So I saw Little Women the 2019 adaptation with these wonderful, powerful, beautiful ladies recently! I
was so teary eyed so much of the time too because this adaptation focuses
on Jo's narrative i thought very well and her story means SO MUCH to me
personally.
Little Women
serves as a reminder that every woman's idea of a fulfilled future can
be and is likely different but is still equally valid.
It
reminds us that yes, you can like dresses or romping, exploring the
bushes with your platonic male friends or sewing fine silks into
ballroom dresses. You can be a stay at home mom in a sweet cottage with
your husband or want to tour Europe and live a life of worldly artistic
appreciation or a life as a woman chasing her professional passions or
all of the above. Why judge a woman for wanting any of these choices is
what the film seems to ask.
When I read the book of course I felt deeply connected with Jo. The march sister who wanted to climb trees, tour Europe for it's ascetic qualities as fuel, be a writer and who eventually moves to New York City in this crazy move to do just this. As I grow older, watching this adaptation it was interesting to see how my friends felt connected to different March sisters and how even I, appreciated the other March sisters in an entirely different way.
This adaptation brings a great contemporary lens the the cause and effect of living as a woman in a world that does not respect womanhood as equally valuable. A world that places constraints on what a woman should look like and how she should spend her life. What she should be passionate about and what should make her whole. A world that policies women's bodies and then tells them to work as everyone else works even knowing that they have set up systematic constraints that make this not impossible but incredibly unequal...
My favorite part about this rendition of Jo March is that she yells in the face of the audience the secret pain of many modern women. It is a pain of responsibility. To know that you deserve more and to understand that your journey towards more is likely to be a lonely trudge. To understand that the world sees a woman's loneliness as a weakness or as her punishment for wanting more. The successful woman is not supposed to admit to being lonely. She is supposed to be comforted by her success. As if loneliness is not a human emotion. She is expected to be superhuman to be given the respect of humanity. Again here is the tipping of the scales towards an inequality we have not yet managed to fix or even look holistically in the face without blushing.
I love that the story of Little Women reminds us that every
story, every secret dream and dared for hope informs us that there is
no one right way to be a woman. There is just the bittersweet beauty of
growing into womanhood in a world that pushes back on it.
Rest assured, it might be hard to be a woman then and now but it can still be beautiful after all.
If
you're really really blessed? Maybe you'll get to do it with women who
will support your struggle and your dreams and not judge you for not
'doing it right' Women who know too there isn't necessarily a right
way...just A WAY at the end of it all to be a woman and that way is
linked to being the truest version of yourself you can manage.
I'll tell you something else, I cannot wait to see what happens when woman dares to take on the task of betraying Jo through an inter-sectional feminist lens. What of a multiracial Jo? Jo as a person of colour? A non-binary Josaphine March? What will Jo of the gen Z look like? Now there is a question...there, is a thought.
Peace. Love. Equality.
