Today's Spinster

The film Bridget Jones's Diary is a very funny, and smart commentary on the social issues of single women in the current era.  Although much has changed since the 19th century and Victorian era we have been focusing on in class, the views on "spinsters" has remained largely the same.  Bridget Jones's Diary shows the frustrations that older single women feel.  Society still expects women to marry relatively young, so when a women remains single into her thirties and older, the decision is often met with confusion or uneasiness.

In the film, Bridget is forced to answer her relatives' questions as to why she's still single.  They constantly ask her at every family gathering if she's found a boyfriend yet.

In addition, a scene I found particularly meaningful in the movie is the dinner party scene.  This represents society's inability to accept the spinster lifestyle and it's expectations that women should be married.  Bridget is invited over to her friend's place for a dinner party and finds herself to be the only single guest in attendance.  Bridget tries to make the best of it, but the other couples will not stop bringing up her single marital status.  The conversation consists solely of marriage and what is wrong with Bridget that she isn't married yet.  Bridget ultimately feels so uncomfortable and frustrated that she makes the whole situation even more awkward with an inappropriate comment.

Overall, I think Bridget Jones's Diary was an interesting study of the current single woman and what that means.  It revealed that even though our society has revolutionized socially, we still have a long way to go before "the spinster" will be accepted as normal.