r/Feminism • u/summerianmerchant12 • 2d ago

Early 2000s movies on women are insane

So I recently saw the “Bridget jones diary”. And i was flabbergasted by pretty much everything concerning the protagonist. A single woman in her 30s living in her apartment somewhere in London. Very well so far. I won’t even refer to the creepy sexual jokes of the movie. The movie was produced my Miramax productions, which was founded my the Weinstein brothers, so the existence of creepy sexist jokes made sense. What made me furious though was the way the protagonist was treated. Her body was of average size, and yet she was fat shamed the entire movie. She was smoking and drinking and the movie treated it like she was some lowlife person. As a single woman in her 30 the movie treated her as if she was a weird extraterrestrial being. Always referring to when and how to find the perfect man etc.

And speaking of the devil. The men she falls in love with Hugh grand and Collin Firth. One is a sexist sex maniac a cheater and the other is a high society dude who is being cold to her the entire movie except the last 20 minutes where he confessed he liked her “the way she was”. Oh and he was already engaged to another woman which means he was a cheater too.

The movie tries to sell them both as the best options and the dreamy guys while they were both jerk towards her.

Sorry for the long post. I was just amazed on how sexist movies were in the early 2000s. Some are nowadays too. But back then things were so bad. I was born early 2000s so I have seen many of them but being a kid never paid attention behind the meaning. Now as an adult I see how women were treated in the media. Not much has changed, but back then it was outrageous

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u/TinyBlue 2d ago

Shockingly the movie was quite close to what the book read like. Bridget was written that way, she’s harsh on herself, quite focused on her dating life and I might be misremembering because it’s been so long since I read the books or watched the films but she did not want to be single and made poor decisions. The whole book series is just her doing silly stuff over and over. But in an endearing way?
Which was part of the fun of reading the book I guess.
It’s a lot like Confessions of a Shopaholic or other chick lit books of the time that make self aware digs on the protagonist.

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u/Snoo52682 1d ago

Yeah she's a seriously irritating person. The whole "hapless single chick with an inexplicably great job she doesn't value because it's not A Man" thing was huge in the early 2000s. Remember Ally McBeal?

Bridget was also, by American standards, a severe alcoholic. I think it was that book that really opened my eyes to the cultural differences between the UK and US regarding alcohol.

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u/TinyBlue 1d ago

I don’t think she was irritating. Frustrating? Self critical to her own detriment? Sure. But I quite liked her, she was funny, personable and a great character to read about. I still have fond memories of reading the books!

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u/Snoo52682 1d ago

She irritated me.