Contemporary ‘Little Women’ and Womanhood Perceptions of Thai Young Women
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Abstract
This article lent itself to a qualitative analysis of current and popular female characters in the 2019 film adaptation ‘Little Women’ and Thai young women[1]’s perceptions toward the characteristics of womanhood the characters depicted. This current study was divided into two parts. The first section was the textual analysis to look at how the four main female characters used language both verbal and non-verbal cues to reflect characteristics of womanhood. In the second part, 34 Thai female university students were asked to rate the 15 characteristics of womanhood which emerged from the textual analysis part, on the 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 0-3 (not important at all to very important). The findings from the first part exhibited a combination of traditional and contemporary womanhood in each female character. The perceptions of the sample group highlighted preferences toward prevalent characteristics of contemporary womanhood over those of traditional one. Being independent, educated, negotiators; sentimental; and independent were preferred over being dependent, a wife, and a mother in fulfilling a woman’s role in this contemporary time. Such preference tends to underly women’s economic determinism, financial independence and security while highlighting self-expressionism.
[1] WHO defines young people or young adults as individuals of the age range between 10 and 24 years (World Health Organization South-East Asia, n.d.).
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