Bridget Jones - watched it last night, erm it’s aged a bit!

[Noeuf]

Gosh watched with dd as I was up late and it came on. Funny how I remembered it and how we’ve moved on now.
The emails about her skirt - funny/flirty then and now massively inappropriate
Darcy ‘negging’ her - dd couldn’t see why he was meant to be the one we all wanted
Fighting in the street! And no comeback for him as a human rights barrister
91/2 stone - and she was fat??!!! I weigh more than that and don’t think I’m comment worthy!
Just so interesting to see how my views have changed really.

[Lamentations]

I loved it and probably still would. It makes me realise how much stuff we're not allowed to find funny anymore. Nobody must be offended; it's miserable.

I watched As Good As It Gets again a couple of years ago and it struck me how that's outdated now because Jack Nicholson's character would be completely beyond redemption these days due to the initial homophobic bullying.

[Gwenhwyfar]

@Noeuf

But that’s not quite true - the American (Lara) says something like I thought she was thin?

That's not the same as saying somebody is fat, is it?
Also, in the book we never know her BMI, she could be any weight but more than she wants to be.

[Invasionofthegutsnatchers]

Come the fuck on, Bridget!

Love her.

[Brefugee]

The emails about her skirt - funny/flirty then and now massively inappropriate

no. It wasn't appropriate then, and it isn't appropriate now. The difference is we are more able to bring that to someone's attention and have it stopped.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"The emails about her skirt - funny/flirty then "

No, even then, those emails made it clear Daniel Cleaver was only ever after one thing.
Also, Darcy wasn't getting, he was being 'proud'. I also think people unfamiliar with Pride and Prejudice don't get the Darcy thing as well as others do.

[Noeuf]

I’m 48 now. Definitely don’t think we were meant to be horrified at the street fighting etc. We all fancied Darcy but he’s just so unappealing now.
The weight thing - I really don’t remember it being so clever and layered. Maybe it was reflecting the hero on chic stuff but all the other characters are thinner than RZ in the films.

[Noeuf]

*heroin chic

[Gwenhwyfar]

@Bagelsandbrie

I watched it again and thought the same!

She was definitely meant to be “fat” - that’s why there’s the whole joke about the big pants etc. She looks pretty slim to me!

No! Average women wear big pants to 'keep it all in'. She's meant to be a bit bigger than considered ideal so maybe a size 12 who wants to be a 10. And as I mentioned, in the book, we never know where she is in the range between not as slim as she'd like and a bit chubby.

[x2boys]

I the first book she interviews Colin firth, and makes a big deal of the pride and prejudice scene where he emerges from the lake in a wet, white shirt, Hugh Grant is also mentioned i think it was around the time when he was arrested for the incident with the prostitute, it amuses me that they were then cast, as the two male leads in the film

[QueenDanu]

Yeh there is much more awareness now of red flags. Negging, gas lighting, avoidance.

Not that dating is easier!

[Gwenhwyfar]

@ravenmum

Daniel Cleaver was meant to be a horrible creep at the time - as the reader you were supposed to read between the lines and writhe in horror and fascination at what she was doing. It's the unreliable narrator trick and can be very funny.

Not much reading between the lines needed. It was made very clear what he was like from the beginning.
I do remember the 'unreliable narrator' when Bridget claimed she didn't know why he was so helpful in finding her the bunny costume! Nobody would be that naive in real life, but it's funny in the book.

[Noeuf]

‘Yeh there is much more awareness now of red flags. Negging, gas lighting, avoidance.‘

This is what dd and I were saying - dd was like ‘why didn’t he just tell her he was popping out to get a new diary?’ Whereas at the time the ending was really ‘romantic’

[Gwenhwyfar]

@Brefugee

The emails about her skirt - funny/flirty then and now massively inappropriate

no. It wasn't appropriate then, and it isn't appropriate now. The difference is we are more able to bring that to someone's attention and have it stopped.

Um, think you've missed the point. She wanted the emails.

[Brefugee]

At the time the film came out lots of critics had completely missed the point that Bridgit isn't actually fat, it's her own perception because she's not a size zero. I thought it was quite clever because it really pointed out how women are influenced by this kind of thinking. (i often look at photos of me from the 80s and 90s and wonder at how skinny i was. At the time i thought i was huge and there really aren't that many photos of me from back then because of it)

Anyway, the critics were all over the actress who had spent a few months stuffing herself with sausages and pies to "get fat" - she's usually very slender - and that although she was supposed to be "fat" she really isn't. And the comment about "you said she was thin" was absolutely brilliant for really bringing that home.

The rest of the sexism & fighting and so on? yep, it wasn't acceptable then.

[TerryWoganFanGirl]

There’s a bit in the books where she reaches her target weight and is so happy but then her friends and colleagues ask her if she is ok as she looks a bit ill and gaunt and she realises what she aspired to isn’t actually what she imagined. I think that is really relatable to the time with the “heroin chic” look and supermodels who were so stick thin and anorexic.

Also love the part where she does a dinner party and manages to produce blue soup and marmalade as dessert and Darcy and her friends are lovely and they look at the pictures in the recipe book to imagine what it could have been like.

And agree Daniel was meant to be seen as a shit by the reader. But Bridget couldn’t see it. Until she realised what she needed was a Darcy (just like every woman who watched the 90s adaptation of P&P).

Love Bridget.

[BikeRunSki]

@Cuntness

It annoys me that her birthday is in November in the first one, and then during festival season in the third.

This!

[Redsquirrel5]

My sons have a friend who works in the Lake District and he was hoping Rene Z would show up as they often have celebrities there. She came on his day off and he was gutted at first he thought they were teasing him with texts but one got a selfie. They said she was lovely. They still remind him ...it was when she was filming Miss Potter.

I didn’t watch it last night but have seen it several times, she was so right for that part.😃

[Brefugee]

Um, think you've missed the point. She wanted the emails.

i read it as OP thinking that generally it was acceptable. Sure she wanted them, and if she wanted them now it would be fine. Except that it isn't fine for this at work. As it wasn't then either.

[Gwenhwyfar]

@Noeuf

‘Yeh there is much more awareness now of red flags. Negging, gas lighting, avoidance.‘

This is what dd and I were saying - dd was like ‘why didn’t he just tell her he was popping out to get a new diary?’ Whereas at the time the ending was really ‘romantic’

But Darcy never 'negged'. He was aloof at times, but he wasn't intentionally nasty to her to get her interested.

[RandomDent]

She had a pair of jeans in the book she wanted to fit into. I think they might have been an 8. She was so proud but people were asking her if she was ok, i.e she was too thin. I remembered how she noticed her “admittedly deflated cleavage”.

This bugged me about the film but might have been less funny if they’d explored it.

[Crinkle77]

I always thought the films were dreadful. Loved the books though!

[ravenmum]

Not much reading between the lines needed. It was made very clear what he was like from the beginning
The lines were very far apart, it's true!

[YoungGiftedPlump]

At the time I weighed about 8 stone (5 foot 8) and was a size 10. Now I weigh much more that than but I am still a size 10

Sizing was very different then

[AliceinBorderland]

I never understood Darcy.

She overhears him telling his mother she is a verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney drinks like a fish and dresses like her mother.

Bridget manages it with grace and decorum in the face of his insufferable rudeness. Then she does what she can to get him. I quite honestly would never have spoken to him again. I don't get it.

[Echobelly]

I think @QueenDanu hits the point well - when one reads all those novels where 23 year-olds are told they're old maids because they're not married yet! Standards change and I guess Bridget Jones hits the key anxieties on the early 90s pretty well.