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AIBU?

To think that Bridget Jones is a terrible role model for women?

259 replies

malificent7 · 22/10/2020 05:31

I quite like the films...they are funny... but they do make me cringe.
Bridget overhears Mark Darcy slag her off. ( calling her a spinster- terrible sexist word) then ends up obsessed with him.
She has a perfectly lovely figure but we are led to believe she is fat as she permanently struggles to loose weight and become like her "stick insect" love rivals..
She is quite inept and bumbling....adorable but useless.
That bloody song " all by myself!"

I know as women we can probably all relate to Bridget on some level ..especially her insecueities but bloody hell...we should not want to be like her!

Am I missing the point here? Are the films/ book sexist or are they trying to highlight sexism? Either way...Bridget Jones is anti feminist .

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user1472151176 · 24/10/2020 16:17

I would rather my daughter turned to Bridgette Jones as a role model rather than trawling through Instagram and seeing some of those 'role models'. Bridgette Jones was strong, she dumped the man who was doing the dirty on her, she owned her costume when she turned up at the tarts and vicars party, great relationship with her friends and parents.
Body image in my eyes is 1 million times worse then it was 20 years ago. Always seeing campaigns about loving your body but Instagram is full of filled lips, false eyelashes, photoshop, hair extensions, fake tans, false nails and running. Everyone is always running 🤷‍♀️. Each to their own but personally I don't think feminism is any better now then it was, probably worse.

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Camogue · 24/10/2020 16:47

@nicky7654

She is a normal woman!!

See, I certainly don't think BJ is a role model, or in any way intended as one, but neither do I think she's a 'normal woman', any more than I think Bertie Wooster is a 'normal man' of his time, or Carrie Bradshaw a 'normal woman' of hers. She's a hapless comic caricature, fleshed out from a newspaper column into a fairly standard 'lovably flawed' chick-lit heroine.
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longvodkalover10 · 24/10/2020 17:05

Ahh i love the BJ movies, but as a role model, no!
I also remember her weight being made a big deal of, both on screen and off. The line i really detest in the first movie is when she catches daniel cleaver cheating on her, and the other woman says "i thought you said she was thin", i dont know why but thats always bothered me. I feel that was for the audiences benefit, for us to judge her as not thin, in a way

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dottiedodah · 24/10/2020 17:11

I agree with above PP .Bridget was lovely kind and attractive as well.Not in a skinny big boobed way. But just like a normal woman who made some mistakes yes ,but took it on the chin and bounced back.Obsession with weight has always been there through the ages, with Corsets ,Girdles ,and a 1950s style Diet plan I read about. Which basically meant starving oneself for 2/3 days to look good for a "Special Occasion"whatever that was .Dont really go on Instagram but messages of Tanning ,Running ,fake photos and so on seem to be all around us .Many young girls wanting to look like Kardashians or Beyonce with big boobs /bums and tiny tums!

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TeamLannister · 24/10/2020 17:21

She's a privileged, self obsessed dosebag!

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DrawingLife · 24/10/2020 17:24

I read one of the books, thought it was awful. Boring, sexist, unfunny.

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billy1966 · 24/10/2020 17:29

@longvodkalover10

Ahh i love the BJ movies, but as a role model, no!
I also remember her weight being made a big deal of, both on screen and off. The line i really detest in the first movie is when she catches daniel cleaver cheating on her, and the other woman says "i thought you said she was thin", i dont know why but thats always bothered me. I feel that was for the audiences benefit, for us to judge her as not thin, in a way

I thought the thin remark was a way of displaying what a prize bitch she was.

Exactly the type of woman Clever deserved.

BJ was light hearted escapism IMO.
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lioncitygirl · 24/10/2020 17:31

YABU. She was not meant to be a role model and it’s a film for goodness sake!

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Hopoindown31 · 24/10/2020 17:31

She's a comic character not a role model, surely? Does every female lead have to be a role model?

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