Gender identity from Bridget Jones and Written on the Body

江楠

Referring to gender identities emerge in the two books，it is actually two relatively different genres of gender identities.

Foremost，when talking about Bridget Jones，it is likely that she is quite sure about her female identity，because as being argued by Angela McRobbie，“There is the fear of loneliness，for example，the stigma of remaining single，and the risks and uncertainties of not finding the right partner to be a father to children as well as a husband.”（McRobbie，（2004）），Post-Feminism and Popular Culture，Feminist Media Studies，4：3，255-264）.It seems that she knows clearly that she is a female and she is afraid of loneliness so that she decides on successfully finding a Mr.Right，but she is so not sure about the outcome of it.Her aim，which could be seen as a result coming from her gender identity，is clear，and she does，to a certain degree，work for that.

However，in Written on the Body，the story describes the heroines gender in a sexless way on purpose.（The only possible reason which readers could figure out that the main character is a woman is just a simple sentence.It describes that the heroine is wearing a pajama pressed Micky Mouse）.To some degree，possibly，a gender binary to which most people adhere and which includes expectations of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of sex and gender（https：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity）is not satisfying the heroine and the author.The heroine has a quite vague classification of her gender.A question could be posted，how could we simply classify people into male or female if male and female do not exist in the gender field？The heroine is a woman handy in sex life，while，at the same time，walks on a hard road to find love.Using a sexless character in the description of the whole story means something important in love.It is said that physical differences between male and female bodies exist，but that these differences are socially meaningless until social practices transform them into social facts.（Lorber，（1993））.Striping the appearance of love，the core of it in every pair of lovers is the same.All things and love itself just happen naturally.It is not necessary to talk about gender.In the old time，it is said that the way in which people define different genders is by womb，menstruation，and ovary.If a person has these stuff，the person is classified to be a female（woman），otherwise，a male（man）.（Lorber，（1993）.Believing is Seeing：Biology as Ideology.Gender and Society，Vol.7，No.4（Dec.，1993），pp.568-581）.But it is also mentioned by Lorber that messner and his colleagues found that in1989，in TV sports news in the United States，mens sports got92percent of the coverage and womens sports5percent，with the rest mixed or gender-neutral.（Messner，Duncan，and Jensen1993）.In here，the concept of gender-neutral is introduced.

Let us consider about2additional questions.

Firstly，is Bridget Jones a very English creation？In fact，it is relatively hard to say that this character has a strong English creation.Kelly A.Marsh argues that Bridget Jones is contextualized in American popular culture.（Marsh，（2004）.College Literature，31.1，Winter 2004，pp.52-72）.The character is，to some extent，living in an American myth and self-perfection，although finally，she changes a lot and turns to the Blair-era British communitarianism.Thus，from the most part of the story，it is still clear to know that she doesnt have firm English identity.

Secondly，how does Bridget Jones different from the characters in Act Two of Top Girls？The characters in Act Two of Top Girls all imply an idea：family and work could not be had at the same time.However，Bridget Joness outlook of life is totally different from that.Two different ideas conflict in her.One is cosmos girlsidentity with some great spirits of independence.The other is old fashion idea of failure which is attributed to not have a husband and family.She is thirty to balance work and family.She has a favorable job，although she is not that excellent as Marlene in the work field.She wants to have a family and，to some degree，has the ability to support a family，though her cooking skill is really bad.