Glorification Of Male Mistreatment In Greta Gerwig's Cinema Video Transcript

When we look at Greta Gerwig's movies as a whole, they gloss over abuse all the time. Here's a quote from Little Woman blogger Jimena Escoto.

"I saw Barbie yesterday. I have a few thoughts about it, but it made me think of Little Women and Laurie in the adaptations. So the problem in the Barbieland is that Kens are relegated to accessories. This is how Mattel made them and Greta Gerwig took that to give men a taste of their own medicine. They have no purpose, profession, dreams of their own, nothing. They exist solely to support Barbie.

Without her, Ken is nothing and people say, well, this is a girl's story. So Barbie is the important one and isn't it funny how this is the way Laurie is treated in Little Women as well. Little Women is a book for girls? Girls and women are the main target audience. Therefore, Laurie doesn't deserve his own character arc. What for, right? Louisa gave him one, and it's a very interesting and beautiful one.

But I guess adaptations don't think that a girl would care about it and relegate him into an accessory. He's Jo's friend, Jo's suitor, Amy's husband. The prime example of this is Greta's adaptation.

How ironic. In that film, Laurie exists only to be a love interest to Jo and Amy. There's barely mention of his past and his music comes up as an afterthought, almost at the end of the movie. Laurie's conflict revolves around marriage. Will he marry Jo or Amy? We never see him working or graduating. The movie barely addresses his problems with his grandfather. There's not one scene just for him. What we know about him is told by other characters.

He never gets to express anything, aside for his feelings for Jo and viewers don't seem to care for the most part. They see Laurie as a thing. They claim that Amy took Laurie from Jo. Excuse me? He's a person. He chose to propose Amy. He's not a prize. They like Timothee Chalamet. They don't know him. He rarely posts on social media. He's a complete stranger, but isn't he handsome and he speaks French? Who wouldn't want him?

By doing this, there's also the message that men are more like pets than partners for women. What has 2019 Laurie has to offer to anyone? He's charming. What else? Why would any woman want to spend rest of her life with him? Wouldn't a strong, independent woman want a strong, independent man? Not just a nice smile. Why don't these adaptations show that? It's a way of teaching young girls that if they are interested in men in the future, they should look for a kind, smart, responsible, hardworking man, not just a pretty face".

Unlike in most Little Women adaptations, in the book, Laurie actually proposes Jo after Jo has spent a year in New York and she has started to fall in love with Friedrich. In the 2019 Little Women, Laurie proposes Jo before she leaves and she says some silly things like she cannot sacrifice her freedom. This is the actual dialogue from the book when Laurie was badmouthing Fredrick during his proposal.

"Don't swear, Teddy. He isn't old or anything bad, but good and kind and the best friend I've got next to you. Pray don't fly into passion.

I want to be kind, but I know I shall get angry if you abuse my professor".

Laurie keeps pushing and then Jo says that there is a certain type of love she is looking for and that can change her mind.

"Yes, I will live and die for him. If he ever comes and makes me love him in spite of myself. And you must do the best you can, cried Joe, losing patience with poor Teddy. I've done my best, but you won't be reasonable and it is selfish of you to keep teasing for what I cannot give".

Quote from Christina Scott:

"One of the fans, read the novel after watching the 2019 film ad they were not just surprised, but full-blown shock to see that there was no, not even a hint of Jo and Laurie And they were like, in a way disappointed and like kind of really like upset that Gerwig would do that when like the book never did. So,it's amazing how media slash, you know, movies and whatnot will change how we perceive how the story should be, because that's not how it went at all".

Quote from Micarah Tewers

Kens are systemically abused by the barbie mania system. I did not love it when the Barbies were trying to take back what was theirs and reestablish their unjust system of matriarchy.

"They do so by playing on the Ken's insecurities. Someone who reads too deep into things might say, tapping into their previous traumas and pretending to love the Kens and then trying to make them wildly jealous of each other. This movie really kind of made it feel like it was trying to send us a message and when in lead movies, there seem to be only two possible courses a woman's life can take. Either she has a man in her life and he is the story arc. He is the center of her world or she's completely strong and independent and doesn't need no man and every man in her world is bad. What I want to see so bad and I want children to see, is just a really healthy relationship where the love interest is not the main point to our she-ro's life. She has her own plot and goals. But like, she also has a male partner by her side, supporting her without feeling threatened by her success.

Like we've not seen that since Ron's Stoppable. Oh my gosh, I love Ron's Stoppable. That's the dynamic I was hoping for. Oh, I will say, I think Anna and Kristoff are a good example of this also. Hey, imagine you're a roof handler, poured yourself into creating this legacy, this narrative, world's famous multi-generational and what am I, what am I saying? And you've got salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly, chocolate and mustard. Romeo and Juliet, Barbie and Ken. It's very near and dear to your heart. It's very near and dear to the hearts of little girls like me and then the media just can't stop butchering and the things I was excited for about the movie are this message that like, you can express your femininity with reckless abandon and still be taken seriously and finally getting a male in supportive role to a woman and then, actually if you want to be like a real person, you gotta dress boring and somewhat masculine and no way, she can't, no, she can't be a real serious woman until she drops the man and wears the tan. Wait, what? Sometimes they are, but not Ken. I know Ken, that's not, I know him, I played him. Every time I would play Barbies growing up, I was always the Kens, because I have the best boy voice and he was a really good guy. At the risk of sounding like the girly equivalent to like a 30-year-old Marvel buff. Do your best with Ken, then. It is canon for Barbie and Ken to end up together".

In the Little Woman books, Laurie has a bad temper. When he proposes to Jo, he is quite aggressive. In the book, there are multiple mentions how Jo and Laurie are not a good match because Jo also has a temper. In an interview to Cosmopolitan, Gerwig talked how she wants to push Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet together in her movies. What we get as a result of this, Laurie's character arc is completely missing from the 2019 movie.

There are two types of male characters in Louisa May Alcott's novels. Let's call them as the Laurie archetype and the Friedrich archetype. These two male characters are based on Louisa May Alcott's actual relationships, and they appear in all of her novels. The Laurie archetype is a young man who is very privileged, but also indecisive, sometimes very idle and childish and in Alcott's books, the Laurie archetype often ends up with the Amy type of character who manages to guide them in ways that the Jo character cannot.

Louisa May Alcott loved boys. If you read her diaries, when she was in her 20s, she actually wanted to start a school for boys. In an interview to Film Comment, Gerwig said that Friedrich forces Jo to start a school. When in the book, Jo says to Friedrich that she is going to start a school and if he agrees with her idea that she wants to start a school. She. She. Not he. She.

This is something that comes a lot in Greta Gerwig's speech, where she intentionally tries to frame the woman to be a victim, in all cases, no matter what. Then we have the Friedrich archetype who is academic man, usually little older than the Jo March archetype. He loves children, supports the career of the Jo archetype, and he is usually poor, stout, and many of the Friedrich archetypes speak German. The Jo archetype often falls in love with him and marries him. Fredrick archetype is based on two men, German poet Goethe, who was Louisa May Alcott's favorite writer, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. If you have read Louisa May Alcott's journals, she writes about how she wanted to marry him. She wanted to start a family with him.

After Henry passed away, Louisa wrote in her diaries how she believed that, in the afterlife, she was going to reunite with him. It's quite sad, really, but it shows Little Women as a wish fulfillment and Henry appears in literal disguise in every single Louisa May Alcott novel. If you want to hear more about these two archetypes, you can check out the podcast episode Love and Sex in Little Women.

Here's a quote from Christina Scott:

And clearly, Gerwig has issues with writing men. They're either boring side pieces, sexist or abusive. That is mistaken as love.

Greta Gerwig's first movie, Lady Bird, told about a young girl who had a difficult relationship trying to connect with her highly narcissistic mother. Some of the main criticism about Lady Bird is that the movie is completely apologetic towards narcissistic abuse. I'm not talking about having narcissistic traits, but actual narcissistic personality disorder. Best way I have come across to describe NPD is that narcissistic person does not understand that other people's reality is different to them and that is why narcissistic people do not understand empathy. Narcissism is born in childhood when the child identifies themselves with their abuser. What I have read, Lady Bird is based on Gerwig's own relationship with her narcissistic mother. The biggest criticism the film has faced is that it completely glosses over the abuse. The mother is forgiven, but the girl's emotional abuse continues. This is because narcissistic people do not know how to do self-reflection. They more than willingly criticize others, but cannot handle any criticism about themselves. The film clearly wants the audience to feel sympathy for the mother and accept her as the abuser she is. In the movie Mistress America, co-written by Gerwig and her husband, Noah Baumbach, we meet the protagonist Brooke, who is the most obnoxious narcissistic character but at the same time, it does not condemn or question Brooke's behavior. It is framed as quirky, and the film glosses over all the emotional abuse she does towards her stepsister and all people around her. These movies are not about male abuse, but they show a similar pattern in all of Gerwig's movies. The intense need she has to gloss over and even glorify emotional and mental abuse. In the 2019 movie, when Jo has her meltdown with Friedrch, it reminded me of Narcissistic Rage. Jo has been dancing with Friedrich, she clearly likes him. She has even low-key flirted with him. She asks his feedback, and then when he says that he is not really into her stories, she throws a tantrum.

Quote from DR Less Carter:

"With narcissistic people, their emotional development stops as kids. They are stuck in this idea that a child has, that everything in the world is theirs, and that they are the center point of the universe. A narcissistic person does not understand the concept that another person is separated from them. This is what we refer to as the sadistic pattern of narcissism.

Sadism is just known for a person creating the pain, creating a woundedness in the other individual, but actually taking great delight in the strain and the difficulty and the pain and the agony that they generate. This is my way of proving how important I am. This is my way of illustrating that I'm the ultimate, don't you forget it".

People learn empathy by observing other people. This is why some people that have been raised by narcissists don't become abusers themselves, because they have experienced love as children. Someone has taken care of them and given that unconditional love. When Jo throws this tantrum, even the language that she uses is childish. When she says, you are mean and I hate you. Almost like she's mad that someone took a bucket at their sandbox and they don't even have this argument in the book. Watch the 1949 Little Women, That movie has the feedback that is closest to the book. Gerwig made the whole argument.

She made it up.

This is a quote from @whenthegoldrays

"I was fine with forgiving Gerwig for splitting up Barbie and Ken and just believing that the two would reunite eventually, but today I remembered that this isn't the first time she breaks up a canon couple. In 2019, Greta Gerwig at least implied that she also broke up Jo March and Friedrich Bhaer, my literal one true pairing. I get that the way the story in Barbie plays out means that Barbie and Ken's breakup makes sense and is almost something necessary.

We know that Gerwig isn't that interested in history, when she does what she can to further the myth of Alcott and her editor. The worst thing about her version is that so many new fans of Little Woman take her version and her lies about the publication as truth. But the actual truth of the story and what happened behind the scenes is even more incredible and feminist, not only for Alcott for standing her ground and making a story she was proud of, but for her male editor, never pressuring her into doing anything she didn't want to do.

But no, poor Jo had to deal with sexist editor, who doesn't get what it's like to be a girl. I hate how she gave this choose your own ending for Jo, when no matter what ending you choose for her, she was going to be unhappy. The relationship of Jo and Friedrich in this film was so underdeveloped that you wondered what did Friedrich see in Jo, and she seemed to be barely interested in him.

So when she chased him down, it felt more like she was pressured by Meg and Amy to get him, rather than he really wanting to see him. If you choose the ending of her being with no one but her book, it is sad because she is still alone despite her wanting love. Neither ending is a satisfying ending in my opinion, and I hated what she did with them just to appease some fans.

When seeing a pattern in Little Woman and Barbie, I too wonder if she believes romantic love as some sort of weakness or a barter. Barbie and Ken were literally made for each other, and you would think that the story would go that eventually, Ken and Barbie would learn to appreciate and love each other truly, but nothing came from it. Woman can be both empowered and in love, it doesn't diminish their worth, but Gerwig seems to have a problem believing in that, which makes me wonder a bit about her own relationship.

Does this really mean that she has something against interpersonal relationships? Feelings or empathy are so often mocked and dismissed in her movies, that is sad mostly for her, but the audiences should be aware of that, as it is starting to feel more and more like whether Gerwig sees love as weakness. People who care for others are more than often a thing of mockery for her, especially if it's a male character. All her self-inserted characters are victims of someone or something, and behave like martyrs, and because they are quote victims, that is what allows them to behave abusively towards other people.

This is a quote from Francis Derwey, 

My first reaction when finishing this movie was, well, that was mean movie. Most of the characters in it know actual human drives, desires, needs or interpersonal connections. Especially the main Barbie, and those who do are relentlessly mocked for it

Gloria's husband is the big example of this. The movie roasts him furiously every time he's on screen for the egregious sin of having a difficult time learning a second language. That he's trying to learn because it is culturally significant language to his wife and daughter, even if it is very hard for him.

He tries because he loves them. The movie frames this as pathetic and cringeworthy. The same thing happens with Ken.

His love for horses, his need to be noticed, loved and appreciated, his drive for connection, are all treated as shameful weaknesses. But that's what makes a character compelling, endearing even. Because it makes that character human.

That's why so many people came out of the movie liking and caring the most about Ken. The Barbie movie embraces and develops the nihilism and the will to power, but never really jumps into vitalism and its fictions. So it lands in this sort of desperate emptiness of, I am what I am and that is enough, whatever that is.

This is a quote from Little Women, Jo confesses to her mother that she would like to experience romantic love 

I knew you were sincere then, Jo, but lately I have thought that if Laurie came back and asked again, you might, perhaps, feel like giving another answer. Forgive me, dear. I cannot help seeing that you are very lonely, and sometimes there is a hungry look in your eyes that goes to my heart, so I fancied that your boy might fill the empty place if he tried now.

No matter. It is better as it is, and I am glad Amy has learned to love him. But you are right in one thing.

I am lonely, and perhaps if Teddy has tried again, I might have said yes. Not because I love him, but because I care more to be loved. Mothers are the best lovers in the world, but I don't mind whispering to Mommy that I'd like to try all kinds.

It is very curious, but the more I try to satisfy myself with all sort of natural affections, the more I seem to want it. I had no idea hearts could take in so many. Mine is so elastic.

It never seems full now, and I used to be quite contented with my family. I don't understand it. I do.

And Mrs March smiled her wise smile. 

Obviously, this does not sound like a person who wants to be alone, or someone who hates men. Greta Gerwig wanted her audience to believe that Joe wants to be alone, and that Jo hates men.

Fredrik is another person whose entire story is erased from the 2019 film. In the promotion tour of the film, Gerwig kept repeating how he is a terrible fat man who speaks with a horrible German accent and forces Jo to start school. Friedrich speaks with a German accent because he is based on Goethe, Louisa May Alcott's favorite writer who was German.

Friedrich is stout because Luisa May Alcott was attracted to stout men. You can check that out yourself. It's literally all of her books.

In the end of the last Little Woman book, Jo has gained quite a bit of weight, and she actually faces quite a lot of fatphobia. Greta Gerwig is a plus-size woman, so this kind of behavior from her is outlandish. She behaves like Lizzo.

It's very hypocritical to say that someone who has the same body type as you have is less of a person than you because they have the same body type that you have. Gerwig is also a descendant of German immigrants herself. This hate speech that she made about the character did increase xenophobia in her audience.

This is a quote from a letter Louisa wrote to one of her fans. She was very unhappy in her life, especially after Henry passed away. In her diaries, she wrote how she envied her sister's marriage as that she only had work and no one to share life with.

I don't know or care, for true love is immortal. I believe to immortality that we go through many lives, passing souls and experiences, and such are truly lived and cherished, on to the next, growing richer, happier and higher, bringing only the real memories that has gone before us. I seem to remember former states and feel that in them I find the truth.

That is quite a big difference to the way Gerwig wants people to see Jo's relationship with Friedrich as some kind of world's end, when in reality it was a wish fulfillment. 

 Here is a quote from Louisa´s diary from 1874. She has received a letter from her sister who has written about her married life. "Happy letters from May, who is enjoying life as one can but once" Then with a sudden vision of her own lonely lot, she exclaims: 

"How different our lives are just now. I so lonely, and sick and she so happy and blest. She always had the cream of things and deserved it. My time is yet to come somewhere else, when I am ready for it".

 Not only is she incredibly lonely, but she also envies her sisters marital happiness and wishes that she would have a partner. These letters are from May Alcott´s biography by Caroline Ticknor and it was published in the 1920s.   

When it comes to Gerwig's characters, there is a lack of unconditional love. They don't always seem emotionally balanced.

And sometimes there seems to be spite and even disgust towards close emotional relationships where these relationships, romantic or platonic, her Jo does not never reflect her flaws. Unlike the book Jo, the movie Jo never grows from that emotionally abusive state. Barbie, multiple times, refuses to do any kind of self-reflection.

By the time of recording this, I have not seen the live action Snow White. The film has been written by Gerwig and Erin Cressida Wilson. The actress who plays Snow White, Rachel Ziegler, caused quite a controversy speaking very openly how she does not like the original 1937 animation and she has made mockery of it.

A lot of people thought that was very disrespectful. In comparison, for example, to Hanne Bailey, who spoke about her appreciation towards the original 1988 Little Mermaid animation and how much she likes the original and at the same time she talked about the modern improvements in the live action and how people should be able to enjoy both. I am not a huge fan of Disney live actions.

I think they are mostly made because of money, not for the love of storytelling. But also because when I was a child I wanted to become an animator and I love animation as an art form. But if I have to choose between two live action films based on what the actors say to the media, I would prefer to see the one where the actress is respectful towards the original material.

Even if they would struggle with some of the themes, there should be at least appreciation for the craftsmanship that it took to make the original movie. To expect that the society had the same ethical values 30, 50, 80 years ago is just unrealistic. I have some predictions about the live action Snow White.

I am guessing that the prince is not going to be very present and that he is reduced the same way as Laurie, Friedrich and Ken are. I am also guessing that there is going to be some kind of big speech. How difficult it is to be a woman.

Feel free to leave a comment if you wish me to do a deep dive to the Snow White that is, if my predictions come true. Another thing that the writers of this movie have said is that the prince kisses Snow White without her consent. How do you give a consent to someone to kiss you when you are in a coma? In the 1937 animation, Snow White was quite into the prince.

She smiles when he sings her a serenade and she tells about him to the dwarves. Honestly, I don't think she minded him kissing her. And the other thing, doesn't she need the prince to kiss her, so she can wake up from the curse? Isn't that the whole point of the story? That the true love's kiss is the thing that wakes her up? I cannot see the logic here.

The makers of this movie calling the prince a stalker and someone who Snow doesn't want to be with because he kisses her without her consent. It feels like they haven't watched the original animation. It rings very similar to the way Friedrich was treated by Gerwig.

And like I said before, Alcott was in love with the real-life Friedrich. We see this pattern in the Barbie movie as well. Barbie says to Ken that she was created for him, when that is inaccurate.

Barbie doll was created in 1959, Ken doll was introduced two years later. Barbie came before Ken. What is Gerwig's agenda? I don't know, and I don't know if she knows either.

I don't think it is feminism, and I will get into that. I think if she has troubles with men, there are healthier ways to cope with that. Alcott's cooler Susan Bailey, she thinks Gerwig's films are all about money, and I am inclined to agree with her.

What it comes to the prince, both Gerwig and Ziegler have pointed out the idea that prince is quite unnecessary character, and they call him a stalker. Now correct me if I am wrong, the prince in the 1937 animation, he hears Snow White singing by the well, and he actually introduces himself to her. If he was a stalker, wouldn't he you know, stalker? In the 1937 animation, we don't see that much of the prince, that was because they struggled to animate him back in the days, and Snow White was the first full-length animated movie.

But in the Disney's Snow White comics, prince had more screen time, and more action sequences, and more personality, but because the live action is a Gerwig film, I don't think we are going to see any of that. So yes, both Ziegler and Gerwig have said that there is probably not going to be a love story which would make this a third movie, where Greta Gerwig breaks a canon couple. I have been doing the Little Women podcast for 6 years now, and the most common thing that people tell me, that surprised them after listening, is that they didn't know that Louisa May Alcott had a love interest, several actually, and that both Joanne Friedrich and Amy and Laurie have more in-depth love stories in the novel, and they just thought that Alcott disliked love and romance, simply because Greta Gerwig's version was promoted with that slogan, which tells something more about her character, than people who go to the movies and believe that the director slash script writer is honest with them.

Other people beside me have also pointed out Gerwig's weird relationship with male characters, but I don't think she is very much of a feminist. One thing that really got on my nerves during the promotion of the 2019 Little Women movie, was that a lot of the promotion was based on this idea that Greta Gerwig was the first female director directing Little Women, and the slogan of the movie was, this is a movie made by woman for woman, first time by a female director. And later on I found out that they used the same slogan for the Barbie movie.

I guess they ran out of ideas, but this is so far from the truth, and it is so misogynistic, and really belittles all the women who worked on the previous adaptations. Little Women 1994, directed by Gillian Armstrong, written by Robin Swickert, also produced by a woman, Denise DeNovi, Little Women 2017 series, was directed by Vanessa Caswell, Screenplay by Heidi Thomas, written and directed by a woman, Little Women 2018, written by Krista Schimmack, directed by Claire Kneider-Bruhman, written and directed by a woman, can you see a pattern here? And shout out to my friend Princess Arisa who continued this list, even the 1933 and the 1949 versions. Screenplays were co-written by a woman, Sarah E. Mason, even the last 1918 silent version had a woman screenwriter, Anne Maxwell.

Meanwhile the 1970 British miniseries was directed by a woman, the 1978 American miniseries had a woman screenwriter, Suzanne Closer, and the 2005 Broadway musical had a woman lyricist, Mindy Dickstein. In short, almost every major adaptation of this story has had either a woman writer, a woman director, or both. Greta Gerwig is far behind all these Little Women female creators.

What really broke the camel's back for me was reading Little Women 2019 film guide. There's a scene where Gerwig makes mockery of the previous adaptations, and then she talks about the way she took elements from them, and she quite openly dislikes the novel. At least that was the impression I got from them.

And I don't think she has read the book. We talked earlier how Laurie doesn't have a character arc in her movie, and that Laurie is an object. In the film guide, she says that, quote, Laurie wants Jo to enter to the adulthood.

And if you guys have read Little Women, some of you might know this. The reason why Jo rejects Laurie is because Laurie is so immature, and that's why she is attracted to Freddie. So yeah, I don't think Greta Gerwig has read Little Women.

Thank you so much for listening. If you are watching this on YouTube and enjoyed this deep dive, give it a thumbs up, and feel free to subscribe to my channel and click on the notifications. You can find Little Women podcast also on Spotify, iHeart, and all other major podcast platforms.

Sources: 

youtube channels: Sue&Movies Micarah Tewers Better With Bob blogs: https://the-other-art-blog.tumblr.com/ https://joandfriedrich.tumblr.com/ German literature and culture in Louisa May Alcott's little women by Christine Doyle Wedding Marches by Daniel Shealy little women 2019 film guide Greta Gerwig's interview on filmcomment (2019) Greta Gerwig's interview on Vogue (2019)