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 .

[TatianaBis]

@MrsGRamsay

Oh FFS, OP has a valid point - it wasn't written in ye olde years - however, women were (as now) expected to be up for it, working in interesting, well paid (read - makes him look good) job, financially independent with own flat.

Yet incredibly needy and only validated when with bloke.

I remember reading and aghast that every chapter started with weight. I've never owned a set of scales in my life yet somehow know if lost or gained - yup, have to complain to dry cleaner for shrinking third work dress in a row - doh.

Not as bad as Sex in the City. Talk about mixed messages - strong, independent women; shag married blokes in the marital bed, are married for a day and demand prime New York real estate as alimony, think it's cute they use kitchen as storage unit for clothes and spent equivalent of house deposit on shoes, obsessed with getting married and then go all weird over wearing engagement ring, be awarded with jewellery for almost shagging ex, shag anything that moved as 'revenge' against lover? Etc.

Yeah me too. I had no interest in her weight problems and needy man obsession.

[WuthPP]

FFS does every film or book have to have a role model and be politically correct? cant we just be allowed to slob on the sofa and enjoy a story?

[Caeruleanblue]

That quirky corner flat must have been worth approaching a million

[EmilySpinach]

You've completely missed the point. It is satirical.

[cdtaylornats]

Why is spinster any more sexist than bachelor?

[hopefulhalf]

That quirky corner flat must have been worth approaching a million

Actually not in 1994 when the column was started . It's in London Bridge/ borough which was considered pretty grotty in 1988 when Bridget might have bought.

[EmilySpinach]

And FWIW Pride and Prejudice is satirical too.

[Tootletum]

I think you're missing the point a bit. The original column in the independent made it quite clear that it was about the pressure women put themselves under to live up to beauty ideals. It was clear that her self perception probably wasn't the reality, and the way in which she was socialised to always find fault with herself was very true to life. I read the columns in 1995, when I was 17, and they certainly reflected my own feelings and highlighted how stupid society is about weight and appearance. The films are far less nuanced.

[norunningwithscizzuhz]

I don't want her to be a role model. I just want her to be funny, which she is.

[Dishwashersaurous]

Surely the whole point is she was the opposite of a role model!

[EmeraldShamrock]

You're over thinking it.
It is comedy based on a book. I thought they were funny ATT and yes some parts I could relate too.
Hardly a role model.

[TantieTowie]

Don't think she was ever a heroine –just a figure who expressed the way many women of her age and time were feeling about life.

[dottiedodah]

Maybe I am wrong here ,but I seem to remember reading somewhere that Helen Fielding based BJ on her own experiences? Whether true or not ,adore BJ (The first movie) so much .Just reminds me of so may women( inc me!) who struggle with their weight ,and self confidence .Everything about it is poignant and funny in equal measure.

[TheNewLook]

All I took from the films was that they made Bridget chubby when the entire point of the diaries was that she was neurotic about her weight needlessly! She wasn’t fat. She weighed about 9st! So why did Renee Zellweger have to gain so much to play the role? That’s always bugged me...

[MrsToothyBitch]

I never saw Bridget as a role model or someone I WANTED to be like or project, she's more someone you surprisingly and secretly identify with because shes the inner version of yourself. The flawed one who makes mistakes and doesn't feel good enough. Maybe not in every way but enough to strike a chord. My parents are slowly becoming Bridget's parents I think, too! You don't learn from Bridget, she confirms your mistakes. She did teach me to always choose big knickers to increase my chances of having a shag though.

I'm 30 so generation-wise she's above me and has always seemed slightly dated in some ways, but in other ways I'd say Bridget and her "world" are still very relatable. When I was single at the end of my 20s, I did start to see the stereotypes and behaviour Bridget encounters. Some of the "types" may have evolved or modified but the blueprint is still there from the books and the films. There are still smug marrieds/smug committeds, there are still Cleavers/fuck boys, there's still the pressures of looks, weight, jobs, people asking why you're so single. There are still perfect Natasha types who cut your very existence to the quick with a single utterance in THAT tone of voice (I know one, sadly).

[TheNewLook]

The original column in the independent made it quite clear that it was about the pressure women put themselves under to live up to beauty ideals. It was clear that her self perception probably wasn't the reality, and the way in which she was socialised to always find fault with herself was very true to life.

This.

Whoever wrote the films took this to mean Bridget was fat and clumsy and played it for laughs.

[Requinblanc]

What do you expect what is simply a fictional character to be a 'role model'?

To me that is a bizarre concept...

I have never read the books but I have enjoyed the films and found them amusing. I don't find a need to overthink it beyond that...

[user1495884620]

Agree with everyone who has said that she's a fictional character, she isn't supposed to be a role model. The fact that she is three dimensional and has flaws as well as strengths is what makes her a great character in my opinion. A story about a perfect role model with a perfect life would be quite dull.

[AdoptAdaptImprove]

@FreekStar

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.

This exactly! I was Bridget in that place and time, and even had my own Cleave (bastard). Helen Fielding started her as a column in the paper, gently poking fun at herself and me and all the rest of us. She was the 90s twenty something everywoman. Not who I’d aspire to be now, but bloody hell, we had some fun then.

[PlanDeRaccordement]

Bridget Jones isn’t meant to be a role model for women. She’s meant to be a woman who doesn’t meet conventional standards of beauty navigating the sexism of her times and still finding love.

[Sparklesocks]

Definitely not a role model.
Protagonists aren’t always meant to be held up as role models or ideas of what people should be, they’re often purposefully flawed. You can relate to fictional characters without wanting or needing to emulate them. Sometimes you’re not even meant to like them!
And I always felt with BJ was more of a slight satire/gentle fun poking about women fearing being single and worrying about their weight, rather than a faithful portrait.

[IntermittentParps]

l never related to or identified with her. Don't understand why the films and books were/are so popular; I never found them interesting or funny in the least. Why the blue spaghetti thing is so funny has always particularly baffled me.

[Cheeseandwin5]

I agree with you, also if I had Colin Firth and Hugh Grant fighting over me, I would think my life wasn't too bad.

[RoyalCorgi]

I hate to break it to you, but Adrian Mole is also a terrible role model for boys.

But guess what? He isn't supposed to be a role model. He's a delightful comic character: likeable, a bit foolish and a bit insecure. Just like Bridget.

[lottiegarbanzo]

She's not a role model (WTF?!). She's an anti-heroine.

Rather like Adrian Mole but not quite as tragically inept. Would you describe A. Mole as a role model for men??? Yet those books (and TV and radio adaptations) were massively popular in the '80s and since. Though fewer people would admit to identifying with Adrian.

Have you ever read an interview with Helen Fielding about BJ? She talked about how, when she looked back on her university days, she saw herself retrospectively as cool, clever and in control. Then she read her diaries from the time and they portrayed someone very insecure and recording her weight and cigarettes smoked daily. True life!

So that's what the character is about. Someone bright, capable and in some ways impressive career-wise but at the same time, massively self-doubting and obsessed by introspective detail.