Bridgerton is America

Racism is only discussed because a black woman has become queen & she is challenged at each step of her journey by her mother in law. The black people surrounding the queen also has issues as it pertains to lineage laws & the passing of titles, forcing the queen to set the precedent for Lady Danbury aka The Bad Bitch in Red. The queen also has to set the tone by attending the first ball of the season hosted by Lord & Lady Danbury. There's even a moment when the king's mother & Lady Danbury discuss the many micro aggressions between them because of race & station, not unlike corporate America. There was a question posed to black women on TikTok about whether they'd rather be alone in a conference room with a white man or a white woman. And by & large, black women chose white men because white women have been historically & categorically terrible to black women in the work place.

Classism is something more & more people are experiencing as the middle class gets crushed by layoffs, inflation, housing crisis, & increasing debt. Lady Whistledown aka Penelope (a viper) betrays Eloise by reporting that she interacts with people outside her station as a way to shame & embarrass her. Many will take to the Internet to damage reputations of online influencers to disrupt their income & livelihood because they disagree with their opinions. Though embarrassing Eloise doesn't tarnish her standing or wealth, it could damage her chances to find a suitable husband, the primary way for women to maintain power, wealth, & influence in this time period. Many women today make their own wealth, influence, & power because our laws allow it (for now). The Sharma family has a heated conversation about Kate's biological parentage between her mother & grandparents. The grandparents only want to support Edwina in her marital pursuit so long as it benefits the grandparents in station.

Corruption fills the palace between lies, secrets, drugs, illegitimate heirs, & health issues. Most of the queen's 13 children struggled to produce royal heirs, similar to the attack on female autonomy across the states. The people in power are trying to force breed women (white women in particular) to control another generation of low cost labor, while leaving the maternal mortality rates high for black women. The government is also pushing to allow child marriages in more states than already legal, which is vile. The TikTok ban, which is collectively hated by the American people, is only useful to politicians who want to control news, access, & connectivity of the people. Marijuana is legal in many states in some fashion, though many black people are in prison still for minor marijuana charges. Meanwhile the queen is occasionally seen doing cocaine in the palace without shame or criticism because she has power over a kingdom.

Bridgerton reflects America in some of the worst ways. Mental health issues are still met with shame & often overlooked or dismissed. The wealthy are disconnected from the poor & marginalized, without understanding the implications for what it means for the economy. Boycotts are destroying wealth for many companies now with brick & mortar closures & bankruptcy. Marie Antoinette lost her head due to the will of the people she resided over inciting a revolution because they lost trust in her leadership. Must we start a revolution for healthcare, minimum wage increases, affordable housing, & gun safety? More police & cop cities are not the answer, except for a 1984 style police state. I don't want to live in the handmaid's tale with an imprisoned workforce as forced slave labor. Bridgerton is revolutionary in how it reflects modern issues in a historical fiction series.