation.

Now, when you look into LGBTQ plus stories,

not only on this report,

do they have percentages of LGBTQ speaking characters

by year and storytelling format detailed for you

where they are trying to ratchet it up

as much as they possibly can year to year,

but they actually have a category

that says, number of stories missing LGBTQ plus representation.

This means not only are LGBTQ identities something

that they're measuring at Netflix,

but they view it as something missing from your story

if you don't have an LGBTQ plus character

featured in the thing that you write.

That's weird.

And like I said, they do this with things

like race, disability, gender.

So when you see that Bridgerton season five has

Michaela instead of Michael,

and Michaela is also black and lesbian,

it's probably because Netflix is not just nudging,

but shoving their creators in that direction.

This is seemingly something they're looking at

across the board on Netflix.

That's why recently you saw a lot of parents

who were watching kids content on Netflix

say that there was a lot of featuring of things

like non-binary, they then pronouns and trans identities

and we'll show you the clips for that.

So you break out those moves for your two biggest fans.

I don't know, I'm safe when I'm with my friends

or other non-binary people.

Non-binary.

People who aren't female or male.

Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed.

Let's say it's pronouns are gay men.

He or she just doesn't fit who I am.

My apologies, please switch their piece.

I'm trans, Norma.

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There seems to be a very clear cut agenda.

And when I say clear cut,

they're literally publishing reports on it

to show you just how clear cut it is.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for representation,

but when you are forcing it, you're forcing it.

If you want black lesbian stories,

I don't know, tell black lesbian stories.

Don't take a story that originally featured a white man

in a relationship with Francesca

and a storyline completely dedicated to that character

and upend everything that people are expecting to see.

And you'll notice that with representation,

it only happens in one direction and one direction only.

But I guess you're racist and homophobic

for having that conversation too.

So yeah, you're not a bigot for pointing this out.

You're certainly not one for trying to spark conversation

regarding these things

because if you notice you're quite literally being

force fed this representation every single day

all the time, you're noticing something

that's actually going on.

So by all means, Bridgerton and Netflix,

keep doing what you're doing, but I know what you're doing.

Guys, those are my thoughts on Bridgerton, season five

and Francesca and Michaela.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below.

As always, if you disagree with anything said in this video,

if you could out by just so respectfully,

I encourage healthy debate on this channel.

And if you like this video, like, subscribe,

click the notification bell

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which are the day that we'll see you guys tomorrow.

Bye, guys.

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