Today´s topic is all about people misreading Little Women. How come film directors and even some Alcott scholars complain about Friedrich´s looks, when Jo herself is not written to be beautiful or superficial, or the fact that Louisa May Alcott´s self-image was affected by the people making fun ...
Laurie and Adaptive Attractiveness (Where is The Brown Skinned Laurie)
Greta Gerwig's Fatphobic Comments On Little Women
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Little Women Beauty Standards (2019 Fake News Movie
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Little Women Podcast Transcript
Summary:
Today´s topic is all about people misreading Little Women. How come film directors
and even some Alcott scholars complain about Friedrich´s looks, when Jo herself is
not written to be beautiful or superficial, or the fact that Louisa May Alcott´s self-
image was affected by the people making fun of her? Dissecting Greta Gerwig´s
quotes, how the things she says about the novel, actually don´t happen in the novel,
she just wants you to think they do.
Hello, Little Women fans! Today we have a triple comment shoutout.
The first one goes to Radical-Rin who says:
"Controversial opinion, I know, but I actually really love Jo and Friedrich and I am
goddamn lesbian".
This comment lives in my head rent-free.
Another comment shoutout goes to janeykath318 "I don’t care what Tumblr or Greta
Gerwig say. It’s completely canon that Jo and her Professor were crazy in love, got
married, and had two adorable boys, Rob and Teddy. If Louisa May Alcott really didn’t
want them together, why didn’t she kill him off in the sequel? Instead, we got two
sequels where they clearly are still madly in love and thriving in the chaos of
Plumfield".
Here is a quote from the-other-art-blog:
"I thought the same thing, if she didn’t want Jo to be married, she could have killed
him off. Plus, there are so many scenes where she is clearly attracted to him. They
make out and a friend of mine says there’s an afterglow scene! Greta lied during the
whole press tour!"
When I read Greta Gerwig´s interviews all these things that she has said about Little
Women, none of them actually happen in the novel. It´s just one lie after another. It
really has made me wonder has she even opened the book. She says that she is
some sort of an Alcott expert and then she ignores some very important elements
about her. The fact that Louisa loved Germany, which is not really something you
can miss, especially if you study books that Louisa liked to read. She even studied
,German and travelled there. I am going to dissect Gerwig´s sayings and things that
some Alcott scholars have also said that actually don´t happen in the novel.
This is Little Women Podcast Jo March, Friedrich Bhaer and adaptive attractiveness.
Louisa's (and Jo's) looks
Adaptive attractiveness means that in a film or a tv version, a fictional character
who is not written to be conventionally attractive is played by an attractive actor. In
Little Women, this happens with Jo, Friedrich and with Laurie. Laurie in the book is
written to have brown skin, yet in all adaptations between 1917 to 2019 he has been
played by a white actor. Laurie having brown skin is important, because the plot of
the book plays to the way he sees himself and contributes to his character. I made
an episode about it. It´s called Laurie and adaptive attractiveness.
Adaptive attractiveness applies to Jo as well. Jo in the book is not written to be
pretty. She is tall and quite muscular She is tanned and likes to be outside, but in the
19th century, that wasn´t considered attractive at all. She is very clumsy and
socially awkward. Louisa May Alcott´s niece Lulu said that her aunt had a very low
voice, like a man´s (Reisen). That is what Jo looks like in the novel. I´v had people
leaving not-very-nice comments on my channel where they complain about the looks
of Katherine Hepburn and Sarah Davenport. Katherine played Jo in the 1933 Little
Women and Sarah in the 2018 Little Women. From what I understood these
commenters complained that these actresses were not pretty enough to play Jo. Yet
these two actresses actually look closest to the book Jo.
Let´s put a pin on that. Not pretty enough to play Jo, who is not written to be pretty.
In Little Women Louisa May Alcott, criticizes society´s obsession with beauty.
Katherine Hepburn and Sarah Davenport are tall, they have long-shaped faces, and
they are athletic and muscular. That is what Jo in the book looks like. If you put the
book Laurie and the book Jo next to one another, they are not very balanced. Laurie
is effeminate, he is written to have small hands and small feet. Next to Jo, he seems
small.
It´s not just Jo, there are people who complain that Gabriel Byrne, Mark Stanley and
Paul Lukas who have all played Friedrich were not good-looking enough and then
there are people who say that Ian Bohen, Gabriel Byrne, Louis Garrel and Rossano
Brazzi are too good looking to play Friedrich. Yes, Gabriel Byrne is in both of these
groups. All this is about a book where the author is criticising society's obsession
with youth and beauty.
, The most disturbing group of people are the ones who say that the book Friedrich is
not handsome enough for Jo, despite the fact that Jo is not written to be particularly
beautiful herself and one of the main themes of the novel is that love beautifies a
person.
Louisa May Alcott was taller than most men. She also liked to run and exercise. In
the 19th century the average length of women was a bit shorter than now, so you
can imagine that Louisa stood out.
In the novel, Jo feels like a freak and an outsider. There is criticism towards Meg and
Amy because they wish to fit into the female circles. Movies have been criticized
because they put the spotlight on Jo, and don´t focus that much on other sisters, but
lately, there has been more discussion about how Jo (or Louisa) demonizes their
femininity. In the 19th century, the world between men and women was strictly
divided. One of the reasons why Jo prefers male company is because there is less
criticism about her looks (at least not in front of her). She feels quite insecure about
her body, and often compares herself to Amy and Meg, they are treated better in
society, because they look more feminine. Meg is written to be the most beautiful of
the sisters. Amy is not that beautiful but she is poised and she has nice manners Jo
has a quick tongue and she can´t control her mood changes.
How Many Lies Can Greta Gerwig Tell
Let´s start with this quote of Gerwig saying that she hired a hot Bhaer that Jo would
feel like a winner because quote "how could she say no to someone as handsome as
Timothee Chalamet". Jo in the book is never attracted to Laurie. Laurie is described
to look very effeminate and there are times when Jo even refers to him as "girly or a
daughter". Jo in the book is not superficial, so why should she feel like a winner,
when she never wanted Laurie in the begin with?
Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet are Gerwig´s golden duo. If she makes a film
where the two are, her fans and their fans are going to see it and many of them
have not read Little Women and never read it. There are also fans who romantically
ship Ronan and Chamalet and the characters they play.
I didn´t follow the press tour of the 2019 film but Little Women fan Jimena did and
this is what she says.
"You know the funny thing is that it does seem to me that Saoirse and Timothee are
in a situation pretty much like Jo and Laurie in the book, where Saoirse can't make it
clearer that they are just friends and Timothee keep pushing.
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