#HARRIET FREAKING TUBMAN

[swan2swan]

i'VE SEEN ENOUGH

Civilization VII is Game of the Year for 2025.

[themyscirah]

Okay so basically the United States MINT of all people is going to be working with DC to make a line of coins! These coins sadly won't be in circulation (the things I would do to live in a world where I could get Batman coins from the supermarket) as they're collectors coins, but will be releasing over the course of the next 3 years, 2025-2027.

Designs haven't been released yet (the same is true for all 2025 designs) but we know there will be 9 coins in total (3 each year) with the first year featuring (of course!!!) Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

Although we know the first three heroes to be featured, the remaining six have yet to be decided, and it turns out the Mint is putting out a survey on their site to gauge which of a group of culturally significant heroes people want to see most! (link to the form is mentioned in the article above)

The considered group includes: Supergirl, the Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Captain Marvel, John Stewart GL, Aquaman, Hawkman, Jamie Reyes BB, Robin (Damian?), Cyborg, and Batgirl, of which 6 will be selected.

As someone who does a bit of coin collecting myself (mainly circulation coins like the quarters sets, but I also have a couple proof and collectors coins) I think this is a really cool and interesting idea that showcases the history of the comics medium and these characters and their influence on American culture. Really excited to wait and see what the designs look like for the coins already announced!

[llocket]

ok ok so when i was younger i had to wake up super early to catch the bus to school, and one day i overslept and my dad said that if i missed my bus, i would be on punishment. so guess what.. i missed the bus 💔 and it was pouring rain outside 😭😭😭

and i don't like it when my dad's upset with me because he shouts really loud ( he's in the army so it's literally his job ) so ya know what i did? i decided to walk. and it wasn't terribly long but you definitely had to put in effort to get there. so i started walking and about halfway there, a car slows down. and it's like "oh he's right in front of a house, he's just parking",, NO. HE GETS OUT AND WALKS, NO, RUNS TOWARDS ME. and i'm silently freaking out because in my mind i'm like "oh, good god i'm about to be kidnapped by a dude because i'm afraid of my dad". and it's then that i notice he has something in his hand.. a long blunt object. so i start like hesitantly sprinting when he yells out "wait! do you need an umbrella?!" and i stop. "an umbrella?" i think, "he wants to give me an umbrella?" i turn around and sure enough he's politely walking up to me with an umbrella.. i took it and said thank you and he waved and drove away. I NEARLY PASSED OUT I THINK /silly /nsrs

so i have an umbrella, but my legs were starting to give out a little cuz i have something wrong with my circulatory system i think.. and i see the building! i sprint up to the doors, open them, and breathe a sigh of relief because i'm finally shielded from the harsh conditions i was subject to.. and you wanna know what happens next?

a dude walks up to me and holds out his hand for a handshake and says,,

"OH, HARRIET TUBMAN".

IS IT BECAUSE I'M BLACK, YOU BITCH 💔💔💔

i'm happy you didnt get sick because of that!! but... DAMN.. THE HARRIET TUBMAN CALL OUT WAS SO.... WEIRD?? HELLO???? its like if someone randomly called me idfk.. some random indian actress and i dont even know them

that must have been weird ☠️☠️ but i am glad u got that umbrella!!!

[90363462]

and the winners are…

Our first award goes to Lawrence Taylor. He wins our “Trump Should Be On the Same Registry I’m On” award! Best of luck LT! Stay away from parks, schools and playgrounds tho. Because.. him accused of being a rapist

Our second award goes to professional community peen and hypocritical freak-a-leek Le’Veon Bell. He wins the “I’mma Hoe and You Know I’mma Hoe” award for tried it with him calling Kamala Harris a tramp. Meanwhile back on the ranch Bro got six kids by seven baby mamas. Shaq literally wrote a song about cats like you 30 years ago! Look it up!

Next up is Antonio Brown. He wins our “CTE Got Me Showing These Cheeks” award. His sexual assault and battery cases have been well documented but dude literally fumbled Keyshia Cole. It’s actually a blessing in disguise for the singer not to end up being with him still. Anyways None of his opinions should be taken seriously

Following up we have Waka Flocka Flame. He’s the winner of our “Bro Are You Serious?” award because he literally wiped his nasty ass with a Trump jersey in 2017. Now he’s riding so hard for Trump the skid marks have tripled up. Good luck and please wash between them cheeks.

Next up is Kodak Black. He’s the winner of our “Harriet Tubman Would’ve Doubled Back and Shot Him Twice” award. This dude rides so hard for Trump he got jewelry and t-shirts made. Same sexual predator tendencies. So I see the connection.

Now we’re headed into rare territory with Kanye. He’s the winner of our “Banana in the Tailpipe Lifetime Coon Achievement” award. Y’all tried to say he was a “freethinker” but he fumbled the Yeezy bag and now he’s making music dedicated to Norwegian death metal Nazis. Meanwhile his arch rival Taylor swift is supporting Kamala Harris, and telling her fellow Swifties to vote in this year’s presidential election. Anyways he’s Weird. You know that one person whose actions you can never forgive? He’s that guy.

We have some newcomers on the scene so we got give it up to Sexyy Red. She receives the “We Defended Your Stupid Ass Bootyhole Brown Lyrics For This Shit?” award. We even did it at the BET Awards. In front of Bobby Jones. The guy who was known for his Sunday morning gospel show that black folks watched before heading to church. Now you out here embarrassing us. Trifling. I will never forgive Drake for even collaborating with you twice. Twice.

Next is Ice Cube and we give this out with heavy hearts. He receives our “Quit Talking to Us Like We’re Day Day” award from trying to pass off that Platinum Plan like it was something revolutionary when the Biden administration was already doing or had done most of that shit.

Let’s not forget Fifty! He wins the “Culture Vulture of the Year” award for selling “Black stories” to the masses in the form of stolen narratives lived by hood legends. He wasn’t really feeling “the culture” when it comes to paying taxes on those shows he’s profiting from tho. Sure he’s going on a anti diddy campaign but this can’t be erased

Next up is Herschel Walker. As a politician, he was a helluva football player. He wins our “Y’all Just Pick Any Random Dude Off the Street Hunh” award. Dude was accused of battery and paying for multiple abortions. Ran a “pro-life” anti-choice campaign tho. Right.

Next up is the Herman Cain. He posthumously wins our “These Motherfuckas Will Kill You And Keep On Stepping” award. Bro went to a Trump rally unmasked. He was hospitalized two weeks later and eventually died. Trump’s staff even admitted their negligence “killed him.” Wild.

Next is Ben Carson. He wins our “I Know His Breath Stank From All That Ass He Kissing” award. Dude is a neurosurgeon. Trump picked him as HUD Secretary. Why? Cause when he thinks public housing he thinks “Black people.” This was after he compared him to a child molester.

Next up is Joe Brown. He wins our “Negro You Had One Job” award. As an irascible TV judge he was fine but when he tried to shame Kamala as a harlot he is and was out of pocket. Same dude who made homophobic remarks about a woman in 2014. Seems he’s got an issue with women. I know he hates his mother

[52booksproject]

Book 40: A Black Woman's History of the United States

Since it was a mix of Black History Month and Women's History Month the book A Black Woman's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross seemed appropriate. Forgive me for sounding like a broken record, but the content of this book was hard to hear (Yes, I know, if hearing about it is bad try living it like millions of Black women have). Except for the first Black woman they could find a record of in the US, from a petition to get papers of protection from slavery and marriage (aka slavery back then) to join an expedition to Santa Fe, Black women were almost exclusively brought as slaves to the US. Up front [TRIGGER WARNING] sexual assault and violence are a huge part of this book, so the whole thing will be sensitive subjects until the end. Sir Frances Drake's expedition raided a Spanish ship and got a hold of a Black woman they raped, made pregnant, and then dropped off on a random island also with two Black men presumably to die, but who will ever know? Definitely one of the sickest stories in American history (that has no end of them) and paints Drake in a whole new light for me.

Then in 1619, the gaping asshole masterfully played by David Ogden Stiers in Disney's Pocahontas (I think it's the same guy) bought some slaves in Virginia and that began 250 years of Black slavery in America. The book defends the few Black women that owned slaves as just trying to escape slavery for their family, which *I* can't possibly judge these women for that. The only fun part of these chapters were the escapes. We barely know anything about these women historically except for the advertisements in escaped slave classifieds which almost always include descriptions of fine clothing they took with them to pass as free women. So the women were free and had nice clothing at least. There's also a daring raid during the Civil War where Harriet Tubman (hey mr. president, still waiting on that $20 bill, btw) took a river boat and helped a bunch of slaves escape and burned plantations along the way, so that was sweet. However, post-bellum and Jim Crow were hardly better for Black women. In fact, the book has to get to the incredible Shirley Freaking Chisholm before the stories start to take a real positive turn. In the last chapter they even mention Roxanne Shante's Roxanne's Revenge and and Lauryn Hill's the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as triumphs of Black culture, and having both I agree they are.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK: Assuming you can handle reading the horrible things that happened, then, yes. Not many books are a broad sampling of primary sources to learn about Black women in US history.

ART PROJECT:

I already drew many of the women mentioned in the book, but my favorite part was hearing about Shirley Chisholm and I inexplicably missed her when I did my faces project last year, so I drew her.

[scentedchildnacho]

He asked me after breakfast if I wanted to get high so I told him I have a heart condition and I can't ever smoke or I get stressed out and just wrong

If it's cannabinoids like tinctures in my coffee then that's better but smoke and I freak out real bad get really bad anxiety

Stop telling the difference between good and bad

I think it's multiple sclerosis I was largely raised on federal rations and I met this Chickasaw woman who told me she is non pork and she to smoke in maturation had I guess like pretty elaborate ideas around laying around high about maturation

I have tried to make sense of differential doctors psoriasis heart condition hip sprain head trauma vitamin deficiency and I think that's multiple sclerosis my nerve protection isn't so good and I get really really stressed out

I think it's sort of like Dresden files

They maybe have threatened to experiment on my sister again

And I was trying these aboriginal symbols in Temecula

And I've found myself surrounded by these slightly criminal drug dealing characters but their mostly pretty normal and I think I'm here to help them research them for wealth purposes instead of that scary psychiatrist

I told one man at showers get state 🆔 just go get is a pretty white racist thing to say to others.....and I believe in a drunks history Harriet Tubman.....my white ass does not understand going in to some of their privileged psychedelic separatism and I think there is a black super hero that shows me a few things on my heroines quest but

And then I went to publix to do the outside civil sit for inclusion and the white racist eventually appeared to stare out over his crowd of jobs and to proclaim judgementally my inferior go get to his thievery so when they will publicly confess who they are it appears there are public punishments

I think it's the same man that has to then do the landscaping terrorism himself so

My Australia trans media class told me about the car terrorists that all those famous music artists killed themselves of heroin overdoses in like a year Janis Joplin all those annoying claimed to be good and Thomas Kuhn I think their world was really bombed and they made money in need

They made a lot of money in crisis

My joy needs good good care takers so apparently no fight is needed if I'm expected to implode it will

I didn't like the veterans at the Jewish respite their neat black pants and wild feminine long hair didn't really make me desire inclusion to leave the riot and to leave the riot I do have to find something militaristic to include me

They were so neat and correct but something about them was very immorally selfish and willing to cause chaos to accomplish reasons for restraints that I was like no no thank you

I think it's that my room shares had cervical issues till they were caused very farty symptoms and the veterans coming and going kept trapping me in there with her

So I think that caused my disapproval.....she had cervical issues that would suggest psychiatric intervention wasn't correct but then the veterans very quiet to us

I think a birth control pill till she could stop harming herself would have better stabilized her moods

I am pro life by being pro choice...I don't like the pap smear but when I think about her culture maybe choosing niche cooking the smoke though does have toxic elements a buddy and a pap smear cervical check would better mood her to

[itsawritblr]

OMFG, other people talking about one of my favorite movies of all time??!!

Those of you who remember the Bicentennial like I do (which is probably none of y’all) know what an impact the musical and then the movie had.  Because back when the musical opened on Broadway (1969) half of Americans were convinced we were going into another Civil War.  Riots were common -- I saw the smoke of Detroit burning -- crime and drug use were on the rise, there were anti-Vietnam protests everywhere, and that’s just to start.

To put this into perspective,  most Southern schools weren’t legally desegregated until after 1964, and they fought against it through the 70s (so did a lot of Northern schools).  Until 1967 it was illegal in half the U.S. for my brown father to be married to my white mother.

In 1969 no one in mainstream theater was talking about slavery and its history in America.  My school textbooks barely mentioned it.  Black Power was just starting in the Big Cities, but in the rest of the U.S. you did not talk about it.  I was an Irish-Filipina-Chinese-Hawaiian girl, and even I heard little about it until I found a book about Harriet Tubman (a very rare subject in the ‘60s).

So when the musical and, in 1972, the film debuted, the song “Molasses to Rum” had people freaking out.  No one had ever pointed at the North and said, “You were complicit.”

I knew about the song “Cool Cool Conservative Men” because I had the original Broadway cast LP too.  When the movie finally aired on TV the song had been cut.

This movie is my 4th of July tradition.

40 years ago I auditioned for a production of 1776.  As John Adams.  Seriously.  Because I’m short, have black hair, and, friends have informed me, John and I have pretty much the same temperament.

After reading a scene and singing “Is Anybody There?”  I was told I’d be great for the role, except I was clearly Asian (this was years before color-blind casting).  And “We’d have to duct tape those tits, darling.”  I ended up working tech, which I preferred anyway.

Trivia: In 1951 Howard da Silva, who perfectly played Ben Franklin, had been blacklisted by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, accused of being a Communist.  He’d refused to name names, and invoked his Fifth Amendment Rights.  You have no idea how fucking brave that was.  He managed some stage work but he wasn’t taken off the Blacklist until 1963.

[o-wise-corvid]

I love that when you comment about “why can’t a Polynesian actress play Moana” in the live action (UNNECESSARY) film, you get this:

- “Urm Polynesia is nowhere near Hawaii”

- “BLACK LIVES MATTER”

- “that’s racist”

No wonder we’re in the shape we’re in.

My guy. Google is your friend. The freaking Polynesian Cultural Center of Hawaii has such an informative website.

Yeah Black Lives Matter, and frankly I’d be offended as heck if I was black that just because another person of a totally different race LOOKED enough like me, they get the job and someone who is part of the culture that a story is centered around doesn’t. Would a black person be okay with an excellent but white actress playing Harriet Tubman? I HIGHLY DOUBT IT nor SHOULD they be. Isn’t part of making Black Lives Matter is calling out racism like that experienced by black people to make it more visible? IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO ANY POC?????

… it’s racist. To advocate for… okay. Okay honey. Whatever. I’m tired.

[theme-park-concepts]

Always have a small brain explosion anytime I start comparing the history of Disney and Broadway against mainstream American History.

West Side Story predates Mary Poppins by 7 years

The Vietnam War started before Disneyland opened and lasted 5 years past WDW opening.

The musical Company, still a pretty modern feeling show, debuted 7 years before Annie.

It's a Small World and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln both debut the same year as the Civil Rights Act, halfway into Vietnam. Also the year the Beatles come to America.

The Producers is released only two decades after Hitler dies and the Holocaust ends. 1 year after the Worlds Fair.

Song of the South is the first full length non compilation Disney animated movie released after the Holocaust and WWII in 1946. AFTER. James Baskett who played Uncle Remus can't attend the premier in segregated Georgia. AFTER the Holocaust. Jim Crow persists for two decades.

Disneyland is older than Sleeping Beauty (if you're a fan you already know this, but it's weird to realize when stated this way)

Here's a fun one. Hello Dolly! was released six months AFTER the moon landing. You know the movie who's music represents the long ago nostalgic past of the turn of the century Main Street USA lol.

And finally Harriet Tubman was alive during Thomas Jefferson's final few years and died when Walt Disney was 12 years old. Birth of a Nation, basically the first modern movie and KKK propaganda was released 2 years later. Steamboat Willie? 15 years later. Ronald Reagan was 17 years old (he was also born before she died). History is staggeringly recent.

Art is so often a response to current political events - often a comment on the future using the forms of the past or comment on the past using the forms of the future. Huh I wonder how not one but two! Disney worlds fairs attractions had themes about healing division and peace? Fascinating

Like it really just drives home the point that culture is not linear but ping pongs back and forth and spreads in waves, some parts live decades further in the future than other parts that hang on for a long freaking time.

[black-is-beautiful18]

I do agree that Candace Owens has made problematic statements

But she is right that the BLM organization is becoming more a terrorist organization because it seems the organization is pushing their own political agenda and the money donated to them doesn’t touch the black community

....Huh? Yeah it's a problem that the money isn't going to the Black community but you do know what a terrorist is right? BLM is far from terroristic. It's very troubling that you'd even say that. As for Candace I already gave my opinions on her, but if you wanna call anyone a terrorist go to the kkk or the Republican party. The freaking US government is right there. The Black Panthers were called terrorists and they didn't even really do anything expect be Black and fed up. They were just tired of the way Black ppl were being treated just like MLK, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and so many others were.

I'd also like to add it's only called a terrorist org cuz they're Black. White ppl are threatened by Black ppl. Call it guilt, fear, whatever you want. They think we want payback and we don't. We just wanna live.

[murfpersonalblog]

THIS.

Especially in light of the DELUGE of negative reactions AMC got for Ep5. That was a HUGE risk AMC took that we're still feeling the aftershocks from today, even after TONS of interviews, metas, comments, etc.

Even if AMC walks it back, none of us will know that's what was always planned, or was done out of necessity to keep the ratings and viewership from tanking.

Anne Rice retconned entire BOOKS when she caught flack from the fandom or didn't like where the story was going. So AMC watering down or even revising the SV and DV in Ep5 wouldn't surprise me at all.

However, it would beg the question was it worth it? Look how many people stopped watching the show after Ep5 entirely. They're not getting those people back, regardless, so who's this really benefitting? They added POC MCs to make the show more inclusive for POC audiences. Why TF would they piss off that demographic by making the POCs out like people whose every word needs to be verified by the same white man they've been so busy making look like their oppessor?

Ok, the fight was one big ole elaborate hoax, and we're about to get GATCHA'd like a mofo once Lestat comes in and sets the record straight, cuz lord knows those darkies are a bunch of psychos who can't be trusted. Lestat didn't beat the hell out of Louis so bad he went blind in one eye; and dragged him out of the courtyard by his effing JAW so bad Louis could barely speak when he yelled "Let go of me!"; and dropped Louis a million miles from the frikkin air so Claudia had to find frikkin goats for Louis to chase around the house to learn to effing WALK again. Fine. Weird flex, Rolin, but ok.

But tbh, I'll still enjoy IWTV regardless of them retconning the fight/drop scene, cuz contrary to popular opinion:

Ep5 was not the only instance of Lestat being an awful abusive spouse & father.

What will these petty fans REALLY be proving/winning by AMC altering ONE albeit major fight, when Loustat's relationship had been in shambles for YEARS prior and YEARS afterwards?

Did Lestat get kicked out of their house for 6 whole years for NOTHING?

Did the mantelpiece get busted and Lestat's coffin get smashed and Louis' coffin get dented by the raccoons running wild in the house or what? (I know they're vicious little beasties, but SHEESH!)

Did Lestat send countless mea culpas admitting to what happened "that night" being entirely his fault or nah?

Did "I am cursed with my father's temper" "clean up the mess and come to coffin!" "blame the teacher not the student!" Lestat verbally abuse Louis and demean Louis' status in their household by treating him like the housewife or nah?

Did Lestat disrespect Louis' intelligence by SNEAKING off with Antoinette (like a CHEATER does, not someone in a mutual open relationship) and literally look GUILTY/CAUGHT when Claudia said she'd been following him or nah?

Did Lestat chokeslam Claudia MULTIPLE times or nah?

Did Lestat physically force Claudia to watch "the only love she'll ever know" get boiled down to "soup" and then make fun of her for it or nah?

Did Lestat take Louis for granted by demanding sex from him even in the midst of his open grief/depression; more worried about his "considerable considerables" being squandered than where TF their missing daughter was for almost a decade or nah?

Did Lestat chase Claudia down on that train like a cracker hunting a runaway slave so she wouldn't make it across that railroad, Harriet Tubman style, or nah?

Did Lestat have a complete violent outburst trashing the chess set over losing a freaking GAME and going into hysterics verbally abusing both Claudia AND Louis--not just to Antoinette behind their backs as he did in their seedy hotel room, but to his family's FACES?

Did Lestat literally LIE to Claudia and Louis about killing Antoinette or nah? (Was her finger healed/replaced in S7 when we see her hands during the final showdown, or was that an oversight by the production team?)

Did Lestat literally tell Louis that they'd be better off with Claudia dead and her killer (Antoinette) brought in to replace her or nah?

Ep5 constantly gets treated as the end all be all to Lestat's reputation and his fans being vindicated that Louis & Claudia & Armand completely fabricated everything bad about him--but we can believe them when they say Lestat had a way about him, and show him as funny or charming or sweet or loving!

But the red flags about Lestat were all over S1, not just in one episode. So like, I just wanna know where the buck stops for LeStans with "toxic abuse."

A fundamental thing that people don’t realize is that if Louis is exposed as a liar then that’s not a fucking own. It’s literally just bad and clumsy writing to set up a black character being abused by their white partner with slave symbolism and shit all thrown into the narrative only for it to be back tracked but people in this fandom who have goldfish dick for brains think that’s a good thing because it validates their theory when the theory itself is monkey water. Like yaay cool the white guy gets a slap on the wrist for being a piece of shit and his black partner is made to look insane wow how original.

[hellbabyfromhell]

metal gear solid characters on youtube

solid snake: never likes dislikes or comments..only watches.

ocelot: always makes the funniest comment with the most upvotes

otacon: watches anime clips and writes sentimental comments about how much he loved them as a kid...anime icon... uploads videos of himself dissecting his favorite shows and computers and stuff.. linus tech tips headass.... and he’d have one of those awful like minimally animated avatar things that shrug and shit. also he leaves comments on songs he cries to like “remember when you first heard this in 2008?” also he likes doggy videos.

grey fox: is one of those mysterious chains of people responding to eachother with long strings of numbers and text

kaz: says “This is Fake and Gay”

vamp: says “who’s going to the warped tour this year i have E” and has a britney spears playlist

naked snake: computer illerate and wont try

fortune: likes watchmojo videos sweetly and sometimes writes a comment with proper syntax with an emoji thrown in sometimes

fatman: TyPeS LiKe ThIs on rave/edm videos

raiden: gets in HUGE multicomment slapflights and you have to click the Read More Replies button and there are a lot of people @ing him like “not cool bro.”

meryl: casual youtube watcher, watches recommended videos about like dogs and sometimes scary ghost youtube and cooking show competition clips, but her secret shame is watching people breaking all their eyeshadows and making them into a big eyeshadow. she doesnt even wear makeup

liquid: comments “First”

Sunny: comments “I’m 11 and I like the beatles”

colonel: tries to leave youtube comments but posts them on twitter accidentally

GW as the colonel: is the algorithm creating finger family videos

solidus: leaves poorly written baby boomer old people facebook ass comments going on rants about now nothing is as good as led zeppelin or citizen kane

mei ling: listens to upbeat fun music and twitch streams because shes cute and everyone loves her

emma emmerich: watches emmyeats and danooct1 and watches people taking things apart and leaves slightly snarky comments saying they’re doing it wrong but her icon is like a girl cartoon character so people always hate on her and she gets very upset and deletes her page

eva: she loves all the things she said, thats like her breakup song (post stealing the you know what from naked snake)... she watches youtube videos of other motorcycle girls and goes 😒shes not that hot... im hotter 😏

volgin: when he’s not hacking into government databases he watches hydraulic press and RHCB videos and laughs at the destruction. he also listens to tri poloski on incognito

drebin: watches nexpo and chills to keep up on his scary stories to tell snake

paz: watches cute dog hair cutting videos and anything with stock generic music, probably like Vlogs, like shane dawson and safiya nyguaard, the harriet tubman photo of videos while she is secretly also watching hydraulic press videos and worldstar and like NSFL like nasty body mod documentaries to see a little gore... freak

The Boss: proper syntax, @s her son (not spoilin..) and snake on like funny animal videos and also comments on news clips because she’s smart. Still types like an old person, says “back in my day”-esque things but not aggressively

Venom Snake’s computer is off but he’s still looking at the screen

[ladyhistorypod]

Episode 16: Ms. Conceptions

Sources:

Bra Burning

Time

Carol Hanish (dot) org

Further learning: Florynce Kennedy (Harvard), NPR, BBC

Harriet Tubman

Time

National Women’s History Museum

National Parks Service

History Channel

Smithsonian Magazine

Monica Lewinsky

The Clinton Affair

CNN

News 24

Further learning: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (YouTube), Vanity Fair

Attributions: Commercial for Playtex Cross Your Heart Bra, Railway to Freedom, Pure T Saxophone Sample by Stan Rams

Click below for a transcript of this episode!

Alana: Yeah my sister is here. Erika: It’s me I’m here. Haley: I can't believe you’re both sitting in the goddamn closet. Sure the acoustics are better but you could’ve cleaned it up. Alana: The whole point is that the clothes do the soundproofing. Lexi: This is high end professional podcasting. Haley: What do you study, because this is like how I’m gonna judge you now. Erika: I'm a television radio film major. Alana: But I'm the one with the podcast. Haley We like this. She can stay. I was ready for you to say like– Erika: I really like TV. I really like movies, so I decided to make a career out of it. Lexi: That would have been me if I'd had balls. Except then I went to another pointless moneyless career so what's the deal? Alana: What are we doing? Lexi: Well, I don't have a sister. No just kidding, I have three thousand five hundred and two sisters. Actually I think that number's been updated since I memorized it because it's been a whole semester and there are new sisters. Alana you tell them what you think about my sisters. Alana: Every single time Lexi talks about a sister, I always think… she'll be like oh my sister Kate… Lexi you don’t have a sister. Haley: I completely agree but she doesn't say, or she went through this phase where she didn't say the people's names. She’d be like one of my sisters blah blah blah. And that will lead into like my next– like the other banter because I have a motherfucking story for you. Lexi: Okay, I love it. What about your sister Haley? Haley: Lou Lou? She's about to graduate from NYU and she's like writing a thesis right now and internally I'm just so happy that she has to like write this because I need her to feel this type of pain. Erika: That's sisterhood. Haley: I needed her to like feel this type of… Because for some reason I feel like her undergraduate time has just flown the freak by and she studied abroad three different times and I always feel like study abroad is always like some bullshit thing from like all the times for GW kids that come back and they're like well it's not graded you just have to pass the class. Lexi: All my friends who studied abroad in Korea and my sisters who studied abroad in Korea just like drunk and… Drank? Drank. Just drunk drank the whole time. Haley: Because she was out of like NYU London or NYU Madrid or NYU Abu Dhabi. Lexi: So it's like real classes from your school. Haley: I think so, yeah. Erika: Yeah that’s how it is for Syracuse. Alana: Yeah. Erika: Two of my roommates in– when I was in London last semester were from GW and we all– it was me and two other girls from Syracuse and two girls from GW and all the Syracuse girls were like are you kidding me. Like, are you for real? Because I was taking classes for my major and for my minors and they were just like well we're gonna mess around we're gonna like not try on this paper because we need a C. Lexi: Yeah. GW’s like go for the experience. Alana: Let’s talk about brothers for a sec. Lexi is the only one who has a brother. Lexi: Yes. I am the only one who's experienced the brother and let me tell you… Erika: I always wanted one. Alana: Okay well fuck off. Erika: I wanted an older one– Alana, louder: Okay fuck off! Erika: An older than you one. Like an old, old one. Haley: My sister’s like I wish I had an older brother and I'm like okay I didn't want you either. Erika: I didn’t mean it like that! Haley: I wanted to be a child so fucking badly. Erika: She wanted to be an only child. Alana: I was supposed to be an only child. Lexi: I literally cried. I locked myself in the bathroom and cried. [INTRO MUSIC] Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History; the good, the bad, and the ugly ladies you missed in history class. Back on Zoom is Lexi. Lexi, what’s something you wish people knew about your field? Lexi: I guess I'll say about archaeology. I wish people knew that archaeologists do not dig up dinosaurs. Alana: And my other zoom companion is Haley. Haley, what's something most people incorrectly assume about you? Haley: Did you really fucking set me up for that one? Everyone thinks I'm gay. Alana: And if I'm a little echo-y today it's because we have a very special guest. My sister Dave is here. Dave, what's your actual name and why do I call you Dave? Erika: My name is Erika. It’s not Dave. The Dave joke started because way back really really long ago there was a Staples commercial for like a one man running his own business. Alana: The tagline was in a small business it's all you. Erika: right so with all Dave and it was just a bunch of Dave's around the office. Like one guy was like making copies, one was walking around with papers or whatever. Then it’s just like hey Dave, how you doing Dave, how's it going Dave and we thought that was so funny. Alana: Uproariously funny. Erika: I remember like crying on the couch laughing for like twenty minutes. Alana: And I'm Alana and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that wax is the part of the candle that burns. Haley: So I thought of this in the shower where all my great thoughts come but since we're doing misconceptions– I did not have a misconception of Alana, but my first impression of Lexi was the furthest thing from Lexi possible. Lexi: What? I've never heard this before. Haley: I never accurately told the story– or like actually told this story to anyone. I like kept it in, but secretly chuckle from time to time. So like our group of friends didn't have Lexi immediately. Like I knew Cece and Kelsie from class, and I knew Cece from freshman year even. This is like second semester sophomore year so I kind of knew Alana. But for Lexi, I just knew Lexi from this one guy who we won't mention– we just won’t mention they're not important– and our lovely Holly. And Holly described Lexi as a girl from like rural Pennsylvania who was like really smart. Like I was ready for a fun loving friend because Holly's great and like I trusted Holly on personality like recommendations and just life choices to an extent. And I was like cool great let's meet this gal, we're all going to be like taking this one class together. Let's rock and roll. And then Lexi comes in, she's wearing like this bird– you were definitely wearing a skirt, like a long flowy skirt and had some sort of animal bird or whatever on your shirt or like on you. Speaker 0: And literally within five minutes you were talking about your sisters. I'm in my head thinking oh crap do we have like another nineteen kids and counting? Like who the fuck is this girl? Alana: Oh my god. Haley: Because like I called out Lexi, fifty fifty she may not say like sorority sister. But she may not even say like her sister's name. Like enter sorority sister name but using my sister and then… But at this point, she also used the phrase also commonly use and does commonly use is one of my sisters. So she said “one of my sisters,” “and other sisters,” “so a group of my sisters are hanging out.” So I was like this did this whole family just fucking come to GW? Speaker 0: Like either we have like Weasley but in reverse of like six girls and one bro, or like nineteen kids and counting coming on in. And I… Straight three weeks at least I was trying to figure Lexi out because I knew I was going to instantly love her but I was like scared to get like deep dive in like all her siblings. Lexi: So you thought I was like from a rural Pennsylvanian Amish family with thirty kids? Haley: Literally.

[Archival Audio of a 1960s bra commercial] Lexi: In my opinion, this is the biggest misconception in modern women's history because even I believed it until very much into my adulthood of so far my adulthood. And I was definitely told this in a history class in high school as being true, the lie. So we'll get right into it. The Women's Liberation Movement of the sixties and seventies granted women many rights, reforming policies surrounding work, education, and medicine. So overall, pretty good move. Today, the efforts of mid century feminists are often lumped into other stories and are not granted their own lesson plans in schools or their own sections of museums. Instead, stories like the suffrage movement are rehashed time and again and the more modern efforts of women fighting for equality are brushed aside. I mean even we are guilty of this, covering many more suffragists than twentieth century feminists so in keeping with our mission– Alana: Hold on. Lexi: Yeah? Alana: This is episode sixteen. Lexi: Yeah. Alana: There haven’t been many episodes! We haven’t had a chance to talk about twentieth century feminists! Lexi: Valid. So the story I'm about to tell you it's just a small piece of the larger movement, but considering someone could start an entire podcast series covering just the events of this movement and probably go on for like five seasons, who knows, I think it does make the most sense to give a small snippet of the efforts of these women here on our show, and maybe in the future we can cover other snippets as they relate to other things we're doing, so stay tuned. In 1968, a group of women gathered to protest the Miss America pageant. You know, we all know Miss America, women come from each state and I think also territories now, they get together they compete and one becomes Miss America. Carol Hanisch, whose name I might be saying wrong so please correct me if you know, the feminist scholar and activist who coined the phrase “the personal is political” conceived the protest as a way of bringing the Women's Liberation Movement to the mainstream. The pageant itself had a tradition of using white single childless women's beauty to make money, which is not exactly a very cash money thing to do or a very feminist thing to do. Actually it is a super cash money thing to do because it makes a lot of money. Alana, singing: Capitalism Lexi: Yes. So Carol and her fellow activists of the New York Radical Women organization decided the pageant was the perfect institution for them to protest. Women of all political backgrounds were invited to join in the protest which took place on the Atlantic City boardwalk outside the pageant venue, and the pageant venue was one of the Atlantic City casinos, so they were just on the boardwalk outside of it. And they had a permit, and they were doing it with permission, just in case anyone tries to come at them about that. They did have a permit for a protest on the boardwalk. These women rejected the idea of the massive air quotes ideal woman perpetuated by the Miss America pageant. Reporters arrived at the scene. The women spoke only to other women who were reporters and refused to speak to reporters who were men. The women issued a document to everyone in attendance outlining the ten reasons they decided to protest Miss America. One such reason was the fact that women of color had never won and a Black contestant had never even been allowed to participate, so the feminists believed the pageant was racist and they were calling out it as a racist institution. And we love to see intersectional feminism, so this is why that's the specific reason I wanted to point out. The women were also protesting the consumerism promoted by the event which was fueled by corporate sponsorships. They protested it as a symbol of military industrial complex, asserting that Miss America's role in entertaining troops made her a death mascot, you know those are just a few. Protesters also engaged in performance art. One protester Florynce “Flo” Kennedy, a Black woman who worked as a reproductive rights lawyer, chained herself to a doll depicting Miss America, invoking metaphors of enslavement. In an interview she said “the Atlantic City action is comparable to peeing on an expensive rug at a polite cocktail party. The Man never expects that kind of protest, and very often that's the one that really gets him uptight.” And she means the Man like capital M The Man, just in case that wasn't clear. Side note, five years later Flo hosted what she called a “pee in” at Harvard University to protest the lack of women's restrooms on the campus because women had to walk out of one of their academic buildings into another when they needed to pee, so I think Flo had a thing for peeing on rich people’s shit. And that's a mood because she just went into the quad and she just had people poor jars of yellow liquid which may or may not have been pee down the steps and that was the demonstration, so… Alana: I like that her name is Flo. Lexi: It's a very fun name. I love it. I like that her name is Flo and she's doing all of this like… (Laughing) Lexi: The women’s work. Simultaneously, women across the country in support the movement boycotted companies who were sponsoring the pageant. So this wasn't just contained to the New York Radical Women, it involves lots of people. Yet, the iconic image of the protest is the “Freedom Trash Can” and you might see pictures of this around on the interwebs it's like a barrel, a can, and it says “Freedom Trash Can” painted on the side. Protesters filled it with objects of oppression such as girdles, bras, wigs, fake eyelashes, hair curlers and homemaking magazines- so like “Country Woman” and “Women’s Day” and that kind of stuff. Then, they lit it on fire. Just kidding. Nothing was set on fire. No burning, no fire, not even the tiny candle, not even a tiny spark, no one pulled out a lighter. They just filled up a trash can and presumably took all the stuff out of the trash can after they were done. It was performance art. That's literally it. But this powerful, falsified visual leads to a myth that perpetuates to this day, of feminists gathering around, burning their bras as if they're participating in some sort of religious ceremony. It was a perfect visual to sell to the American people; don't support these radical angry women, who run around braless, unshaven, burning their undergarments, and worshipping like witches. Frustrated men argued that by burning their beauty products the protesters were making themselves less appealing to men, which is a hot take no one gives a shit about. So, the truth is a group of a few hundred women in Atlantic City in 1968 threw their bras and other items in the trash. They tossed away objects representative of consumerism and oppression, the two things they were protesting. The myth of bra burning lives as an anti-feminist propaganda piece, boiling a strong political and intellectual movement down to a visual of air quotes “Nasty Women,” a stereotype that continues to this day and myth even young women believe until learning the truth because it's literally taught in schools and exists in some textbooks that you can still buy. According to many historians, this protest event ushered in mainstream second wave feminism. The next day just down the boardwalk the first Miss Black America competition was held, which Oprah would go on to compete in in 1971 as Miss Tennessee. Just a few months later, Carol expressed that she regretted protesting Miss America saying “one of the biggest mistakes of the whole pageant was our anti-womanism...Miss America and all beautiful women came off as our enemy instead of our sisters who suffer with us.” The fight continues today. Yes all women. Alana: We love that, acknowledging mistakes. We love intersectional feminism. We love including all kinds of women in the feminism. Lexi: And since all the pictures are copyright, I can't put them on our Instagram but they are in the articles, so please go enjoy. They’re fantastic pictures of the performance art. Haley: When you started talking, I was having such flashbacks to like middle school/high school. The women around me, and I won't name names in case they ever listen to this, but just like their attitude towards how I and other budding females should act and like dress. Alana: I totally was that feminist bitch in high school. Everyone was like going to parties and I was like no one wants to fuck you when you're that feminist bitch. [Archival Audio: Railway to Freedom] Haley: This next story on Lady History, we're gonna be talking about Harriet Tubman and for a brief content warning topics like slavery, racism, and violence will be discussed. Alright friends bear with me because I've been very sick, not the coronas, no fever or whatever, just exhaustion, isolation dust hitting my asthma, and I've just been in the pits. So, anywho, when creating like the master spreadsheet of ladies that we had Harriet Tubman was on this list, but I think I switched her around… Alana: Who recommended Harriet Tubman? Haley: Excellent question, it was your sister Erika. I actually moved Harriet Tubman, so I had her originally, I think it was one of the earlier episodes, it was definitely before this episode. Yes I had her for heroines but I was gonna move her down the list because I wanted to do Selena. And then Erika was like let's do Harriet Tubman so I was like sweet, had some notes on her already, got sick, decided to do a radical change because I love testing out different methods of storytelling. I love narrations and for Harriet I think this would be a good opportunity to like pick a new style because she is very well known but mainly because of slavery, her being an enslaved human being, and then quote the conductor of the Underground Railroad where– where she was given the nickname “Moses of her people” because of all the people she helped. I would say ninety percent of the time, there's some article or book that I read and that's kind of like my aha moment of what I want to shape a full on story around, besides doing like our usual intros. So I found that article and it's kind of like… It’s got me going I kind of liked doing it that research way even though I'm sweaty and tired but my eyeballs still were like we're sweaty and tired but we like this article. So cracking open this history book to 1820 Maryland where Harriet Tubman was born, and we don't know her exact age so she may have also been born in 1822 if your ears are perking up and being like this lady got her dates wrong. So I didn't know this and this was kind of like one of my misconceptions for Harriet Tubman, but her name is not actually Harriet Tubman, or like the name her parents gave her, like birth name was Araminta Ross and I just love the name Araminta, like I think that's just a lovely name, you could have some stellar nicknames. And besides the point, we're gonna go back to just some deep dark history and by the age of five she was quote “rented” by her quote “owners” as a quote “domestic servant.” I'm gonna be using a lot of quotes because I really hate some of the terms used across some sources and just that's also a misconception for history is that you have to use X. Y. Z. term, like yes they should be taught in the sense of vocabulary, but like we don't… I don't want to be teaching five year olds or like elementary school kids that like… “rented by her owners.” Talk about the dichotomy but I don't I don't know it makes me– Lexi: Kidnapped by the people who enslaved her. Haley: Yeah, yes. I like that way more. And by age twelve we see her resistance to slavery blossom because she intervened a fight/quarrel/scuffle between very bad slave owner and a man who was trying to like escape slavery, and she kind of like came on in. So that was one of the many moments where she was like “I'm standing up for myself, I'm standing up for others, slavery is very very bad.” So now you get to the article because of course, of course, and it ties into also the movie Harriet that came out, starring Cynthia Erivo as Harriet. This was actually the first movie dedicated solely to this American icon. So like that was also a surprise to me. This Time Magazine opinion piece by Erica Armstrong Dunbar was ran exactly a year ago, when also the movie Harriet came out, and of course it's in the show notes, and it's called The True Story of Harriet Tubman Shows That Sometimes Running is Brave as Fighting. There are a lot of little misconceptions like the Underground Railroad wasn't actually a railroad, that's a big one I see many times. Also with the movie Harriet, I watched half of it, it's on HBO. So like every biopic… it's not a documentary, people are acting. Like I'm obviously people who are way more in depth into the American Civil War, Harriet Tubman history than I am will be like this misconception, this inconsistency. I'm gonna be– I'm gonna agree with you. So I'll just come out right there and say it like when you have actors portraying a character and just movies like this, they have to add some sprinkle of fiction. However, what this article really talks about is that how we have this whole misconception that fight or flight. So if you fight your battles, you’re coming up to a quarrel or scuffle and you fight them, you're seen as brave. You are seen as like this alpha human, alpha wolf. If you flee, if you fly, with your little wings, you are seen as like a coward, and that's just not true of Harriet Tubman because she literally ran away, but that was like the brave thing she could do. Also with this misconception, what the article also kind of nodded to was like if you're running into battle… like that’s still brave. Like that’s seen as heroic. But running towards like another route… because like it wasn't like if you left the South, you passed like northern Maryland, going into like up past the Mason Dixon line you were like Scot free. It wasn’t like this magical like utopia. You're running away from one battle into another battle. It was not black and white for this, so like her running away was not running away from the situation and that was like one misconception I never really thought about but after reading this article, reading more about Harriet it's like oh, that's a hundred percent true. And then the last misconception was how I perceived her as like an elusive person. Like I truly thought that the reason why we have pictures of Harriet Tubman was that she got caught, not in a great way. Like she got caught and like she had to like weasel her way out like but she was still free and like when she was free it was– she was just free because she happened to be in like the northern part and not like the part where she could go back to being a slave. I'm explaining this horribly wrong but this is me trying to remember back to like early middle school/late elementary school history. So like I– and this was also a misconception for just history, and I thought it was more like if you were a bad important, we would have a picture to remember your face. So that was kind of like I knew Harriet Tubman was like the hero and the good guy in this whole scenario, like I thought the reason why she was photographed and talked about was because she got caught and didn't want to be in the public eye. That is not necessarily true; she was an elusive person who tried to keep to herself, however she did do speaking engagements. Like she would talk about like her life in the North and then go back into the shadows and just like taking time away from society. And I don't know if she I can't like find out like what she did talk about the talks, like specifically, but I know that in the speaking engagements she obviously condemned slavery, and she would also condemned like the lawmakers, and like for the lawmakers who condemned slavery but didn't do anything about it she was still like you're not as good at like– you're not good or better… or you’re not better, you're still doing a shitty job. And in the end, she made twelve to thirteen trips to Maryland rescuing nearly seventy people and by doing that each of those trips she was breaking federal law each and every time. [Saxophone music because Lexi thought it would be funny] Alana: This is the first time we're covering someone who is still like active in the world, and I'm very nervous, but I’m gonna do my best. So this story it has a content warning for sexual assault and a brief mention of suicide that I'll note when it comes up so just in case sexual assault isn't triggering for you but maybe suicide is I will let you know when to hit that skippy boi. So I am talking about Monica Lewinsky, who was born July 23, 1973 that makes her a Leo. A lot of my notes come from the 2018 so kind of recent docuseries called The Clinton Affair, which I watched all of it, I binged it, it was exhausting. It features Monica herself actually and so in further reading I have included a Vanity Fair article that she wrote about why she decided to participate. One of the reasons was that she really liked that so many women were involved, whereas until that point a lot of the biographies of Bill Clinton and like the books about that whole time were written by men and she was like oh this is really cool that a lot of women are so heavily involved so she agreed to participate in the docuseries and I thought that was really cool of her. So after she graduated college, we're going back in time to 1995, she graduated college, and she had initially wanted to get a PhD in forensic psychology but she didn't score high enough on one section of the GRE. She was very interested in where psychology and the law kind of meet, but she wasn't really into politics. But also she like didn't know what to do since she wasn't going into a PhD program. She had a family friend who had done the White House summer internship, he put in a good word for her, and so she got the summer internship for the summer of 1995. At one point she had a conversation with one of the other interns who was like “oh, isn’t President Clinton so handsome” and she was like “no.” But then they were in the same room together and he was hypnotically charismatic and she developed like a celebrity crush kind of on him. There were a couple of flirtatious interactions during the internship but nothing like serious. She had been hired full time after the internship was over and so that's when the affair began, in November of 1995. Except here's the thing, 1996 was an election year, and Clinton was running for reelection. This would have been, and ended up being, very scandalous and could have cost him his reelection. So she was transferred to the Pentagon with the promise that she'd be back at the White House when the election was over. Except then the election was over and Monica was still at the Pentagon. She made a joke about how she was so underqualified to be at the Pentagon but there she was. She confided in her colleague named Linda Tripp, and what is the first thing that this bitch Linda Tripp does? She calls a literary agent and starts taping their conversations. I would like to note that Linda Tripp did not participate in the docuseries; she also died in April, but as previously mentioned this docuseries came out two years ago. So that timeline doesn’t work. I don't know if they asked her but I feel like… The literary agent participated. Let me take a second and put all of this in context. There was an ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton by a woman named Paula Jones who said that he assaulted her when he was governor of Arkansas and there were a lot of other accusers involved. So calling it The Lewinsky Scandal– as it kind of has been– is bad, but you also can't really call it The Clinton Scandal because there are just too many of them. There was this thing called like Whitewater about banking that I didn't really understand… it's fine. I'll touch back on that at the end. And so someone leaked to Ken Starr, who was the investigator, that President Clinton was having a– currently having an affair with a young intern. On January 16, 1998 the FBI like held her in custody at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City. They didn't really arrest her, but they also– it was pretty clear that she wasn't allowed to go anywhere. They teased her for wanting her to call her mom, and then manipulated her into not calling her lawyer, and lied about an immunity deal. And this is the suicide mention, so maybe skip forward fifteen seconds. She was so distraught and scared that she thought the only way to protect her loved ones and the president was to jump out the window. Like that was a serious thought she had. There was some back and forth between Ken Starr, who sucks, just objectively– I guess not to Ken Starr and his family, but he's the worst. So there's some back and forth between him and Monica's lawyers if she can have an immunity deal or not and she finally gets one in writing in July of 1998. The lawyers in the docuseries said that they probably wouldn't have charged her with anything anyway. Frustration noises. Part of the immunity deal was answering very specific and very detailed questions about the nature of the sex that they had had directly to Ken Starr and she was very uncomfortable and so she made a chart, and wrote it all down instead of saying it. Later Starr said that he didn't want the president getting asked pornographic questions. Except hold the fucking phone, there’s a horrible relatively new thing out there called the internet. And in September, the House Judiciary Committee releases the Starr Report on the internet. And this is where we get to the horrible way that late night shows and the news treated Monica Lewinsky. She was slutshamed, she became a caricature, all of the late night shows have their go at her, and just say horrible things. Fuck Jay Leno, all my homies hate Jay Leno. He was the worst of them and has yet to apologize and even called for like civility to return to late night TV and I was like MM. Also fuck Bill Maher, I hate Bill Maher, not just because of this but also in general, sorry Dad, I hate him. But Bill Clinton, President Clinton, had encouraged Monica to lie during the Jones investigation and that was what came up and caused the impeachment trial. Not the assaults, not the affair, the quote “obstruction of justice.” Fun fact for my fellow DC friends, my favorite place in the whole world Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe which is now just Kramers and that makes me feel weird, is kind of tangentially involved in this because Monica bought a book on phone sex from them and the investigation subpoenad those records. Lexi: Are you kidding me? Alana: I am not kidding you. Lexi: I guess the point is for twenty five years young women in DC have been going to Kramer's and buying suspicious books. Alana: Totally! So could all of this have been avoided if Bill Clinton was just honest the first time he was asked because there was like years and years of denying this, and if he just said he had an inappropriate relationship with her? Maybe. Monica probably would have still been ridiculed and slutshamed though, but I guess certain semen stained dresses would not have come to light. For context there's this very famous blue dress that Monica wore during one of their encounters that had Bill Clinton’s semen on it. Fun fact, Linda Tripp encouraged her not to wash the dress. On the tape of that conversation Tripp says that she just has this nagging feeling that it'll come up later. Also all the women who accused Bill Clinton in the nineties of sexual misconduct went on to support Trump in 2016. Lexi: Like, like advocate– like publicly tell people? Alana: Yeah. There's this whole panel of them. He did– in 2016 he did a whole panel with all of Bill Clinton's accusers because that was relevant to Hillary’s run, I guess. Lexi: Did he pay them for that? Alana: I don't know. Lexi: Or they just really– they just– they hated him so much they had to just yeet HIllary? Alana: I mean the alternative title for this is “The Way in Which Bill Clinton is Democratic Donald Trump.” If you, if you're not seeing parallels…  Like I watched this in 2018 I was like oh my god… Or, I watched it now but that it took place in 2018. Haley: I've trick or treated at Bill and Hill's house. I've met them on various occasions, we grew up in– I grew up in Chappaqua, New York and that's the town they live in. Alana: My cousin has prayed with Jared and Ivanka because they're Jewish. So Monica today is a goddamn delight. She's so much fun. She is an anti bullying and anti public shaming activist. Her Twitter bio includes “rap song muse” which is hilarious because according to a John Oliver piece from 2019, which I have linked in the show notes because he is also a goddamn delight, her name is featured in 193 rap songs as of 2019. There was this Twitter meme a while ago that was “what pop culture thing ruined your first name” and she was like “am I even allowed to play?” If you want to know more, I do recommend The Clinton Affair docuseries, but maybe don't binge it like I did. You might want some time to recover. It also has snippets of info about the other Clinton scandals, like Hillary's involvement in one of them, a little bit about Hillary, how Newt Gingrich and his Republican Party pretty much single handedly made politics the vitriolic cesspit that is and definitely made space for Trumpism to rise, an actual right wing conspiracy and a lot of things that I just couldn't cover because we're only talking about Monica and we don't have a lot of time. Basically, society was shitty to Monica Lewinsky and we have a lot of repenting to do and we should do better. I say that like I wasn't literally born in 1998, like right in the middle of all this, but like in general we need to call bad people on their shit and believe survivors. Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review, or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself. Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History. [OUTRO MUSIC] Haley: Next week on Lady History, you'll see Alana crap herself because we have such a special guest. Alana: I have a burger waiting for me. Lexi: Go. We love you. Haley: Bye. Lexi: We’ll talk later. Okay bye.

[rayray384]

When you realize that black history month is LITERALLY the shortest month of the year

Like I just researched it, and apparently it has something to do with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, which ok I get

Honestly I’d be ok with it if I knew the month was chosen by a black person and not a white person. Cuz like,,,,,,, if it was a white person (or people i dont know exactly how it works) I don’t trust that they didn’t just use those birthdays as an excuse to give them as few days as possible.

Harriet Tubman’s birthday was in March. They coulda used that. ,,,idk I might just be looking for something to be offended about. But black history is so freaking cool to learn about man! There were so many great men and women who faced so many tribulations and just,,,, it makes me mad that someone might have intentionally slighted those men and women like that.

[jungdrizzydraco]

An O.C. for Your Asses!!!

I wanna see if the characters are legit before I move forward with this short story im working on (I'm a character first kinda guy, so I work inside-out) leave any form of constructive critique you wish, they are still works in progress, thanks!!

Augustine Harriet Andersson

Age:22

Sign: Gemini (sun) Cancer (moon) Virgo (rising)

Height: 5'8

Eye Color: Formerly dark-brown, bleached to a pastel-hazel because of some dark magic fuckery

Hair Color/Cut: dark-brown,q shifting variations of a fade, whose design changes somewhat based on his thoughts and emotions (yes, this is an enchanted fade)

Build: lean, lightly muscled from years lifting cauldrons in his grandfather's potion shop

Notable Features: Dimples; left-dimple is deeper than right, multiple piercings on each ear, artificial left eye (looks organic but to magical eyes, it looks otherwise)

"Have you ever been like...fundamentally angry? I feel that way...like at my core, there's this rage that seethes and coils at the pit of my stomach, everyday, like a python that can't quite squeeze his prey all the way to death. Everytime I think I've grown up, forgiven something or someone or myself, there's this anger that tightens right back up all over again...like it's reminding me of something. Somedays...I feel like that feeling will petrify everything I've ever loved about myself, and I'll just be another slave to outrage and ego and pain...just like everyone else...haha, then I'll really be a normie."  -August Andersson, on his depression and internal anger issues.

Augustine Andersson is a witch-boy. But you could probably already tell that from looking at him: the way his eyes are almost constantly fixed towards some unseeable infinity, the way air molecules hum with fresh, manic energy around him, how he seems to absorb sunlight and the way his brown skin would filter the glow as a result of his connection to the natural...it was all very off putting to others around him for most of his young adult life. And as we all know, no one likes a freak, so such years had a hand in building his current trust issues, feelings of great anger and inadequacy, and all the tics and tricks he uses to keep such feelings at bay. He's not at a total loss; at his core he is a humanitarian, deeply compassionate and available to those who have managed to capture his heart, as well as wild and humorous. However, he keeps a tight lid on his darkest feelings and insecurities, out of fear that they may be too much for those around him (also, he might accidentally call forth a vile arch-daemon on accident, but that's neither here nor there.) After finally having had enough of his mundane time amongst the humans, he vanishes from his college campus one day and takes to the open road, hoping that like the many young, angsty teens in the movies he loves, he will find himself in his own solitude. But the best way to deal with oneself is when confronting someone else, and after a close-call with a reckless (and very cute) motorcycle rider on an interstate, August will be forced to deal with every single part of himself, the good, the bad, and the strange...

A few more things about him...

1. His father is Afro-swedish, hence his last name.

2. Loves to travel and is nomadic by nature.

3. He gets a special kind of warmth out of being moderately petty at all times.

4. He loves open spaces and bodies of water, as well as hikes through mountains (ok so he only went once in Vegas, so sue him, he really liked it!)

5. Surprisingly low maintenance, really just likes being around people that are happy, and the feeling easily rubs off on him.

6. Both positive and negative emotions easily rub off on him.

7. Can get caught up in moments of warm content, given his unstable interior life, and can get lost in wasting/spending time.

8. Gets restless easily.

9. Budding film buff, faves include Kill Bill vol. 1&2, Her, Moonrise Kingdom, Gone Girl, Blue is the Warmest Color, Moonlight, & Mean Girls.

10. August's father is very engaged with politics and civil rights, so in honor of that, he decided that his son's middle name would belong to one of the greatest figures of the civil rights movement: Harriet Tubman.

11. Favorite new movie is The Favourite.

12. Due to a lack of acceptance of his full self and the full spectrum of his sexuality, he is judgemental of others and holds them to the same near-impossible standards he holds for himself. 

13. Things he expects from others: To read his mind and conjure what he wants without saying, to have his needs and boundaries respected without actually stating so, for others to fit in whatever box he thinks they should be in, for everyone's intellect to be slightly lower than his own, but high enough not to annoy him with silly questions, ect.

14. Listens to Lorde, J. Cole, Rex Orange County, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator, Young Thug and assorted film soundtracks.

15. Enjoys playing into his double-sided nature when it suits him, and has a secret glee in melding into different roles depending on who's around him.

16. Is attracted to more eccentric personalities in platonic and romantic relationships

17. Smokes weed to escape boredom. (and his problems)

18. Smokes weed because he likes the feeling.

19. Is secretly a little ratchet, but he'll kill you if you say so, it'll fuck up his reputation as the quasi-sociopathic erudite.

Magic House-Thoth

Augustine is a member of the Sacred House of Life, witches whose magic is passed down from the Egyptian Gods themselves. August himself is a descendant of an African slave-witch, once known as Ashe. She was taken to Egypt as a typical piece of cargo from zealot raiders, and was sentenced to a life of building the pyramids. Or so she would have thought: Thoth, the God of Magic and Knowledge, took pity upon her and beguiled her to follow an invisible force into the desert one night. He then revealed himself to her in his ibis-headed brilliance and bestowed upon her a set of choices: he could free her now and set her loose across the desert with all the things she would need for survival, or he could give her secrets and wisdoms unknown to man at the time, but she would have to frequently return to him for lessons. Ashe always prized knowledge and growth over any material thing, or even something such as freedom (I prefer to disagree myself). And secrets from a God must count for that much more, right? She indulged in option two. Thoth grinned and whispered to her the mysteries of life, the secrets of the stars, and the riddles of worlds lost and intangible, he spoke magick into her very soul. She would then use her newfound knowledge to fool her captors, freed any slave that would believe in her, and with her wits about them, guided them across the desert to build a library-like sanctuary, in honor of Thoth. The former slaves then learned from the god's teachings, passed through Ashe, and became witches and educators in their own right, and Ashe came to lead this new coven of magi. This is how the House of Thoth became to be. 

Magick: As a member of house of Thoth, August has the ability to manipulate various aspects of the moon, writing, hieroglyphics, knowledge and sciences, and the progression of time. His particular specialty is the creation of Moon Dust, a substance used as a medium for most of his spells. By gathering various quantities of mineral, be it: crystal, rocks, pearls, aluminum, or even silvers and golds, he can channel his magic into them and break down and rearrange their atomic components into a corrosive, abrasive substance that also tends to stick to objects due to an electric charge. This dust is also dangerous to breathe in. He tends to carry around a pouch or two on his person, as trying to create some on the fly is nearly impossible given how much time and intricacy is needed to create the substance. (I mean, working with just a pile of plain old rocks would take a couple of hours to convert, let alone harder or more distilled substances.) Spells that he has mastered so far include...

Spell of Refraction: A spell in which the moondust bonds to whomever or whatever August desires (sans the harmful effects, it's enchanted in this state) and whatever is enveloped in dust turns invisible via light refraction.

Spell of Revelations: He can spread his moondust over an area and have the pieces cling to imprints of negative emotion or dark magick. A spell used for forensic work.

Spell of Retribution: An offensive spell that uses moondust to its fullest offensive powers and creates small funnels of dust to ravage the opponent. The largest funnel made could surround a fully grown man.

Golemancy:  Can create golems out of the moon dust he has formed, usually no larger than a human toddler. They tend to take form roughly resembling lego-men (he was a big fan of the Lego Expanded Universe as a child), but one can easily be fooled by their size: each golem has the strength of three men, and can combine to further power themselves up.

There are a few spells that don't require the moon dust...

-The Veil: A surface-level illusion layered directly over the skin. This allows the caster to look like whatever he wants to look like and sound however he wants, but can be broken if struck with bad intentions (like a slap from an offended woman on the street)

 -Somnus: A very old, yet practical spell. Also one that does not require moondust, this handy spell induces sleep.  Those affected by this spell will not remember being forced to sleep, but they will have active and vivid dreams for distraction. Also necessary for Dream Diving.

-Dream Diving:  A skill Augustine has yet to master, this allows the caster to astral project into one's consciousness for complete access to the afflicted parties mind, if the brain is distracted by dreams. August has gotten stuck in several public nude dreams, and it takes long hours to remove oneself from another's mind.

-Illusion Casting 

-Temporary Madness Inducement

-Script Magick: By writing down a word or phrase on any surface that can be sufficiently marked on, whatever has been written manifests somehow, just so long as it is within his power. He can't create miracles with it though.

Top 10 Roadtrip Songs

Sobriety- Sza

No Role Moldelz-J. Cole

Sacrifices -Dreamville, assorted artists

Grown Up Fairy Tails- Chance the Rapper, Taylor Bennett 

My Boy-Billie Eilish

U.N.I.T.Y.- Frank Ocean

West Coast: Lana Del Rey

Cruise Ship-Young Thug

400 Lux-Lorde

Let Em Know- Bryson Tiller

[ifonlyicould-changetime]

Reprogramming

          Cindi Mayweather is a tuxedo wearing android trying to outrun the police who are trying to silence her. She travels through time, lets herself love who she wants, and explores how her futuristic society oppresses her and others like her. Her identity and adventures are explored through Janelle Monáe’s beginning albums as Monáe takes on Cindi as her public persona.

          Cindi was a persona created by Janelle Monáe during her first music release back in 2003, with The Audition. Cindi was created as a way for Monáe to present herself to the world and her telling of being black in America. Cindi’s adventures often pull from real-life experiences of black people and the treatment they face, or have faced, just for being black.

 (Janelle Monáe as Cindi Mayweather)

          Cindi is an android from a futuristic time where droids are subjected to being working class citizens, where their labour keeps the society moving forward. Droids are completely controlled, even down to their feelings. In her first EP, The Audition, Cindi has broken the law just for falling in love with a human. In her next album, Metropolis, Monáe tells of Cindi being hunted down for her supposed grievance. Her forbidden love speaks of the times when interracial relationships were deeply frowned upon and illegal. Even though the album alludes to Cindi being caught and killed, Cindi’s story doesn’t end there.

           With The Archandroid, Cindi travels through time after she discovers that she is “the one” who could lead the droids “back to one.” Cindi isn’t just a droid with faulty programming, she’s the one who is going to free the droids from oppression. During a Grammy’s interview, Monáe describes Cindi as the “mediator…between the oppressed and the oppressor.” Cindi is the droids’ savior, and she will be used to lead the droids out of the conditions they’re forced to live in.

           This idea is further reinforced by positioning Cindi as the Harriet Tubman of her time. In her song, “Many Moons,” her position as the mediator and savior becomes clearer. Cindi’s travel through time can be imagined as the Underground Railroad, rescuing droids from their bleak future. During her travels, Cindi is also looking for moments to begin a droid revolution, whether it’s in the past or the future. As the song builds, and Cindi realizes that the time she’s in is not the right time for the revolution, she sings “just come with me and I'll take you home,” urging the other droids to follow her through time until they find their safe space.

(Monáe’s short film for “Many Moons”)

           Cindi also wonders whether her ability to love was coded into her from the beginning. As she travels through time, even if she isn’t able to rescue everyone, she still leaves behind her message of love. Her messages of love, and her defiance of the oppressor’s control, begin to inspire the droids in whatever time she’s in. They eventually come to see her as a hero as the movement she’s trying to start takes hold in Electric Lady, her third album.

           As Cindi, Monáe continually focuses on the topics of love and oppression. However, her focus on these ideas aren’t completely solidified and easily definable when she’s acting as Cindi. Cindi’s adventures aren’t clearly marked through time, which can sometimes be confusing as a listener to follow her through the musical telling of her rebellion. But Monáe’s hold on only being Cindi begins to change.

           We finally get a glimpse of Monáe in “Q.U.E.E.N.,” where she begins to detach parts of her private self from her public persona, Cindi. Still set in the futuristic world and still on the run, listeners are more able to see how Monáe herself would fight against the oppressors.

(Monáe’s video of “Q.U.E.E.N.” where she takes off her Cindi persona)

           At the end of “Q.U.E.E.N.” is a rap where Monáe breaks down the beef she has with society’s oppressors. Once again, she brings in Harriet Tubman. But this time, it’s Monáe who is the trailblazer, where she’s “gonna keep leading” and “march to the streets.” She also alludes to her sexuality years before she publicly comes out, asking if it’s “weird” or is she’s a “freak” for liking the way women dress and loving to watch them. Despite Monáe partly breaking free from her persona, Cindi still peaks out in this song with words like “reprogramming.” Cindi and Monáe are intimately tied together at this point in Monáe’s music career, and it may be hard for Monáe to completely get rid of her persona and be herself. Monáe still needs Cindi to present herself to the world, but by taking off her persona for this song, Monáe is showing the world that she is a real person behind Cindi, and that her messages of love and resistance are still just as true when she is herself.  

           Monáe further broke free from Cindi in her most recent album, Dirty Computer. Where “Q.U.E.E.N.” was a controlled reminder that behind the Cindi persona Monáe was still a real person, Dirty Computer was a story about who Monáe is. Dirty Computer allowed Monáe to break out to the public without the protectiveness of her Cindi persona. At this point, Monáe is publicly out about her sexuality, and is proudly black and herself.

(Monáe’s interview where she publicly comes out as pansexual)

           When she was no longer hiding behind Cindi, Monáe was able to fully show who she was. Her past albums were all about being true to yourself with who you love and fighting against those who were holding you back. But Monáe herself wasn’t able to fully realize that aspect until she was confident enough to show who she was to the world. Dirty Computer is unapologetically about:

“love that’s liberated. Love that doesn’t submit to hate. Love that rises and rises and rises. Love that loves no matter what gender or size or color.”

It’s about the dirt that makes you human, the things that Monáe was scared to show the world at first.

          Now, Monáe “…respect[s] the dirt. It’s about the dirt and not getting rid of it.” No longer is she trying to appear as the perfect droid who has come to save society. She realizes that in order to make more effective change, she can just be herself. To instill the need to change the oppression, Monáe can just be herself making music that so many people can relate to. Dirty Computer, and its emotion picture, is the acknowledgement of the insecurities she spent so long trying to cover up and “reprogram.” Cindi was powerful because of her tenacity in the face of oppression, but Monáe is powerful in her ability to show herself and be relatable to the public.

(Monáe’s full emotion picture for “Dirty Computer”)