Every so often a celebrity goes on a publicity tour that is so undeniably charming that it ends up all over the internet. Right now it is Nicola Coughlan, who is travelling around the world talking to people about her saucy starring role in the new season of Bridgerton.
I (queer, fat, middle-aged, horny) am the exact demographic to receive this content. Her turn as straight-edged lesbian Clare in Derry Girls is an incredible component of one of my favourite comedies.
Tours like this can be a risk, given the direct access we get to famous people’s opinions. But Coughlan has only endeared herself to me more, from doing impressions of her favourite Australian Married at First Sight contestants to being one of the rare public figures to call for a ceasefire. She is funny and outspoken (Irish). Yet despite all this the major stir she has made is down to her character Penelope Featherington’s sex scenes in 1800s Bridgerton.
What could be so crazy? Do cousins make love? Does someone’s wooden tooth fall out at an inopportune moment? Does a fancy lady get her chimney swept to an exciting string version of Poison by Bardot? No, the issue is that Nicole has sex scenes at all, because she’s a little bit fat.
I don’t want to argue about Nicola’s body; I’m not interested in convincing anyone it is an attractive one. But for some reason this is now up for debate. We’re not used to seeing a non-thin woman promoted to love interest or being desired at all, let alone having hot sex. Unfortunately, anything that might expand the narrow societal dictates of desire makes some people lose their minds. It’s as if they’ve taken Brain Ozempic. Last week one columnist described Nicola on Bridgerton as “not hot”, saying:
There’s nothing wrong with fat – it’s hardly a moral shortcoming – but a zest for equality and diversity (and in this case good acting) just isn’t enough to make a fat girl who wins the prince remotely plausible.
The hatred of anyone outside the ideal of stick-thin is so ingrained that people will try to convince themselves that this woman is unappealing, and will even say it publicly in a column or in comment sections.
It pisses me off that I have to talk about this, and we know from Nicola being outspoken (Irish) that the conversation about her body rightly pisses her off too. She has asked people to stop body-shaming her and has said she insisted on doing naked scenes in Bridgerton as a direct “fuck you” to all the comments about her weight on the internet.
I believe it should not be any particular celebrity’s job to be The Fat One, and to represent all fat people. It’s not fair for the rare fat celebrities to have to be under the microscope like this, carrying the weight (pun intended) for a whole community, especially one that is hated so intensely. We have created this problem by only allowing a few fat people in the public eye at once.
When I tweeted about being happy to see Nicola getting her hot fat body out in the show, someone reprimanded me with, “Just hot, no need to say fat.” I know the intention here is good and, at some point in the past, I might have agreed with it. Not in 2024. Fat should be a neutral descriptor. It is only an insult because it has been weaponised against us for decades by hateful and lazy people. We live in a world where not only is it conspicuous that Nicola is doing this, it’s important. She is hot, she is fat and, if there’s ever been a time to note this – it’s now.
Society has always hated fat people. Industries have been built by making sure society keeps hating us. It makes fat people try not to be fat, and not-fat people scared of being fat. It makes everyone hate themselves and pay trillions of dollars to either get thin or stay that way. We made a bit of progress over the years, taking little chihuahua-sized steps towards body acceptance. But now we have Ozempic, a drug that is becoming commonplace, making fat people in the public eye obsolete. The pressure to become thin is greater than ever before. Every celebrity you’ve seen struggle with their weight in the past is gone or disappearing. It’s the one area of diversity people don’t think about, including those who should know better.
Nicola is not someone who should be considered brave for showing her body and being sexy. It shouldn’t be news. She has a normal, average-sized body – she could buy clothes in any shop. But that’s where we are at, as a society that is becoming more hostile towards fat people on the daily. Even having someone as mildly fat as her standing up for her own body’s desirability, appearing in roles where she gets to display her sexiness, makes a difference. The backlash to Nicola’s body is not just because she appears on screen but because she dares to be desirable and sexual on screen.
I dream of an existence where the only response to Nicola getting her heaving bosom out is an appropriate level of horniness. I know that by writing this article I’m contributing to the debate but I also need to take a tip from Nicola and be outspoken about things that are important. I wish she didn’t have to endure these conversations about fatness – but I’m very grateful that she’s all over my screens.
Rebecca Shaw is a writer based in Sydney
