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Bridget Jones’s Diary,
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Vmar
In my opinion I think this book is what we DON'T want 16 year olds to read. It is shallow and tacky. If the reader is a girl it play,s into the horrible self image issues teen girls deal with. If the reader is a boy, he would think that girls are one dimensional and will put up with anything to have a boyfriend.
Have them read books that inspire and lift the soul or at least books that make them think.
Have them read books that inspire and lift the soul or at least books that make them think.
SusyHD
I read and re-read this over and over at that age, I thought it was very funny and one of my favourites.
It's not actively damaging: like any book, it really depends on the person who's reading it - in my case, I was quite insecure and I read this, 'Sex and the City' and 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl' and gleaned from these that sophisticated adult women were obsessed with their weight and status and material things. I became desperate to emulate the characters I read about in order to be cool. But that's who I was - my sister, on the other hand, read it at fourteen and loved the Jane Austen connection, finding Bridget's shallow features hilarious. The worst things about BJD, offensiveness-wise, are: the implication that all women can orgasm from vaginal sex, the implication that it's normal to get very drunk on an average night out and the fact that Bridget is so obsessed with her body and dieting while being a slim and healthy 9 stone (average). The author may or may not be lampooning this way of thinking, but it's become quite 'of its time' now. As long as you talk to your sixteen-year-old about the subjects she's discovering and how they relate to facts and real-life experience, there's no reason to ban something like this from your bookshelf.
It's not actively damaging: like any book, it really depends on the person who's reading it - in my case, I was quite insecure and I read this, 'Sex and the City' and 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl' and gleaned from these that sophisticated adult women were obsessed with their weight and status and material things. I became desperate to emulate the characters I read about in order to be cool. But that's who I was - my sister, on the other hand, read it at fourteen and loved the Jane Austen connection, finding Bridget's shallow features hilarious. The worst things about BJD, offensiveness-wise, are: the implication that all women can orgasm from vaginal sex, the implication that it's normal to get very drunk on an average night out and the fact that Bridget is so obsessed with her body and dieting while being a slim and healthy 9 stone (average). The author may or may not be lampooning this way of thinking, but it's become quite 'of its time' now. As long as you talk to your sixteen-year-old about the subjects she's discovering and how they relate to facts and real-life experience, there's no reason to ban something like this from your bookshelf.
Laurie D
I know this is an old question, but I would not recommend this for a 16 yo.
Kayla Sullinger
Maybe it depends on what they read in the past.At 16 I read steamier books than this one.It talks about sex and dating but I find that it would be okay.
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