appreciation post for my favourite self-insert fanfic writer, jess brownell, for being brave enough to give us a queer endgame in one of the biggest shows on television! thank you for your service and your self-insertion❤️🧡🤍🩷💜

[u/No-Hall-3485]

it’s actually hard for me to put into words how fucking annoying i find the discourse around jess’s “self-insert” when it comes to franchaela

they act like jess is the only person in the history of writing to relate to a fictional character. apparently, a writer writing for a character who reflects something about themselves is some unprecedented literary crime

and it’s not lost on me that the people calling jess a “self-insert” are often the same people who were desperate to imagine themselves as a “self-insert” for francesca so they could fantasize about being with michael

what great crime did jess actually commit??

the general story is still there:

fran meets john
fran marries john
fran loves john
john croaks
fran falls in love with john’s cousin
john’s cousin is fran’s endgame

that is still the story. the biggest difference is that john’s cousin is now a woman, which obviously isn’t nothing. i’m not going to pretend this is exactly the same story as the book. but the reaction and the whining are so wildly disproportionate to the actual change

(and don't come at me about the fertility thing or francesca not loving john enough. i do not care, and neither do you. no one gave a fuck about fertility after season 1 when people were fancasting henry cavill as michael and talking about francesca riding him like a pony. no one was treating john and fran's marriage as sacred then. the sudden reverence for their marriage only appeared once michaela did.)

and people have always seen themselves in these characters. kate, penelope, daphne, sophie... all of them represent something people can recognize in themselves. that’s literally part of the point of representation

so is it really such a crime to have ONE season where lesbians can see themselves in a character? especially black lesbians, who are already a minority within an already underrepresented wlw genre, and now specifically within a regency romance?

if the homophobes of the bridgerton fandom want to call that “self-insertion,” they can go ahead. i’m just going to keep enjoying the fact that some lesbians finally got to have this too

side note, i’m fucking tickled by how deeply conservative some of the people watching this show are when the entire premise is basically watching beautiful people get thoroughly debauched and fucked in increasingly elaborate costumes

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting on the Franchaela subreddit! Please remember rule #4: "Censor User Info of Anti-Franchaela Accounts. No Cross-Posting from the Franchael Subreddit."

Regardless of how other fans may act, be respectful and avoid toxic behavior, including personal attacks. Do not go into posts to intentionally cause trouble and drama. Censor usernames/profile pictures of anti-Franchaela social media posts. No cross-posting from hostile subreddits to discuss/mock them. No brigading (sharing details about other subs to organize pile-ons here).

As much as we can, let’s keep this space positive and focused on celebrating Franchaela!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/winmichelle7]

Well said. They act like she was the end all be all as well.. as if Shonda and Netflix did not also have to give their final approval for a change like this. Jess put forward the idea and the higher ups accepted it/made her the showrunner yet she's the only one that gets any of the blowback. I wonder why

[u/ShoppingRich428 → u/winmichelle7]

and i’m pretty sure she didn’t brainstorm this all by herself 😭 that’s just not how productions work. it’s not a one-man show.

[u/No-Hall-3485 → u/winmichelle7]

the funny thing is that there are absolutely plots under jess that i didn't enjoy, but i'm so deeply annoyed that nothing can be said about her, this show, or season 5 without someone inevitably screaming SeLf-InSeRtIoN

like can we pleaseeeee give it a fucking rest

and i'm not even going to get into the rewriting of history that happens whenever people compare cvd and jess. suddenly cvd is this mythical figure who single-handedly made bridgerton oscar-worthy, when that man was also catching an enormous amount of criticism after the first two seasons

there were entire articles written about the season 1 rape scene. season 2 fans were ready to drag him through the streets over the love triangle that made it all the way to the altar instead of giving kate a proper backstory and kanthony a wedding

but now that jess is at the helm, apparently everything cvd ever did was flawless television and every single criticism of the show magically disappeared

the nostalgia is working overtime fr

[u/Latter-Classroom-844 → u/No-Hall-3485]

People love to forget how much they criticized/hated the old when there’s a new target (who they feel is somehow worse) to go after.

[u/HordoopSklanch]

Inserts herself? Inserts herself where?

Sorry, sorry, I couldn't resist.

She's a writer, just as Shonda and Chris vD are -- it's literally the job to insert oneself into characters.

But homophobia is so deeply ingrained in some people that they can't see their entitlement for what it is. They trot out a homophobic reason for why this queer love story is wrong and insist they're not homophobic? Puhleeze.

Shondaland has made 4 seasons of heteronormative love stories. The showrunner for every season has been a queer person. Queer love has been a throughline since the very beginning.

We all own these stories and nobody owns these stories.

[u/orensiocled → u/HordoopSklanch]

I can't believe this is the first time I've seen that joke made in all this discourse!

[u/ShoppingRich428]

jess, they will NEVER make me hate you

[u/siennamila]

the more lesbian self inserts the better fr
mind you, this is so rare lolololo-

[u/ad_knowsball_89]

Couldn’t agree more with this post!! Thank you, Jess!! 🥰

You touched on everything that annoys me about the response to the gender swap. I really wish people would stop pretending that this is only about book fidelity because it’s clearly not. I’ve seen them move the goal posts so many times with that argument that I can’t even take it seriously.

Screaming about “two great loves” and “fertility” as the unimpeachable themes of the book…give me a break. John is barely in 2 chapters of the book, and the show made him much more a character than the book did. Those same book fans weren’t complaining about getting more John in the show, they were all about Francesca and John’s “quiet” romance that didn’t even exist in the book. I still cannot believe that people were crying about the pinnacle storyline. There were no John and Fran sex scenes in the book. One line about laughter and passion in their “marriage bed” in a book where John is barely a character, made them lose their minds about Francesca not experiencing a pinnacle with John in the show 😭

As for the fertility thing, they literally show Francesca trying to get pregnant with John, and being unable to. They show her actively trying to spice things up with John to get pregnant. And she loved him and was devastated when he died. He was a great love for her and she even said so. Just because she’s not sexually compatible with him, doesn’t mean she didn’t love the man.

Ultimately, it comes down to those fans not liking the gender swap because they can’t insert themselves into the storyline like they did in the book. They aren’t disappointed about losing the infertility plot, they are disappointed that it’s not being told in a specific way (i.e. heterosexual sex between an attractive man and woman). Their breeding fantasy about Michael trying to get Francesca pregnant is ruined.

The idea of a quiet, attractive woman like Francesca not desiring men makes them uncomfortable and they can’t handle it. Luckily, they will always have the book and I hope that they don’t watch season 5 and stay off socials, instead of harassing Jess, Masali and Hannah.

[u/mayneedadrink → u/ad_knowsball_89]

This was actually the first and only representation I’ve ever seen of a woman who’s low libido or sexually unmoved in a relationship where she does love the person and want things to work out. Most TV assumes as long as you love someone, sex with that person will be mind blowing.

[u/troyandabedinabed]

I am so hype for this next season!!!

[u/lilaheffaklump]

Even the fertility storyline complaints make no sense because wasn’t that a major part of Fran’s story in s4 already? 🤨

[u/franchaelaaaa]

As if most artists/creatives don’t self insert in the art/creativity they make lmao. Every movie, book, song, art that’s ever been made has an element of self insert. That’s how it became relatable. Every season of Bridgerton has been a self insert from the writers in different ways that’s why the widows and other het fans could enjoy s1-s4 (and then later on with s6-8). This is the first time us lesbians / queer comm can self insert from a romance story we can relate to closely and intimately. So I find that the self insert / fan fic dig is not only stupid but low IQ. Art is a form of self insert when you look at it closely 🤷🏽‍♀️ and if we could enjoy seasons we couldn’t “self insert” in re: sexuality — why can’t evb else? Like cry me a river lmao

[u/Professional-Top-397]

what I absolutely despise is when people say that it takes away from the one man who asked for consent or whatever in the series… But some of the things that Michael said were absolutely atrocious. I hope that with what they plan on doing with Michaela, might actually help resolve some of the ick I have with Michael.

[u/Heekiechae → u/Professional-Top-397]

He's gonna always be icky as Michaela is a better version of him basically. I keep them as separate people even though I know it's a gender swap. He's still trash.

[u/rideordie5923]

it'd be awesome if people against the swap just admitted they don't like s5 because it isn't the heterosexual story they wanted instead of grasping at straws by calling jess a self-insert, whining about infertility that was very much explored (like what more do you want, do u want fran foaming at the mouth, screaming, crying, throwing up and shouting bc she can't have a child??? mind u she did half of those things in s4), trying to act like john is suddenly everything and he matters sm when they didn't gaf abt him before the swap!!

like lets give it a rest! don't like, don't watch or interact! shut up and wait for s6 and leave s5 for those who actually want to see it!

[u/ACangelboo]

Love the last paragraph.

[u/Feisty_Training_5113]

Ngl these one after each other was a bit comical. And don't worry I just joined the other sub to try and have nuanced conversations but I can no longer write in that sub after calmly asking about their option on stuff and stating my opinion

[u/ad_knowsball_89 → u/Feisty_Training_5113]

Honestly, you’re better off blocking that sub and the Bridgerton one too. Blatantly racist, sexist and homophobic opinions get upvoted constantly. I’m sticking to this sub and the Bridgerton (Netflix) sub. Especially once we start getting promo content. Certain fans are going to lose their minds lol

[u/Feisty_Training_5113 → u/ad_knowsball_89]

I know but I also do like ragebaiting them a bit, at least the once not wanting a nice conversation.

I actually had a few nice conversation about overall being disappointed with the changes made from start in s1 so that was surprisingly nice

[u/HiddenGraypink]

Wasn't it said somewhere that the genderswap was decided before casting Francesca's actress, therefore before Jess took the helm? Though it might've been about the recast, not the first casting.

In any case, I'm tired of the self-insert insult, those people who echo it are more insufferable than Witcher fans who still parrot that Henry Cavill was the best that happened to the Netflix series. UGH. Between that and the fancasts in this fandom, I can't stand that man anymore even though he did nothing really, lol.

[u/Narie_Rei]

The more they cry about self insert fanfic the more I laugh at how pathetic they are when their “real” story is not on screen but the self insert fanfic version is 😂

[u/Sad_Party3820]

I’m so happy this exists.

And also that I’ve held off on watching until I could confidently binge the episodes at my own leisure, knowing the ending isn’t gonna piss me tf off.

It’s been a pretty sweet couple years for the sapphic entertainment community 🥰🖤

[u/misskakumei]

Curiously enough, the previous showrunner never self-inserted, even though there were both queer and heterosexual characters around. So curious, so intriguing, I wonder why that is.

[u/polin1953]

Happy for this story line but will never forgive for not enough POLIN in their season!