atbookends:

This instead of my reading Standoff at Tiananmen.

But I was in Barnes and Nobel the other day, and this one book caught my eye — it was one of those “let’s go back in time to a fictional novel!” pieces — you know. The kind that’s been done and overdone with Romeo and Juliet (which usually completely misses the point of the play in the first place) — except this time with Little Women. Funny thing is, it specifically mentions that one of the main character’s objectives was to prevent Laurie and Amy’s marriage. To which my first thought was “Really?” and my second was “This couldn’t possibly actually happen, right? The girl learns some lesson about meddling or compatibility and then goes her merry way.”

Except not really. Because I, being the spoiler rat I am, decide to flip to the back to see (it’s not like I’d read the book anyway). Apparently this girl not only makes Jo go on the tour of Europe and hook up with Laurie and makes Amy seem like this huge bitch.

So here’s a list of problems I have with people who dislike Amy March:

Read the rest here! Trying not to clog your dashes.

YOW, this is partially directed at my ‘Amy sucks’ post. But I hate to be grouped with someone who has written shitty, Little Women fanfic. I was merely hyperbolizing (with acerbic, inappropriate humor) my hatred of what I perceive to be Amy’s homophobia/transphobia. With a blog called SuckMyAlcott, what else can you expect? I’m coming at this as a non-Christian, queer reader from the 21st century, so I have no patience for Amy’s feelings about Jo’s queer identity, nor with the rest of the family’s feelings about it.

Amy’s ambition does not automatically make her a feminist, nor does her femininity preclude her from being a feminist. What prevents her from being a feminist is that she is not accepting of the other, or those who do not conform to the gender binary (ahem, JO). She is threatened by Jo’s masculinity because it does not coincide with what sociey tells her should matter most to women (femininity, romance, marriage, social status, riches).

Oddly enough, Jo’s masculinity does not conflict with the March family’s Christian values of hard work and independence. I have yet to see these traits in Amy, though I am only about half way through the novel (I have read it before, but it has been a good decade since I’ve read it thoroughly).

Jo and Amy parallel one another. They are both the family fuck ups (which I think the novel treats pretty jovially—we are meant to laugh at and learn from their foibles). Their behavior is reported as ‘bad’ and ‘middling.’ Looking at Little Women as the Pilgrim’s-Progress-for-girls it was originally meant be, I see the key difference between them as this:
-Amy’s desires are societally acceptable and yet repudiated by the March’s Christian values
-Jo’s desires are NOT societally acceptable and yet mostly encouraged by the March’s Christian values

Still, they are pretty much equal in their ‘everyday’ faults. Jo has a bad temper and lack of patience. Amy is affected and rash, etc. They are at the opposite ends of the novel’s Christian reform spectrum. Amy must gain more Christian values and reject society’s false ones. Jo must also learn to be good and patient, and yet conform to society slightly more. In the novel, Amy is rewarded for her faults (their aunt takes feminine, conformist Amy to Europe over masculine, other Jo).

I don’t hate Amy. I find her incredibly relatable and oftentimes charming and funny. I also find it funny to come at it from Jo’s pissed off perspective. I’m angrier at the society that created Amy than Amy herself.