someone says their friend is thankful that little women is finally given the ending it deserves, perhaps alluding to the VERY 19th ct feminist take on domestic affairs, love, etc., but the ending it most deserves is probably one that comes w/ the grit of real life. we get a lush fantasyscape in which the middling talents of every march sister flourish in providing for the next generation. all of the narrative tragedy of little women is always too muted, coated in the bliss of happy family, a zone devoid of trauma and full of security in spite of professions of the opposite. for straight women the ultimate ending is maybe to be shown that they don't have to settle for a wooden toothed thousandaire, that they themselves could one day be the thousandaire. jo gives a dramatic speech about the perils of a life without a husband, how she is filled w/ dire loneliness. i want 2 to know why she doesn't just make some fuckin friends.
its maybe a Homosexual trait to be born knowing that you'll die alone & have every romantic interlude be some sort of wild diversion in an illegal paradise. dying alone is among the best scenarios that could befall one truly in a world where coupledom and marriage are the sites of the greatest violence against women. in under the tuscan sun, which i watched a few hours after little women, a lesbian played w/ clunky tact & aggressive style (berets, leather, suspenders) by sandra oh spends a total of two onscreen minutes mourning the loss of her partner who has abandoned her then falls happily in2 motherhood. here is where we remember laura dern, an utterly zen look on her face masking the complete exhaustion & rage, "i'm angry every day of my life" marriage is a curse, is motherhood any better?
some say being an artist is like being a mother. would louisa may alcott agree? releasing your work into the world after caring for it so deeply. this is kind of like calling your dog your son but whatever it's complicated. there are so many wink & a nod moments when gerwig zooms out & looks at the way narratives were crafted in 19th century America. some cranky publisher says no one would ever want 2 read this story about an UNMARRIED WOMAN LIKE JO meanwhile every woman who has ever read little women has identified w/ jo so strongly that they would sooner die than have to be an Amy or Beth or Rhonda or whoever the hell the other women are. we can't even remember their names. gerwig holds up a mirror but also isn't willing to do a fast forward to jo living our her days like emily dickinson straggly grey hair 2 her ass refusing 2 leave the house except 2 go 2 the bread baking competition, nightgowns stained w period blood, bed filled w crumbs. heaven.
under the tuscan sun, which we watch because one of my favorite people loves it, is also a movie about women's desperation to find love & the narratives we are told 2 cling 2 in the face of love being revealed as impossible, busted, or just kinda gross. at one point the cartoonishly horny (the only way middle aged women r allowed 2 experience sexuality in films like these) protagonist frances has finally gotten some passionate d after years of her own wooden toothed thousandaire exhusbo and wildly slides down the side of a muddy hill in chase of the car of her italian lover. she will do anything 2 find the love that is guaranteed 2 cure her suffering. at the end of the movie, i think a man reminds her she has everything she needs. get bent loser!!!
does jo have a lot in common with frances? yeah, they're writers, don't need anybody but themselves, risk takers, etc. we've heard this one before.. society keeps telling em "you need a man" even tho theyve got that gut feelin' every woman is born with... ("all women are lesbians" -jill johnston) "write what you know" is eternally in vogue so you'll be hard pressed to find a story like one of these that doesn't feature a writer. it's a great occupation if you don't want your protagonist to have any earthly responsibilities or need to deliver some cosmic burns or give them something to live for outside of marriage that is then complicated by marriage. but they're women working against the conventions of their time, which r of course the same. nothing much changes in the apocalyptic pastpresentfuture time collapse of heterosexuality (lol sorry). anyyywayyy I'm looking fwd 2 the next little women adaptation where marmee is just played by a roomba in some sexy lingerie, jo's a real dyke, the dad's a bag of potatoes, meg gets in2 improv so no1 will marry her. beth goes to CVS for the antibiotics, amy cheats on laurie w/ a guy who won't return her calls. period pieces are beautiful traps, invitations 2 forget abt the world for an hour or two. romantic comedies r like snorting buzzfeed articles. can't complain either way. cotton candy 4 the soul.
