Classism, Unions, And North & South

I love North & South. I first watched the 2005 miniseries and then I read the book. I love both versions and think the miniseries conveyed the essence of the novel very well. What most intrigued though when I first watched the show wasn't the romance. Not that the romance didn't interest me or wasn't good, but it wasn't what made North & South just top notch. What made me love North & South was the discussion of labor unions and conversations about class.

If you are unfamiliar with North & South it is set in Milton during the industrial revolution. Specifically, Milton is a town that is made up of multiple cotton mills that are run by a few rich men and then most of the lower classes work for them. The conflict that happens in the book is that mill workers go on strike specifically facilitated by the union leader Nicolas Higgins. The strike is eventually broken but the mill owners are wary of those involved in the union and specifically the leaders. Eventually, Nicolas Higgins and Mr. Thornton (main male protagonist) come to see eye to eye and understand each other. Mr. Thornton is made to better understand the plight of the workers and Higgins becomes less of a radical union leader.

That Higgins seems to compromise his beliefs about workers rights in favor of supporting "masters" more irks me. I can theorize that Elizabeth Gaskell wouldn't want to incite any strong communist leanings and could probably be understood and more of a centrist. She wanted "masters" to treat laborers better but laborers should know their place in society.

As a young teenager, I didn't particularly understand the labor movement or the purpose but reading this book helped me to understand the labor movement and the need for workers rights. That the "masters" lived in luxury and style while their workers struggled to survive in cesspits of filth is abominable. That the "masters" also willfully ignore their worker's struggles and don't listen to the idea that well-fed and well-treated workers make for an overall better profit is frustrating. The themes and ideas from this novel are still relevant today in a society that is more and more anti-union and anti-workers rights.

No....Sorry Not a Feminist Story

I don't remember where I heard about this story but I was interested in fairytale retellings and this story is a Red Ridinghood retelling. I thought it would be great, there were werewolves which harkens back to some of the oldest versions of the fairytale. It also popped up as being mentioned as a possible feminist read. Honestly, I have never been so disappointed in my life over a book.

Where do I start?

First, let's start with the older sister and her friendship with the 18 almost 20 something-year-old dude. They seemed close it seemed like a logical romantic pairing. But The older sister is disfigured from a werewolf attack as a child. I thought this would be great let's show how disability or conventional beauty doesn't matter. Wrong. Instead at the end of the story, the older sister goes off to happily hunt werewolves by her lonesome. Supposedly this is best for her. I just was so disappointed. Rather than the older sister learning to open up to others and to allow herself to be open to love from another she is just sent off and shooed out of the story to make way for the "real" romantic pairing.

Now we get to the part I really hate. The younger sister. She is around 13 I think in the book and so hyper-sexualized. She also has a crush on the older boy. I say boy but really he is a man a full grown adult. I at first thought okay harmless crush happens. I also as a 13-year-old had crushes on much older dudes but knew nothing would ever happen and that any actual relationship would be wildly inappropriate. Not in this story. Nope. In fact, the two actually "fall in love" with each other. There is no mention whatsoever of the huge age gap or the fact that their relationship is actually illegal in some states. I just could not believe what I was reading.

This book disappointed me on so many levels. It had the opportunity to explore so many much more appropriate and different ideas. I also felt lied to that this would be a feminist read. It was really the opposite.

Healthy Relationships Please

I don't understand this fad to have toxic, abusive, and manipulative relationships in books? I think they are supposed to be so romantic and such but really they are incredibly problematic. I am very tired of reading about them and would very much like to read about a healthy relationship between adults who respect each other.

If what you want is conflict in a relationship you don't have to make it toxic to create conflict. Even healthy relationships have conflict, it is the nature of being in a relationship with another human being. What we need are examples of healthy couples working through conflict with each other. Do I expect partners to treat each other perfectly all the time? No. But do I expect them to own up to their faults and ask forgiveness and work through the issues like adults in a healthy relationship would? Yes.

There are so many examples of unhealthy, toxic, and abusive relationships in media that girls read about and see, and they are told that this is romantic and how they should expect to be treated. I am tired of this. I want to see women in books who stand up to men who are horrible to them and treat them like sh*t. I want them to say that they are better than that and will find better. Girls need examples of women setting boundaries and speaking up for themselves. Boys need to see that treating women horribly isn't acceptable and won't be tolerated.

I mostly want to see examples of healthy relationships in action. How partners would actually treat each other. No emotional manipulation, no controlling behavior, and mutual respect. Is this really to much to ask from writers?

Elsa Immodest!

I don't know if you have ever hung out in conservative christian circles, but when Frozen first came out(which I know was a while ago) then you have probably heard someone say "Elsa's dress was so immodest!" I know I have heard it a few times. Is her dress really immodest though? I think it is important to point out that Elsa's dress is actually quite tame compared to some previous Disney princesses.

Images copyright of Disney

I actually found Elsa to be really modest. compared to the other directions Disney has gone in the past. Her dress is in fact no different than what Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora wore.

images copyright of Disney 

Now lets break it down....
She has long sleeves instead of now sleeves.
She is wearing a long skirted dress instead of a short skirt.
She has a slit in the skirt that only goes to her knee.
You can's see any cleavage instead of a lot of cleavage.
As far as I can tell this fits most modest dress cloths criteria. Maybe they are bothered by the fact that you can tell she is a women in the dress instead of dress that hides her curves. Her dress does not really break any modesty rules, instead I would say it follows them quite well.

I think though that this dress has some significance to her character in the movies.

images copyright of Disney

Elsa's outfit from the beginning of the movie is her completely covered. She literally does not show any skin outside of her face. She has her neck covered, her hands. She is not in contact with the outside world. When she changes her outfit she shows her neck and has a slit in her dress. Her sleeves, while still long are transparent. She is allowing her self contact with the world around her. She is breaking out of the walls she built around herself to protect herself.

Overall this post is to say that Elsa's dress is not immodest and that her dress has significant meaning to her character. My other question is why we are so concerned about what a character wears there are much bigger issues with Disney's choice of how they present their characters. Such as the inaccurate proportions or their female characters. Elsa's waist is much smaller than what is natural proportionally. I think there are bigger issues than what a character is wearing.

What are your thoughts on the use of clothing in Frozen?
Elizabeth

The Homeschool vs. Public School Struggle.

(This picture was taken my a wonderful friend of mine at school)

I have never felt ashamed of the fact that I was homeschooled(I get to use the past tense now!) and if I ever am it is only because I am ashamed of other homeschooler stupidity and rudeness. The fact that I was homeschooled is a huge part of my identity how I see myself. It doesn’t mean I see myself as hugely different form society rather only that I have a more different style of education.

That doesn’t mean that I have not had negative experiences from being homeschool, there are several. I remember when I was little maybe 6 years old I told it to some neighbor boys and they seemed to think that maybe I was stupid because I didn’t go to school like them. At the time I found it hurtful and from then on avoided the other kids in the neighborhood. Later however I could not avoid when they came and talked to me one girl it seemed delighted in making fun of us in front of my sisters and I and she seemed to think we were too stupid to understand that was what she was doing. It got to the point where I would make some excuse to stop riding my bike and go in the house when ever she came down to our part of the neighborhood. I was not sure how to deal with it as I was only 9 or 10. Because of all these negative experiences as a child I came up with a stereo type that public schooled kids were rude, mean, and stupid.
Later when my family left our old church(where 99 % of the population was homeschoolers) and started going to our current church I met public schooled kids(and private school) who seemed to be much nicer. I was still wary of them but as I got to know them and be friends with them I found my stereo type to be wrong. Which I was secretly relieved about because I didn’t want to go through my life having to deal with people being mean to me all the time.
That does not mean unpleasant experiences have stopped. At a birthday party for a friend I was asked the inevitable question that I loathed “where do you go to school?” and I replied with the answer that gets mixed reception “Oh, I don’t go to school I am homeschooled.” After that these two girls didn’t want to talk to me and avoided me for the rest of the party.
In college I have found that less people really seem to be bothered by where I got my education. They seem to be more open to homeschooling and even find it cool. One friend told me I was lucky because I had not had to deal with the bullying and other crap she had had to deal with in her school. There was one guy who I don’t think realized how rude he was being when he told me that I must have hated being homeschooled and how horrible it must have been for me. It really ruffled my feathers that he assumed I must have had a negative experience when really I had a positive one. However most of my friends have found it to be cool and don’t think I am a weirdo, or at least I am no weirder than they are. They really don’t actually care about where I got my education but rather whether my education was a good one.
Homeschooling gave me a chance to really focus and work on my weaknesses and explore my strengths. I worked hard at school in high school because I enjoyed it. I love learning and school. Lots of people sometimes assume that because I was homeschooled I had loads of free time. I really didn’t I worked on school for 6 to 7 hours a day. Maybe I did have more free time than my peers who went to school because homework does not work the same way when you are homeschooled, but that does not mean I didn’t work as hard.
Granted there are homeschoolers who’s necks I want to wring sometimes because they really are not doing the work and don’t seem to care about their education. I really get mad about homeschoolers who don’t really do school. It makes me so mad! They could have the best education they could possibly want but they are not doing the work! Words cannot express how frustrated and angry it makes me.
Back to homeschooler vs. publicschooler.
I think a lot of my negative experiences have to do with negative stereo types about homeschooled kids. I think most of them just don’t know what it really is and so they don’t know how to relate to us. I think kids are more prone to snub others who are not like them than adults are. At least that is the what I think based on my experience in college. I wish that homeschoolers would stop stereo typing publicschoolers, and publicschoolers would stop stereo typing homeschoolers then we could all sit down and find we are not so different after all.
I know I have a few homeschool followers and public school. How has your experience as a homeschooler been? Or for my public school friends what has your experience with homeschoolers been?
Lots of love!
~Elizabeth

Pride and Prejudice 2005 rant

So I said I would talk more latter on Pride and Prejudice 2005. This is my rant about it, latter I hope to do a review after I have gotten some of the things I didn't like out of my system. I wan't to give it a nice review not a rant about what I didn't like. So sorry this is so long in coming!!

I have noticed that I am more particular with Jane Austen adaptations that with others. I don't know why, but I just am.

The big thing about this movie was that it was just too short!! 2 hours is just not enough time to cover the whole story. I would rather they take all the time they need, than for them to not take enough time and really mess things up. There where things that didn't happen in the book that they added, and then they took out some of the best parts! Maybe they would not have needed to do this if they had not added stuff?

Since Wickam is here I will talk about him. He was just not right. He was slimy from the beginning. I all ways pictured Wickam as being very charming, nice, and sweet, and then you find out how horrible he is. This Wickam is suspicious from the beginning. I have no idea how Lizzie saw anything in him at all! Wickam just was not right.

Mr. Bingley was not to dumb. Mr. Bingly in the book though not a smartest person on earth, was a gentlemen, kind, and caring. I don't get the same feel. Honestly I really like Bingley, but in this version I have no idea how anyone can like him, he just is to well... dumb. Sorry to be harsh on him, but that is just how I feel about him.

And now for the thing that made me really really mad!

*screams in horror!*

Miss Bingly is wearing a sleeveless dress!!!!!!!!!!!! I am not a fashion expert but this seems to me like a really wrong thing. It looks like she is wearing her underwear to the ball! It was just not right. It just did not feel at all proper for the time. It just seems like she is wearing her underwear to me.

On a side note I like her hair. I wish I had hair like that! I liked Miss Bingly way to much in this version. She just seemed like a stuck up person who was full of themselves, but not nearly as evil as she should be. I didn't even really feel like she liked Darcy, and I felt like she and Lizzie could have almost have been friends is Miss Bingly was not so stuck up. Also Her dresses, minus the one above, were the only dresses that I liked.
Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like everyone was running around in their night cloths half the time. What was up with that? I would not want Mr. Darcy walking in on me in my nightgown. I also don't think that she would have gone walking out of the house, no matter what hour it was, in her night gown. That just does not seem right.


I am not sure what to make of Mathew Macfayden's Mr. Darcy. On the one hand I like Macfayden so I was some what predisposed to like his Mr. Darcy. But His Darcy just didn't seem right. I didn't feel like he was a proud stuck up man, just really shy and not sure of himself. Which I though Mr. Darcy was sure of himself in the book, just proud, and disagreable.

I liked when they where dancing the other couples disappeared. That was really interesting to show how they where focused on each other

Georgiana seemed way to young. She looked 12 and no where near 16. She did seem really sweet though as Georgiana should be.

Also Why did they where their hair down? It kind of annoyed me as it seemed not quite right for the time. I am not an expert on Regency fashion, so I could be wrong. But I have seen quite a few Regency films and this was the only one where any of the women wore their hair down. Not that they didn't have nice hair.

The dresses where not very regency in this movie. I know that the director wanted to show the difference of status between the Bennetts and the richer people. But still I was not very happy with it. I mean Kitty and Lydia strike me as the kind of people who would have the latest fashion no matter what. Mrs. Bennetts dresses where really not regency at all. They where from the time before which I thought was really odd. (what was the time before Regency?)

Also look at Lizzie's hair here. I would not mind her bangs so much it they where not in her face. Also her coat was very ugly and looks like it was a guys coat. Maybe she got it from her father? I don't know it was just really ugly.

Ahh Jane. . . Jane is my favorite character from Pride and Prejudice. I find I am like her is some ways. I really like this Jane. She looked like Jane, and acted like Jane. Jane from 1995 had the character down right, but didn't quite look like her. This Jane looks like Jane. She is sweet and caring. The trying always to think the best of others didn't quite come across as well though. Jane was just about really nice thing in this movie.

One character that really annoyed me because he was not right was Mr. Collins. I mean Mr. Collins is suppose to be an annoying character, but it annoyed me because he was not what he should have been. He was not Mr. Collins. I can't put my finger on what about him was not Mr. Collins, perhaps it was because he did not use the phrases that Mr. Collins used?

Lizzie was not Lizzie at all. She was much more like Kitty and Lydia. Why Mr. Darcy liked her when she was so much like her younger sisters I have no idea. Also I don't remember Lizzie being so critical of men. Why was she like that? It didn't make sense, and was not at all Lizzie like. Also she was very rude to her father when she snatched the letter out of his hand. It was really really rude, and extremely unLizzie like.

I wanted to like this version. I knew when I started it that it would not be as good at the 1995 version, but I was so disappointed with it. I will do a real review of it latter in which I will try to be a little more balanced. This was not a review. It was just be writing about what annoyed me, and what I didn't like. And there are a few good things in here too I think.

Blessings

~Elizabeth