Women's Rights And Les Miserables

Today, women have many of the same privileges as men. This includes the right to free speech, personal safety and education. Women’s rights have progressed dramatically since the French Revolution, but the cycle of poverty still affects many women today, specifically women of minorities and/or who have been incarcerated. Two popular adaptions of this unfortunate phenomenon and characters affected by it are Fantine, a single-mother trying to provide for her daughter, in the film “Les Miserables”, based on Victor Hugo’s experiences of the French Revolution then turned into a book, and the various female characters playing female inmates in the popular TV series “Orange is the New Black”, which is based on the personal experiential book written

In the modern day musical, in the number named “At the End of the Day”, we first see Fantine working in the factory. (Les Miserables) Other women who seem to genuinely not like Fantine want her fired, even by mentioning how Fantine won’t give the foreman “his way”. (At the End of the Day) After the work day is finished and all the women are about to go home, one woman finds Fantine with a letter explaining how her child is dying and the family providing for her needs more money to keep her alive. (At the End of the Day) Both women end up in a brawl over the letter when the mayor and foreman interrupt. The woman tells a very skewed version of the story, when Fantine interrupts and says that she is simply trying to provide for her child as a single mother. The foreman turns to believe that his thoughts that Fantine is a prostitute were true; that she “need no urgin’ in the night.” (At the End of the Day) The women remind him that Fantine “will be nothing but trouble”, leaving Fantine literally thrown on the street. This shows the viewer two very important rights these women do not have; sexual and workers rights. In a patriarchal society, these women do not have any say about their bodies and most are deemed too

We can really see this when Fantine sings the ever so popular “I Dreamed a Dream”. (Les Miserables) Fantine was taught socially to submit to French patrilineal society and apply it to her work at home, but, by not having an education, this really damages her when she does not have options other than prostitution to provide for her child. She even considers herself “dead” when doing this. (The Docks [Lovely Ladies]) The reality she is living in is literally killing her and her dreams, tearing her hope apart, turning her dreams to shame. (I Dreamed A Dream) She realizes that there are dreams that cannot be because there are things we cannot change about reality. (I Dreamed A Dream) Had she had a formal education, she could have made her dream come true rather than living in her own personal hell. (I Dreamed A Dream) This directly compares similarly to “Orange is the New Black”. When characters Poussey and Taystee have a confrontation in the library, Poussey mentions that most of the women living in incarceration are simply incarcerated because they were afraid that they, or their children, would get hurt. (Orange is the New Black) Everyday life without education is killing these women, quite literally. Because they do not have an education, they do not have a positive circle of influence, meaning they will probably end up submitting to male intimidation and violent demands. How many of these women are being