What the Bridgerton Netflix Series can Teach us About Embracing Possibilities
Bridgerton Season 2 is here and it’s taking representation and diversity to a whole new level.
We're introduced to the Sharmas, Mary, Kate, and Edwina, an Indian family whose culture is beautifully interwoven into the story. Kate is determined to find a man worthy of the hand of her younger sister, Edwina, who she has guided and mentored her whole life. With this context, Shonda Rhimes expertly crafts a screen presence we rarely see— dark-skinned Indian women as romantic leads in a non-Indian movie.
In reimagining the world of 19th century England, where racism doesn’t seem to exist, Shonda Rhimes has given us a glimpse of what is possible when we remove all the things that racism, colorism, and a lack of representation and diversity inhibits, limits, and shuts down. A whole new world is opened up in this world of “the ton” where those issues are not even part of the conversation. There is a black queen, Queen Charlotte, married to a white king. In season 1, the Duke of Hastings, who every lady wanted to marry was a strikingly handsome, black man, who ends up with Daphne Bridgerton, a white woman. Issues of race are non-issues in this series and that makes available a host of new perspectives.
With Bridgerton, Rhimes gives us a cultural reset. A perspective reboot. A mindset reconfiguration. And that changes the whole game.
As the “Brilliance Unveiler” coaching high achieving women to become unstoppable leaders in their arena, a question I love to ask at the beginning of the work is what's available or possible if we remove the existing framework, paradigm, standards, etc., that they have operated in and built something entirely new? Those “boxes” can be things like, “I have to have a 9 to 5 job to have structure in my work” or, “I need to follow XYZ blueprint to succeed” or, “To be an effective leader, I need to lead like a man,” or any other of the hosts of things we tell ourselves as women that need to be in place for us to thrive.
I get excited in the space of possibility because it is here that innovation and creativity are birthed. It is in this space that something entirely new can be built from the ground up, leveraging all the brilliance and superpowers a woman has available to her. It’s when we can imagine outside the confines of our perceived parameters that we can soar.
With this series, Shonda Rhimes is showing us the impact of coloring outside the lines as it relates to who gets to partake in this fantasy world of the Bridgertons, and what that makes available. Season 2 shows us that three gorgeous Indian women can take center stage, and command every bit of intrigue, passion, excitement, beauty, and intelligence as the white women traditionally cast in roles like this.
And let’s be real, in 19th century England, none of these characters, the Duke, the Sharma sisters, Lady Danbury, would have held titles and influence as the series depicts. But we as viewers get to imagine what that’s like, and for a black island woman like me, I was mesmerized and captivated. I saw myself in Kate Sharma, as a black woman of Caribbean heritage because I could so relate to many of her mannerisms, quirks, cultural preferences, and (this is personal to me), her stunning height.
I love that in this series, black and brown people are not called out for their skin tone difference, but they exist just like everyone else at all levels in that society from Duke to bellboy, just for who they are as human beings who happen to have different hair and skin tones.
In talking about the series, Rhimes has shared, “The idea that we don't create worlds that look like the world that we live in, and that we create false societies where everybody looks a certain kind of way or is a certain kind of color or whatever, feels disingenuous to me. It also feels like erasure. We're just not interested in erasing anybody from the story, ever. In Shondaland, that is how we do; that's just how we tell stories. While it's important for Bridgerton, it's important for every story being told. When you're watching television, you should get to see people who look like you.”
In Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes invites us to imagine a world where representation is the norm, and where the storylines focus on the tension between the characters and their evolution as they confront their fears and limitations, and their decisions on whom to court or marry are not confined by racial considerations that are common in reality.
It’s a society without racism and it makes possible new connections for viewers like me who’d watch a show like this anyway, even if it was a predominantly white cast with all white leads. Instead, now I connect to the characters at levels I could never have imagined without the conscious casting decisions made in the series. In re-imagining a society like this, Rhimes has opened up possibilities in casting and storylines that are creative, liberating, and ground-breaking.
If only in real life we could remove racism from our lives so easily. Wouldn’t THAT be game-changing?
As "The Brilliance Unveiler," Natalie Jobity leverages more than a decade of experience empowering hundreds of women as an image consultant and now as a leadership and career coach of The Unveiled Way. She works with high-achieving women at career crossroads to unveil their distinctive brilliance, see the possibilities in their purpose, and have ripple-making impact in their leadership arena.
Natalie Jobity is an ICF-certified leadership and career transitions coach, consultant, bestselling author, mentor, speaker, and facilitator whose “Why” is empowering women to unveil their full magnificent selves to the world.
Visit Natalie’s website to learn more about how she partners with leaders and high-achieving women with her signature “Unveil Your Brilliance” program which helps propel them forward so their impact and influence increase.