Women as a Commodity: An Intersectional Look at the Bridgerton Series

Television shows play a significant role in exposing the realities and societal conditions prevalent in our time. Bridgerton is a Netflix series that spans two seasons. It is a story of love, passion, fashion, and family affairs set during the competitive Regency era in London, where marriageable youth and gentry are introduced into society. This philosophical paper employed an intersectional feminist film and television textual analysis to examine the representation of women in the Netflix series Bridgerton. Additionally, the paper integrates critical discourse analysis and narrative analysis as complementary methods. It also employed Bell Hooks' theory of representation that examined how the issue of gender oppression is prevalent in Bridgerton. The content was organized and analyzed through a set of thematic categories. Hence, one noticeable aspect of the show is the way women are groomed and trained to fit into the social strata, so that they can be pleasing in the eyes of the Queen, who approves them. Another is the way women are viewed as a means to save the family's wealth once they are partnered with a noble husband-to-be, disregarding their agency. Applying hooks' views, this paper underscores that women are not mere commodities. They are persons of dignity whose rights and privileges must be given due recognition equal to those of others. This is true not only among women but also to all. Equality builds justice. Justice diminishes oppression. For it is only when we start doing injustice towards others that oppression rises once again.