Sunday, 08 October 2023

Finally, A Queer Version Of ‘Little Women’! Check The Trailer Out!

little women

Who hasn’t read Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’? It is a fantastic literature classic and a book that all teenage girls love to discover. And by the end of the year, a very queer version of the book will be released as a movie.

As I read the book, I always thought the character of Jo was a lesbian tomboy. I identified with her and now I understand better why. The author’s LGBTQ identity may have been erased from history.

I know that’s kind of the theme of the month on LQIOO lol. I was telling you the other day about the LGBTQ people of the Colonial Williamsburg who have found their place back in history. I’ll also talk about Emily Dickinson in a few days. But today, it’s all about Louisa May Abbott!

“I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man’s soul, put by some freak of nature into a woman’s body,” Alcott used to say, according to biographical material that author and director of the upcoming movie Greta Gerwig references. “I have fallen in love in my life with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.”

The character of Jo March was somehow her avatar.

Besides, did you know that Alcott didn’t want Jo to get married? I learned that while working on this article. It was her publisher who forced her to write this end to conform to society. I must admit that it reconciles me with the book because I remember that I didn’t like this wedding at all.

‘Little Women’ is, therefore, a way to find a queer author who was not necessarily known to be queer. So it changes everything about the story. The LGBTQ identity of this work is finally highlighted. We can’t be 100 percent sure that the writer was queer, but this movie also allows us to rediscover the story as Louisa May Alcott may have imagined it page after page.

“We didn’t want to label [Alcott] as anything,” Saoirse Ronan (Jo) told Vanity Fair, before adding that author and director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) had studied Alcott’s letters and journal to update the script.

You may agree with me, but when you read this book, something happens. As an LGBTQ person, I almost have the feeling that my gaydar or queerdar should I say is beeping. This story, these characters, this feminist and tomboy side, there is something very LGBTQ about this book.

Here is the trailer for ‘Little Women’. As you will see, the casting is exceptional because it brings together Saoirse Ronan (Jo), Emma Watson (Meg), Eliza Scanlen (Beth), Florence Pugh (Amy), Laura Dern (Marmee), and Meryl Streep (Aunt March).