Salute to Bridget

In common with what is now my fellow members of two generations of women, since Helen Fielding first brought her to the printed page in The Independent newspaper in the mid-1990s, I have had to come to terms with the Bridget Jones phenomenon. However, unlike some of the sisterhood, I have never found it necessary to twist myself in knots over my attitude towards her angst-ridden preoccupations with wine, weight, standing proud for female independence and yet also her desperation to find Mr Right – or, if not Mr Right, then at least someone (indeed anyone) who would enable her to hold her head up in the company of her mates and acquaintances.

To my mind, where Ms Fielding hit the bull’s eye was in her ability, through Bridget, to air the secret things that all young women – in varying different ways, right throughout history – were thinking inside but possibly dare not share with others for fear of being regarded as a loser, a gadfly and a smuck.

It helped, of course, that the iconic diary was laced throughout with self-deprecating humour. A key part of her success – whether intentionally or not – was that in her ‘way out there’ confessional diary Bridget took her every life-concern including her biological clock not just to an extreme, but to an extreme that was both hard-hitting and amusing in itself, not least in the contradictory ‘lessons for life’ that she sometimes drew from her experiences.

At the end of the day – whilst biting my lip at my own envy of Ms Fielding for the creation of her ‘monster’ and its global success which, based on the reviews I’ve seen for her latest cinematic outing, is going to continue to flourish for the foreseeable future – for me the ultimate test that Bridget Jones passes is whether or not her scrapes, adventures and confidences make me laugh.

And they do.

I leave to those more politically-minded than myself on the feminist spectrum to fight over the vexed issue of whether she deserves to rank as a worthy or a unworthy heroine for 21st Century women.

In the meantime, here’s a link to a first-rate and perceptive article by Glaby Hinsliff on Helen Fielding’s creation that appears today on the website of – THE GUARDIAN