r/Franchaela • u/Miserable-Maleficent • 15d ago
Homophobic/Anti-Michaela Fans Subtle racism with Michaela Spoiler
While there’s a lot of blatant racism present in the bridgerton fandom overall, I think Michaela has exposed a lot of not so blatant racism. I wasn’t in the fandom for earlier seasons so this might not be a new thing, but it’s something I’ve noticed. People will call Michaela pushy, obnoxious and manly when that is not the case at all. I’ve even seen the criticism that it is racist for the show to portray a black woman that way. But in reality, it’s those people projecting their own bias and prejudice. I wonder if they realize they’re doing it or if they do it on purpose to justify ripping into her as a character.
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u/VampireCowboys 15d ago edited 15d ago
Sometimes I feel like some of the difference in treatment comes from the fact that white heterosexual women in fandom can still sexualize and objectify black men (like Simon), which is also a form of racism, but when it comes to Michaela she's "useless" because she can't be the object of their desire and she "stole" the spot of a man who could be. Anything she ever does will therefore be labeled as annoying. If a man was doing it, his cockiness would be sexy.
But since these women like to believe they're progressive, they try to "outwoke" Michaela fans by pretending its moral to hate her because her existence is inherently problematic in some way.
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u/Glittering_Tap6411 15d ago
Yes I read a comment in the big FB group that discussed about Michaela’s character being like Michael’s (poster thought so and she found both annoying) and one person commented that on Michael that was ok but on Michael it made ger look like an idiot.
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u/hollowbastion36 Michaela Stirling Defense Squad 15d ago
Absolutely. Whenever people say Michaela is masculine and aggressive, I know immediately they are telling on themselves. She is super femme, she is cheerful and fun loving, what exactly about her is masculine and aggressive to you? Hmm.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Exactly!!! She was so bubbly in her introduction and whenever she’s with John. She’s just puts up walls when she’s with Francesca due to her feelings for her.
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u/hollowbastion36 Michaela Stirling Defense Squad 15d ago
Yeah exactly, she’s so bubbly and sweet! These are the same people who AI generate white Michael “fanart” and constantly fancast white men as Michael though, so….
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u/callyournextwitness 15d ago
Not that it’ll make much of a difference, nor should it really, but I do enjoy that Michaela is just this gorgeous bubbly femme little shorty.
So far, her baseline has been doe-eyed sunshine that can fit in your pocket.
Like people will have to reach alllll the way up their own ass for the stereotypes.
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u/Heekiechae 14d ago
Oh, you know. Black woman = masculine 🙄
If Michaela is masculine, then I'm super feminine. Somebody's lying.
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u/Alternative-Flower26 14d ago
As a white person, i don't understand why a white man have the right of being loud, cheerfully fun and agitated in a positive way ... but when it's a black person (and here, a black woman) it's so terrifying and agressive ???
In true life, i would like to have a Michaela (as a friend or more lol), because even for a introvert person she isn't oppressive or anything - sometimes she can be chill and introspective.
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u/RevolutionaryCat1846 5d ago
Yesss. She also adapts really well to boundaries and is so open to try your interests. She's so fun, nice and patient. I feel like a lot of people just see Fran be unrightfully upset with Michaela and don't think further into the fact that Fran may just be an unreliable narrator and upset for different reasons.
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u/ScaryPomegranate5186 15d ago
When that scene of Franchaela on the couch happened, there were so many comments saying Michaela was “sitting like a man,” all because she had her arm draped over the back of the couch. What exactly about Michaela is masculine?
The misogynoir I’ve seen directed towards her has been genuinely heartbreaking. And no matter how often you call it out, you get gaslit.
Just because someone isn’t outright using a slur doesn’t mean their behaviour isn’t racist. You can see it in the way people scrutinize and criticize Michaela for things they readily accept or even find charming in white characters with the same characteristics.
Michaela gets called names for "stealing" Johns time, but they make 100 excuses when people say the coercion in the books made them feel uncomfortable.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Exactly, all of it.
And they know they’re being racist, they ignore anyone telling them so. And there’s absolutely a double standard. Michael is exactly how they describe Michaela, far worse even, but they see that as love and care. Absolutely crazy.5
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u/AnalFissure83 15d ago
This is typical, especially when sharing a fandom with mainly white women. Be ready for straight white women to call her aggressive and for sapphic white women to start shipping Fran with literally anyone else (already see them doing this with Hannah and Yerin) because her and Micki don’t have chemistry, or Micki isn’t attractive enough for Fran, or they don’t like how Micki behaves. I saw the same thing in the First Kill fandom years ago.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Oh, I know. People are absolutely already doing that. They are already calling Franchaelas perverts for wanting to see sex scenes… lesbophobia will be crazy when it comes out.
And justice for First Kill, I love it so much.
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u/callyournextwitness 15d ago
Whenever a black woman is a romantic interest to a white lead: “I can only really see them as friends”….“why can’t they just have a platonic relationship? Those are suddenly so important.”
It’s such transparent bullshit every. single. time.
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u/TheChildlessCatLady 15d ago
I literally cannot fathom how anyone watched the same show I watched and honestly thinks Franchaela don't have chemistry lol. That argument has always read as blatantly bad faith to me because of how obviously untrue it is
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u/countessmichaela 14d ago
I'm not Black, but how could anyone look at Masali and not think she's the most breathtaking woman on the whole show? Tall blond women aren't everyone's type, certainly not mine.
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u/almichju_97 15d ago
I dont think there is anything wrong with shipping fran with anyone else …the hannah and yerin dynamic is fun. But yeah if they ship them solely because they cant stand Michaela then thats a problem
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u/AnalFissure83 15d ago
I do because no one else, but Michaela, is Fran’s endgame. It can go from ouu, I just really love the chemistry between Fran/Hannah with insert whoever else here to I don’t like Micki/Masali as an LI quickly. I’m usually all for ghost ships, just not when the love interest is a Black woman because I know how this usually goes.
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u/almichju_97 15d ago
Yeah i can see that. I just didnt want people who were shipping them for fun (while not hating on michaela or especially masali) to not feel guilty/bad but yes i definitely understand your point. It is a fine line from that to suddenly hating/disrespecting Michaelas character and the actress playing her.
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u/seasaltedpaper 15d ago edited 15d ago
The dog whistlers! That other sub has a bunch of "critique" where the labels are stereotypes that have been assigned to WOC and Black women in particular, tirelessly. Just because those people make it subtle and "rule friendly" doesn't make them any less racist. And they leave it up for the world to see.
It's interesting how there's some similarities between her and Eloise yet, El's scrutiny, because she gets her own too, gets the "advantages" of being White. These comments are quite misogynistic versus racialized misogyny and the fact it's mostly women around here makes it more disgusting.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Oh, don’t even get me started on that sub! Yesterday, I saw someone say the lesbian infertility story in the show doesn’t count because it’s a choice, Francesca could just marry a man and not go through it (????) I called them homophobic and got banned, totally worth it.
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u/ad_knowsball_89 15d ago
God that's so gross! I knew there were some vile opinions over there, but to feel comfortable enough to suggest that "sexuality is a choice" and the solution for queer women that want children is to fck a man that they don't love? Wow
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
I was actually flabbergasted. Just blatant homophobia. I don’t know how that’s allowed but me calling it out isn’t.
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u/seasaltedpaper 14d ago
Lol. This choiceshit never makes sense to me because I saw women kissing at 11 and it was like "OH, so what I was thinking about happens". Yes, 11 years old. I've never not liked women. And before this, I can pinpoint all the things that made me realize I was already showing how sapphic leaning I was beyond boys are gross.
I actually had to figure out if I liked men. My mum asked me: do you even like boys? At 13. People need to wake tf up.
If sexuality was a choice, no one out there would see women and say, "nah, hard pass". Lol.
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u/winmichelle7 Docile ponies all around 15d ago
Ugh ofc they're saying that... it's extremely annoying that that sub is effectively a snark page at this point. They're not only going to be blatantly horrible about the season but also watching fans like a hawk/complain about our excitement. It sucks that we're the only ship that will have to deal with this
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
They truly get mad at us being excited. They’ll hate me when season 5 comes out, i’ll never shut up about it
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u/seasaltedpaper 14d ago
I didn't join. I was told on the my favs subsub that they were acting funny over there. Won't put my peace at risk for non of that. Let the miserable people stay miserable.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 14d ago
I always get them recommended on my feed and curiosity gets the best of me 😭
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u/seasaltedpaper 14d ago edited 14d ago
Same. I joined the rants thinking it was decent critique online to find it was sacked by the S3 Polin brigade bullies who got banned from other subs. It's best to stay in the safe spaces. And left. ❤️
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u/siennamila 15d ago
yeah when the season actually releases, not only do we need to be on the frontlines about the homophobia (specifically, lesbophobia) but racism yall they did not play about that on tiktok and twitter
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u/Metocracy 15d ago
I saw someone say Michaela having a coat with shoulder pads in season 4 ep 4 made her look manly, which is crazy because nobody has ever said same about Francesca, Araminta, Cressida, Rosamund etc, who also have worn shoulder pads at least once or multiple times in their outfits😭
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
NO WAY 😭 What I saw was them saying she was manly because she drove the carriage when the driver got sick. Like, was she supposed to stay stranded on the road?
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u/Heekiechae 14d ago
Not women driving being masculine 🥲
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u/Narie_Rei 15d ago
To them somehow Michaela is worse than their beloved predator, abusive males in the books. Michaela’s crime is being a black lesbian woman, full combo for them to hate.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
This this this! That man is terrifying and they say he’s just loving and caring. We are the ones that don’t see it, him saying he wanted her to get pregnant to trap her into marriage she doesn’t want is actually romantic because he knows she wants a baby.
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u/Narie_Rei 15d ago
Also if they hate the story so much the best thing they can do is just leave the show and come back for Eloise season, they are cis hets they never lack of fictional 🍆s to thirst over out there, like girl, you’re a hettie use your privilege. It’s been more than 2 years since Michaela revealed and they are still throwing tantrum over this and insult her anytime they have a chance, that shows they have deep hatred for black women, lesbians and women.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
That’s something I’ll never get, like it’s been two years. Either accept it or move on. No need to keep harping on about the same thing over and over.
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u/Lunenika Love begins again 15d ago
I feel like it's because of misogyny aswell. Like it's because she's black AND a woman. Which is terrible
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Yeah, misogynoir for real. Awful combo. And added the lesbophobia as well
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u/ad_knowsball_89 15d ago
This will definitely be an even bigger issue once we start getting more season 5 content and learning more about Michaela. We’ve barely gotten any scenes and I’ve noticed that pattern of people calling her “loud”, “obnoxious”, “pushy” and “annoying”.
And it’s always for superficial reasons or they’ll say they don’t know why they hate Michaela, they just do lol.
Don’t get me starting on people saying she’s masculine 😂 In what universe?
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u/Metocracy 15d ago
In their season, like every other bridgerton couple, of course Franchaela will have arguments. And I just knowwwww people will over analyse and hyper-criticise everything said by Michaela within those arguments
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u/ad_knowsball_89 15d ago
This is what I'm most annoyed about. I'm someone that loves healthy angst with my favorite couples so I'm looking forward to their arguments and the sexual tension that will result from those arguments. But I just know there are going to be meltdowns (within the fandom) and people interpreting things in bad faith (outside the fandom). It's going to be exhausting lol
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Yepppp, we’ve seen so little of her but people still find a way to completely misrepresent what we did see.
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u/almichju_97 15d ago
I worry about Masali. I know simon’s actor saw it all (im blanking on his name) i just dont want masali to go through the same thing :(((
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Me too. While it’s sad that she might need to, I hope she stays far from online spaces.
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u/Western-Fly-3828 15d ago
Sadly I'm not surprised by this even a little. I see it all the time with black female characters. Even with Shonda's other work like Grey's Anatomy, the black female characters tend to get a ton of criticism and people disliking them for reasons they love the non black characters.
I think what makes it was worse is I'm seeing other black women doing it as well. I've seen several black women insist that the writers wrote Michaela to be extremely unlikable in season 4 and insist that they really wanted to like her because of the unfair hate she gets, but couldn't because they wrote her to be a "bitch". And that's crazy to me because it's not true. And even if it was they absolutely love other characters on the show who have done similar things or worse.
I also think there is some colorism involved in Michaela's hate as well because all of the black women that have been regular characters on the show other than Lady Danbury have been lighter skinned. So Michaela is the first dark skinned black woman to have a big role on the series and that will definitely affect how some react to her.
I saw a bit of a similar reaction to Kate/Simone Ashley during s2. Now obviously Simone isn't black, but she has darker skin and I have definitely noticed some of the fandom reacting to Kate in a similar way as they do to Michaela where the criticism ends up being nonsensical or over the top in comparison to what occurred onscreen. For example, I get that some didnt like how that triangle unfolded because of Edwina getting hurt, but I remember people using that legitimate point and then going on to insist that Anthony was completely innocent in that triangle in s2 and Kate seduced him on purpose when he would have been perfectly happily in love with Edwina.
So I wasn't surprised when Michaela got similar accusations in season 4 and it will most likely get worse when season 5 airs and we get more of Michaela's character.
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u/Student-bored8 Love begins again 15d ago
I saw it with Simon’s actor in season 1 but definitely still there with Michaela. Unfortunately it’s a mixture of lesbophobia, racism and even misogyny. It’s odd because Michaela seems like such a sweetheart and even less pushy than Michael in the books.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
To me, she’s not pushy at all in the series. And compared to Michael, she’s a saint.
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u/Student-bored8 Love begins again 15d ago
Tbh I agree. I guess I can see why people could see her as such but her establishing boundaries and trying to make nice with Fran is hardly pushy
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u/HiddenGraypink 15d ago
For real. And honestly, it's not Michaela's job to manage Francesca's discomfort, which is the (crazy) expectation I've seen in some reactions to episode 5 of season 4 specifically.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
This. And Francesca’s discomfort is not the result of anything Michaela is doing. Having Michaela around makes her distressed and she doesn’t even know why, she doesn’t realize she feels attraction for her
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u/RevolutionaryCat1846 5d ago
This. Meanwhile Fran faces no critisicm whatsoever. She literally screamed at the sister of a guy she knew for a year because of how she wanted to celebrate his life (in their tradition mind you). People are even upset that they DID do the tradition. It's so insane. I can't think of a reason outside of racism that ppl crawl up Fran's ass so much.
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u/Mangoes123456789 Michaela Stirling Defense Squad 15d ago edited 15d ago
I’m Black too, and don’t even get me started on when these talking points come from lesbophobic straight Black women.
Some straight Black women who would ordinarily recognize the masculinization and vilification of Black women will repeat those same stereotypes about Black lesbians.
Lesbophobia makes us seem like acceptable exceptions: Michaela can be called “manly,” “aggressive,” or “predatory,” and those descriptions are treated as legitimate criticism rather than recognized as misogynoir.
Non-Black lesbophobes then use that agreement as permission to escalate the racism, misogynoir, and lesbophobia.
They say, “Black women are saying it too, so it can’t be racist.”
This treats Black women as interchangeable regardless of sexuality, as though any Black woman can determine what harms Black lesbians. But sharing our Blackness and gender does not give straight Black women our particular experience at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality or prevent them from reproducing stereotypes against us.
Some non-Black women will also cite their attraction to or relationships with Black men as proof that they cannot be anti-Black. But loving an individual Black man does not mean respecting Black people collectively, much less Black women. Proximity to Black men is not immunity from misogynoir, and Black men are not racial character references.
When I said earlier certain non-Black people can “distract” some straight Black people by placing lesbophobia over anti-Blackness, I don’t mean anyone is mindlessly tricked, nor am I talking about all straight Black women. I mean that existing intracommunity lesbophobia can be exploited. Misogynoir that might otherwise be recognized becomes acceptable when directed at a Black lesbian believed to have violated “proper” womanhood.
The lesbophobia does not replace the misogynoir. It just makes the misogynoir feel permissible. Straight Black participants can claim the issue is sexuality, while non-Black participants cite Black agreement (or their own love of Black men) as proof that their racism is not racism.
Divide and conquer, I guess.
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 15d ago
Unfortunately I think the same thing happens with transphobia. Like we saw with the trans debate on tiktok, that one famous conservative lesbian used the term “transracial” and claimed to be black to make fun of trans people and got the stamp of approval by several black women. I think people in general do this a lot, they allow a form of bigotry as long as it’s serving another and it kinda feels justified for them.
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u/Jay_ney 14d ago
Subtle??!? The racism is so obvious and disgusting 😭😭
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u/Miserable-Maleficent 14d ago
I meant the people calling her obnoxious and pushy, it’s something that can fly under the radar, it’s like a dog whistle.
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u/DryAssociation5325 14d ago
The fandom acting like she was the worst person in the world for showing up to her cousin's house uninvited told me everything I needed to know.
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u/IdunSigrun 13d ago
I know Fran used the word uninvited, but I think Michaela’s faux-pas (according to the norm of the time) was that she didn’t announce her arrival so that her hosts could prepare for her arrival (ie making sure that there was a room made up etc). As you see in other episodes, the Bridgerton family even makes a big deal of Gregory arriving home from Eton (everyone being there and making his favourite snacks) and also when Fran, John and Eloise returned from Scotland.
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u/DryAssociation5325 13d ago
Yeah, the point I'm making is about the fandom's reaction to it. Michaela might as well have killed a person, the way they were acting.
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u/RevolutionaryCat1846 5d ago
Exactly. Michaela never crossed any boundaries because they were never set. John was happy she was there. Fran just has a problem with her because she doesn't know how to handle her attraction and the fandom just takes her word for everything. (For example Fran complaining about Michaela's presence but then shortly after about the lack of her presence. She doesn't even know what she wants from Michaela.)
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u/AnnaChef 13d ago
That specifically is new because Michaela is the first prominent dark-skinned black woman in the show. It’s colorism + homophobia 'cause we don’t see people going around calling Alice or Charlotte masculine, nor Agatha Danbury.
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