TW: a lot of focus on weight and ED behaviours
(is integral to the whole message of the book imo)
 
This book is pure camp

While there were moments where I found myself rolling my eyes and saying “girl..come on” I think that is exactly the point of the novel. Bridget Jones is supposed to be satirical. Bridget is extremely contrary. One moment she is spouting pseudo feminist ideals and the next sentence she is obsessing over a man calling her back and I think the point, aside from the switch up being hilarious, is that you are supposed to constantly be like “girl..get a grip” because no matter what she says she is supposed to always be in the wrong from a viewers perspective. She is a flawed character.
(Not only that but her constant shifting perspectives are real asf.. “hate everyone…actually nvm i’m fine…actually decided i am a strong woman…actually i’m upset with everyone again”)

I also think its important to note the characters internal misogyny that often comes out in the novel. The part where Bridget and her neighbour are giggling over a Valentines Day card and who should open it and Bridget says “I love girls” was very wholesome to me as well as her constant insistence that her friends shitty boyfriends do not deserve such amazing women. But this paired alongside her obsession with men, being a “good pure thin” woman and occasional misogynistic take on women in her life, make her a caricature of women who could benefit from refocusing on her own learnt misogyny and male-centred mindset before blaming it all on the men, such as Shazzer does (love her tho). 

While Bridget’s main focus is on her love life and appearance, the majority of the book actually focuses on the mundane everyday life things like her job and her relationships with her mother and friends, with actually very few pages focusing on her relationships outside of her internal monologue. This kind of breaks the expectation that you are going into this book to read a romcom and then theres actually very little rom in the com at all. I think this is really important to the character because it tells us that while she may be fixated on these things, there is a whole life going on outside of men and her appearance. She weighs herself daily (and is if anything underweight, which further comments on the beauty standards of the 90s) and then goes and has fun with friends and drinks and eats and actually, doesn’t obsess over these things while she is out living her life. Then she comes back to the diary and scolds herself for not sticking to her goal. What we read in the diary is a small snapshot of her mind while she is sat alone in her home and I think that can be relatable to many.