I love the idea of reinterpreting media. Whether it’s books, tv, music or films there’s so little representations of us, especially positive representations, that it becomes so important to find ourselves using inventive ways.
TRANSCRIPT:
Panel 1:
Sam: (A person wearing a brown collared shirt, and grey trousers, who is sitting in a light blue seat, facing the viewer. Eyes are closed, eyebrows raised, and mouth is open. Hands are holding a dark red book, with ‘Little Women’ written on the cover, in an upright position, in Sam’s lap.) Ah, “Little Women”, time to sit & reacquaint myself with my favourite transfag.
Joe: (A person wearing a purple shirt, who is looking at Sam, with one eyebrow raised, and the other lowered. Mouth is open, with slightly downturned edges. There are a question mark and two exclamation marks above Joe’s head. One hand is holding onto the top of the seat that Sam is sitting in, the opposite shoulder is visible, and the rest of Joe’s body is obscured by the seat. There are two elbow shaped lines next to Joe’s shoulder, indicating movement.) Huh?
Panel 2:
Sam: (Facing the viewer, looking outside of the panel, at where Joe would be. Eyebrows are raised, and mouth is open, with upturned edges. One arm is bent slightly at the elbow, holding the open, face up book, which is sitting in Sam’s lap. The other arm is raised slightly at the shoulder, and bent up at the elbow. Hand is open, palm facing the viewer, fingers are doubled over, thumb is pointing towards Sam’s chest. There are two elbow shaped lines next to Sam’s wrist, indicating movement.) Joe March! He’s totally a transman! He’s always saying how he’s different from his sisters, how he’s misunderstood, he’s always the boy in their plays…
Panel 3:
Sam: (Looking down at the upright ‘Little Women’ book, with raised eyebrows, and an open mouth, with slightly upturned edges. Arms are raised at the shoulders, and bent forward at the elbows. Hands are holding the book.) And listen to this! Joe says: “I hate that I’ve got to grow up & be Miss March… I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy!!”*(below the panel reads:) *pg15
Joe: (Looking down at the ‘Little Women’ book, over Sam’s shoulder. Mouth is closed, and in a straight line. Body is not visible from the neck down, as it’s behind the seat.)
Panel 4:
Sam: (Facing the viewer, looking outside of the panel, at where Joe would be. Eyebrows are raised and mouth is open, with upturned edges. Arms are raised at the shoulders, and bent up at the elbows. One hand is bent slightly back, at the wrist. Both hands are open, with doubled over fingers.) And, hello, he ends up shacked up with a big guy called “Bear”. Total TRANSFAG.
i remember reading it as a kid and thinking, damn, that german professor older man seems so HOT…
of course his name was bear. of course it was.
funny how much sense these things make in hindsight.
I totally wrote an essay about this exact same thing for my gensex class last year. Nice to know that someone else sees it the same way. 🙂
Oh that’s so cool! I hope you got a good mark for it! It’s pretty funny how much is written in the book that seems to point in that direction.
Dang, and I thought I was so original when I wrote about Jo for my Children’s Lit and Disability graduate seminar last year >_>
Ohh, well, this is just further proof that your summation was correct!
Goodness that makes so much sense! No wonder I loved Jo when I read the book :3
Remember George (hated being called Georgie) from Famous 5 with Timmy the dog! I always wanted to be like that! Another transmasculine character!