It is uncanny how some people are obsessed with the love life of Jo March and Louisa May Alcott and refuse to see Friedrich as a character in his own right based to an assumption that the writer might have been gay. There is multiple evidence which shows that Lucy Maud Montgomery might have been a lesbian (and many Montgomery scholars believe she was) and a great deal of Anne of green gables was based on the author´s life so in a way it´s also semi-biographical.
Yet no one is tearing Gilbert and Anne apart because of that. In the 19th century relationships between women were more sentimental (we see this with Anne and Diana). In our modern-day perspective, it can feel strange and even romantic but in those times the world between men and women was strictly divided. Reminds me of what @ajedisith said about Fritz possibly being bi. LMA grew up in the transcendentalist circles, do some research and you´ll find out that there was lots of gender fluidly among them. There were also rumors back then that both Henry-David Thoreau and Emmerson who Louisa had crushes on (and was possibly in love with) and to whom she partly based Friedrich´s character were also bi´s (not that there was a term for it during those times). Sexual orientation is a spectrum same way as gender. The queer theory only tends to be about Jo (maybe we should broaden it up) and there is lots of speculation that Jo was trans/gender fluid. LMA liked to dress up as a boy the same way as Jo. Friedrich has zero problems with the fact that Jo is not traditionally feminine. I see Jo as gender fluid and Fritz as someone who accepted her as gender-fluid (and maybe Fritz was also gender fluid) but at the same, it is an assumption, not something that we or I can prove. Some people say Jo was asexual which would make LMA ace. It definitely seems that LMA was on the spectrum but in her adult works there are sexual themes (read “long fatal love chase” everyone) and there are records which show that she had sexual feelings towards some of her male friends which rules out her being an ace but that doesn´t mean that she was not on the spectrum. What it comes to Jo and Friedrich, the girl was lusty over the professor. She checks him out from head to toes multiple times. Then there are cultural differences. You´ll hear some people calling Fritz emancipated because he has feminine/nurturing features (the argument is quite silly since Jo is attracted to them). I was quite baffled when I heard people using this argument against Fritz for the first time. The way Fritz plays with kids is not too different from the way Swedish, Norwegians, Germans and Russians for example act with children. This goes back to the “little women controversy” Jo has a boy´s name, Laurie has a girl´s name, Jo wants to be a man, both Fritz and Laurie possess feminine qualities, but these “feminine” qualities are also cultural differences (for example Laurie being very emotional is seen as a feminine quality, he is also half-Italian, so it can be in his heritage). In the end, does Louisa May Alcott´s sexual orientation matter? she wrote excellent thought-provoking books that we still read today.
3 Comments
Becca
1/30/2020 04:04:13 am
Louisa’s sexuality does not matter (and really it shouldn’t matter to any author). Little Women is semi-autobiographical meaning, while a lot is based on real life, a lot of the story is fiction. When I read LW I picture Jo as a girl who doesn’t have society gender norms, so in a way gender fluid. However, women during this time in America didn’t have the freedom that they do now: they were more restrictive, so Jo is rebelling and was an early women’s suffrage activist (Louisa was def one. She was a rare women back in the day; certainly not the every day woman). Jo knits, knows how to sew, is a governess, and she does have maternal instincts. She’s also head strong, stubborn, wants to be the breadwinner, hates girly things and ideas, and would rather run outside and go to war. Jo is also a late bloomer when it comes to romantic love and it hits her like Cupid’s arrow. As for Fritz...I always saw him as a man who had to learn feminine traits. It’s too bad we don’t meet him while he was in Berlin so we will never know if he too always had feminine traits. In reality women and men have both traits; sure one is typically stronger than the other but we’re both emotional, sentimental creatures. Jo and Fritz are written like that. (Plus I really believe Louisa based Fritz off of the men she had crushes on/was in love with. And her love of Goethe helped too).
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1/30/2020 02:44:31 pm
You´re reading my mind and the whole era when LMA was lived was labeled by Victorian chastity. Views on gender and sexuality were very different than now. Louisa totally based Friedrich to the men in her life. Character similarities f.e with John Suhre and Henry Thoreau are way too strong to be ignored.
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Astrida
2/17/2020 05:34:15 pm
I agree with everything you said here. And while I can't claim myself for being a true feminist according to some prevailing standards of this ideology set by feminists themselves, I support it. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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NiinaPronounced as Nee-na.
Artist, illustrator, writer, watercolorist and a folklorist. Gryffinclaw. Comes from Finland. Likes cats, tea and period dramas. If it´s canon and it´s Little Women it´s good. Archives
January 2021
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