Loosen Your Corset Queen Charlotte Is Here

Loosen Your Corset Queen Charlotte Is Here. Hello everyone, I hope you are well. In today’s post, I will share a press release from the daily contraceptive brand Hana. Hana® is a daily contraceptive pill available over the counter and online without a prescription. At Hana®, we believe that access to contraception should be convenient and on your terms, and we want to help people with uteruses feel confident in themselves and their sexuality. Being in control of your wants and desires can help inform which contraception is right for you and your body. That’s why the latest series of Bridgerton ticks many boxes for us; this pioneering Netflix show continues to champion female pleasure and the female gaze.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a new series from the creators of Bridgerton, follows the story of the young monarch’s relationship with King George and her rise to reign! The Netflix special launched on 4th May 2023, and follows similar recurring themes to those featured in Bridgerton – strong female characters, female empowerment and friendship, pushing against archaic social boundaries and outdated societal expectations, and sexual awakenings.

Loosen Your Corset Queen Charlotte Is Here

Queen Charlotte is here! After Bridgerton’s notable success and current ‘most watched’ title for the English language shows on Netflix, Shondaland has released the third season in their Netflix partnership – a prequel period drama following the early days of Charlotte’s relationship with King George and her subsequent journey to becoming Queen. Although Queen Charlotte wasn’t a character in the original Bridgerton books, her story had fans excited and eagerly anticipating the new series released on 4th May 2023.

• Bridgerton is the most-watched English language show on Netflix
• Bridgerton’s popularity stems from the shift in steamy sex scenes from the male gaze to that of a female
• The female sexuality explored in Shonda Rhimes’ period dramas so far is a romantic and refreshing take on what we’re used to from the media
• Queen Charlotte is an established and iconic character in Bridgerton, and her title series features more of her independence, feistiness and no-nonsense attitude

On Thursday, May 4th, Netflix released the new prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, following months of online speculation about what viewers could expect from the hit TV series.

Bridgeton

The reaction was massive when Bridgerton first hit our screens in late 2020. Reportedly 625.49 million hours of the period drama were streamed and devoured in the first four weeks of its release alone. It is now Netflix’s most-watched English-language TV show. Perhaps the initial strike in popularity was partially due to its timing being in sync with various worldwide lockdowns, where human contact (and indeed sex) was limited at best for so many…

Either way, there’s no denying that the steamy scenes run alongside a well-written plotline that keeps us all hooked and desperate for more. Or, perhaps it’s how well-presented women are regarding their sexual agency.

It’s no secret that period dramas of the past have focused their sex scenes on the power and pleasure of men, the female characters often overlooked and objectified. And that may be accurate for how it was at the time, with equal rights for women not coming into play until the 20th century. Or is that just what we’re encouraged to believe?

Season One

In Bridgerton Season One, we see Daphne Bridgerton, the ‘Diamond of the Season’ in her will they/won’t they romance with the Duke. The sexual tension is palpable until they finally get it on in Episode 5 – where Daphne is fully consenting, and the Duke prioritises her pleasure before his own.

This isn’t the only example of sexual agency from the strong female characters in Bridgerton’s first season. Siena Rosso, Anthony Bridgerton’s ‘out of wedlock’ lover, actively encourages their relationship for their mutual and solely sexual pleasure and inevitably refuses his courting invitation so as not to abandon herself or her beliefs for those of high society.

Season Two

The second season of Bridgerton brings much of the same – this time, we’re solely focused on the illicit love between Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma, his fiance’s sister. Kate is headstrong and determined to act as the ‘man of the family’ instead of one. She selflessly puts aside her needs for love and lust – which we discover more throughout the series – and focuses on helping her sister find a suitor.

We expected more of the same from Queen Charlotte. If you’ve seen Bridgerton, you’ll know that her majesty is a no-nonsense type of monarch and gives off matriarchal solid vibes. Her series showcases her early relationships as she sets to marry King George. It also features snippets of the Queen from decades on, reflecting on her difficulties and the budding romance she discovered with the King.

Season Three

The third season of The Great, a historical drama loosely based on the life of Catherine II of Russia, premiered on May 12th, 2023. Catherine II (reign: 1762 – 1796) is known for her sexuality and the fact she took many lovers throughout her life, in addition to her couping her husband and taking the throne of Russia. The show stays true to this theme of sexual exploration and takes care to focus on female pleasure. Court life is full of sex and shows many satisfying and unsatisfying encounters. Whilst Catherine’s sexual life begins in a quick, disappointing and very unromantic way, you see her starting to explore her sexuality in season one before coming into her own in season 2, demanding oral sex from her prisoner/husband.

Perhaps this makes Bridgerton and the like appealing to many of us. It is the first sexy series with a noticeable shift from male to female gaze, and its focus on female sexual awakening is refreshing. The sex scenes are steamy and romantic and far from what TV, film and pornography often portray as sex – frantic movements, loud moaning and the orgasm gap. In other period dramas, mainly, women having sex are often seen as begrudging (if consenting). Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte portray people from various races engaging in exciting, consensual and dramatically salacious relationships – enough to keep us hooked and desperate for more.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Talk soon