I think one reason I like Austen is because it's a kind of antidote, for me, to the implicit misogyny common in genre fiction that girls can be cool and have agency only if they can fight with and turn on the boys. Austen's stories are very limited in scope and class, but they are really vivid portrayals of the small world she works with and I love how she affirms the values of stereotypically "girly" activities like caretaking and of female friendships.
Like one of my favorite parts of Persuasion was where the heroine's embittered ex-boyfriend (in modern terms) affirms his high opinion of her, despite their bad breakup, in her level-headed handling of an emergency where one of their friend group was seriously injured. The whole book has the heroine be, well, a heroine in how well she leads her household and takes care of people she loves, qualities that I love to see affirmed as positive and interesting in their own right. Obviously affirmation of traditional feminine virtues can backfire in their own way, so it's a nuanced issue.
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Date: 2019-06-28 02:57 am (UTC)Like one of my favorite parts of Persuasion was where the heroine's embittered ex-boyfriend (in modern terms) affirms his high opinion of her, despite their bad breakup, in her level-headed handling of an emergency where one of their friend group was seriously injured. The whole book has the heroine be, well, a heroine in how well she leads her household and takes care of people she loves, qualities that I love to see affirmed as positive and interesting in their own right. Obviously affirmation of traditional feminine virtues can backfire in their own way, so it's a nuanced issue.