(Untitled)

[meganbmoore]

So, based on the first 2 episodes, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is about Lizzie finding clever ways to display internalized misogyny?  Utter contempt for her mother, slutshaming Lydia, gearing up to ranting about how Jane is disgustingly perfect then turning into sweetness and light when Jane walks in, and Charlotte Lucas (now asian) appears to be

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[rose_griffes]

You might want to read what the writer who penned that line for Lizzie (stupid whore-y slut) had to say about it.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries as a series does a really good job of pointing out that Lizzie's point of view is hers, not THE ONLY pov, and that she's often wrong. Charlotte, Jane and others often point out that her biases are leading her away from what the truth might be. Lydia has her own vlog where we see that she's more than just the party girl act she puts on for her sister. And Charlotte's interactions with Mr. Collins turned out to be my absolute favorite thing about having a modern adaptation.

Not to say that any of this will make you love it, but it's part of why I keep watching.

[meganbmoore]

I've heard nothing but praise about it from most quarters, but those two episodes managed to have most of the ways the media tells us to look down on other women, and that the author chose this method to introduce the character makes me very iffy.

[rose_griffes]

I wonder how much of that ties into the multi-media platform feeding the frenzy? Because all of the characters have Twitter accounts and do in-character tweets at appropriate times, and there's other stuff going on as well. So it's a very... fandom-friendly sort of experience, from what I've seen

[nekobot01]

That sounds awful!! Ew... this is why I'm embarrassed to say that I like Jane Austen.

[dangermousie]

This sounds horrible. This said, the older I get, the less I like Pride and Prejudice in general - stylistically, it's very polished but I've ceased to find Elizabeth Bennet likeable - the way she views her mother (especially as compared to her father) and Charlotte are problematic for me, but it is the way she views Lydia after the elopement turns my stomach. Whatever the problems with Lydia doing what she did, Lydia is her sister and married to a horrible person and is seduced by a sweet-talking rake at 15. 15!!!! Even by Regency standards, that is very young. By modern standards, it's unconscionable. And yet Lizzie is pissed off that Lydia is not wallowing in the kind of misery and repentance envisioned by the sternest moralists at the age of Victoria and keeps dwelling on her lack of moral fiber

[streussal]

Part of the thing about LBD is that Lizzie is very much an unreliable narrator. Jane points this out often.

Charlotte Lucas (now asian) appears to be there to do whatever Lizzie tells her to while Lizzie jokes about Charlotte wanting to be in control of everything.

Okay, I should tell you that the Charlotte storyline ends up being handled very well. Way better than the book did. Lizzie has to face up to the fact that Charlotte has her own life.

Lydia actually gets her own spinoff, and is very much a three-dimensional character. (Possibly the most sympathetic of the series.)

...the stuff with the mother remains suspect, but I don't see it as worse than the book in that regard? (Actually probably less bad, since we KNOW this is a caricature for an entertainment vlog, rather than in-person.) It's disappointing because the series gave more of a voice to other sidelined female characters, like Charlotte and Lydia.

[laleia]

This is true, and it has struck me on rewatching the first few episodes of LBD (which I do a lot as I convince more people to watch it), but it is my personal opinion that certain recent plot developments/conflicts can be traced back to the problematic nature of Lizzie's slutshaming of Lydia. In other words, I do think some of her internalized misogyny has negative consequences for her, even if it's not explicitly/textually traced to misogyny, and traces more to her treatment/misperception of Lydia.

I like LBD a lot, both because of certain plot developments/tweaks I think it did well, and because I'm a huge fan of the multimedia format (I follow all the characters on Twitter), but I definitely thinking rewatching the first episode 10+ times in an attempt to hook new people on the series highlighted a lot of its issues to me.