Chen Ying Wen

National Cheng Kung University

Department of Foreign Language & Literature

May 15, 2010

From the Second-Wave to Post-Feminism

A Continuum in Bridget Jones's Diary

The significance of Bridget Jones's Diary lies not only in its launch of a new fictional genre, but also in its articulation of the post-feminist sensibility (Gill and Herdieckerhoff 489). Besides, Chaudhuri indentifies Bridget Jones's Diary as “a chance to examine feminism's legacy” (qtd. in Gamble 67). For readers, it is interesting to notice how Fielding deals with the two characters, Bridget Jones and her mother. It is obvious that the intergenerational relationship between Bridget Jones and her mother is full of tension. According to Gamble, the intergenerational relationship is an “integral part of the phenomenon known as post-feminism, which has outgrown its figurative ‘mother': the second-wave feminism of the 1960s and ‘70s” (61). In Backlash, Susan Faludi asserts that “there existed a concerted backlash against women and the gains they had made through feminism” (qtd. in Whelehan 162). Being a young woman, Bridget was born to feminism that has given her more choices than her mother had—she can earn her own money, buy her own drinks, and live in her own apartment, but she seems to be quite confused by the choices offered to her (Gamble 65). As Whelehan points out, “young women today suffer the choices set out before them primarily because choices make their personal lives all the more complex” (162). Unlike Bridget, her mother has to acquire those choices by leaving the family to find a job and live her own life. Thus, she considers that Bridget “simply gets too much choice” (Fielding 169), and expects her to exercise those “unexplored possibilities” like her (Marsh 58). However, Bridget often feels annoyed by her mother's suggestions or feels guilty by her expectations because she never truly wants to fulfill them. To some extent, Bridget can be viewed as a representative of the generation of post-feminism that no longer value the efforts made by the second-wave feminists, and her mother can be seen as one of the second-wave feminists who still wish her daughter to benefit from feminism. Therefore, the strained relationship between Bridget and her mother can be interpreted as the relationships between post-feminism and second-wave feminism. By investigating the legacy of feminism, and examining their relationship in the novel, this paper intends to show the connection between post-feminism and second-wave feminism, and to prove that a continuum exists between second-wave feminism and post-feminism, rather than a gap.

    Whelehan points out, “the tensions between old and new feminisms are akin to the tensions one more readily finds between mothers and daughters, and this analogy is often foregrounded to suggest that the generational conflict can be productive as well as inevitable” (168). According to Gamble, “the post-feminist identity has been predicated on such factors as youth and economic and social independence and mothers regarded as figures for young women to react against, not as what they envisage themselves becoming” (76). Just like Bridget and her mother. Throughout the novel, there are lots of conflicts between them. Most of the conflicts are caused by Bridget's mother's expectations of her because Bridget is not willing to fulfill them. However, “post-feminism wakes in the successes of the second-wave—indicating a shift from ‘earlier feminist agendas, such as equal pay or equal work, to lifestyle concerns'” (Maher 196). Bridget is given many choices, but she is confused. She is economically independent and does not have to get married, but people around her are always concerned about her single status and even warn her teasingly that she is wasting her time by calling her “old girl” (Fielding 36). On the other hand, she is afraid of marriage because she does not want to end up being trapped in domesticity, like her mother (Fielding 43). However, “post-feminism values autonomy and bodily integrity and the freedom to make individual choices” (Gill and Herdieckerhoff 499), all these qualities can be found in Bridget. For example, she refuses to conform to traditional qualities of femininity, and she chooses to go her own way even under her mother's pressure. At last, she gets her reward by having a new job and finding a man who loves her true self. In the end of the novel, Bridget writes, “do as your mother tells you” (Fielding 267) to show her gratitude to her mother's influence on her. As for Bridget's mother, although in the end she is cheated by Julio, she has fulfilled her potentials in the public sphere by finding a job as a TV presenter. Both of them realize the liberal feminists' ideal of “always staunchly protect[ing] the individual's right to self-advancement” (Whelehan 38). From the perspectives of liberal feminists, we can understand that “feminism's historical impact as a corrective to dominant political thought cannot be ignored, and it still remains popular and influential” (Whelehan 42). Post-feminism can be connected to second-wave feminism in terms of their similar assertion on self-autonomy and individual rights; that is to say, there exists a continuum between them.

Works Cited

Fielding, Helen. Bridget Jones's Diary. New York: Penguin, 1998.

Gamble, Sarah. “Growing up Single: The Post-Feminist Novel.” Studies in the Literary Imagination 39.2 (2006): 61-78.

Gill, Rosalind, and Elena Herdieckerhoff. “Rewriting the Romance: New Femininities in Chick Lit?” Feminist Media Studies 6.4 (2006): 487-503.

Maher, Jennifer. “The Post-Feminsit Mystique.” College Literature 34.3 (2007): 193-200.

Marsh, Kelly A. “Contextualizing Bridget Jones.” College Literature 31.1 (2004): 52-72.

Whelehan, Imelda. “Liberal Feminism: The Origins of the Second Wave.” Modern Feminist Thought: from the Second Wave to “Post-Feminism.” By Whelehan. New York: New York U P, 1995. 25-43.

---.”Where Have All the Feminists Gone? The Anxiety of Affluence.” The Feminist Bestseller: from Sex and the Single Girl to Sex and the City. By Whelehan. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. 156-72.