Genderswap
Jun. 29th, 2013 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_morland posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
les_miserablesI normally don't pay much attention to genderswap (nothing against it, just not a trope that grabs me), but it occurred to me that it might be interesting to discuss what various Les Mis characters would be like if genderswapped -- they are all shaped by their circumstances, but how would different circumstances (due to different gender roles) affect them? Would they still be recognisable as their canon selves?
For instance, 63!Valjean would not have been sent to a bagne. Would she end up spending 19 years in prison? Would she be able to build a Madeleine-like life for herself with the aid of the Bishop's silver? (I'm not up on the French rules for unmarried women owning property during this period.) 63!Fantine is hard for me to imagine to begin with, because Fantine's storyline is so specifically about the unfair way society treats unmarried women -- though I think I could believe in a story about 63!Fantine being a poor youth taking care of his little sister and being forced to become a male prostitute, if done well.
As for 63!Javert, I can see her turning into a typical stern spinster -- the sort who keeps a sharp eye on troublemakers and delinquents in her neighbourhood -- earning her daily bread in some low-paying but honest job. I'm not sure it would occur to her that a woman could join the police, because Javert is so preoccupied with following the norms of "respectable society"; the thought of a woman passing as a man and doing a man's work would probably shock her, though I think it's definitely an interesting scenario.
These are just some examples, though I'd love to see others. Also, these are just some hasty thoughts; feel free to disagree or elaborate!
For instance, 63!Valjean would not have been sent to a bagne. Would she end up spending 19 years in prison? Would she be able to build a Madeleine-like life for herself with the aid of the Bishop's silver? (I'm not up on the French rules for unmarried women owning property during this period.) 63!Fantine is hard for me to imagine to begin with, because Fantine's storyline is so specifically about the unfair way society treats unmarried women -- though I think I could believe in a story about 63!Fantine being a poor youth taking care of his little sister and being forced to become a male prostitute, if done well.
As for 63!Javert, I can see her turning into a typical stern spinster -- the sort who keeps a sharp eye on troublemakers and delinquents in her neighbourhood -- earning her daily bread in some low-paying but honest job. I'm not sure it would occur to her that a woman could join the police, because Javert is so preoccupied with following the norms of "respectable society"; the thought of a woman passing as a man and doing a man's work would probably shock her, though I think it's definitely an interesting scenario.
These are just some examples, though I'd love to see others. Also, these are just some hasty thoughts; feel free to disagree or elaborate!
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Date: 2013-11-13 06:46 pm (UTC)I also don't know enough about nuns in period. I wonder if one could just cheat and crib from Hugo, haha.
Cosette in this verse might actually be Valjean's son, yes?
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Date: 2013-11-13 09:02 pm (UTC)(I really want Inspector Simplice now. That would be AMAZING. really you could leave the rest as-is and just swap those two, and see what happened....)
I still lean toward Cosette being Fantine's son via an upper-class woman who got herself in trouble and then dumped him... I feel like Valjean's relationship with sexuality is different enough from Fantine's that a 63!Valjean probably wouldn't have become anyone's mistress - or if so, would have gone into it for different reasons and not fallen for Tholomyes' particular brand of assholery? But 63!Valjean with a kid could work - especially if she'd been working the streets instead of in prison....