Jo, Rey and Other Strong (But Lonely) Female Characters
Collab With Emiloid
University of North Wales/ Glyndwr University
Children's books and book publishing industry
Podcast Project
Summary:
This time Emily and I are discussing the portrayal of strong female characters in
the media, and when did loneliness become a mark of being strong. Also
discussing Louisa May Alcott´s own loneliness and her search for love and
acceptance.
Listen full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o5IAvqOhyU
Hello Little Women appreciators. Today's comment shout goes to @stopitall
Who says the following? "I just can stop thinking about how Jo March would be a
raging feminist these days. Just imagine her speaking out about women's rights
on social media and protesting on the streets. How she would go out of her way
to break the patriarch because it's just bullshit.
She would also take her husband with her. Don't tell me she wouldn't, because she
would, and Fritz would just stand there looking at her in awe. Because she's such a
strong woman and he's so happy that he found her. She'd write fancy books that
portray the different types of feminism using novels to explain everything because
everything is more fun when you use your imagination".
What makes Little Women interesting is that Jo doesn't start as a feminist. To be
honest, I don't think anyone starts as a feminist. She's quite a misogynistic character
for most of the book series and when she becomes more influenced by her sisters
and Friedrich, she becomes more feminist.
When Jo is with Laurie, they both treat women like objects, but when Jo is with Fritz,
she begins to treat other women a lot better, because he does, and the same
, happens with Laurie when he's with Amy. I always enjoy our discussions with Emily.
This time we'll be talking about the portrayal of female characters in the media.
This is Little Woman Podcast, Jo March, the portrayal of strong but very lonely female
characters.
Emily: I think I talked to you about this a few days ago when. Do you remember
when I said, it doesn't make sense how Greta Gerwig has divided up the two
timelines? the first one is a happy and perfect timeline, and then the other one is
grim and more like a moody timeline.
I was thinking about it before I messaged you. I was like, it makes no sense because
what was so rosy about the Civil War, about living in the middle of the Civil War
when their dad is away. He could die. He could die in action, and also they were poor
and the whole reason that Marmee was angry all the time. Why she's angry every
time in her life because she's watching her kids live in poverty. It's not great, and
they have to save on things, and they have to make personal sacrifices. If things
were so perfect, then that dichotomy does not make sense and it also takes away, of
course, from the very optimistic American message of the story, which is that you
take away lessons that you learned from them.
Then you apply them to adulthood to make your circumstances better. Adulthood is
not supposed to be sadder than childhood. Two stages of life are connected. So
people in my video were explaining to me, oh, you see the colour grading? It's to
see, is to highlight how one timeline is supposed to be darker than the other and
one's more optimistic and great.
Niina: That makes it worse for me. That goes against, all the messages that I've got
out of the book. One of my friends said that Jo was made to be a martyr in this film.
That double timeline shows that she's this romantic person in this childhood image,
and then this martyr in this gritty, terrible adulthood.
I felt that they killed Beth just so Jo would become a writer. That's not why Beth
exists. That bothered me. All that stuff how Jo is this very childish, immature person
when she's interacting with Friedrich, that goes against the novel as well and, then
that part of her almost accepting Laurie's proposal, what was that about? None of
that resonates, with the novel. If you look at childhood with rose-tinted classes,
especially in this case, you will lose all the context that there is. We talked a bit
about how, the Civil War is almost, pretty much erased in the 2019 film. I think they
try and bring it in maybe a couple of times, like in scenes with Marmee When she
was like kind of volunteering and but apart from that, it feels very much absent. In
