Throwback Thursday Part Two- A League of Their Own

Today it’s very common to see women and girls involved in sports, as both a professional and an amateur.

Women in sports, as part of normal American life, is a relatively new idea. Thanks to Title IX and the AAGBPL, women have been more prevalent and respected in sports.

In 1992, A League of Their Own, brought the story of the AAGBPL to the movie going audience.

Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Petty) are sisters who play on local baseball teams in their spare time during World War II. With the men away, Walter Harvey (Gary Marshall) bankrolls a women’s baseball league. Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) is the former ball player chosen to coach the team that Dottie and Kit are playing with. Their teammates  include Mae Mordabito (Madonna), Doris Murphy (Rosie O’Donnell) and Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh).

The drama of the story is  not just the women fighting for respect as ball players, but also the tension between the sisters.

After 22 years, this movie still holds up and is still an inspiration to girls who have been told no because they are girls.

I recommend this movie.

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Jane Austen Vs. Emily Bronte

Charlotte Bronte once said the following about Jane Austen’s novels:

 

I got the book and studied it. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers—but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy—no open country—no fresh air—no blue hill—no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses. These observations will probably irritate you, but I shall run the risk.”

The great debate of Jane Austen vs. Emily Bronte is a very old debate.

They certainly have more in common than it appears. They are both the daughters of country clergymen. Neither married or had children and both died at what we would consider to be a young age. They wrote novels and were paid for their writing when it was considered unladylike and inappropriate for a woman to have any career ambitions outside of marriage and motherhood. While Jane Austen is subversive in her feminism and her opinions about women’s lives at that time, Emily Bronte is out there as a writer. We still read their books and discuss their books 200 years later. Their books have been made several times over on screen and on stage, some adaptations more successful that others.

As a writer and a reader, I would not be able to choose between Jane Austen or the Bronte’s. I will leave the debate to the experts and let you, the reader decide who prefer to read.

 

Throwback Thursday- Clueless

In the annals of high school/teenage movies, Clueless stands out.

Funny, irresistible and and extremely quotable, Amy Heckerling transfers Jane Austen’s Emma and the inhabitants of rural 19th century English Highbury to mid 1990’s California.

Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) is the queen bee of her world. An only child, her mother is dead, her father Mel (Dan Hedaya) is a high priced lawyer. He has re-married and divorced at least once since his first wife’s death, keeping Cher’s ex-stepbrother, Josh (Paul Rudd) in the family.

Cher’s best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) and her boyfriend Murray (Donald Faison) are constantly arguing. When Tai (the late Brittany Murphy) and Christian (Justin Walker) enter the story, Cher begins to see that she might be more clueless than she thinks she is.

I adore this movie. It’s funny and smart and still holds up after nearly twenty years. And after nearly twenty years, I still have closet envy. Who doesn’t want a closet with a computer that helps you to choose your outfit for the day?