my kind-of-feminist rant/observation.
So impressed by Les Miserables (I feel like I should tag on School Edition.) Cosette, Valjean, Javert, Marius, Fantine, Eponine, people-I'm-forgetting... everybody was perfectly cast. I'm thinking that whenever I'm bored in physics class now I should just play the Diane Landis Game! and try casting our school in various plays/musicals.
What really really bugs me, though, is that just the general theme of the Revolution seems to bring out really passive female characters (so I've only got two examples here, but still. I'm going to talk. When have I ever not?)
So there's Cosette, the darling innocent gorgeous girl in Les Miz, who is purposely kept innocent by Jean Valjean and, to some extent, Marius. And then there's Lucie Manette, the darling innocent gorgeous girl (AHA! I see a trend!) in A Tale of Two Cities, who is also purposely kept innocent. And hey, there's a love triangle in both. And look! the sad unrequited love character dies in both! (Sydney Carton: "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done..." Eponine: uhhhh. can't remember her death speech. something with "Hold me, Marius!" in it.)
And Eponine, who is really the only strong female character who is not immoral/wielding-a-knife in both of these, dies. And Marius goes and loves Cosette and they're happy in their little fairyland (I suppose this bugs me because I really love Eponine as a character, and in my little happy-endings world Cosette goes and falls in love with somebody named Jacques with a dashing mustache who lives in the country far far away and Marius finally sees that Eponine has, oh, only done EVERYTHING for him and falls madly in love with her.)
Hmm. I think I lost my Point. Oh. Yeah. So why does the French Revolution which is supposedly about equality, create these Dashing Good Heroes (Charles, Marius), these Unrequited-Love World-Weary Third Wheels (Sydney Carton, Eponine), and especially, the angelic don't-really-do-anything dainty Good Girls?
Ah well, as long as catchy songs and really terrific slow-motion deaths come out of it, I think I can deal. :D Now it's off to read some more european history (isms, isms, isms) and then go see Belle & Sebastian and the New Pornographers at the Orpheum!!!
What really really bugs me, though, is that just the general theme of the Revolution seems to bring out really passive female characters (so I've only got two examples here, but still. I'm going to talk. When have I ever not?)
So there's Cosette, the darling innocent gorgeous girl in Les Miz, who is purposely kept innocent by Jean Valjean and, to some extent, Marius. And then there's Lucie Manette, the darling innocent gorgeous girl (AHA! I see a trend!) in A Tale of Two Cities, who is also purposely kept innocent. And hey, there's a love triangle in both. And look! the sad unrequited love character dies in both! (Sydney Carton: "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done..." Eponine: uhhhh. can't remember her death speech. something with "Hold me, Marius!" in it.)
And Eponine, who is really the only strong female character who is not immoral/wielding-a-knife in both of these, dies. And Marius goes and loves Cosette and they're happy in their little fairyland (I suppose this bugs me because I really love Eponine as a character, and in my little happy-endings world Cosette goes and falls in love with somebody named Jacques with a dashing mustache who lives in the country far far away and Marius finally sees that Eponine has, oh, only done EVERYTHING for him and falls madly in love with her.)
Hmm. I think I lost my Point. Oh. Yeah. So why does the French Revolution which is supposedly about equality, create these Dashing Good Heroes (Charles, Marius), these Unrequited-Love World-Weary Third Wheels (Sydney Carton, Eponine), and especially, the angelic don't-really-do-anything dainty Good Girls?
Ah well, as long as catchy songs and really terrific slow-motion deaths come out of it, I think I can deal. :D Now it's off to read some more european history (isms, isms, isms) and then go see Belle & Sebastian and the New Pornographers at the Orpheum!!!