Author of Little Women “may have been transgender or non-binary,” claims a New York Times article

The author of the feminist novel Little Women may be transgender or identified as non-binary, claims an article by a New York Times transgender writer.

According to the president of the Louisa May Alcott Society, Louisa May Alcott, who wrote the semi-autobiographical book in 1868, probably did not identify as female.

Quoted in the New York TimesDr. Gregory Eiselein says he is “certain” that the popular novel’s author identified as non-binary, and that she never fit “a binary sex-gender model.”

The author of the NYT article, Peyton Thomas – who is a trans man and novelist himself – then claims that Alcott could have even been transgender.

In the op-ed, Mr. Thomas draws on a quote from Alcott in the early 1880s, where she says, “I am more than half persuaded that I am the soul of a man, by a quirk of nature in the body of stopped a woman’.

He writes, “She may not have known the word ‘transgender’, but she certainly knew the feeling it described.”

He also draws from her diary entries, in which she wrote, “I long to be a man,” while in a letter she wrote, “I was born with a boy’s disposition,” a boy’s mind,” and “the wrath of a boy.

For decades, academics have shied away from claiming that Alcott was transgender, claiming it would be an inappropriate use of the term.

Many rightly agree that a woman in those days who wants to be a “man” is more likely to be taken more seriously in terms of rank, opportunity, and education – than to want to change gender.

A major crux of the book is Jo March’s character who wants to make her own money – as a man would – so she goes out of her way to break the gender norms of the time.

She also focuses on her career rather than her desire to be married off for love. This would, of course, raise eyebrows in the 19th century, but scholars do not believe this means that Jo – and by extension Alcott himself – wanted to be transgender.

“The way people of the 19th century thought about gender, sex, sexual identity, sexuality is different from some of the terms we might use,” Dr Eiselein added.

However, some academics have argued that the feelings of people at that time and transgender people in modern times are very similar.

Susan Stryker, a professor at the University of Arizona, argued, “The historical record shows that people have felt remarkably similar to transgender people today.”

In the article, Mr. Thomas cites the example of a tweet written by tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who came out as gay in 1981, which read: “Do you have any idea how hard you would try to convince me I’m trans if I was born 50 years later would become?

“I’d be 15 years old and you’d tell me I was trapped in the wrong body. So who exactly is guilty of ‘Sex is a social construct’ here?’

The case for Alcott’s own identity is based on a number of diary entries, letters and interviews.

It is believed that Alcott went by the name of Lou among friends and family and referred to himself as a ‘man’, a ‘gentleman’ and a ‘daddy’.

Many refer to an interview with her late in life in which she says, “I am more than half convinced that I am a man’s soul, put into a woman’s body by some quirk of nature.”

However, later in the same interview, she is quoted as having said, “I have fallen in love with so many beautiful girls in my life and never the least with a man,” which has led academics to believe that she is a lesbian.

One of the most popular characters in Little Women, Jo March, is based on Alcott himself. In the novel, Jo is portrayed as a tomboy who does not conform to societal expectations.

Jo March has been shown on screen in 1994 and 2019 by both Winona Ryder and Saoirse Ronan.

At the beginning of the novel, Jo says, “I can’t get over my disappointment that I’m not a boy.”

However, scholars have not labeled Jo as transgender, focusing instead on her sexuality, as is done in the novel.

Several readers of the article took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the content.

One of them wrote, “Women are and were real human beings with a variety of personalities, interests, desires and ‘roles’ in society, and it is truly gender-essentialist and misogynistic to argue that any woman annoyed by extremely strict gender roles was not. a woman!’

Another disagreed with the content, writing, “No, it’s a common 19th-century motif in a context where women had fixed lives and wanting to be men meant more freedom and choice.”

While another added, “I can’t stress enough how ridiculous and offensive this piece is that tries to reconceptualize Louisa May Alcott as ‘transgender,’ and to what extent it shows why many feminists have perfectly valid issues with ‘gender ideology.’

Others, however, were swayed by the argument, with one calling the paper “powerfully persuasive” and another adding that it reached “reasonable” conclusions.

The author of the article, Mr. Thomas, is a trans man himself and has written a coming of age book called Both Sides Now, which follows the story of a transgender teenager.

He is currently working on a contemporary interpretation of Alcott’s famous novel.