Womanhood is truly present in society when we help other women, get ready together, spend time together, and, most importantly, when we feel safe together. Society may not fully understand the importance of womanhood, but once you experience it, everything becomes clear. A great example of this is the 2019 movie based on the novel from 1868, Little Woman, which tells the story of the March family composed of girls, and highlights how important is womanhood in their lives.
MARCH SISTERS AND THEIR STRENGTH
The movie shows the daily life of a house full of women and how supportive they are of each other. Jo March, the main character, does everything to keep the household financially safe and stay close to her sisters, once she moves out to publish novels of her own, pursuing her dream of becoming a writer.
“The world is hard on ambitious girls”
– Amy March
(While she works on her paintings and thinks of her dreams, also representing how the difficulties women need to face.)
The movie shows how was the routine of the March family, and the relationship between the mother, Margaret March, and sisters, Jo March, Amy March, Meg March, Beth March, and how united they were. The father March went to the Civil War, thus the mother turned into the head of the household, and Jo also felt that pressure later on. Besides the happiness inside of the house, an unpredicted disease of Jo’s sister, Beth, turns the happy feeling into a worrying one.
All the sisters face many changes and challenges throughout the movie. Revealing the different personalities of each sister, Little Women explores the life and dreams of the March sisters showing the importance of support in the feminine universe, even if each one wants different things in life.
“Just because my dreams are different than yours, it doesn’t make them unimportant.”
– Meg March
(Explaining to Jo her dreams and asking for her support.)
THE MESSAGE OF WOMANHOOD
The movie also talks about love, which society views as a “girly” subject. There’s a focus on Jo’s story because the character thinks she can´t be loved, and, due to that, Jo doesn’t know how to express her feelings. During the movie we are introduced to Laurie, a man who lives near the house of the sisters, who, later on in the story, expresses his love to Jo.
Taking Jo’s experiences as an example, we realize how often women tend to care about what society will think of her when the subject is love, and how this can reflect on how she really feels. This is reflected in one of society’s biggest problems: how women are always trying to “fit” and be seen as a standard girl, rather than being herself. By helping all women who feel that way, we foster a sense of womanhood, which is a space, a feeling, an action and affirmation words that make women feel safe and have the support of other women.
“Women, they have minds, they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they´ve got ambition, and they´ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I´m so sick of people saying that love is all a women is fit for”
– Jo March
(While she explains how tired she’s of how society always misrepresent women’s figure.)
Unfortunately, we are not over misogyny and sexism in all areas of the world, but if there’s one thing we keep hope for, it’s womanhood, as seen in Little Women. Despite all the challenges women face, as shown in the movie, we can help and show to everyone that it doesn’t matter the situation we are in, womanhood exists so we can have hope and continue moving forward.
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The article above was edited by Maria Clara Polcan.
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