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.

[PowerNap]

@Gwenhwyfar

Also, in the book we never know her BMI, she could be any weight but more than she wants to be.



Every newspaper column (which was turned into the book) started with her listing her exact weight, calories consumed and number of cigarettes smoked.

[legosunqueen]

I still love it 😍 it was of its time but then most films are...

[Marguerite2000]

She's neither fat or thin, just in between, like many women. She's not very fit or toned though.
Weight was starting to be an issue at this time though, after the '70s and '80s, when most people were thin without really having to work at it. Also, there wasn't really any such thing as 'fat acceptance' so many people (or at least young women) would see even being a little bit overweight as undesirable. I think it accurately reflects attitudes at the time.

[Gwenhwyfar]

@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.

Not sure about dresses like her mother, but the rest was quite true so what's so bad about saying it? And not even directly to her. People have strengths and weaknesses and their potential partners know it.
Similarly he was a snobby and aloof, but had many good qualities...

[Stovetopespresso]

Ah yes I saw it too! so wrong it's right, very nostalgic. highlights for me, Hugh Grant saying smtg along lines of 'I'm just a creep with a posh accent and a dodgy personality', the hugeness of the flats, the IKEA wineglasses, the smug married scene, the possible ref to anal!
but the ideals she was meant to aspire to, wtf was that? ironic but reinforcing at the same time.

agree books much more subtle.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"Every newspaper column (which was turned into the book) started with her listing her exact weight, calories consumed and number of cigarettes smoked."

Yes, but not her HEIGHT. Without height, you don't have the BMI so you don't know whether 9st or 10st or whatever it soo much, too little, etc.
The author said this was on purpose.

[Stovetopespresso]

@Gwenhwyfar any bloke who uses the word spinster is a no-no surely. he is such a cold fish in the film!

[AdelindSchade]

I was early 20s when the book came out and didn't entirely identify with it even at the time - some of it seemed dated to me even then. I put it down to Bridget being a bit older and still really enjoyed it.

[Gwenhwyfar]

@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.

It was about the ticking biological clock too. That hasn't changed.

[BiscuitLover09876]

Agreed. Hugh Grant comes across as so pervy it's grim! It's very 90s though and if you can get over that and appreciate it for what it is then I still love it.

[Stovetopespresso]

I felt so wrong chucking away at the fireman's pole scene.
Sorry, firefighters pole

[Gwenhwyfar]

[quote Stovetopespresso]@Gwenhwyfar any bloke who uses the word spinster is a no-no surely. he is such a cold fish in the film![/quote]
Are you familiar with Pride & Prejudice?

[MissCruellaDeVil]

It certainly hasn't aged well but neither have most things from that era!

[BeforetheFlood]

Watched it last night with my 20 year old daughter too - we were both 😮 at Darcy calling her a 'verbally incontinent spinster' just after he's met her. I'd forgotten that bit!

Any chance of seeing him as a romantic hero fizzled and died right there. Agree that the obsession with marriage seems bonkers now.

[TatianaBis]

It was always shit. The film was shit, the columns were shit. No idea why women latched onto it.

[BiscuitLover09876]

Agree that darcey was always a bit of a dick

[RiverSkater]

Daniel Cleaver - when you think you're unloveable and on the shelf then the flirty emails would have been enjoyed, risqué but mostly very welcome.

The fight was for dramatic effect wasn't it? - even then people didn' have fights like that did they? Think of the repair bill!!

I enjoyed the first film, the second was awful but the third surprisingly good!

I loved her flat, mine was similar but in a far more ropey part of London!
The trains would have been very noisy!

[Journeyofthedragons]

I can't remember much about the baby one because it was pretty shit, but I seem to remember that the way she kept the two potential fathers in the dark about each other was pretty rum and their subsequent treatment left a bad taste in my mouth.

I really liked the first two books and films though.

[TatianaBis]

Weight was starting to be an issue at this time though, after the '70s and '80s, when most people were thin without really having to work at it.

Sorry, what?

[Stovetopespresso]

@Gwenhwyfar
'It was about the ticking biological clock too. That hasn't changed.'

it's changed for some women, there are other options out there and being chuld-free by choice is no longer a taboo. c'mon things have got better since then surely?

[Gwenhwyfar]

@BiscuitLover09876

Agreed. Hugh Grant comes across as so pervy it's grim! It's very 90s though and if you can get over that and appreciate it for what it is then I still love it.

I don't think he was pervy exactly. He was just obviously only after one thing. Bridget would have known this deep down and getting involved with him would have been some kind of commitment avoidance on her part. She had the immature choice of that kind of non-relationship and the mature choice of potentially true love with Darcy.

[AliceinBorderland]

@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

A 21 year old collegaue at work wears a size 4. In old money she would be a 8-10.

I'd be a 12 at least. It doesn't do anyone any favours.

[Noeuf]

He does do what we called negging now - at the dinner party he says all that liking her stuff despite xyz. We watched it thinking who the hell does he think he is criticising her.
And my point is now the fighting etc - no one is horrified, calling the police, no comeback on the well known Darcy etc.
Plus I don’t think the Darcy thing being linked to P&P is some great intellectual in joke you have to know about…

[Gwenhwyfar]

[quote Stovetopespresso]@Gwenhwyfar
'It was about the ticking biological clock too. That hasn't changed.'

it's changed for some women, there are other options out there and being chuld-free by choice is no longer a taboo. c'mon things have got better since then surely?[/quote]
Nope. There was IVF, adoption, even sperm donors in the 90s. What has changed? We still run out of eggs at some point.
Being childless wasn't particularly stigmatised in the 90s either.

[LittleBearPad]

The emails and fighting in the street weren’t acceptable then!

Doubtless the fighting in the street didn’t lead to issues because Darcy says they’ll pay for any damage.