literature
:Progressive The 1996 best-selling novel Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding chronicles the life of thirty-something singleton, Bridget Jones, as she navigates her way through a journalism career, friendship, and love. The novel has sold over two million copies worldwide, with three sequels and a film series grossing over $700,000,000. However, the series has gained criticism in recent years for being potentially problematic with an anti-feminist sentiment. This backlash is not new, many feminist writers at the time (including Germaine Greer) condemned it for its portrayal of women. The resurgence in debate comes in response to the character of Bridget Jones being listed as one of the seven women who’ve changed women’s lives by the BBC, alongside giants such as Helen Brook, Barbara Castle, and Jayaben Desai. In addition to this, she was also named the most inspiring movie heroine by Sky Cinema, above Hermione Granger, Erin Brockovich, and even Mulan. So, what is so bad about the obviously beloved heroine? Well, firstly, her obsession with her weight. Throughout the book, Bridget hovers around nine stone and yet is supposed to be a ‘fat’ character. She constantly counts calories, and this is encouraged by her friends. For example, when Mark Darcy tells her he likes her ‘just the way she is’, they ask ‘not thinner?’. A post-Christmas weight of 9st 4lbs is lamented as a ‘terrifying slide into obesity’ despite being a perfectly healthy weight. Secondly, the sexual harassment Bridget experiences in her workplace is glossed over and even joked about. Her relationship with Daniel Cleaver is one hell of an HR nightmare - he’s just lucky she fancies him as much as he fancies her. She even says herself ‘v. much enjoying being sexually harassed by Daniel Cleaver’. Then there’s Mr Fitzherbert (also known as ‘Titspervert’) who doesn’t bother to remember Bridget’s name but openly stares at her breasts without any consequences. Perhaps the worst is Bridget’s boss at ‘Sit Up Britain’, Richard Finch, who frequently instructs cameramen to take footage of Bridget’s bum and remarks that at his station, ‘nobody gets sacked for shagging the boss - that’s a matter of principle’. What may be most problematic is that Bridget’s thoughts often revolve around how attractive she is to men. For example, Bridget writes, ‘there is nothing so unattractive to a man as a strident feminist’; this ruffled as many feathers in the ‘90s as it does now. However, Helen Fielding has defended the line as something she meant as ‘a multi-layered joke’. In fact, most of Bridget
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