Bridget Jones, a role model for us allby Janet Street-Porter, The Independent Tomorrow
the latest exploits of Bridget Jones will be released in cinemas all over
Britain and America. A disproportionate amount of media coverage has
focused on the poundage gained and lost by its star, Renee Zelwegger. At
the premiere in London on Tuesday, thousands of women waited for hours to
see their heroine - now as thin as a stick - in the flesh. But forget the
undeniably talented Renee and the size of her breasts for a moment - what
is it about the character of Bridget Jones that appeals to ordinary women
all over the world? The
transition from the printed page to the screen has been effortless. The
fan club of millions of happy readers has been swelled by millions more
contented filmgoers. Bridget Jones has become more than a character, she's
become a shorthand note for a certain kind of lifestyle. The
book spawned a whole genre, chick lit, inspired advertisements, websites,
and a fresh style of marketing strategy directed at single working women
in their thirties. When
Helen Fielding started her column in this very paper, it was read avidly
by the middle classes. But gradually something extraordinary happened -
women from Bombay to Bolivia, Canada to Germany, Brazil to Australia
latched onto the concept of Bridget Jones. Recognising her as a kindred
spirit they formed fanzines and internet clubs to talk to each other. The
notion of being a single woman, on a permanent diet and hopelessly looking
for Mr Right per cent, was something that crossed all frontiers, survived
translation into any language and resonated in all sorts of social milieu.
Fielding could truly claim to have invented the one original heroine since
Wonderwoman that appeals to all social classes and all ethnic groups - the
one thing they hold in common is their gender. In Bridget they found an
instant friend. For
a long time Bridget Jones was a book the literati pretended they hadn't
read, just as the first movie was one they only ever claimed to have seen
on a plane - as I did, spending several hours on a flight to Singapore
convulsed with laughter. Quite simply, it was a joy from start to finish. The
second movie, directed by Beeban Kidron, achieved the enviable result of
making a cinema full of po-faced film critics howl with laughter first
thing on a Monday morning. There is no doubt that it will become one of
the most successful British films ever. The
critics may sneer at the broad comedy, the set-piece gags and the slightly
rose-tinted view of the world inhabited by Bridget and friends, and I
predict some carping over the tastelessness of scenes set in a Thai jail
when our heroine is arrested for drug smuggling. Lesbians too may be
unhappy with Bridget's reaction to a declaration of love from a member of
her own sex - is it politically correct enough? But at the end of the day,
this is not a gritty piece of kitchen sink realism, but a frothy
confection designed to let you leave the cinema with a smile on your face
feeling a bit of a warm glow. In
many ways, Bridget has become an iconic figurehead for women precisely
because she is a mass of contradictions, of unrealised ambitions and good
intentions. Deep
down Bridget is fairly conventional - she wants to be happy and that means
getting married to Mr Right. She has surrounded herself with friends
rather than relatives because her own family is dysfunctional and her
mother such an embarrassment. Although she loves her father, there is no
hint of affection for her ghastly self-centred mother. Bridget
also enjoys sex, smoking, and drinking far more units than some dreary
government health initiative would recommend. But Bridget is well-balanced
and happy in her world, unlike her male peers. Edinburgh
University recently published a survey which reveals that single men in
their thirties and forties have fewer friends, a poorer diet and more
depression than their married counterparts. Single
women, on the other hand, have a far better time of it, earning higher
wages than a generation ago, and spending a large amount of their money on
having a good time. And
the Bridget Jones phenomenon isn't just confined to the thirty-somethings,
according to market research conducted by a leading bank. A soaring
divorce rate has produced a new generation of female singletons in their
fifties, who drink, smoke, hang out with their surrogate family of friends
and go to bars and clubs looking for partners. Unlike their mothers'
generation they embrace new technology from the internet to mobile phones,
and one third, exactly the same proportion as the thirty-somethings, claim
to be on a permanent diet, Bridget-style. Interestingly,
49 per cent of these 50-year-old Bridgets don't want to get married again,
compared to 39 per cent of the younger group. Above
all else, Bridget Jones is a marketing dream - Google Bridget Jones and
you find that Marks & Spencer are in a prime spot flogging their
“magic” knickers as worn by our heroine and eulogised by Trinny and
Susannah as the answer to a flabby midriff in What Not to Wear. Travel
agencies expect The Edge of Reason to bring hordes of tourists to London
to follow Bridget's footsteps from her Southwark mansion flat by the
railway line through the Borough vegetable market and over London Bridge,
stopping in M & S en route to pick up some big pants. I
have no doubt that Helen Fielding will pen a third volume of Bridget's
life in search of that perfect man and that the film of it will be a huge
success. Feminists
in the Sixties had to shout long and loud to make their voices heard,
campaigning for equal pay and women's rights. That
battle has come a long way, but it is still nowhere near won. We have a
pitifully small number of female MPs, company directors, and
millionairesses. Twenty
years ago we were asked by high-profile feminists to become superwomen, to
combine work and home, family and the office. In the Eighties we networked
like mad, we worked every hour God sent, and then we realised at the end
of the day, life can be very lonely by yourself. To
acknowledge that life can be more enjoyable with a partner does not
necessarily mean you are a spineless traitor to the cause. Now
high-achievers like Nicola Horlicks and Barbara Cassini have recanted -
telling us that some goals have to be dropped for us to be happy, and we
have to make tough choices between success in the boardroom or a
fulfilling life at home. So
Bridget remains a good and appropriate role model for all women, whether
they are 35 or 55, because she reflects the confusing demands on our
priorities as we juggle our way through every day. Just
as John Bunyan wrote A Pilgrim's Progress to assist fellow believers to
chart a passage through life's trials and tribulations in the 17th
century, we need Bridget to age with us in the 21st century and comfort us
with her shortcomings. And she inhabits a world where there is always a place for men, with all their ghastly little ways, not as objects of ridicule, but as equals. |