Bridget Jones

[Doggymummar]

I thought I would have a Bridget Jones marathon today ( I didn't realise there are four films). Just ten minutes into the first one, I realised I have lost 50lbs and am still 50lbs heavier than BJ is in the movie lamenting the that she will die fat and be eaten by Alsatians. I guess 2001 was the height of Heroin chic, but blimey. She weighed 136lb and was trying to lose 20. Not sure this is a healthy movie.

That’s funny, I’ve also had a Bridget jones marathon today - thoroughly enjoyed them all! I think the point from the books is that she thinks she’s fat when she really isn’t.

I'm on the second one now, don't think I've ever seen it.

2nd one is probably the worst one. I'm going to swe the new one on Wed, looking forward to it!

But what Myfanwyprice says is right

Don’t read so much into it. It’s a wonderful feel good film.

It’s a chick flick, just enjoy and don’t make it something it really isn’t.

Bridget wasn’t fat. She wasn’t supposed to be fat.
She thought she was fat. That was the whole point of it.

In the first book she weighs 9st3(ish) and is trying to get down to 8st7. No one in the books calls her fat - the point us she isn't but thinks she is. I remember when they released the first film lots of people commenting on whether Renee Zelweger had put on enough weight to play Bridget. Clearly they hadn't read the book or had simply missed the point!

Ah I've never read the book. In the movie her dad called her chunks or something like that and there are many references to her being over weight. I've enjoyed the two so far.

In one of the books- I think the second after being in the Thai jail- she finally gets down to 8 stone 5 or whatever she wanted to be. She’s delighted. And then everyone thinks she looks ill or tired and she’s really disappointed. So it does go to show in the books that she was a healthy weight that looked good on her but she just really didn’t think so and was obsessed over it.

Yeah exactly, she looks perfectly normal weight to me.

I'm no fan of Bridget Jones, but I don't think it's encouraging you to model your views on hers. People in films can be fallible, deluded, silly and messed up, jusy like people in real life. That doesn't make it an 'unhealthy' film!

I watched last night and was thinking about how she was considered a bit overweight in the film but she's really not! There's been quite a bit of sm around recently around how such ridiculous tiny body images were pushed onto girls in the 1990s/2000s and this was part of it.

In real life around that time she was slammed for being unhealthily skinny

Surely it depends on how tall a person is? She is quite short so aiming for around 110lbs isn't unhealthy- to be honest that's the upper end of my healthy weight (I am a short arse!)
I do think that it was set in an era when women who were a perfectly lovely size 12 obsessed about being an 8-10- you're right about that!

I’m talking about the book character not the actress in the film

When I read the book I always pictured a skinny woman, more like Sarah Jessica Parker than Renee Zellweger. I weighed the same as she did at that time (I was in my early 20s then) and was slim but also recognised the obsession with food and calories 😕

I reread the book last year as I was interested whether it would have dated badly. It's actually held up better than I thought as it's so obviously 90s (it's set in 1995) that it's easier to forgive the bits that wouldn't happen now (all the smoking etc!). It's quite different from the film, though.

Yes I know, that's why I said "in real life" meaning the same thing happened to RZ around that time

The second one came out in 2004, at a time when bare midriffs, thigh gaps and size 0 were things to be aspired to. It's just reflective of the time it was made.

I remember listening to the pair who used to be on radio one before Chris Moyles' show, and they used to pick over any female singer or actress and imply that they were fat if they were bigger than size zero

Oh ok sorry I got confused- the second book came out 5 years before the film

I just renember RZ in the papers just after the 2nd film I think. To be fair I think she did look a bit too thin & definitely less than 8.5 st!