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

[malificent7]

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 .

I don't think that Helen Fielding's BJ was ever presented as a role model. She's a hapless comedy character, a bit like Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole. As others have said, BJ was a girl of her time (late 90's), life is very different for everyone now.

The first book was hilarious. Bridget had her dopey moments but she was funny and feisty and smart. In the movie she just came across as a big sad drip. Zellweger played her as though she was an animal caught in the headlights and it was really disappointing. The part was made for Kate Winslett who would have given the role the sassy punch it needed.

Great easy watching film. Who cares about the rest, can't we just stop analysing everything.

Agree with @Wiredforsound

She was never meant to be a role model- she was written as a reflection of the 90's twenty something women, and was a character they could relate to at the time and find funny, because we could all see a bit of our own lives in Bridget and laugh and reflect at the slight ridiculousness of it all.

I think you’re confused op she was never intended to be a role model. No more than many other fictional characters.

She's a caricature, not a role model!

She's a humorously exaggerated embodiment of the typical flaws and vices of the 90s woman, as perceived by the Helen Fielding.

I was never a huge fan, though I did read the original book and found it mildly entertaining. Its success suggests it resonated at some level with a lot of women at the time.

If Helen Fielding were writing it now, I expect Bridget would have a different set of flaws and vices appropriate to the 2020s. I seem to remember she has written a more recent book about Bridget, but I haven't read it.

Not sure why I said 'the Helen Fielding' there!

Disagree. At the time she was relatable. Times change. Hate it when people look back on old films/tv shows and compare them to today's values.

Agree she’s not ment to be a role model

In fact I think we need a new Bridget Jones person/character for 2020

@BrizNiz you've made my day with that anecdote!

Why does she have to be a role model? Cant women just be in films for fun?

Bridget overhears Mark Darcy slag her off. ( calling her a spinster- terrible sexist word) then ends up obsessed with him.

The novel was loosely following the trajectory of the Elizabeth Bennett/Mr Darcy romance of Pride & Prejudice, so this is based on Mr Darcy sneering at the idea of Elizabeth as a possible dancing partner at the start of the Austen novel,

In the book Bridget describes 9 stone 3 as a slip into obesity.

I never read bridget jones thinking she was meant to be a role model. And yes the film totally missed the point of her not actually being fat, but just thinking she was.

The character is very much of her time. Bear in mind Fielding started the columns in 1994!

Never have and never will see her as a role model, I will however see her character as a funny, light hearted fictional person who gives me a bit of light relief from the world of nonsense. ( which includes those comparing her to a role model!!!!!!! )

You are being unreasonable. Who on earth takes characters from books or films as their role models? As for the “book”-that was a piece of shi*e from beginning to end. It was one of those very rare occasions when the film was far better than the book, I think.

She isn’t a role model

But many of us relate to how she feels

I think they are great books especially the first one and books of their time

I never thought she was meant to be a role model, just that women can relate to her. I love Bridget Jones but shes not an inspirational character.

I find it funny/sad that she’s seen as a bit of a loser when she’s got a fab job and an amazing London flat!

@Chickenwing

In the book Bridget describes 9 stone 3 as a slip into obesity.

There were loads of articles at the time about how Rene Zellweger who played her the film had to stuff herself with cream cakes to get her weight up to 9st in order to play Bridget convincingly.

Liking a character ≠ aspiring to be that character.

I remember reading the book when it came out and finding her annoying and insecure, and then realised that many, many of my straight girlfriends had lots of her traits and some behaved like that around blokes. We were all in our 20s and I was thankful that I was gay and not bothered about impressing boys! She's a comic exaggeration, and not ever meant to be a role model.

It is not intended as a lifestyle guide any more than “The Handmaid’s Tale” is.