#SHE’S SO SCARED exactlyyyyy#she is so very betting on losing dogs!!!!!!!#the thing is that for a while like 50% of katherine takes i saw on here were like ‘SHE IS EVIL AND SELFISH AND…’#and i feel like the very girlboss way she has started to be talked about now is sort of an attempt to correct that?#and like…… i guess i do prefer Girlboss Katherine takes to Katherine Is Evil takes#but it’s still not a very accurate read of what’s going on with her imo#yes she’s in very different circumstances than the boys are but she’s still a kid as well#she doesn’t completely know what she’s doing and she doesn’t know if it’ll work#she just sees that an injustice is happening and she can’t not do anything#she knows that her father is right about ‘it’s the headline that crowns the victor’#and she’s terrified she isn’t good enough at what she does to help it be the newsies who win……. ausghshshhhhhh she’s so#furthermore i know being like ‘oh poor katherine she must return to her mansion’ is a little ridiculous#but she is the only person involved with the strike who has to live with pulitzer#i don’t know i feel like katherine at least where she’s at in 1899 has a lot less capacity to be independent of pulitzer than anyone else#she’s stuck with him in a way no one else involved is and that’s got to be terrifying!!!!! but she does it anyway!!!!#okay i didn’t think i was gonna yell in the tags that much lol but yes yes yes#katherine isn’t a girlboss she’s a teenage girl who is terrified her best isn’t enough to make the world better……
(tags from @transitofmercury) YOU ARE SO CORRECT. and i would actually argue, on the point of 'poor katherine has to go back to her mansion if the strike doesn't work', that i don't think katherine actually does live with pulitzer. i think the line 'i offered katherine a life of leisure, instead she chose to pursue a career' implies that katherine made the choice to live independently outside of pulitzer's home, make her own money and organize her own accommodation without his help. which granted, is already something the newsies had to do anyways, and granted, katherine's stake in the strike is i guess not as bad as theirs - some people might argue that it doesn't really MATTER if katherine fails as a journalist, because she still has a life of privilege to return to. personally, i argue that if katherine fails as a journalist, a risk she very realistically ran in the strike as pulitzer had her blacklisted from every paper in town, she is returning to life of property. she's an upper class woman in gilded-age america, so she would be expected to marry, which would then make her her husband's property. she would be merged into his legal being - he would have access to her money, and the ability to make changes to her assets and financial accounts without her consent. and katherine wouldn't even be able to VOTE to change this until 1918. and yes, that's not the worst life to lead in that time period, sure - the newsies are impoverished, and she is a white upper class woman who would actually be ALLOWED to vote when suffrage was passed, as opposed to women of colour and women of lower classes. but she would be financially, physically and legally powerless against her husband. and do we think pulitzer is picking a good husband for her? do we think he's picking someone who will encourage katherine's progressiveness and rebellious streak, or is he picking someone who he thinks will 'tame' her into being a good mother and head of household? maybe katherine is in an entirely different class to the newsies, but she still lives in fear of her autonomy being ripped away from her, and she chose to bet all of that on the newsies - because even though it terrified her, it was RIGHT.
