“Men Are Sheep”
Be assured, first and foremost, that the imagery of men being viewed as sheep by women is not singular to just this entry in the Bridgerton series. The concept is explicitly mentioned using the exact same words in the entry titled It’s in His Kiss. More to the point, this imagery exists as allusive imagery through most of the books. To be sure, the novels are not explicitly saying that men are sheep so much as it is that the women in the novels believe this to be so. Although, perhaps, they are just following Lady Whistledown's assertion in Society Papers, 30 April 1813 quoted above.
"`Respect her intelligence enough to let her solve her own problems," Violet snapped. "And she doesn't look particularly unhappy right now…And if you say that's because you lot barged into her home like a herd of mentally deficient sheep, I'm disowning all three of you.’"
“Simon's smile was an endearing cross between sheepish and sly.”
"`Nothing,’ Anthony muttered, looking a trifle sheepish.”
Men Are Bullheaded Sheep
In truth, men are a strange, mutant hybrid type of sheep. Ones with the body of sheep and the head of a bull. And yet, somehow—and this is where it gets really freakish—their minds managed to be both sheepish and bullheaded. Maybe at the same time, although the imagery is a bi unclear on that issue. Once again, it all traces back to that opinionated busybody:
“`To say that men can be bullheaded would be insulting to the bull.' Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, 2 June 1813.”
“Violet only had eyes for her sons. `I knew I'd find you here,’ she accused. `Of all the stupid, bull-headed—.’”
“If no one needed saving, he certainly wasn't going to charge forward like some bullish fool.”
Men Are Idiots
And, finally, it gets down the meat of the matter. Enough with the animal metaphors; Lady Whistledown finally uses the word that she’s been dancing around the whole time. Admittedly, the daily prattler is speaking specific reference to men who duel, but what is being a man at such a time but a never-ending series of duels?
"`Did you know I have always suspected that men were idiots,’ Daphne ground out, `but I was
never positive until today.’”
“men tended to be mulish idiots when it came to things like honor and duels”
"`Men,’ Daphne grunted. `Idiots, all.’”
Meet the Bridgertons
The Duke and I is the novel that introduces the Bridgerton clan to the world. It is from this origin that series of novel and subsequent series which aired on Netflix began. As a result, one of the most significant pieces of imagery in the novel is that which introduces the Bridgerton clan. Appropriately enough, this introduction opens on the first page of Chapter 1, courtesy of, you guess it, Lady Whistledown. It is not entirely adoring:
“the sight of the viscountess and all eight of her children in one room is enough to make one fear one is seeing double—or triple—or worse. Never has This Author seen a collection of siblings so ludicrously alike in their physical regard. Although This Author has never taken the time to record eye color, all eight possess similar bone structure and the same thick, chestnut hair. One must pity the viscountess as she seeks advantageous marriages for her brood that she did not produce a single child of more fashionable coloring.”
