Ending my beef with Amy March

When I laid my hands on my first copy of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, I never let it go. I had never seen anything like it. The description of Jo was the most beautiful mix of words I had ever read. We had so much in common! From a shared interest in writing, to being labeled as moody, to the shared disdain towards marriage. It goes without saying, I was in awe.

I read the book over and over, every time I got the chance; I had never felt so seen and when my sister took a pen and doodled all over its pages, my reaction was almost similar to Jo's when Amy set her manuscript on fire.

I didn't like Amy... I don't like anyone who ruins people's hardwork because why would you do that??

I never thought I would ever forgive Amy but I forgave my sister and because of Greta Gerwig's adaptation of the book in 2019, I don't quite hate Amy anymore.

In retrospect, Amy was quite responsible. She, like Jo recognized that she would have to aid the family financially and she did this in the way she knew– by looking to marry rich. It is not an approach I am willing to take but I have never been Amy. I could never imagine being seen as just the pretty one among my siblings, doomed to marry rich and early for lack of "no better talent".

Who I am, though, is a Nigerian girl growing up in a social climate where to be unmarried or to dream of being an unmarried woman is to be an oddball except, of course, if you happen to be rich. Money causes all sins to be forgotten.

Amy realized quickly that marriage would be more for financial benefit than a romantic affair, especially for her.

Thank you Pinterest

Often times in Internet discourse, especially when the topic is sex workers, women and marriage, we find people with ideologies that shame women who are not financially independent and have to depend on a spouse or parent as if we live in a feminist utopia where every woman can earn money and live off her own earnings. Certain ideas have come up that frame sex work or entering into marriage solely for financial benefit as a moral failing by the women involved.

It is important in such discussions to realise that every woman faces a different reality.

The conscious decision to go into a line of work that is terribly exploitative for women or to render one's financial independence to marriage that is in no way empowering is hardly ever just a random decision or a result of immorality. There is a lot left to be done to ensure the liberation of women but undermining married and financially dependent women or sex workers has never been feminist and neither is it feminist to parrot rhetoric that either of them is empowering, as they have both been seen to be largely detrimental to the women involved.

It is a feminist duty to protect victims of exploitation and dismantle systems that foster it, not to tear down or to judge the morality of said victims.

However if I were to judge the morality of Amy's action(burning Jo's manuscript), I insist that she was dead wrong for that.