It’s as though Gerwig wanted to make Little Women a choose-your-adventure story, except the two endings are: “Jo is gay” and “Jo is not gay.” Ronan has even admitted that she believes that Jo could have been queer. Spoilers ahead. And once Beth succumbs to her illness for good, shortly after Jo returns home, Jo — still alive, still unmarried — is utterly and profoundly lost. But in the film itself, her monologue comes to a surprising conclusion.
In the film, as in the books, lesbian subtext is pretty firmly submerged by the end. Jo meets the very likeable Professor Bhaer, and any questions the reader might have had about her sexuality earlier on seem resolved: she simply hadn’t met the right man yet. The only way my interest in a new movie could be piqued was if it portrayed Jo and Laurie as they undeniably are: two young trans people struggling against the bounds of a limiting world. But I fervently wish Gerwig had chosen to extend these moments and explicitly depict Jo and Laurie as trans. She had a perfect opportunity to take a story largely about gender roles and revitalize it, speaking to the issues with gender many of us are experiencing now.
Sorry to the purists, but you guys: This girl is g-a-y. Ronan and Timothée Chalamet in Little Women. Jo, in all her tomboyish glory, has set off queer readers’ gaydars for years now, and Gerwig’s adaptation, without being too explicit about it, does gorgeous justice to that reading. Our editors handpick the products that we feature. We may earn commission from the links on this page. The chapter I held, sheathed in protective plastic, is the best in the book: Laurie asks Jo to marry him, Jo rejects him, and both poor kids drive themselves wild with despair in their efforts to persuade the other.
The true beauty of Alcott’s legacy, which now includes Gerwig’s interpretation, is that in Alcott and Jo’s times, it would not have been easy or possible for them to be openly queer, gay, transgender or non-binary. Jo March had to marry a man, and Alcott had to remain quiet and equivocal. Queerness, in this context, is not a mere matter of representation; indeed, what makes Jo queer is not simply her masculine style of dress in certain sequences or her rejection of patriarchal family values and, above all, marriage. At first, I was grumpy, thinking it was going to be too sweet and devout. Britton J.
It’s as though Gerwig wanted to make Little Women a choose-your-adventure story, except the two endings are: “Jo is gay” and “Jo is not gay.” Ronan has even admitted that she believes that Jo could have been queer. .
In the film, as in the books, lesbian subtext is pretty firmly submerged by the end. Jo meets the very likeable Professor Bhaer, and any questions the reader might have had about her sexuality earlier on seem resolved: she simply hadn’t met the right man yet. .
Sorry to the purists, but you guys: This girl is g-a-y. Ronan and Timothée Chalamet in Little Women. Jo, in all her tomboyish glory, has set off queer readers’ gaydars for years now, and Gerwig’s adaptation, without being too explicit about it, does gorgeous justice to that reading. .
In this production, the central character of Jo March is distinctly a member of the LGBT community. The show ends not with her going off to New York and finding her own husband, but with the death of Beth and Jo alone with her writing. .