Film Comparative Analysis Paper: Post Feminism in Contemporary Romantic Comedy Films

In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting the films Crazy Rich Asians (CRA) and Bridget Jones's Diary (BJD) in how they incorporate post feminism intergenerationally. Both films center around the modern woman’s quest in finding “Mr Right” and proving to society why the desire to “have it all” is a justified need for women (Genz 98). I would like to argue that the desire and struggle that comes with navigating this journey exceeds the modern generation of the post-feminist woman. If ever, it is the women that preceded them, who paved the path for them, that face both the consequences of their own sacrifice as well as the vision of future generations being able to seek what they once never could. 

By applying concepts from both Stephanie Genz’s article “Singled Out: Post Feminism’s ‘New Woman’ and the Dilemma of Having It All,” as well as Kathleen Rowe’s article “Pig Ladies, Big Ladies, and Ladies with Big Mouths,” I will use both of these texts to break down two key figures that represent this preceding generation of post-feminism: the mothers of Bridget from BJD and Nick from CRA. I will then discuss how they fit into the modern environment of post feminism–through their embodiment of femininity and feminism, as well as how they relate and react to the newer post feminist generation. 

Bridget Jones Diary: Mrs Jones

Mrs. Jones at first embodies a very domestic image of being a woman. She’s introduced as a mother, who to Bridget is a “strange creature” who comes from a time when things like pickled toothpicks were “the height of sophistication.” Throwing dinner parties for example is one way of showing that Mrs Jone takes good care of her home and enjoys showing it off. 

Physically, she looks like a typical British housewife in her long sleeve collared floral dress with an old fashioned hairstyle. Her overbearing maternal nature is also prominent at the start of the film, in how she bugs Bridget in trying to set her up every year–pushing her to try harder at finding a “boyfriend,” even picking out an outfit to help Bridget in this process. 

As the film continues, however, Mrs Jones isn’t as one dimensionally traditional as she initially seems to be. In Rowe’s article from the “Unruly Woman,” she describes how in the post-feminist era “women begin to disrupt the norms of femininity and the social hierarchy of male over female through excess and outrageousness” (Rowe 30). Mrs Jones begins to showcase unruly characteristics by revealing her disdain for the ways in which her domestic life has left her feeling restrained in expressing herself as a woman with needs. 

In one scene, Mrs Jones confides in her daughter telling her that “having children isn’t all it's cracked up to be.” She admits that she isn’t happy in her marriage; she feels that after spending 30 years with Bridget’s father–cleaning his house, washing his clothes, bringing up his children–nothing makes him notice her. 

“It’s the winter of my life and I haven’t actually got anything of my own. I’ve got no power, no real career, no sex life. I’ve got no life at all.”

Even for the generations that precede the post feminist era, Mrs Jones reveals how women are bound to want more out of life than simply domesticity. She’s reminding Bridget that finding “Mr Right” doesn’t resolve everything. Much like Genz’s depiction of post feminist women, Mrs Jones has a need for more than simply romance. And  in this way she embodies how much like the post feminist woman (PFW) she “blurs the binary distinctions between feminism and femininity, between professionalism and domesticity,” (Genz 98). 

Through the course of the film, Mrs Jone begins to realize the true value independence and agency hold. She challenges the social norms of staying in her marriage as she fails to find fulfillment within the confines of the pre-post feminism era. And in doing so, her journey is a navigation driven by her “feminist values and her feminine body” (Genz 98).  Her feminist values give her the drive to challenge the “social hierarchy” Rowe refers to and take power in her marriage by leaving her husband (Rowe 30). She does this because she has a desire to be valued by Mr Jones for all the work she has put into their home life. In addition, she is driven by the needs of her feminine body to be sexually awoken and attented to by having an affair. 

This sexual unruly side of Mrs Jones comes out a few times in the film–most explicitly when she’s working her sales job at the mall, selling egg crackers. The way she demonstrates using this product and how this scene is shot, has an erotic sexual innuendo to it. She instructs customers to use a “firm grip” with the product, and “put it (the egg) in the hole.” The camera’s close up shots focus on her hands stroking the product as she says  “up, down, up, down” and then catching the egg while it squirts liquid out. By depicting her job in this way, Mrs Jones is shown to have a space outside of being a housewife, where she can be both an independent working woman as well as free to express her sexual inner tensions. She embodies post feminist characterstics in being driven by both feminist qualities of independence as well as feminine desire. 

Mrs Jones's journey in the film represents that being unruly and post feminist can exceed the modern generation. She joins her daughter in leading her life through the exploration of her own agency and desire. And it ends up working to her benefit, as her husband is made to see the importance of making her feel valued in their relationship, if he wants it to work. 

Crazy Rich Asians: Eleanor 

CRA was released 17 years after BJD. These films differ largely in their plot, as Bridget from BJD is on a journey to find “Mr Right” and Rachel from CRA already has. As Bridget goes through emotional turmoil and inner confusion on why she struggles to keep a man in her life, Rachel’s journey is a lot more fixated on gaining the approval from society in being considered “good enough” for her partner. Her story is less about how to keep a man, but more about the realities of the bigger picture. Finding “Mr Right” as Mrs Jones reminds Bridget, doesn’t mean all the issues resolve right there. It’s the societal acceptance for embodying a more independent and modern version of femininity that can disrupt the ability to reap the fruits of “having it all” (Genz 98). And Rachel’s biggest obstacle in achieving this is Nick’s mother, Eleanor. 

Eleanor’s physical appearance is graceful and always put together, in her designer clothes and expensive lifestyle. Similar to the initial image of Mrs Jones, Eleanor is often seen managing house staff in the kitchen, throwing large dinner parties and being a domestic symbol of a great housewife. She’s also a maternal figure who likes to control her children’s love lives. But unlike Mrs Jones, she doesn’t have an ounce of unruliness in her. She’s the spitting image of Rowe’s “well adjusted woman” who has divine composure, is silent and static (Rowe 31).

In contrast to how BJD uses Mrs Jones to showcase the intergenerationality of the enactment of post feminism, Eleanor is the ultimate enemy of such female embodiment. She has a clear disdain for women that allow their personal desires to exceed beyond the domestic life. 

She tells Rachel in one scene about the story of how she met Nick’s father, studying law at Cambridge. She was smart and intelligent and could have had a career. But when she married Nick’s father she chose to withdraw from university. She describes this sacrifice as a “privilege” even though she knows to Rachel it might seem “old-fashioned.” She tells Rachel building such a big happy family doesn’t just happen, “it’s because we know to put family first instead of chasing one’s passions.” And in the last line of this scene she tells Rachel “you will never be enough.” 

Eleanor makes it seem like she takes pride in her past decisions to put her independence away for the rich and fulfilling family life she currently has. In reality, her animosity towards Rachel seems almost envious and resentful. Finding a “Mr Right” like Nick, who accepts all that is unruly and imperfect wasn’t Eleanor’s reality. And it might sting harder to also know that Nick told Rachel he fell in love with her largely because she wasn’t like the women he grew up with. 

The second part of Eleanor’s point is that “chasing one’s passions” is her big concern with why Rachel isn’t the right fit for her son. In their first interaction with one another, she condescendingly describes Rachel purising her passions in her career as an economics professor as “how American.”

In her final scene with Rachel, she tells her directly that she’s not fit for her son because of this, calling her a “a foreigner. American” and stating that to her this is a problem because “all Americans think about is their own happiness.” 

As a true opposer to Genz’s PFW, Eleanor doesn’t believe it is right for women to “have it all.” She believes the independent and feminist drive for a life outside of the home, will disrupt and devalue her son’s relationship. Similarly, she is a part of the group of people that Genz describes as sharing the assumption that working women are “too feminist to be feminine” and that their “independence and choice” are things they can’t actually handle and will ultimately wreck their relationship with men (Genz 104). BJD has a number of supporters of this ideology as well, with surrounding characters reminding Bridget that she’s running out of time (biologically) and even pointing out how “offices are full of single women in their 30s that are fine physical specimens but can’t seem to hold down a chap.” 

Eleanor never really comes around in being an active supporter of what post feminist women stand for. And neither films really confirm that being a PFW is easy. Finding “Mr Right” who accepts all of you doesn’t mean society is going to. It might take years until women have the justification for their desires and needs to be more than what the patriarchy once constructed it to be. However, these films showcase the ways in which preceding generations are fitting into these changing times. 

Conclusion

 Mrs Jones and Eleanor are placed in position to witness the journeys of PFWs Bridget and Rachel. The purpose of this is largely to for audiences to identify the intergenerational ways women continue to react and relate to the contemporary environment of post feminism. 

Mrs Jones represents the ways in which the post feminist world can trigger desires women were never once allowed to surface. And Eleanor represents another plausible reaction to this new agency women are afforded to have: anger for having sacrificed so much in surviving the patriarchy and embodying the ultimate “well adjusted woman” that is no longer the ideal of the modern day. 

With all this being said, the reality these films construct is still not a “nirvana world where women have it all,” but one that “expresses the pains and pleasures of the problematical quest for balance in a world where personal and profession, feminist and feminine positions are mutually pervasive” (Genz 104).

Work Cited

Bridget Jones Diary. Directed by Sharon Maguire. Universal Pictures, 2001.

Crazy Rich Asians. Directed by. John M. Chu. Warner Brothers, 2018. 

Genz, Stéphanie. "Singled Out: Postfeminism's “New Woman” and the Dilemma of Having It All." The Journal of Popular Culture, 43.1, 2010, pp. 97-119.

Rowe, Kathleen. “Pig Ladies, Big Ladies, and Ladies with Big Mouths.” The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter, 1995, pp. 25-49.