Thursday, May 14, 2009

Bridget Jones Breaks Through Hegemony

Bridget Jones’s Diary: Diversions and Affirmations from the Hegemonic Representations of Masculinity and Femininity

The 2001 film Bridget Jones’ Diary is romantic comedy that amongst its humor and wide commercial success, it also showcases the prominent feminine and masculine issues that are perpetually represented in the media. The media’s representations of the “typical” man or woman are based on stereotypes which perpetually affirm instead of break them: the prominent characterizations of skinny blonde females that always get the guy and the hyper-masculine macho males out of touch with their emotions. These character types, especially in romantic comedy films, are portrayed as the ideal to strive for and are the normal (or only) paths to love and happiness for each gender. The characters in the film “Bridget Jones’s Diary” is a good example of an attempt to try and show diversions from the hegemonic representations of masculinity and femininity, however, it concurrently reaffirms these gender stereotypes to viewers.

The lead male and female characters in the film are representative of a diversion and subsequent affirmation of gender stereotypes in the media. While the lead male character, Daniel Cleaver (played by Hugh Grant) is the stereotypical cinematic male role, as evidenced by his good looks and great job, the main female lead character Bridget Jones (played by Renee Zellweger) is not your average cinematic female role. Zellweger’s character Bridget gained a lot of media attention before the movie was even released to theaters because of the weight image portrayed as a lead role. In the media, this was headline news because actresses, or women for that matter, are not “supposed” to be overweight. Even in the films first few moments, the viewer is made aware that this is not a woman who had it all – all that was missing was the guy, as is the case in many romantic comedies. Right away, Bridget is positioned as an undesirable; on of the first few scenes, she was dismissed as a potential romantic interest by another lead male character at a Christmas party because she was someone who “smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish and dresses like her mother.” As in true with many people on New Years Day, Bridget’s loneliness and dissatisfaction in herself that she has no boyfriend, is overweight and falls for destructive relationships, and she resolves to change all of that. She resolves to lose weight and stop smoking in hopes of finding someone to date her, which one could presume is due to her media-acquired perceptions of how to find romance.

Clearly, as a lead female character, Bridget breaks down the barrier of what a lead character should look and act like in order to become included and accepted in the world around her. What makes Bridget such an interesting character to analyze is because she does not fit in with Pozner’s belief that “the genre teaches us that women categorically ‘are’ certain things – for example, no matter their age, they’re “hot girls,” not self-aware of intelligent adults (Pozner 96-99). While Bridget does not fit the stereotypical norm of the lead actress because she is overweight, clumsy, and chooses to wear unattractive underwear that will make her look slimmer, her struggles journalize her efforts to become the type of woman that is desired and seen as a “hot” woman. As Neuman predicts, by wearing hiked up miniskirts and revealing clothing to catch the attention of her “attractive” boss, and in doing so she falls right back into her destructive pattern of heartache because of her attracted to the desirable hyper-masculine male of the media by way of sexuality. She knows that will treat her as a second rate woman, but the opportunity to even fleetingly be the type of desirable woman society idealizes and that Bridget seeks to be is worth the risk.

Neuman continues to say that “there are social locations that determine

our position in the world relative to other people. At times, we purposely call attention to them, through how we dress, walk, and use language, whom we choose to associate with, perhaps even where we live” (Neuman). This is clearly evident is the scene where Bridget attends a work function and she attempts to seem intellectual. With Rushdie, her intellect is inferior and with the barristers she is speaking with, she is homely and simple. The issue here to note is that the instances when Bridget falls back into her desire to establish a sexual relationship with her alpha-male boss or to be included in certain circles of society are traps that have been set for her by the media. Bridget struggles even more so in her family life during the split of her parents, because it throws into jeopardy her position and inclusion within her own “nuclear family.” The stereotypical roles for women in films of this genre do not feature characters who can’t seem to find where to fit in – because they are young, skinny and beautiful, they don’t need to seek where they belong since everyone wants to be around them.

Hugh Grants character, Daniel Cleaver is the very masculine character who does break Bridget’s heart by leaving her for a younger, more beautiful and skinnier woman. Cleaver begins the film by diverging from the norm by placing an interest in Bridget who is not portrayed as a woman who would be desirable to stereotypical men such a Cleaver. Despite Bridget’s shock at finding her boyfriend in the company of another woman, this does not surprise the viewer as it does her because she was not only portrayed as disadvantaged from the beginning, but also because of the it simply affirms prevalence of this behavior in other male characters portrayed in the media.

The movie draws a clear picture of the paths to love and happiness, for both men and women. Male behavior in the media is stereotypically based solely on sexuality, and Daniel Cleaver is no different – until he is alone and dumped – and he seeks the company of a woman like Bridget who wants and needs him to validate her self worth. While female characters in the media look for love in all the wrong places, and Bridget was no different, her great victory in breaking the barriers of gender stereotypes is that she finds someone to love her – “just as she is.” The fact that her girlfriends are perplexed at this notion and question whether a man could desire her without needing to be “skinnier or prettier, with a slightly smaller nose or slightly bigger breasts,” reinforces the gender stereotypes that exist and the way that Bridget breaks through them.

Works Cited

Beam, Lindy. “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Online posting. 14 May 2009. 13 May 2009 .

Newman, Chapter 2, “Manufacturing Difference: The Social Construction of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality”

Pozner, Jennifer L. “The Unreal World.” Paper.

2 comments:

  1. Jackie-
    Nice job with your analysis of Bridget Jones. The points you make are well-articulated and well supported by the chosen sources.
    Your title had me a little worried at first given the impermeability of hegemonic constructs according to Lull. Be careful not to confuse the usage of terms in future assignments (here it seemed evident in just the title, but not your written piece that followed).
    The quotes you chose are good. I would suggest using a quote from a piece such as Lull to define "hegemony" in the piece so that you have a working definition clearly stated and in mind (and so will your audience).

    However, the quotes need to be in MLA format:
    Format your quotes so that they facilitate your analysis. This format is also the correct one for the paper in terms of the writing structure/mechanics (content of paper and mechanics are related issues/components of any form of writing). Remember the following:
    A quote needs to be integrated into a sentence with an introduction to the quote (even the shortest bit of intro material will suffice here).
    Examples:
    Kellner contends, “Academic scholarship in cultural studies has evolved and is not your mother’s cultural studies” (3).
    According to Kellner, “Gender representations in advertisements illustrate this culture as a hegemony of conflict” (Crane 33).
    Notice the period is after the parenthetical citation. Also, if your sentence includes the name of the author whose work is the basis for the quoted material, then only page number(s) are necessary. If the sentence doesn’t include the name (see example 2) then put the author’s last name before the page number inside the parenthesis).

    Nice job Jackie :O)
    Jessie

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  2. 2 things i liked:

    1) I like the point made about how Jones does not go along with the stereotypical norm. Most younger lead female characters are usually fit, good-looking women. But it definitely goes against all hegemonic ideas of femininity.

    2) I also like how you used Newman's ideas to almost "predict" Jones's next move when she decides to wear hiked up miniskirts, etc...

    2 things i didnt like:

    1) Pozner's article applies mainly to Reality TV than movies or fiction media. I tried to use the same quote (or close to it) in my blog but it just didn't quite fit.

    2) I think you could have gone into more detail on Hugh Grants character. I think he is an excellent example of both hegemonic and counterhegemomic representations of masculinity.

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