Editor-DN
It’s been more than 20 years since the 136-pound Bridget Jones insisted she was fat on the silver screen.
The classic 2001 romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary, Renée Zellweger starred in the title role, captivating a generation of moviegoers. Bridget was awkward, self-deprecating, single, had crappy friends, embarrassing parents, an even more embarrassing love life and was — as she told us before the opening credits even started rolling — fat.
“I suddenly realized that unless something changed soon, I was going to live a life where I had a lot to do with a bottle of wine and I was going to end up fat and die alone,” says Zellweger, in Rumpled. Sitting in pajamas, drinking vodka and smoking. A cigarette, as a song All by myself Explosions in the background.
It was a job. It was dark. And as many fans have since pointed out, for a generation of women, it was ultimately detrimental.
“I was 13 when I first saw this film, and I was at least a stone heavier than him. I remember feeling a hot wave of panic and disgust when I saw it. , and quietly committed to maintaining a better diet,” body confidence advocate Alex Light wrote in a viral 2020 Instagram post.
She describes the moment Bridget notes her weight, 136 pounds – just over 9.5 stone in the UK measurement – in her diary.
look Bridget Jones calls herself fat four and a half minutes into the film:
As in Helen Fielding’s books, Bridget often records her weight in her diary and is consistently referred to as overweight in the first two films. In the third, where she is pregnant, her mother reacts to the news by saying, “Wonderful, we thought you were going to be fat again.”
Meanwhile, Zellweger’s weight was the subject of frequent media scrutiny as she famously gained 30 pounds twice. Bridget Jones’s Diary And of 2004 Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason. I Bridget Jones’s Child, The fact is, the notoriously skinny actor didn’t. Weight gain in the headlines. (In the 2016 film, Bridget says she has finally reached her “perfect weight”.)
Now, 23 years after the release of the first film, a fourth film is in the works, which will reportedly reprise Zellweger in the title role and be released on Valentine’s Day 2025. Bridget Jones: Mad about the boymany fans of the beloved series want to know: Will fat-shaming finally stop?
“I’m not entirely optimistic,” said Shana MacDonald, an associate professor of communication arts at the University of Waterloo who studies pop culture, social media and feminist politics.
MacDonald noted that there has been a shift toward body positivity, inclusion and neutrality among the younger generation, but that Hollywood — and the general public’s reaction to Hollywood movies that push the needle — is not enough. She points to the recent remake. Cruel Girls For example, where actress Renee Rapp was criticized for her body.
“We’re having this reactionary conversation where we’re seeing the casting of women who have very rich, healthy personalities in lead roles, and there’s a tremendous backlash,” MacDonald said. Is.”
The ‘heroine chic’ ideal.
MacDonald explained that the original Bridget Jones films came out during a complex time that media scholars call post-peak feminist cinema.
Around the turn of the millennium, such as TV shows Gender and the City And Eli McBeal Empowering women, but within the context of capitalism and consumption. And part of that was a certain quality of weight and femininity.
“We were working through the idealization of ‘heroine chic.’ There was a really clear emphasis on a deeply thin idealization of femininity,” MacDonald said.
Today, a younger generation of women is emphasizing a healthy body image, valuing a person’s non-physical attributes more than physical capabilities and appearance. People call out body shaming on TikTok and embrace self-love. Major clothing brands such as Joe Fresh and Gap use more models who are plus-size or have body contouring differences, although it is worth noting that the fashion industry has been accused of “fat washing” or “curve washing”. Alleged to join
But the ideal has barely waned in Hollywood, according to a 2022 report by The Representation Project, which found that only 6.7 percent of characters in the decade’s most popular movies were fat, and none of them were leading roles. The report’s authors note that they use the word fat “because it is not an insult.”
They also found that obese characters were more likely to be portrayed as funny or “stupid”.
“This finding reinforces the common ‘comic relief’ of obese people in the media,” the report noted.
‘Absolutely normal weight’
Zellweger, for her part, has been critical of the focus on Bridget’s weight. In a 2016 interview with today Regarding the third film and Bridget’s appearance, “I never thought she had a weight problem,” Zellweger said.
That same year, she told Vogue magazine that she never understood the scrutiny of her weight gain for the role.
“Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I’ve never understood why it’s so important,” she said. “No male actor would get that kind of scrutiny if he did the same for one role.”
But for some who grew up loving the 2001 rom-com heroine, Bridget’s obsession with her weight was damaging.
Author Sophie Vershbo wrote in a 2021 essay in Vogue that the 2001 film came out when she was 11 “and just learning that hating your body is a normal part of being a woman.”
“How many times did I watch this movie as a teenager and realize that my body needs healing too?
The careers of actors like Amy Schumer and Rebel Wilson show how our culture in Hollywood is based on women’s bodies.
In February, around the time of season two of his show Life and bait was released, Schumer was criticized for her puffy face (she later explained that she had a hormonal disorder).
Meanwhile, Wilson, who often plays the funny dude in movies. pitch perfect, It is widely praised for losing 80 pounds.
McDonald, with the University of Waterloo, says the recent resurgence of Hallmark-style romantic comedies doesn’t give him hope that attitudes are shifting in the right direction. He explained that these films narrate the post-early 2000s era with the same attractive and slim lead characters.
But MacDonald also sees an exciting opportunity with the new Bridget Jones film, based on Helen Fielding’s third book about Bridget, a single mother in her 50s: The Menopause Experience.
“In a perfect world that would merge into conversation.”
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