Panromantic Regency

Mary Bennet really addresses the phenomenon of girls and women who just do not know how to play their "role" right. Every other woman seems to know what they're doing, even if its unconventional womanhood like Lizzie. Lizzie boldly states she doesn't need a book on womanhood because she is too busy simply being a woman. She always walks in confidence, trusting her own actions and knows her own mind. For Mary, a book about how to be a woman became her bible, because everyone treated everything she did like a faux pas or mistake. She didn't know how, but she was womaning wrong. She had no instincts or natural inclinations towards the profession of woman. She was too earnest, too awkward, lacking charm, she didn't pick up on the social cues and just wasn't able to do what everyone else was doing. Even if Mary wasn't cast as "plain" by her family, she wouldn't have gotten along easily in her society. You could say she was neurodivergent now, but back then, they'd just see her as a failed woman.

I need to watch S2 of Gentleman Jack because I just love how rooted in their time period every single character feels. I loved the scene where Anne Lister visited the coal mine and did not seem one bit concerned about the children working in it. I love that she's snobby. I love that Ann Walker has a religious crisis about being a lesbian. I love that the reactions to Anne Lister's gender expression vary by class relative to her. I love that even she is hesitant to travel alone in Europe as a woman because its so strange for a woman to do so at the time, even though she chafes against the restrictions for her gender. I love how so many characters think marriage will totally fix a woman. No one feels modern. People have progressive and regressive beliefs at the same time. It's so real