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I’m honestly glad that Shonda took control of this story and made it her own. I’ve seen a lot of complaints as there always are when another new season drops, but some of them were alarming while others were just annoying.

As far as I can tell, Shonda took away some of the worst parts of most of the male love interests. Especially Benedict. Would we really want to see him try to blackmail a woman into marrying him?

This is a regency era program and that is where the historical legitimacy ends, pretty much. This is basically just a regency backdrop for Shonda to play around on, and I think she’s doing a great job (season 3 excluded but I doubt that was entirely her fault). There are inconsistencies all over the place. Not just the equalization of people of color and white members of the ton, but also hygiene, royalty, propriety, none of it is ‘historically accurate’ so that’s not a solid case either. Especially against the one time they’ve considered a same sex couple for one of the Bridgertons, excluding what Benedict did in his free time. I think making Michael into Michaela was not only smart but interesting for the further development of the plot.

From what I can tell, Michael was considered a ‘rake’ in the books. A confident man who had no intention of marrying or settling down in any way. To transfer that personality into a beautiful woman, it adds a different dynamic. It will show just how differently we have always viewed men and women, even to this day. Michaela being a confident, outspoken, charismatic woman who doesn’t want to settle down is a much bigger deal to this society. Not only because she’s going against the status quo and doing what or who she likes, but because she might encourage other women to realize that’s the life they want as well. Even if the others don’t know of Michaela’s preferences, they can tell she rebels against the tide, and that’s a big no-no.

There are probably many reasons why people in the general public are having such a problem with this interracial same sex couple, but it’s mostly just homophobia and racism. With a little misogyny sprinkled on top. This image of a woman who isn’t meek or quiet, whose life isn’t centered around men, it tickles that same inbred impulse in people today. To point at her and ridicule her or shun her from society. Because a woman who doesn’t bow to men is a woman who belongs only to herself. She lives by different rules than those who have chosen the life of being shackled to some idiot for the rest of their lives simply because they feared being alone. They are unhappy, some are jealous. All of it makes no fucking sense to me.