Posted on 01/02/2020 12:05:24 PM PST by C19fan
It’s a peculiar feature of our culture that men who behave in predictably masculine ways find themselves chastised and scolded for not being more feminine. This brings me to Little Women, which is not exactly packing in male ticket buyers. Why would it? No one expected women to turn up for Rambo: Last Blood, and no one seemed particularly interested in the male-female breakdown of the ticket sales for that one.
Yet op-ed writers keep pitching versions of the same strange thesis, which is that we should be cross with men for not buying tickets to Little Women. “Dear men who are afraid to see Little Women: you can do this,” says an op-ed in the Washington Post. I think the writer is here confusing the concept of fear with lack of interest or boredom. (I blanch at the prospect of going through my Aetna paperwork, but my guiding emotion is not fear.) “For the love of Marmee,” writes Monica Hesse of the WaPo, “won’t someone please organize a Meetup so these men can watch Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson go to the ball and lose their gloves?” I am sorry to inform Ms. Hesse that the United States is a signatory to the Geneva Convention and hence no American man can be forced to submit to this variant of the Ludovico Technique from A Clockwork Orange.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Hedy Lamarr!
“Dear men who are afraid to see Little Women...”
Fascinated by that line, the assumption that not wanting to see the movie is somehow based on fear. The writer’s reality must be one really whacked-out place.
I (and my uncle) got roped into going to see Menopause The Musical.
We and one other were the only men in the audience.
Depending on the joke, the audience looked our way and laffed or dagger-eyed sneered.
I relied on “I’m here getting in touch with my feminine side”...
I’m guessing if I went to see Little Women...piece of cake...
Most actual men are aware that many (not all) of the ladies are emotionally insecure to some degree and need a lot of validation. We are generally willing to do this and understand that its part of life. We love our ladies and do all we can to support them.
But then you get this attitude from many of them that dreck like Hallmark and Oxygen movies, that are designed to speak to women, are morally superior entertainment. And worse that movies designed to speak to men like “The Dirty Dozen” are low class garbage.
Sorry, men connect better to other issues than women do. Plus no matter how old we get we still like to just blow stuff up. Deal with it.
I do watch well done period pieces like say Sense and Sensibility or Downton Abbey for example. Just don’t excoriate me because I binge watch Band of Brothers. And no I have no desire to see that mouth breather Kristen Stewart pretend to be a kick@$$ martial artist.
(Putting on flak jacket)
That’s Hedly!
I’m waiting for Little Women Gone Wild. That I’ll see.
Or... Little Women In Prison.
We saw it Monday - my sis, my daughter and granddaughter.
It was “okay” but if you didn’t know the story already you would have been horribly confused. Just as you said - back and forth, figuring out which time line the scenes were tied to, etc.
Still, the scenes between Jo and Beth were rather emotional for me. That part was done well, as well as Meg’s interaction with her husband - some good relationship messages there.
I would give it 2.5 out of 5.
Tombstone was better :-)
This sums up men and women, better than anything...
The professor told his class one day: “Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will email your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on… back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the emails and anything you wish to say must be written in the email. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.”
The following was actually turned in by two of his English students, Rebecca and Gary.
THE STORY (first paragraph by Rebecca).
At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her of Carl. who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.
(Second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed, asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. “A.S. Harris to Geost Station 17,” he said into his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far…” But before he could sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.
(Rebecca)
He bumped his had and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for completely ruining things with the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. “Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,” Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to diestract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her.
(Gary)
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu’udrian mothership had launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left the Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien emipires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty, the Anu’udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverise the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.
(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.
(Gary)
Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered, tedious, neurotic, whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. “Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F–KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I am such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!”
(Rebecca)
A__hole
(Gary)
B_tch!
(Rebecca)
F__K YOU – YOU NEANDERTHAL!!
(Gary)
In your dreams, HO. Go drink some tea!
(Teacher)
A+ – I really liked this one!
“Dear men who are afraid to see Little Women: you can do this, . . .”
“They must be afraid,” is the thought virus that infects progressive minds about anyone they disagree with.
In this situation, “I will probably be bored,” is a much better description.
Here’s what progressives really find scary — women like different stuff than men. And it’s OK. Viva la Difference!
I am man enough that I can admit that I liked the movie “Love, Actually.” I watch it every year around Christmas. No shame.
Yeah. I’ve watched “Call the Midwife”
Two times so far.
Chick flicks done right are OK by me.
Little Women, actually, is a good book and has been made into several good movies. It is a righteous story full of Christianity and the protestant work ethic. I, too, was roped into Menopause The Musical. Total dreck.
I am going to see “little Women” with my wife.
She went to see “Midway” with me.
We BOTH enjoyed “Downton Abbey” and “Upstairs Downstairs” and we are currently enjoying “The Crown”.
Well done movies/series are worth the time regardless of the subject.
GREAT acting, GREAT photography, GREAT sound/music, GREAT writing, GREAT directing are all more important than the subject/story.
Put a few of those together in the same piece of work and it’s magical.
BTW, while Midway was good, special effects etc, the original or 1976 star studded version was much better.
And “Pearl Harbor” one of my all time favorites. (Kate Beckinsale)
No, I haven’t seen this version. The father is not fighting in the Civil War? That’s peculiar!
My wife is just under five feet tall.
Maybe wait until it’s on streaming or DVD and watch in the privacy of your home — window shades drawn, of course!
I have no desire to see the movie. I read the book as a girl. It was good, but not on my Top Ten list by any means.
HOWEVER - Geraldine Brooks (an Australian) wrote a novel titled, ‘March’ which explores the Father’s trials and tribulations while he was a medical doctor (and abolitionist) during the Civil War, which was what absented him from his ‘Little Women.’
An excellent read!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13529.March
Read Geraldine’s ‘Year of Wonders’ too - about a girl who survives the Black Plague. This woman can write very interesting Historical Fiction! :)
She also writes about and exposes women’s lives under Islam; it ain’t pretty. :(
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