Bridget jones diary… what are ur thoughts????

[Emblue1981]

So over Christmas I watched Bridget Jones for the first time.. yes I know, where have I been for the past 20 years.

Anyway, all my friends love the book/ films so I decided to give it a go and can’t believe how disappointed I was. In summary she’s sexually harassed at her work place (Hugh Grant character) which subsequently leads to her leaving her job, she's portrayed as stupid ( political scenes) fat shamed ( she weighs 9 and a half stone for goodness sake !) not to mention the creepy uncle who continuously makes sexual comments to Bridget.

In 2022 do people still really like this movie or is it more a case that, it had its place at the time but let’s move on???

And yet ..

It was bustle so not official or anything. The article they wrote I posted earlier was really good though! Covered loads of stuff about women in film etc. Just pretend still says first!

I think I looked and couldn't find anything else that celebrated this women trilogy thing elsewhere.

Hugh Grant was great in a Very English Scandal when he played Jeremy Thorpe (I'm old enough to remember the scandal).
What is surprising for me is that he just seemed to be getting by on his good looking rich boy in his youth, with few acting skills, but now anything I've seen him in has been good.

Its satirical and I will always have a soft spot for it. The books are far superior and more nuanced than the films. It has many truths about what women's lives were and what some of course continue to be. If that isn't 'woke', so be it

@VelmaandShaggy

Its satirical and I will always have a soft spot for it. The books are far superior and more nuanced than the films. It has many truths about what women's lives were and what some of course continue to be. If that isn't 'woke', so be it

I think this is a great way to put it. It has nuance and truth. It’s not a moral guidebook to show women a perfect world, but a reflection of what a woman’s life might have been like at that period of time. With nuanced characters who had both good and bad points.

I loved the book! It perfectly captured what it was to be a young woman in the 90s. We didn’t think Bridget was a role model, we though she was us! It was amazing reading a book that felt so real and so relatable - I don’t think there were any other books that aimed at that demographic at the time. I had some friends that used to pretend to be the characters (as in do role play) they identified so strongly with the characters, even though we were grown up. We did spend a lot of time in the pub analysing everything. We were less able to ‘call out’ sexism. I don’t think ‘call out’ was even a phrase. Today’s middle class, successful, media types are very different - all phones and yoga. Bridget is clearly attractive and successful but she doesn’t realise it. She becomes a television presenter and it barely registers with her. Today’s Bridget would be all over ‘insta’ and probably build a career out of the fireman’s pole incident.

Helen Fielding herself has denied its the case but its widely felt that the Mark Darcy character is heavily influenced by Keir Starmer who moved in the same circles at the time. The similarities are uncanny.

I love the books, they are deeply funny and I love Bridget

The films are good but in a different way, I love them too tbh

I relate much more to Bridget than I do to Fleabag

They are two extremes. Bridget needs a man and men lets men treat her badly (until Darcy). Fleabag doesn't need a man and she treats them like badly (until hot priest)

Are these the kind of women we want to be?

@heelforheelandtoefortoe

I relate much more to Bridget than I do to Fleabag

They are two extremes. Bridget needs a man and men lets men treat her badly (until Darcy). Fleabag doesn't need a man and she treats them like badly (until hot priest)

Are these the kind of women we want to be?

Well no I don’t want to be like Fleabag or Bridget.

I also don’t particularly want to be like Mark & Jez from Peep Show but it doesn’t make it a bad programme. It’s a fantastic programme, with funny and interesting characters. They’re just not beacons of morality because they’re not supposed to be. It’s not a guide to how you should behave.

It was funny when I read it back in the 90s but, as others have said, the world has moved on since then.

I really don't see how we've "moved on."
No more obsession with weight and how we look? No more wondering if someone fancies us or not? Trying to fit in with what parents want from us? I don't see this.
What has happened to those of us who were Bridget's age when the book came is that we have changed, as women tend to do as they get older. I don't think society has changed significantly, well I think it's got worse in many ways tbh.

I love the idea that the writer who conceived the character says categorically he was not based on Keir Starmer and she's never even met him. And yet people still say it is based on him.

The book is amazing and completely hilarious. The film I don’t think quite captured it. The whole thing was just comforting in that you can find humour in daily life. I found it enormously helpful to read.

This thread has inspired me to download the book on kindle and read again 😂

The book is very funny - from the lists of calories at the start of each entry, Briget's aspirational lifestyle, her naivety despite trying to be a professional career women, and attempts to disassociate herself from her middle class upbringing, ...

@pastabest

Helen Fielding herself has denied its the case but its widely felt that the Mark Darcy character is heavily influenced by Keir Starmer who moved in the same circles at the time. The similarities are uncanny.

@Drunkpanda

I really don't see how we've "moved on." No more obsession with weight and how we look? No more wondering if someone fancies us or not? Trying to fit in with what parents want from us? I don't see this. What has happened to those of us who were Bridget's age when the book came is that we have changed, as women tend to do as they get older. I don't think society has changed significantly, well I think it's got worse in many ways tbh.

Yeah, I think the social pressure over looks is worse. She might not be counting calories these days, but a young woman like Bridget might be asking for a nose job or botox or to have the dermatologist remove all of her pores, so she can look like her filtered insta photos.

Yes I can imagine the modern day Bridget’s Diary. Except it would be Bridget’s blog, and instead of listing the calories in her diet every day she would be doing an Instagram 50 days of keto challenge or something. And Daniel would harass her over email/zoom by repeatedly asking for her personal Snapchat in work meetings.

Her diary wouldn't surprise Darcy as he would have already read it all online.

I love it. Book and film. It's satire and a modern re-working of Pride and Prejudice. Why is everything gathered days supposed to portray an ideal world?

Absolutely agree with the pp that says the world hasn't moved on. Same shit, different diet plan.

I read the book when it came out when I was fourteen. Looking at her from teenage eyes she had a brilliant life, cool job, own flat, nice fun friends, out getting pissed every single night and having two men fighting over her. As an adult I can see it was of it’s time, but a lot of it was satire like the constant fat shaming herself at 9.5 stone. Most women weighted that or less then.

I always thought the book and the film were miles apart.

Renee Zellwegger wasn't the right actress for the part imo.

The film portrayed her as a dipsy idiot whereas the book she was just a normal young woman with all the usual neurotic issues!! She absolutely was not fat and that was the point, she obsessed over her weight which was fine.

I’m an old school feminist and loved the books and the films

And yes, it’s pride and prejudice updated

Loved Renee Zellwegger too