#Little women

[nerdyrevelries]

I think what a lot of people miss is that when we say Little Women is a feminist text, that applies to all four sisters, not just Jo or Amy.

Meg struggles with perfectionism. She wants to be the ideal woman, the ideal wife, and the ideal mother. Worse yet, the standards she compares herself to are imaginary ones. She thinks she should always have the house clean, always have a smile on, and be prepared to receive guests at any time. John should never even have to deal with a single lost button. This is what society was telling Meg she was for. They were showing her a fake standard that's impossible to actually reach in a world where sometimes your kid spins around in a circle really fast and then throws up on you.

If anything, this feels more relatable today than it did when LMA wrote it because we live in a world where people only see the glossy parts of our lives through social media. It's incredibly easy to show a false exterior when you feel dead inside. Even if your idea of perfect isn't being a mother like Meg, I think you can probably relate to the pressure of trying to seek your idea of perfection, whatever that may be.

The advice Marmee gives Meg is so good, even today.

1. Care about your appearance. This might sound sexist at first, but keep in mind who Meg is. Meg loves dressing up and looking pretty. She has started feeling bad about herself because she isn't doing this. This is basically Marmee talking about the importance of self care.

2. Let John help and don't try to do everything yourself. This is still an issue today, much less when Little Women was written.

3. Care about things other than just the babies. This is Marmee telling Meg to find adult interests that are separate from her role as mother and take an interest in the world around her.

4. Let Hannah take over sometimes so you can have time for just you and John. A babysitter and date night!

This is all still excellent advice!

While looking for illustrations of John Brooke from Little Women today, I came across an article with the thesis that in Part II, John has PTSD from fighting in the Civil War, and that this is the "real" reason for the rough patches in his marriage to Meg.

I don't want to fully dismiss that headcanon. John goes to war for a year, after all, and then is wounded badly enough to be discharged. What he goes through could easily create PTSD. Besides, this is only the latest of several mental health headcanons I've read about the characters in Little Women: others include "Meg has postpartum depression after the twins are born," "Jo has ADHD or mild bipolar disorder," and "Beth has autism, and/or Social Anxiety Disoder, and/or anorexia." Some of these I buy more easily than others, but I never mind seeing them suggested.

But at the same time, the author's support for the thesis consisted of painting all of John's behavior in Part II, and both Meg and Marmee's reactions to him, in the worst possible light. They accuse him of "insensitively" laughing at Meg about the jelly, "sulking" when she spends money beyond their means, "neglecting her" after the twins are born, etc. And they interpret Meg's eagerness to please him and fear of disappointing him, Marmee warning her about his capacity for long-lasting anger, and her anxiety about leaving him alone with the babies as "This man is a potential abuser and his wife and mother-in-law both know it and are afraid of him."

IMHO, there are so many levels of wrong in all of the above!

And the more I think about it, the more I realize that using those bad-faith readings to argue that John has PTSD has a hint of ableism. The argument is basically "John is a good, likable man in Part I, but in Part II he becomes a selfish jerk of a husband whom Meg is afraid of and always placating. PTSD can explain the change." Doesn't that reading have unfortunate implications about PTSD?

[makeyoumine69]

Hiiii! I just wanted to say that I've been following your blog since 2023 and I think I already asked you if you were able to write about other characters played by Christian Bale but hey, I don't want to make you uncomfortable and sound pushy but if one day you decide to write about Bale!Bruce Wayne or Laurie from Little Women I would explode! Anyway, I love your American Psycho works so much, you are one of the most dedicated writers I have ever seen, so take care and may the muse always be with you!🙏

Hello dear anon!💕

Thank you for reaching out to me, I really appreciate your support! And I remember the requests to write for other Bale characters because I got a lot of them. And even though Christian Bale is my favorite actor, I never really thought about writing for other characters he's played, but now I might give it a try. So I'm going to make a little poll for you, dear readers, because your opinion is very important.

[papes-and-capes]

CHRISTIAN BALE as THEODORE “LAURIE” LAURENCE

[soupexpertt]

I really like this russian edition of classic books. Letting famous artists do the covers in YA style was such a simple but clever decision. According to the recent study the number of teenage readers increased, possibly thanks to these covers. I own traditional classics with blank covers but if I ever see one of these in the wild, it’ll probably make me go feral.

Here are some of my favs:

Dracula (art by Renibet)

2.Jane Eyre (art by Ulunii)

3. Little women (art by чаки чаки)

4. The Idiot (the hedgehog-omg-) (art by Xinshi)

5. Pride and Prejudice (art by Cactusute)

6. War and Peace (art by Xinshi)

7. Wuthering Heights (art by Renibet)

8. The Great Gatsby (art by NIKEL)

9. Frankenstein (art by Iren Horrors)

10. Crime and Punishment (art by REDwood)

11. Anna Karenina (art by Ulunii)

12. The Cherry Orchard (art by lewisite)

13. The Master and Margarita (art by Renibet)

[achillieus]

what a shame doctors don’t prescribe vacation to secluded seaside towns like they used to

[cat-in-a-mech-suit]

Transmasculinity Throughout Time: Lou Alcott

Yes, you heard me. There is substantial evidence that the author of Little Women was in fact a transgender man! He actually didn’t go by the name that Little Women was published under, with family and friends he would go by Lou, Louy, or LM. His children called him “papa” and “father” and his father, Bronson Alcott, called him his son. He said in 1882, “I am more than half persuaded that I am a man’s soul, put by some freak of nature into a woman’s body.” As a child, he said in a journal, “I don’t care much for girls things. People think I’m wild and queer.” He would pass as a man at masked parties for fun, and delighted in people’s reactions. For his entire life, he expressed this identification as a man, and the character of Jo in Little Women was in part a self insert character based on this. So why don’t we hear about him as a trans man? Well, it’s just not convenient for most people to believe that a beloved book about girls becoming women was written by a man.

[miss-carter]

LITTLE WOMEN 2019 | dir. Greta Gerwig

[elainiisms]

*me at the club* so does anyone wanna discuss queer undertones in classic literature?

[jakeperalta]

★ countdown to christmas (take two) ★ day 8 of 24: little women (2019)

[pig-mania]

me

[carricfisher]

Little Women dir. Greta Gerwig | 2019

[movie-gifs]

Little Women dir. Greta Gerwig | 2019

[ayo-edebiri]

Little Women (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig

[saoirse-ronan]

"I have lots of wishes, but my favorite one is to be an artist in Paris and to do fine pictures and to be the best painter in the world."

"That's what you want too, isn't it, Jo? To be a famous writer?"

"Yes, but it sounds so crass when she says it."

@pscentral event 35: parallels

↳ jo and amy march in little women (2019), dir. greta gerwig

[rodrickheffeley]