“Mixed-weight” relationships on screen are nothing new, but it’s always the women who have to be thin

TO“Are we not ready for a mixed-weight romance on screen yet?”

This headline, which refers to the third season of the Netflix sensation Bridgertonsparked a wave of fury and disbelief on the Internet.

“'Mixed weight relationships' are something I hate here,” one observer tweeted. “Can you shove the concept of 'mixed weight romance' up your ass?” said another.

He Forbes The article was about the love story between Penelope Featherington (played by Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (played by Luke Newton), highlighting that some online commentators had called the romance “unrealistic” because Colin is thin, while Penelope is not.

There has been a strange fixation on the latter's body type in general, ranging from a guardian article that called her “a little fat and very sexy” and that she was downright poisonous. Viewer article that stated, as if it were a fact, that Coughlan was “not hot” and that the idea of ​​a “fat girl winning the prince” was not “remotely plausible”.

Firstly, the inherent arrogance of assuming that any individual’s narrow idea of ​​what is “sexy” should somehow be the benchmark is something that defies belief. But what really irritates me about this tired viewpoint – aside from the staggering idea that someone who doesn’t meet conventional Hollywood beauty standards couldn’t possibly be considered attractive enough to play a leading lady – is the double standard.

While the Forbes The article itself was, in fact, nuanced (it argued that thin people “desire, love, and marry people who are bigger than them all the time”), but the headline was missing a vital element: “Are we ready for a mixed-weight romance on screen yet?” Where the woman is fat?” would have been more accurate. Because here’s the crux of the matter: no one seems to have a problem when it’s the man who doesn’t have a six-pack.

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I grew up watching numerous shows where the couple or main characters had a significant “weight difference,” for lack of a better term. But it always happened in one sense: Homer and Marge Simpson in The Simpsons; Doug and Carrie Heffernen (Kevin James and Leah Remini) in The King of Queens;Peter and Lois Griffin in Family man; Tony and Carmela Soprano (James Gandolfini and Edie Falco) in The sopranos; George Costa (Jason Alexander) and all the women he dated Seinfeld…

In the 1990s, it was considered entirely reasonable for the huge John Candy to fall in love with a slender Ally Sheedy in Only the lonelyWhile in the 2000s, Will Ferrell regularly showed off his hairy, unkempt dad bod in comedies where he bedded some of the most beautiful women in the world (Nicole Kidman, Christina Applegate, Eva Mendes, Rachel McAdams…need I go on?), around the same time, a burly young Jonah Hill wasn't put off in his insulting and clumsy advances towards Emma Stone's skinny girl-next-door character in Very badly.

In fact, it’s part of a wider cliché that sees distinctly average-looking men paired with Hollywood sirens – which, apparently, is “realistic” while the opposite is “implausible”. Think of Jason Segel movies where no suspension of disbelief is required to accept that Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl would be his romantic equals; think of Jack Black wooing Shannyn Sossamon. and Kate Winslet in The holidays. There are entire movies, like She is out of my leaguebased on this same premise.

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I'm not criticizing these casting decisions – why shouldn't the average Joe get the girl from time to time? – but… am Pointing the finger at blatant hypocrisy every time the tables are turned. Take, for example, Netflix's recent superb adaptation of David Nicholls' bestseller. One daywith the lead characters of Emma and Dexter beautifully played by Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall. There was a disturbing amount of feedback at the time about the story not feeling “realistic”, because how could audiences be expected to believe that perfect, pretty boy Dex would be attracted to the smart but ugly Em, despite this idea being central to the original book?

Here's how: love stories (the good ones, at least) are not some kind of never-ending stories. Island of love-It's a beauty pageant in the style of “survival of the sexiest.” It's about chemistry and connection, desire and longing, an inscrutable alchemy of pheromones and magic. Looks are the least that makes a romance interesting.

In the last series of BridgertonThe spark between Penelope and Colin is palpable; it leaps off the screen, electricity crackling between glances that linger a little too long, hands that brush against each other and send shivers down the spine. Who cares what size dress Coughlan, an undeniably skilled (and in my opinion quite sexy) actress, wears over her exquisitely heaving chest as she is expertly fucked in the back of a carriage?

Speaking of which, she gave the perfect response when a fan told her she was “very brave” to bare her body in Bridgerton“You know, it’s hard because I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts — we don’t see ourselves on screen enough,” she responded. “I’m very proud to be a member of the perfect breasts community. I hope you enjoy watching them.” I’m pretty sure most people did. So maybe we should all follow her lead: ignore the nonsense, let go of outdated notions of attractiveness, and throw the irredeemably terrible term “mixed-weight romance” straight into the heart of the sun.