#ccf imo

So here is what I shared on Reddit. Totally willing to clarify anything, but questions that even slightly come across as an opportunity to argue will be ignored. This is simply what I believe based on my personal experience and how I relate to Francesca:

(Loooong post of me waxing poetic about hard relating to Francesca:)

When I was 18 (closeted) I thought I was in love my best friend in college. I thought “He’s kind, patient, and attractive. He knows how I like my coffee. We can spend hours together just talking. He makes me laugh. Yeah this must be love. I want to kiss him, I guess.” We never even kissed because he was in love with his now-wife (who hated me at the time, which is fair for teenagers). I truly deeply love that man to this day, and I know now how deeply profound platonic love can be. If that fking boy died in his late 20s, I would be inconsolable. (I lost two of my boy friends in 2018 within 6 months of each other, and that was one of the worst years of my life.)

(cw: comphet bf) But then I had a boyfriend at 19, who I liked—he was nice, funny, liked taking me places. We kissed one night, then kept kissing because he was a good kisser and it was fun. Then we had sex. It was… not what I thought I was supposed to feel. I was in my head the entire time thinking, “Why am I not enjoying this?? What is wrong with me??” Blamed it all on romanticized love scenes misleading me, on my own nervousness like I was forgetting my lines on stage.

We eventually broke up. I came out as bi to most my friends by the next school year, and I flipped my ally status to bi in the campus queer organization. Although I had seen her before, I remember finally noticing the girl I would love for 5 years of my life. She was across from me in a meeting, and she said “Well, I put the bi in bitch,” and everyone laughed as I looked at her, I imagine, in the same way Francesca looks at Michaela. I was supposed to be running the meeting, and I absolutely fumbled the facilitation.

A couple weeks later we kissed on a rooftop, and it was like a chord struck in my chest without the unresolved dissonance that I felt kissing boys. We were shivering because it was cold, but I was also trembling because until then, I still thought I had romanticized everything and that poets were liars (as a poetry writer/lover, we still are but not intentionally). But feeling the truth of her lips against mine was an awakening. Even as we shivered, we dealt with it because we didn’t want to stop kissing each other under the night sky away from the party below us.

When we had sex, even when I didn’t have a pinnacle, her touch seemed to thrum through me. I suddenly knew what Whitman meant by “the body electric.” While achieving orgasm is absolutely fantastic, in my opinion, I realized the leisurely way in which we enjoyed one another’s bodies removed worry and there is a euphoria in touching and being touched without a proverbial finish line sight. It is not even about achieving that pinnacle. Being present in my own body and feeling the warmth and softness of another, feeling her pulse, hearing her breath? What a beautiful fucking gift.

I went on to date some men, but that electricity was always absent. I didn’t come out as a lesbian until 7 years after first coming out.

All this is to say Francesca loved John so much. I don’t see her reaction to their first kiss as being insulting; I think finding it offensive is rooted in heterosexism, as if even fictional men deserve reassurance from women at all times, that a woman expressing anything but a proper response is shameful, that a woman is expected to maintain a façade for men’s sake. (Ironic considering many who take offense to this claim to love Eloise, an adamant feminist who doesn’t hide her emotions at all.) I think Francesca felt how I did after that kiss—Oh… that does not feel as others told me it would. What is wrong with me? It wasn’t an active hatred but a concerning discovery, or lack thereof.

But John was still her best friend. They loved each other deeply. She found peace and safety in his company. He listened to her. He gave her space to hear her own voice. He gave her reassurances when she questioned herself. He knew when she was performing how she thought he wanted versus when she was being herself—because he loved her as she was. He understood her like no one else. And she loved him so much. Having often felt outside her family, he stood outside with her so they both could be heard. She loved him so much, she was constantly worried about being a good wife to him because that is how she was taught to express her love.

So when people say she has to be bi to have really loved John, I feel rather offended—How dare you deny the value and depth of my love in its various forms? But we do all feel very differently in relationships! There is no right way to feel, and you only owe yourself the honesty of your body and heart.

TLDR: I relate to Francesca a lot as a lesbian and think she is a lesbian. But Francesca will be 21/22 next season (an age I still identified as bi) and due to the terminology, I doubt we will have explicit confirmation. So I will not fault anyone for saying Francesca is bi, for relating to Francesca and believing her to be so.

I will, however, disengage from arguments about it. I have seen things get nasty with plenty of bi- and lesbophobia being directed at others. These arguments get tense and involve a lot of things close to the heart. With how much hate is outside of the franchaela fandom, I very much would like more people to put distance between themselves and this topic if it’s becoming regularly hurtful, or even block people if needed.

(RIP to ALOTO you could have been so good.)

I’m not sure what this specifically pertains to as in what I’ve said/posted, but yes! Totally agree.

I loved the movie A League of Their Own as a kid, and I suspect the underlying queerness appealed to me before I had a word for it. (Also I was in love with Geena Davis.)

So the new ALOTO was an amazing adaptation. I loved its candidness and unabashed queerness. I’m forever obsessed with how well they captured the fact that the etiquette classes, etc. weren’t to “keep women women for when their husbands return” (paraphrased reason used in the movie), rather, it was—as one of the real life women who played said—to make women who were clearly queer look passably straight.

But of course it was canceled. “Why bury your gays when you can just cancel them???” Coming out of Warrior Nun where they managed to do BOTH crushed me. I’ve read so much fanfiction to replace canon in my head.

So I think it’s a huge deal that Bridgerton will be centering a sapphic couple that will involve zero risk of them dying. Such a low bar, but something like a 30% death rate of sapphic characters is unbelievably harmful and this should only mark the beginning of balancing that out.

Anyone still making a stink is a fragile heterosexist. It’s undeniable homophobia, but they think homophobia is only when someone commits a hate crime. (This is tied to censorship and will likely post more on this soon.) Never once have any of those people showed up for queer women in the way they show up for [checks notes] a fictional man.

Tbh I am trying to minimize even thinking about the haters. They want attention and I will no longer give it unless I feel they are a direct threat to others. I cannot change their mind when they get into comment sections with a vendetta. So I just let them run rampant. They can get their beloved show canceled if they want—I’ll be watching season 5 on repeat. Season 5 could be a horrible season and it will still not stop me.

We deserve representation. We deserve community. We deserve to see our love without tragedy. We deserve good things.

So I will take a page from Shonda’s book here and focus on putting out queer joy instead of fighting people who wish to insulate their ignorance with their small-minded false logic.

I MEAN LOOK AT THEM:

So I wrote this as a response—please note it’s an unedited comment from social media, not my undergrad thesis.

(EDIT 4/21/26: Made a TT referencing this but expand a bit more on queer coding.)

l recommend watching with your queer friends or watching queer analysis or freshening up on queer film theory. Sapphic chemistry has to be distinct from heteronormative chemistry and more subtle for safety and to observe and obtain enough confidence interest is reciprocated. This is so common that we have the “useless lesbians” trope where we watch a ship look at one another with longing and yet they don’t do anything bc fear of not only rejection but the risk of heterosexist consequences.

So their chemistry isn’t undeniable desire we have learned to identify in heterosexual romance because Francesca doesn’t even know what she is feeling without any reference at this point. But you see the chemistry in how she watches Michaela, how it oscillates from intrigue to almost frustration with the queer feeling that something is out of the ordinary in what she feels around her, and Michaela—wishing to avoid Francesca noticing her queerness, avoided standing still in Scotland with her “chaos.”

The chemistry is in the overflow of emotion that Francesca has not told John or even her own family, but confesses to Michaela. The chemistry is in the way we see Michaela, rightfully upset, softens immediately upon seeing the ways she—in her attempt to avoid her unrequited love—has wreaked havoc on Francesca’s desperate attempts at stability. It is in the way Michaela offers her words and vulnerability (and those big brown eyes 🥺) to match Francesca’s emotional admission that she calms Francesca and they share an honest and earnest conversation. It is in the clear restraint and respect Michaela has for Francesca and John that she would never act on that desire. It is the way Perfectly Proper Francesca slumps in her seat—yes she’s had some drink but when Michaela teases, Francesca does not “correct.” When have we ever seen Francesca be seen outside of society’s standards?

i think the gender swap was in part bc of the “persuasive” (to put it nicely) sex scenes. look, i get the appeal—i’ve read an immense amount of smut so trust, i get dubcon—but those scenes don’t always translate on screen. that same theme is applicable to almost every sex scene i’ve read between michael & fran. at least with reading dubcon or persuasive erotic scenes, you can see into various character’s thoughts. that is not an option for a tv show without a voiceover of that particular character. & frankly, it can give people the ick when heavy-handed.

but what’s crazy to me is how the major complainers about michaela act as if this character as a man is unique—it’s such a familiar scene on screen & in books & even in actual real life where a man’s adamant pursuits of a love interest are considered endearing & masculine when they are desirable. whereas if any woman were to pursue a woman like michael does in the book, people would say she is a predatory lesbian or trying to convert her. they don’t miss michael as much as they feel entitled to their everyday, easy access to self-inserting love stories. there is a clear picking & choosing of what they have issue with & i’d even say it’s less homophobic than it is heterosexist.

we as queer women/non-cishet women (esp qwoc) have only had fiction for so long—most of us writing ourselves into where we are underrepresented, for free online—a true labor of love! when we do see queer woman on tv, it is rarely for/by queer women, or in the foreground, or well-written, or involving likeable characters, or characters who live, or on shows that reach the mainstream/don’t get canceled after one season. the failure of other women to show up for queer women is constantly disappointing, esp juxtaposed with the loud support for a mlm love story.

i don’t need to see a man convince francesca to marry him. i want to see francesca decide for herself what her future looks like & where her heart belongs. & now so may people, many for the first time, will see at least part of themselves in a world where we did in fact exist but are often erased or denied representation.

(Updated: 4/21/26) I figured this would be a better way of linking to things people might be looking for as well as an intro/FYI. (Let me know if any of the links are bad or if Tumblr app/desktop does something weird with this RIP!)

...

CCF's WLW Bridgerton Watch Guide (Work in Progress)

So you’ve never watched Bridgerton, but you want to watch S5 for the sapphic love story…

Or: So you wanna watch these two dorks fall in love… and stuff…

...

CCF Fanfiction

(a scene from) Reason with the Clouds Up Above Rating: General Audiences/Everyone

"I know I am the source, but if there is anything I can do to ease the distress I have cause—"A brief, bitter laugh escapes Francesca, but it loses momentum halfway through and turns into a halted sob. "You could have stayed like you said you would." Or: Michaela has been gone for 3 years and returns to Mayfair, but her first stop is Bridgerton House.

Read on Tumblr

Related posts about the full fic via the tag: #fic: reason with the clouds

Read on AO3 (Not posted there yet)

Childhood Enemies AU Rating: General Audiences/Everyone (for now)

How it started

Related posts via the tag: #childhood enemies au

#Headcanon & #Drabbles

"I want them to talk" (Rating: Mature) - i don’t want or need a full conversation in the bedroom, but there is something so incredibly safe and erotic about [. . .] women seeking pleasure and demanding it from a willing and enthusiastic partner intent on providing.

Michaela's sequins and Francesca's fabric preferences

A bath in Kilmartin, a scene (Rating: Mature)

...

CCF's Franchaela Thoughts

#CCF Overanalyzes Analysis of scenes, close readings, reflections, etc. 🤓

"Chemistry" through a queer lens

On Michaela sitting on the floor

Opinions & Season 5 Wish List 😍 (specifics below:)

Lesbian vs. Bisexual Francesca

Social Media Hate

These people flooding comment sections are, by definition, absolute sore losers. Comment sections are full of these self-proclaimed disclaimers “having a different opinion doesn’t make me homophobic,” microaggressions, outright aggression, and spam comments to bury any queer joy (literally marginalizing).

They will dogpile counter arguments. They will pose as a concerned fan with a critique—“I just don’t see this as a good plotline,” “I wanted Eloise”, “Infertility!!”, “They have zero chemistry,” “I hate Francesca emotionally cheated,” “This is unrealistic,” etc. Of course we have counter arguments/opinions, but do not fall for fake sincerity—they do not want to learn or have an actual discussion; they decided to stay on this hill over a year ago.

Whether or not they shut the fuck up doesn’t matter—

We are getting our love story!!! 🌈🥰❤️

This sounds harsh, but: They want to make you miserable. Whether or not they are aware of it, that is the heterosexist compulsion. Their ignorance to the harm done does not absolve them. Many genuinely think because they have a gay friend or they watch mlm romance, they are far from homophobic. But there is a compulsory need to see themselves as superior or savior because they will not let go of the privileges that come from heterosexuality as a hegemonic class. Look at the way they react toward us for “taking” a fictional man “from them.”

Heterosexism has always required we suffer within heteropatriarchy to earn sympathies (think of how many award-winning queer films/shows require we die), as if we just need to ask nicely and be pitiful to be worth fair treatment. That is never how we have won, and they hate when we don’t buy their oppressive narrative. So they do these desperate things, to ensure misery even when we win, especially when we win. But no matter what, we have always persisted.

And despite what they say, more of them will watch than they’ll admit. The comment sections don’t reflect all of us, especially those who said “aw hell nah” upon seeing the shitheads in the comments.

Remember:

They are loud, not powerful.

We are braver than they could ever be. We deserve love, and we have always found a way to each other throughout human history.

[showing love, liking nice comments] [sees a dumbass] [types beautifully snarky response]

“Nooo nope nah.” [deletes]

[likes, leaves a celebratory comment] [sees a dumbass] [starts typing bc they make it easy]

“NO!” [deletes]

…

And ya know what? I’m happier for it once I close the apps.

I’m done acknowledging them.

Replying bumps their comment up! I have been blocking and believe me, when I expand comments, half of them go missing—they’re the same people I’ve blocked already.

Leave them to insulate their myopic understanding of love with their paranoid delusions of the self, based wholly on what they are not and what they fear. If we keep centering them, it’s doing what they want and bringing down the fandom.

I will be leaving love and likes and getting out of there to make room for writing and queer joy. We will have a much better time and make better use of it by building ourselves up independent of them.

Which we can do because

Me, also 5 drinks deep: Her jawline is unreal.

M: JUST HER EVERYTHING, DUDE!

I popping up at our table: Who?

Me & M: MASALI BADUZA!!

I, stepping back with his hands up: Show me a pic.

Me: [opens phone, I & M waiting]

M: [poking me] You have to show him, Amanda…