You will find moments if motion picture bites right back against this, no matter if. Bridget tells her social gathering friends that morsian Intian one inside the five ple, along with her relationships is actually exhibited as their unique center members of the family dynamic, since if she doesn’t need to adhere to societal standards. “She never really contemplates singleness because a long-term way of are internationally, as opposed to a lot of women now,” adds Dr Taylor.
Whilst it will be very easy to review for the philosophy one Bridget Jones’s Journal perpetuates for ladies and call them archaic, many persist today. “The theory that a female you’ll definitely choose a lifetime of longer singleness has been largely perhaps not depicted,” notes Dr Taylor. “It’s still named a bit of a good ‘gap stop’ on the road to the brand new happier actually after out-of marriage and you may college students.” Inside experience, Bridget’s relevance you may just be one this woman is wrestling that have issues you to solitary women can be nonetheless against now.
The film successfully taps into a deep-rooted social trend known as amatonormativity, coined by philosophy professor Elizabeth Brake. “It describes the widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship,” she writes on her website. “Romantic relationships are persistently privileged over all other forms of intimacy,” says Dr Taylor.
Why do we nevertheless like Bridget whenever she represents thus of a lot outdated tropes with the progressive woman?
There are basic economic and sociological explanations for this. Take the numerous laws and policies that favour couples over single people, which can make life far more expensive for those without a romantic partner. According to one analysis by the An effective Cleaning Institute, being single can set you back at least ?2,000 a year due to higher costs on everything from holidays to insurance.
Another American data found that, over a lifetime, unmarried women can pay as much as $1m (?726,325) more than their married counterparts on healthcare, taxes, and more. These are just some of the reasons that led psychologist Bella DePaulo to coin the expression “singlism” to describe the myriad ways in which single women are disadvantaged in society. And while singlism isn’t explicitly examined in Bridget Jones’s Diary, the threat of it arguably permeates the entire plot.
There are even an increasing number of guides examining the situation, also Catherine Gray’s The fresh new Unexpected Pleasure of being Solitary, where creator explains how she got a-year from relationships throughout the search for unmarried satisfaction
Our female heroes in 2021 are no longer quite like Bridget: one thing that exists now that did not in 2001 is the single positivity movement, for example. Often attached to celebrities who champion female empowerment like Lizzo (in her 2017 hit “Truth Hurts”, she sings that she “ain’t worried ’bout a ring on my finger”) and Emma Watson, who famously discussed by herself as the “self-partnered” in 2019, the movement illustrates a growing number of people who are rejecting romantic norms and redefining singleness so that it is not so much a state of wanting but one of contentment.
Wouldn’t it end up being wonderful in the event the singleness for women was thus significantly normalised in prominent culture that the unmarried woman in the real life becomes unremarkable?
Even with this, Bridget Jones clearly still taps on the something deep contained in this most women now, even in the event it’s simply a natural concern about winding up alone on vacation Eve, viewing It’s a stunning Life and drunkenly throwing mince pies during the the television. However, undoubtedly it’s time having an alternate inspirational solitary woman to sophistication all of our house windows, one who may become exactly as renowned since Bridget.