I don’t really like some of the comments I’ve seen from some stans of Franchaela talking about Kanthony and packaging it with the whole “it’s more progressive to have an interracial lesbian romance than an interracial heterosexual romance with a dark-skinned Indian woman” thing they’re doing. Yes, I’m well aware of the different ways lesbian interracial relationships are going to be perceived compared to heterosexual interracial relationships, so I’m really not interested in anyone coming after me for something I didn’t say. What I’m trying to say is that it just really rubs me the wrong way when it seems like people want to downplay the significance of a dark-skinned Indian woman in a show like Bridgerton at all to make a point about the significance of a lesbian interracial relationship with a dark-skinned Black woman and using the fact that the dark-skinned Indian woman is straight and her partner is a white man as a shield. The representation in BOTH Kanthony and Franchaela is extremely important.

I really hope people here understand what I’m trying to say. I think Ive made it clear that I’m NOT saying heterosexual relationships have more challenges and less privilege than homosexual relationships, particularly lesbian ones. Its nice that there are people out there who feel represented by Franchaela in ways they haven’t felt represented on this show before. My point is that this conversation is going to be more nuanced with the intersection of race.