Bridgerton Season 3, Penelope and Colin, and the Body Image Plot Twist

  • November 17, 2025
screenshot from Bridgerton Season 3 with text reading "We've gotta talk about Bridgerton"

What one fat romance heroine reveals about unrealistic beauty standards, body confidence issues, and how to feel confident in your body—even when the world tells you not to.

🪶 Dearest Gentle Reader…

Bridgerton Season 3 has people feeling some type of way—and I’m not just talking about the spicy scenes 🥵.

There’s something deeper happening.

This season gave us something rare:

A fat woman being the main character.
Being loved.
Desired.
F^cked.

Penelope Featherington—a woman in a body the media usually sidelines—gets her man, Colin Bridgerton. Her hot man. Her shirtless, romantic, beloved man.

And instead of collectively swooning, what are many of us doing?

Spiraling.
Arguing in group chats.
Second-guessing our own desirability.
Feeling weird, hopeful, angry, validated, and deeply uncomfortable all at once.

Let’s break it down. Because if you’re feeling body image issues rise to the surface? You’re not alone—and it’s not your fault.


💔 This isn’t about a Netflix show. It’s about every time you were told you weren’t the main character.

This is exactly the kind of thing I help my clients unpack in body image coaching.

It’s the kind of thing that pokes at your sore spots—the quiet grief of never seeing your body in these kinds of stories, and the confusion that shows up when, suddenly, you do.

Table of Contents

Why #Polin Triggers So Many Body Image Issues

We’re not just confused because it’s a new plot twist.

We’re confused because we’ve spent our entire lives absorbing two opposing beliefs:

1. How we want to think and feel about love, desire, and our own bodies

We want to believe that:

  • Love isn’t about looks

  • All bodies are beautiful

  • Hot people can love fat people

  • We are worthy of being seen, touched, and loved exactly as we are

2. What the actual world (and Bridgerton’s fictional version of it) has taught us

And yet, we also believe:

  • Fat people are rarely desired

  • Hot guys always go for thin girls

  • Romance is earned through beauty

If you’re fat, you’re supposed to be the funny best friend—not the love interest


And even when we see the representation we say we want (a fat character being loved on screen), it still doesn’t feel like it can be real.

Why?

Because our brains have been conditioned by a lifetime of unrealistic beauty standards and body image and media exposure that taught us exactly what love is “supposed” to look like.

🧠 “Repeated exposure to idealized images creates cognitive dissonance and body surveillance, which can persist even when individuals consciously reject those ideals.”
— Tiggemann & Slater, Social Media, Thin-Ideal, Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating (read study)


We’re not reacting to one couple on a show.

We’re reacting to the entire body hierarchy.


Is Penelope Featherington Fat? Understanding Body Image and Representation

Let’s talk about this question—because it’s loaded with tension.

On the surface, you might think:

“No, she’s not that fat.”
“She’s curvy but conventionally pretty.”
“She still fits the mold—just not the ultra-thin version.”

And that’s kind of the point.

We’re not asking, “Is she technically overweight by BMI standards?”

We’re asking:

Does the world treat her like someone who’s fat?
Does she occupy space in a way that breaks the thin ideal?
Does she exist in a body that the media usually punishes, sidelines, or makes invisible?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

And her “acceptable” fatness?
That’s part of the system too.

Because even when fat characters are allowed love, they’re often the smallest possible version of fat. The most palatable. The most shapely. The most able to conform to hourglass-coded femininity.


💬 “Fat characters in media are often just thin people in fat suits of acceptability — shaped into the smallest, neatest, most aspirational versions of fatness.”
— Aubrey Gordon, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat


And still—Penelope’s story disrupts what we’ve been taught.

So yes, she’s fat.


🔥 Her fatness is functionally radical in a show like Bridgerton — no matter how “moderate” her body is by comparison.

Is Nicola Coughlan Hot? Fatness, Desirability, and Unrealistic Beauty Standards

Yes.

Moving on.

…Just kidding. You know I’ve got more to say.

If you’re even asking whether a fat person can be hot, that tells you how deeply the beauty hierarchy has colonized our brains.

You know this:

  • People have wildly different preferences

  • Fatness doesn’t cancel out attractiveness

  • Hotness is not a finite resource reserved for the thin and toned

But the world you grew up in doesn’t want you to know that. It wants you to doubt it.

Because fatphobia fuels industries.
Because desirability is treated like currency.
Because we were trained to believe being attractive is something you earn through compliance—thinness, youth, whiteness, ability.

In fact, research confirms this:


🏆 “Media exposure contributes to the internalization of thin ideals and stigmatization of larger bodies, reinforcing the belief that attractiveness and success are exclusive to thinness.”
— Weight Bias in the Media: A Review of Recent Research (read study)


So when Nicola shows up—fat, powerful, desired—it doesn’t just make you question whether she’s hot.

It makes you question whether you’ve been lied to your entire life.

(You have.)


Could Colin Bridgerton Love Penelope Featherington? A Body Confidence Breakdown

Here’s where the spiral begins.

Because if you believe:

“A man like Colin could never actually be into someone like Penelope…”

Then your brain will only find proof of that belief.

And even if someone sends you a slideshow of hot men dating fat women IRL?


Your brain will say:

“Yeah, but that’s different. That doesn’t count. She has a small waist. He must have a kink. It’s just a social media stunt.”

This isn’t you being dramatic.

This is your brain trying to protect you from disappointment, rejection, vulnerability.
It’s trying to help you make sense of a world where you’ve never seen yourself reflected in love stories.


💘 “The assumption that fat people are unlovable is not truth. It’s conditioning.”
— Jes Baker, Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls



But let’s say it plainly:

Yes. Hot men can and do love fat women.

And that still doesn’t make it easy to believe.
Because most of us have never seen it normalized.

We’ve only seen it as a punchline. A fetish. A niche.

Never as a fully fleshed-out, romantic, sexual, emotionally-rich love story.

Until now.


💜 Want support unpacking this?
This is exactly the kind of thing we explore in 1-on-1 Body Image Coaching — unlearning the beliefs that kept you shrinking, and rebuilding the ones that make you feel powerful, desired, and worthy in your body now.

👉 Click here to learn more

Why Fat Love Stories Like Bridgerton Still Feel Unrealistic

Okay, let’s air out the shamey little voice in your head:

“But… it doesn’t actually happen in real life, does it?”

I see you. I’ve coached that voice out of so many clients.

And here’s the truth:

It does happen. You just don’t see it.

Because social media is a distortion field.

When a curvy woman with a fit boyfriend goes viral, it’s often framed like:

  • “Look how brave she is!”

  • “What a great guy for loving her anyway!”

  • “Wow, love really is blind!”

NO.

Their relationship isn’t radical.
Your expectations have been warped.

Research shows that fat women are rarely given leading roles in love stories—and when they are shown, it’s often through a lens of pity, ridicule, or erasure.


👀 “Fat women and girls are either invisible in media or only visible when they’re the butt of a joke, a burden to others, or a symbol of failure.”
— All Bodies: Fat Women and Girls in Film & TV, The Representation Project

This is why body image issues aren’t just about your body—they’re about the systems you’ve lived inside.

How Others View Your Body Shapes Your Confidence: The Body Image Coach Perspective

This is the double bind of body image:

You’re told to “just love yourself”—but also constantly reminded that other people don’t.

And yeah, what others think shouldn’t matter.

But it does. Because it affects how they treat you.



🧩 “Exposure to weight-stigmatizing content does not only influence public attitudes toward individuals with obesity but also contributes to internalized self-stigma and reduced self-worth.”
— Weight Bias in the Media: A Review of Recent Research (read study)

It affects:

  • Who gets hired

  • Who gets swiped right on

  • Who gets spoken to with respect

  • Who gets touched, loved, desired, married

So of course it matters.

This is why inner work isn’t enough on its own.

Healing your body image requires also confronting:

  • Fatphobia in dating

  • White supremacy in beauty culture

  • Ableism, ageism, classism, cissexism, and all the rest

And yes, especially if you’re queer, trans, non-binary, or otherwise marginalized, the way you were taught to assess your body’s “value” will be completely different from the cishet default.



🧠 “Exposure to idealized images leads to self-objectification, appearance anxiety, and a reduced sense of bodily autonomy, particularly in those who experience additional marginalization.”
— Understanding the Influence of Unrealistic Images and Beauty Ideals (read study)

Your body image work must reflect that truth.
That’s what I coach.


How Unrealistic Beauty Standards Reinforce Body Image Issues and Desirability Hierarchies

Real talk:

Beauty standards are a tool of control.

In Bridgerton, Colin choosing Penelope isn’t just a romance.

It’s a risk—in the patriarchal system.


Because the system says:

“Powerful men prove their value by securing the hottest (read: thinnest, whitest, youngest, abled) partner possible.”



And Colin bucks that.

That’s why this storyline feels revolutionary.

And why in real life you don’t often see men (especially powerful ones) stepping out of line with that system.

Because power protects itself.

And choosing a partner who’s lower on the “hotness” hierarchy?
That costs them—socially, culturally, professionally.



🧱 “The function of patriarchal mass media is to maintain male domination by shaping our understanding of gender roles, beauty, and love. It tells men what kind of woman elevates their status — and what kind of love is worth risking for.”
— bell hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations

Not enough men have done the work to realize:

“That hierarchy is bullshit and I want a real human, not a status symbol.”


And Colin realizing exactly that?

😍*swoon*😍


Body Confidence Issues Don’t Mean You’re Broken—They Mean You’re Paying Attention

Let’s be real: if watching Penelope Featherington get her happy ending made your chest tighten or your stomach sink — that doesn’t make you bitter or broken.

It means your body confidence issues are doing their job.
They’re alerting you to the fact that something doesn’t add up.

Because if fat women being loved is beautiful…
Why does it still feel so uncomfortable to witness — or imagine for yourself?

Here’s why:
You’ve been conditioned by a culture that rewards insecurity and punishes self-trust.
You’ve been taught that your body needs to be fixed before it deserves visibility, softness, or love.


🎬 And when Penelope skips that step?

When her glow-up montage doesn’t include losing weight?

It scrambles everything you’ve been told to believe.

That discomfort you feel?
It’s not a flaw.
It’s a signal.
It means you’re waking up.

And what comes next isn’t “learning to love yourself harder.”
It’s learning to trust your own body and story — even when it doesn’t match the one patriarchy handed you.

That’s the heart of body image coaching.
Not toxic positivity. Not aesthetic goals.
But unlearning, rebuilding, and returning to yourself.


The 3 Most Important Questions to Start Unpacking Your Body Image Stories

Everything we’ve talked about—Bridgerton, Penelope Featherington, fatness, desirability, attraction, the body hierarchy—all boils down to two questions I ask every client:

  1. What do you believe about your body?

  2. What do you think other people believe about your body?

And then, the big one:


3. What do you want to do about the gap between the two?

This isn’t about becoming someone brand new.

It’s about gathering all the pieces of you that felt broken—

the shame, the silence, the survival—

and building something more whole, more honest, more yours than you ever thought possible.

Not erasing what hurt.

But transforming it.

Because you were never the problem.

And your body was never the enemy.


Final Thoughts: Bridgerton Is Fiction, But Body Image Struggles Are Very Real

Look—

You don’t need to obsess over Bridgerton.

You don’t need to idolize Penelope or Colin or believe in fairy tales.

But if this season cracked something open in you?

That matters.

Because that “crack” is where your real body image work begins.

Not with a new workout plan.
Not with mirror affirmations.
Not with shrinking your body to fit someone else’s definition of hot.



But with a question:



🌱 “What do I want to believe about myself—and what would it take to actually live like it’s true?”

If you’re ready to figure that out…
If you’re tired of doing this alone…
If you want a coach who won’t gaslight you or oversimplify this work…



I’m here. This is what coaching is for. Let’s go deeper—together.



✨ Ready to stop shrinking and start reclaiming?

This is what we do in 1-on-1 Body Image Coaching — unpack the stories, rewrite the rules, and come home to your body.

➡️ Click here to learn more & start your journey

You don’t need a new body. You need a new story. Let’s write it together.


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