a monstrous regiment of little women
Apr. 22nd, 2008 01:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fictionalA few days ago I read something - can't quite remember what, as it was a day filled and fueled by procrastination, so this was one in a long line of clicks- which said something like the following: Did there ever exist at any time, any girl for whom Jo was not their favorite character? The reference, which I apologize for mangling and vaguing and ungrammaticalling - went on to suggest that surely any red blooded girl, certainly one who wanted to be a writer, of course wanted to be Jo, and had no time for any of the other girls - housewifely, prim Meg, saintly Beth, and spoilt, vain, petulant Amy. Naturally Jo, who wanted to be a boy, and was boisterous and adventurous and daring was the one to emulate.
I liked Jo fine, but I didn't want to be her. I liked Amy best. I cheered when Amy and Laurie got together; I thought they made a great couple. And in many ways I thought Amy's story far more tragic than any of the other girls. How terrible to desire greatness, and then graciously resign yourself to your own mediocrity. I thought she was great. Not pretty, perhaps - but none of the girls were really supposed to be, except Meg. Her juno-esque figure, her blonde hair, her blue eyes never made me crave them. But I liked her. I thought she was clever and funny and I adored her method of catching flies with honey, and her sharp tongue, and her aplomb.
It's odd because normally, I never like best the character that the author wants you to. I almost always root for the bad guy. Because if the author is God - and God loves you the most, you'll always be a little more blessed. The book will always give you the benefit of the doubt. That's why they need me, those bad guys. They don't have God on their side, so instead - they get me. I'm a firm believer in toppling the Kingdom of Heaven and forming a republic.
But - for books like Little Women, and Little House on the Prairie (both incidentally based on the authors' real families), this didn't happen. I liked Amy best, and I loved older sister, prissy Mary who always wanted to be reading and sewing, and WHO WENT BLIND and then could do neither (until college, but even then it wasn't the same...). And in both these books, I'm convinced both independent Louisa and adventuresome Laura wanted me to. These writers were writing about sisters whom they adored. Surely they wanted us to love and know them as they did. If they hadn't; if they gave their own fictional counterparts the god-dispensed "benefit of the doubt" that other, completely fictional characters often get, the books would have read like the worst kind of Mary Sue fic! But they don't.
So why are readers who happily go along with the author's judgement in other cases, so unwilling to do so [and even unwilling to believe that anyone else might do so] here? The Kingdom may have fallen, but Cromwell's already formed his parliamentary dictatorship. You're supposed to like the author-projection best, say generations of readers! Because? Well...They are tomboyish and devil-may-care! They have agency! They are rapscallions!
It reminds me of nothing more than the whole school of feminism which states that women have to be as man-like as possible in order to be treated equally, and any woman who does not follow this law should be ejected from the sisterhood. Or the kind of queer community that thinks there's not room in one lesbian relationship for two femmes - 'cause we all know the only way to do it, is to reproduce heteronormative norms as closely as possible. Or the kind of s/m folks who look down on submissives because they think they are weak (and not in a fun way).
There's nothing wrong with being a tomboy. I was never one, but I knew them, and thought they they were fun, and admired them (and probably thought they were hot.) I wasn't particularly successful at being a girly-girl either (too lazy and uninformed and self loathing).
But I reject utterly the idea that you have to be one to be worthwhile.
Amy/Laurie OTP!!!
I liked Jo fine, but I didn't want to be her. I liked Amy best. I cheered when Amy and Laurie got together; I thought they made a great couple. And in many ways I thought Amy's story far more tragic than any of the other girls. How terrible to desire greatness, and then graciously resign yourself to your own mediocrity. I thought she was great. Not pretty, perhaps - but none of the girls were really supposed to be, except Meg. Her juno-esque figure, her blonde hair, her blue eyes never made me crave them. But I liked her. I thought she was clever and funny and I adored her method of catching flies with honey, and her sharp tongue, and her aplomb.
It's odd because normally, I never like best the character that the author wants you to. I almost always root for the bad guy. Because if the author is God - and God loves you the most, you'll always be a little more blessed. The book will always give you the benefit of the doubt. That's why they need me, those bad guys. They don't have God on their side, so instead - they get me. I'm a firm believer in toppling the Kingdom of Heaven and forming a republic.
But - for books like Little Women, and Little House on the Prairie (both incidentally based on the authors' real families), this didn't happen. I liked Amy best, and I loved older sister, prissy Mary who always wanted to be reading and sewing, and WHO WENT BLIND and then could do neither (until college, but even then it wasn't the same...). And in both these books, I'm convinced both independent Louisa and adventuresome Laura wanted me to. These writers were writing about sisters whom they adored. Surely they wanted us to love and know them as they did. If they hadn't; if they gave their own fictional counterparts the god-dispensed "benefit of the doubt" that other, completely fictional characters often get, the books would have read like the worst kind of Mary Sue fic! But they don't.
So why are readers who happily go along with the author's judgement in other cases, so unwilling to do so [and even unwilling to believe that anyone else might do so] here? The Kingdom may have fallen, but Cromwell's already formed his parliamentary dictatorship. You're supposed to like the author-projection best, say generations of readers! Because? Well...They are tomboyish and devil-may-care! They have agency! They are rapscallions!
It reminds me of nothing more than the whole school of feminism which states that women have to be as man-like as possible in order to be treated equally, and any woman who does not follow this law should be ejected from the sisterhood. Or the kind of queer community that thinks there's not room in one lesbian relationship for two femmes - 'cause we all know the only way to do it, is to reproduce heteronormative norms as closely as possible. Or the kind of s/m folks who look down on submissives because they think they are weak (and not in a fun way).
There's nothing wrong with being a tomboy. I was never one, but I knew them, and thought they they were fun, and admired them (and probably thought they were hot.) I wasn't particularly successful at being a girly-girl either (too lazy and uninformed and self loathing).
But I reject utterly the idea that you have to be one to be worthwhile.
Amy/Laurie OTP!!!
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 02:44 pm (UTC)Kidding, of course, because then I would be ejected too.
I actually never connected to any of the characters in Little Women, I loved them as a group. I like aspects of Jo, of course, because she doesn't fit a mold-or became the mold?-but she wasn't my totem character or anything. Really, I was sold on that group as a family, which is why the death scene is so upsetting for me.
I was never a tomboy either-I oscillated between wearing dresses and wearing pants phases until I was about 10. For some years you couldn't get me into pants, other years I make yucky faces at dresses. My feeling? It all ties into me being bi-sexual. I can't choose one side or the other, so I go between the two. I love dressing up in pretty things-but it always feels like a costume and not ME. The only dresses I ever feel at home in are t-shirt dresses because they're comfortable as all hell and I'm not worried about flashing my ass to people by accident. I love pants too-but I'd rather be in a t-shirt with no pants on if you want to get down to it.
I am very male in a lot of ways, but in no way am I a complete tomboy! I'm far too emotional for that part. You see, this is why we get along so well.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 03:06 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about parts of you being male. I was so hung up on not being a tomboy (like feminists are "supposed" to be), I never even discovered/identified my bits of gender dysphoria until I was in college. Which is crazy! Because I have so much of it!
Yeah, I can't stand the way the "alternative" lifestyles want to erase all traces of difference and either ape or live in constant reaction to the mainstream. It really makes me sick.
You, on the other hand, make me smile. Love you!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 03:37 pm (UTC)"Um, because they're US????"
HAHAHAHAH. Oh, you little pseduo dyke. I don't need to wear a uniform to lick pussy, k thx!!!
I love yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 03:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 05:14 pm (UTC)Yeah, next generation as in version 2.0 as in BETTER!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 03:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 03:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-22 07:44 pm (UTC)That said, I do/did identify with them, possibly because they both were educators :P . But in LW, I most loved Beth, which is different from identification. I mean, she's so shy you want to strangle her, and no one's that sweet, but I think of the way she crept over to play the piano, and something about that just...pressed a button.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-28 03:37 pm (UTC)I heart Beth also. She & Mr. Laurence were so awesome together.