Channelling the best of the Spice Girls and Bridget Jones
Growing up as a young girl in the ’90s and into the early ’00s the signals I received were that women were there to be looked at, seen and not heard like Victorian children.
Reflecting on the ‘lads mags’ era where presenters from the media sprawled themselves over sports cars in tiny bikinis, wannabe female radio DJS did the same and by doing that it was confirming to everyone (men) do not fear, I still value my looks before business.
In the world we live in today dominated by comparison and what and who we should be is force fed to us through a straw connected to us by our phones the hypodermic needle is on a whole new level. With this in mind it was the Spice Girls that burst onto the scene telling us we should love ourselves and find our voices. Those women were the girl group and phenomenon that made me want a voice, to love other women and know we have and deserve a place in this world beyond our looks.
I remember going to see Bridget Jones back in 2001. I was just 18 and was somehow blessed with a size 8 body that has since been washed away by age, wine, my love of bread and birthing two children. In the film, Bridget fluctuates between a 12 and a 14 and in this era of bikinis and collar bones this was seen as obese which is petrifying. Bridget also lived in a central London flat with a job in PR but this was also seen as some kind of failure, as she attends dinners where she is scrutinised for being alone, ridiculed for having curves and even left by a love interest for a ‘thin’ model.
March has had me reflecting on what it means to be a woman in 2024 as we celebrated International women’s day and Mothers day I hope that we are becoming more supportive not only of other women but ourselves. I want to see women go as far as they can . Go get the pay cheque, drive the sports car and not drape all over it, live solo and celebrate that as the luxury , have babies and not obsess over the ‘mum tum’.
Have the cheek of Ginger Spice, the business sense of posh , the assertiveness of scary, the ability to move like Sporty and still be as sweet as Baby.
I think as women the perfect goal would be to love ourselves . As the character Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones says ‘I like you very much , just as you are’.