From funny girl to sexy star, Bridgerton's Penelope shifts how curvy women are shown on screen

Nicola Coughlan says it's tough having perfect breasts.

The actress who plays Penelope Featherington in Season 3 of Netflix's hit series Bridgerton admitted as much during a Q&A in Dublin last week. A male member of the audience had just told Coughlan he thought she was "very brave for this role."

In the second half of the season, which comes out Thursday, Coughlan, like other female leads, will appear in compromising sex scenes. But unlike the leads in Seasons 1 and 2 of the racy drama set in Regency-era London, Coughlan has been the target of comments and criticisms about her curvier body.

And the audience member's comment was just one example in an industry where women's bodies are still freely discussed, criticized and shamed. 

"You know, it is hard, because I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts — we don't get to see ourselves on screen enough," Coughlan said as the audience cheered.

"I'm very proud as a member of the perfect breasts community," she added. "I hope you enjoy seeing them."

There's been a lot of buzz about the third season of Netflix's steamy period piece as fan-favourite character Penelope gets promoted from introverted observer to female lead. That move has been applauded by fans and critics alike for its body positivity, not just in terms of representation of larger body types, but for showing Penelope as romantic, desirable and sexy.

In a media landscape where celebrities and characters are still often fat-shamed, and larger female characters are frequently used for comic relief, many people online have said they find Coughlan's portrayal in Bridgerton validating.

In a TikTok video with 6.6 million views, Ishioma Odinjor jokes about "feeling seen" after watching a sizzling carriage scene. In another video with seven million views, a TikTok user with the handle Lady Kendra Bee thanks the show for portraying larger characters gracefully and respectfully.

Diversifying the way a female lead can look is a powerful form of representation for those who don't look like a Hollywood starlet, which is most people, said Shauna Pomerantz, a professor of child and youth studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who studies media, youth and pop culture.

"Penelope Featherington shows that all women can be sexy and deserving of love, but also that all women can be sexual," Pomerantz told CBC News.

There's been an ideal of thinness portrayed in the media since about the 1960s that women have felt they need to attain, and not just to be beautiful, but to be valued, said Amanda Ravary, an assistant professor of psychology at Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Que., who studies weight stigma.

"To actually see somebody who does not fit this very restrictive and unattainable thin ideal body being actually portrayed in a positive light is just incredibly refreshing."

But Pomerantz also says she doesn't see a wider, linear shift in the media landscape — not when most lead actresses still look a certain way, and when there's so much backlash when someone who looks different is cast in a major role.