#Marry Anne/Mariana

[lovelydialeonard]

Gentleman Jack, S01E07 (2/2)

MARIANA LAWTON “Seriously, you asked her to marry you? To - (she whispers, even though there’s no real need to) To exchange rings? And alter wills? And move in?” ANNE LISTER “Yes. Well. I hadn’t raised the matter of wills yet, but - (MARIANA goes quiet and thoughtful) What’s the matter?” MARIANA LAWTON “All the things we talked about doing?”

[booksandchainmail]

I've started reading Anne Lister's (early 1800s lesbian) journals, some highlights:

where they start off, she's accompaning her ex-its-complicated (Mariana) who just got married on her honeymoon. Anne responds to this heartbreak by fucking Mariana's sister (also along on the honeymoon)

she is also an absolute dirtbag towards this sister (confusingly also named Anne aka Nantz), "she would gladly have gotten into bed or done anything of the loving kind I asked her", "I said she excited my feelings in a way that was very unjustifiable unless she meant to gratify them"

part of how she explains she's gay to Nantz is saying how pretty hr sister Eliza is. Notably this is not the sister that Anne has been dating.

then she immediately drops Nantz and makes a snide note that "superior charms might not be so easily come-at-able on such easy terms"

Later she meets back up with Mariana and then proceeds to spend so much time hanging out with yet another sister (Lou) that Mariana gets jealous, which Anne glosses over in a way that might read more heartfelt if she had not previously a) noted that one of Mariana's sisters was very pretty or b) slept with another one

On the one hand she is such a snob towards her neighbors, but on the other its clear she's acutely aware that they are all aware she is Different and are gossiping about her, so I find it hard to hold the classism against her

her idea of flirting with a local middleclass girl she meets is to send her a poem about having a temporary fling with a social inferior. Luckily she does not go through with this idea, but big Darcy energy

at one point she buys a pistol and shoots out of her window and the recoil knocks it out of her hand so dramatically that the pistol smashes the glass

so much of these journals are about finances, which I'm sure the historians adore, Anne keeps noting down how much everything cost

There's some interesting gendered bits going on in her: Anne mentions at one point sitting in just her underwear and men's suspenders, and mentions "the abuse I had received for [...] manners like those of a gentleman". She's also very focused on getting a full (masculine) education: classics, math and science, etc, and there are multiple places where she notes particularly when a(n unfamiliar) man treats her intellect as an equal.

there's one long bit that really gets me where she goes on for a while about the various expenses of traveling by coach and ends it with "Any gentleman might travel on these terms, if he chose to go into the traveling room & was sure of being well received so long as he did not give himself airs, but behaved like a gentleman. Indeed, he said, many gentlemen did travel in this way..."

gods I wish she lived in a time where she could be butch

Anne Lister kept parts of her journals encrypted, mostly the lines to do with her sexuality, and there's a strange poetry in the way this collection renders the encrypted text in italics, queerness once unreadable but still written plainly alongside the deniable straightness, "Had a hot supper & did not get back until 3. I slept with M---"

[marzipanandminutiae]

Huh, I had no idea people were being weird about the real facts of Anne Lister's life (I don't do much fandom stuff). I specifically liked the show because the relationship was messy and had Anne being problematic.

But I was asking mostly for the costumes. I love watching just for that because they really pulled out all the stops. Everyone is perfectly fitted, and the appropriate hairstyles. I love the masc dress for Anne.

I'd give it a skim just to appreciate the costume department because the attention to detail is stunning.

Yeah it was so strange to see. Someone's URL was literally "Ann Walker Not A Bottom For Long" or something and I was like. well Anne Lister was a stone top, as we'd say today, so... They treated these real people like fictional characters and then got mad when they were in fact. Real people. and that's how their relationship really went.

It did look pretty good costume-wise from what I saw! wasn't a fan of the buckles- little side curls -on Anne; they look frumpy, IMO, and they weren't even still a sign of masculinity back then. they were very much out of fashion by the 1830s. plus they're not present in the only known portrait of her from life

maybe I'll give it a watch sometime! it also sounds more sympathetic to Mariana Lawton than The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, which is a plus (seriously, Anne, not everyone has a vast estate to which they are sole heiress. some women still have to marry to support themselves)

[marianadecarlos]

came back . opinions about period dramas ? would want to watch something lately !! but my french taste its too big to watch period dramas who arent french , you may know better than me about non - french stuff ?

Thank you for your Question

I love period dramas especially if they are historically accurate and entertaining. I like how historical dramas references real life events. Example: The Crown, The Gilded age, The Ministry of time, Downton abbey, and Maria Theresia.

The historical dramas that I would not prefer are the ones that bastardize the historical timeline, costume, and characters. Example: The Tudors, Blood, Sex, and Royalty, The White Princess, and the Spanish princess. (The siesta part made me cringe) They made Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth of york evil. The White Princess. Her affair with Richard 🤢. I hated when historical drama put modern music into a period drama and movie. ( It can work if it is instrumental and it does not take you away from the period to much example: Bridgerton) but If said music is so modern that it takes you away from the historical setting it just feels wrong Example: Gladiator 2 (A movie that did not need a sequel)

I hate it in period dramas if they decide to insert a 21st century feminist character. In a time period where women are barely educated about their rights. Don't get me wrong there are historical women who are ahead of their time and made great contributions example: Harriet Tubman, Risa Parks, Joan of Arc, Anne Frank, Catherine the Great of Russia, Maria Theresa of Austria, Mariana of Austria, and Marie Curie. There are characters I see in historical dramas that carries beliefs such as refusing to marry, A Mary sue, and I do not need any man trope. These tropes often make these characters annoying and unrealistic.

There is a Spanish Movie about Carlos III reign mainly focusing on esqhilache time as prime minister. Isabel was in the movie. she was amazing! My favorite scene is her discussion with esqhilache. Carlos III in the movie is so cute. I love him.

@chateau-de-gamin @catherinemybeloved @rmelster

[james-vi-stan-blog]

I’m tired of people on Twitter calling King James a groomer like they’ve done research on his history🤦‍♀️

-✨

OK I have been holding myself back from fully saying everything I think about this. I already rambled about it (to you and once to someone else) but do you wanna hear my fully problematic opinion?

This reaction is homophobic and misogynist.

Because if THIS is the period drama that makes these people cry "groomer", if GEORGE VILLIERS the 21-year-old fully age of majority male social climber who wades into the Jacobean court and slugs it out for the top position is the person in history that's making them fret over unfree choice and power dynamics, what the fuck?

THIS is "grooming" and "csa"? THIS? While all around them in this period, you know what age the women—you know, the gender that literally completely loses an independent legal identity and has no rights and is literally referred to as part of a husband's chattels—are getting married off at? Do these people have anything to say about Henrietta Maria (15), Anne of Denmark (15), MARIANA OF AUSTRIA (14), or Mary Princess Royal (10/12)? How many period dramas have these people watched and smiled at the pretty ladies in pretty dresses, and then a young man wheedles his way into the bed of the king and THAT'S what needs discourse about?

"James was taking advantage of George's financial situation" WOMEN. HAD. NO. RIGHTS. Torture is accepted in the courts. The social structure is completely unequal all the way down and this is the understood as the will of God. There are no human rights. The Levellers (30 years from M&G) are going to be largely rejected as ridiculous. Margaret Cavendish is going to be known as "Mad Madge" (50 years from M&G) because she's a woman who has thoughts. John Locke's treatises aren't gonna be published until 70+ years from M&G. The Mansfield Judgment against slavery in England is 150+ years from M&G. And as far as the rights of minors go, R v Hopley was 245 years after M&G. (If you don't know that case don't look it up unless you want nightmares)

Yeah I know this is whataboutism but seriously. SERIOUSLY.

What kind of bizarre fucking fairytales have these people been consuming where the system of monarchy is a fun and friendly egaliatian social environment where there is no coercion and all relationships especially royal ones are certified unproblematic and 100% acceptable according to our modern standards? don't tell me i do actually know, ugh

"This relationship has coercive elements in it!" YEAH. YEAH, IT DOES. That is, we hope, one of the points of the show? The point of telling stories about relationships in the past? To examine how humans, who had emotional needs and hopes, coped under unfree oppressive conditions and were drawn into those same networks of exploitation and abuse? This weird and ugly story about a remarkable relationship and all the horrible people orbiting around it is such a fascinating case study about how real human feelings like affection, loneliness, kinship get refracted through the lens of politics and power, and the result is not pretty. But flattening it down into a tale of inhuman unfeeling Bad People would lose so much potential for exploring how bad and disgusting that SYSTEM is. If it's just Bad People Being Bad To Each Other For No Reason then the historical conditions are absolved and we can file this narrative away into a box that has nothing to do with us Good People and has nothing to say and nothing that could make us reflect about the past and future, and has no purpose other than spectacle and voyeurism and schadenfreude.

Guys, we're in a bad time here in 2024. And I cannot help but think that this kind of reckless leverage of "groomer" against specifically a gay relationship, whether intentionally or not, is part of the ongoing, intentional campaign by international regressive community to dilute the meaning of that word so that it can be deployed against real-life gay and trans people.

Even though I personally don't think it's accurate to say that James groomed George (Mary did if anything, but again, adult man who was not legally under her power), if someone wants to believe that, whatever, we're all interpeting history here. But using that word, in this particular moment, going after this particular show, reviving the bogeyman of the homosexual predator that those of us who are old enough remember being openly used against us and see it getting dusted off to be used again right now, is deeply suspect to me and I just…

Anyway name an unproblematic relationship from the period of coverture.

[incorrect-gentleman-jack]

Anne: Alright, so you and I are married.

Mariana: We are not married.

Anne: It’s pretend.

Mariana: I don’t want to pretend.

Anne: Scared you’ll like it?

Mariana: Okay, if we’re married, I want a divorce.

Tib: Are you two like this all the time?

Both: Yes.

[unapologeticallygay]

Anne Lister, the lesbian diarist dubbed "the first modern lesbian"

L by Joshua Horner (c 1830), R by Mrs. Turner of Halifax (c 1822)

Anne Lister lived from April 3, 1791 - September 22, 1840. She was an independent landowner from England who was noted to always be dressed in black and not partaking in typical femininity. She became well known after her death when her diaries were discovered and decoded. The diaries were written from age 15 until her death, parts written in code, and detailed her history of attraction and relationships with women.

“Burnt Mr Montague’s farewell verses that no trace of any man’s admiration may remain. It is not meet [meant] for me. I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn my heart revolts from any other love than theirs” 29 Jan 1821 – written in Anne’s journal [reference SH:7/ML/E:4]

She did not appear to be ashamed of her sexuality as she would openly court women she was interested in and had many lovers. Her first love was a pupil and roomate at the Manor School in York when she was 15, Eliza Raine. It was with Eliza that she developed the code she would use in her diaries to write notes back and forth with. The first entry in Anne's diary was "Eliza left us." Her second named lover was Isabella Norcliffe and she remained an occasional lover through the remainder of her life but rejected her as life partner, perhaps because of disagreeing with Isabella's drinking. Isabella then introduced Anne to the woman that would become the love of Anne's life, Mariana Belcombe. Mariana married a man even though it upset Anne but they continued their affair for a while after. She eventually told Anne that she was ashamed to be seen with her due to her masculinity and they parted ways. Mariana would later try to get Anne back when Anne inherited a large amount of money and the Shibden Hall but she rejected her. She went on to marry (as a church blessing, not legally recognized) Ann Walker because she met her social standing. This would be the first gay marriage in England. Anne passed away six years after their marriage.

Her wearing all black everyday was a public statement to others of her being different, as at the time young unmarried women typically wore white or lighter colours while black was reserved for mourning. Men would yell and shout at her things like "are you a man or a woman?" and would follow her when she was in public. Because of her looks her nickname from the public was "Gentleman Jack". She largely didn't respect men as she believed to be more educated than most who only studied one subject.

“I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say that I am like no one in the whole world” 20 Aug 1823 – written in Anne’s journal quoting Rousseau [reference SH:7/ML/E/7]

Anne was adventurous and liked to travel. She was the first woman to ascend Mount Perdu and the first person ever to ascend Mount Vignemale. At the time conventions called for women not to travel alone, they had to at least have a male companion to protect them. She did not abide by this and often travelled alone and later on with her wife. It was during her and her wife's visit to Russia that she was bit by an insect and succumbed to fever. She was 49.

Her diaries were originally first found by a relative of hers, John Lister, in 1890 but because John was also gay and feared his sexuality being found out if he broadcast her diaries, he reburied them. Later they would be found and translated in 1983 by historian Helene Whitbread. A section of her diaries remain lost.

"Writing my journal has amused & done me good. I seemed to have opened my heart to an old friend. I can tell my journal what I can tell none else." From Anne Lister’s journal entry of 16th September 1823.

Sources

https://www.annelister.co.uk/

https://museums.calderdale.gov.uk/famous-figures/anne-lister

[sporadicarbitergardener]

1928-2014

By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017; Updated December 2021 by Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women’s History, 2020-2022

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”

Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she again lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poetry, and kept a journal. When she returned to Arkansas, she took an interest in poetry and memorized works by Shakespeare and Poe.

Prior to the start of World War II, Angelou moved back in with her mother, who at this time was living in Oakland, California. She attended George Washington High School and took dance and drama courses at the California Labor School.

When war broke out, Angelou applied to join the Women’s Army Corps. However, her application was rejected because of her involvement in the California Labor School, which was said to have Communist ties. Determined to gain employment, despite being only 15 years old, she decided to apply for the position of a streetcar conductor. Many men had left their jobs to join the services, enabling women to fill them. However, Angelou was barred from applying at first because of her race. But she was undeterred. Every day for three weeks, she requested a job application, but was denied. Finally, the company relented and handed her an application. Because she was under the legal working age, she wrote that she was 19. She was accepted for the position and became the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Angelou was employed for a semester but then decided to return to school. She graduated from Mission High School in the summer of 1944 and soon after gave birth to her only child, Clyde Bailey (Guy) Johnson.

After graduation, Angelou undertook a series of odd jobs to support herself and her son. In 1949, she married Tosh Angelos, an electrician in the US Navy. She adopted a form of his surname and kept it throughout her life, though the marriage ended in divorce in 1952.

Angelou was also noted for her talents as a singer and dancer, particularly in the calypso and cabaret styles. In the 1950s, she performed professionally in the US, Europe, and northern Africa, and sold albums of her recordings.

In 1950, African American writers in New York City formed the Harlem Writers Guild to nurture and support the publication of Black authors. Angelou joined the Guild in 1959. She also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and served as the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prominent African American advocacy organization

In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography of her early life. Her tale of personal strength amid childhood trauma and racism resonated with readers and was nominated for the National Book Award. Many schools sought to ban the book for its frank depiction of sexual abuse, but it is credited with helping other abuse survivors tell their stories. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has been translated into numerous languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide. Angelou eventually published six more autobiographies, culminating in 2013’s Mom & Me & Mom.  

She wrote numerous poetry volumes, such as the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Just Give me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), as well as several essay collections. She also recorded spoken albums of her poetry, including “On the Pulse of the Morning,” for which she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. The poem was originally written for and delivered at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She also won a Grammy in 1995, and again in 2002, for her spoken albums of poetry.

Angelou carried out a wide variety of activities on stage and screen as a writer, actor, director, and producer. In 1972, she became the first African American woman to have her screen play turned into a film with the production of Georgia, Georgia. Angelou earned a Tony nomination in 1973 for her supporting role in Jerome Kitty’s play Look Away, and portrayed Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in the television miniseries Roots in 1977.

She was recognized by many organizations both nationally and internationally for her contributions to literature. In 1981, Wake Forest University offered Angelou the Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. President Clinton awarded Angelou the National Medal of Arts in 2000. In 2012, she was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Wake Forest University Writers Hall of Fame. The following year, she received the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American literary community. Angelou also gave many commencement speeches and was awarded more than 30 honorary degrees in her lifetime.

Angelou died on May 28, 2014. Several memorials were held in her honor, including ones at Wake Forest University and Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. To honor her legacy, the US Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness on it in 2015. (The US Postal Service mistakenly included a quote on the stamp that has long been associated with Angelou but was actually first written by Joan Walsh Anglund.) 

In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. It was a fitting recognition for Angelou’s remarkable and inspiring career in the arts.

This woman was a woman of rape, abuse , and even a victim of racism. She stayed writing in her life as life went on and she did not ask other people to suffer either was well she was a woman of many gift. A big wake up for womens rights and also a good reflection on what is wrong with today's society. People use religion, marriage, laws and even age to determine what is and isn't rape and that is the sick culture all women have to endure. It is never a woman's fault. It happened to me recently and now I am diving back into my music arts. Even research as well . Getting different domains for different topics as well while putting my story out there . It is scary to put it out there because there are so many different things that make writing scary/

[crownspeaksblog]

I understand that the relationships anne has with both ann and mariana is complex and i understand that mariana is the longest love she's had, but it makes me so sad for ann how the second anne saw mariana she asked to marry her and live with her (i know it's been weeks maybe even months but it makes me sad how quickly she tried to get with mariana)..

[sharonrb]

Maya Angelou

1928-2014

By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017; Updated December 2021 by Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women’s History, 2020-2022

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”

Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she again lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poetry, and kept a journal. When she returned to Arkansas, she took an interest in poetry and memorized works by Shakespeare and Poe.

Prior to the start of World War II, Angelou moved back in with her mother, who at this time was living in Oakland, California. She attended George Washington High School and took dance and drama courses at the California Labor School.

When war broke out, Angelou applied to join the Women’s Army Corps. However, her application was rejected because of her involvement in the California Labor School, which was said to have Communist ties. Determined to gain employment, despite being only 15 years old, she decided to apply for the position of a streetcar conductor. Many men had left their jobs to join the services, enabling women to fill them. However, Angelou was barred from applying at first because of her race. But she was undeterred. Every day for three weeks, she requested a job application, but was denied. Finally, the company relented and handed her an application. Because she was under the legal working age, she wrote that she was 19. She was accepted for the position and became the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Angelou was employed for a semester but then decided to return to school. She graduated from Mission High School in the summer of 1944 and soon after gave birth to her only child, Clyde Bailey (Guy) Johnson.

After graduation, Angelou undertook a series of odd jobs to support herself and her son. In 1949, she married Tosh Angelos, an electrician in the US Navy. She adopted a form of his surname and kept it throughout her life, though the marriage ended in divorce in 1952.

Angelou was also noted for her talents as a singer and dancer, particularly in the calypso and cabaret styles. In the 1950s, she performed professionally in the US, Europe, and northern Africa, and sold albums of her recordings.

In 1950, African American writers in New York City formed the Harlem Writers Guild to nurture and support the publication of Black authors. Angelou joined the Guild in 1959. She also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and served as the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prominent African American advocacy organization

In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography of her early life. Her tale of personal strength amid childhood trauma and racism resonated with readers and was nominated for the National Book Award. Many schools sought to ban the book for its frank depiction of sexual abuse, but it is credited with helping other abuse survivors tell their stories. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has been translated into numerous languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide. Angelou eventually published six more autobiographies, culminating in 2013’s Mom & Me & Mom.  

She wrote numerous poetry volumes, such as the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Just Give me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), as well as several essay collections. She also recorded spoken albums of her poetry, including “On the Pulse of the Morning,” for which she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. The poem was originally written for and delivered at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She also won a Grammy in 1995, and again in 2002, for her spoken albums of poetry.

Angelou carried out a wide variety of activities on stage and screen as a writer, actor, director, and producer. In 1972, she became the first African American woman to have her screen play turned into a film with the production of Georgia, Georgia. Angelou earned a Tony nomination in 1973 for her supporting role in Jerome Kitty’s play Look Away, and portrayed Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in the television miniseries Roots in 1977.

She was recognized by many organizations both nationally and internationally for her contributions to literature. In 1981, Wake Forest University offered Angelou the Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. President Clinton awarded Angelou the National Medal of Arts in 2000. In 2012, she was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Wake Forest University Writers Hall of Fame. The following year, she received the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American literary community. Angelou also gave many commencement speeches and was awarded more than 30 honorary degrees in her lifetime.

Angelou died on May 28, 2014. Several memorials were held in her honor, including ones at Wake Forest University and Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. To honor her legacy, the US Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness on it in 2015. (The US Postal Service mistakenly included a quote on the stamp that has long been associated with Angelou but was actually first written by Joan Walsh Anglund.) 

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. It was a fitting recognition for Angelou’s remarkable and inspiring career in the arts.

[crownspeaksblog]

To a person who had no knowledge outside of the show of the real anne lister and her life, the thing with mariana being the one and that ann was the other woman makes no sense whatsoever and it wasn't apparent in anyway shape or form especially in season 1.

To me she was the toxic ex who didn't really and truly know who anne is and that kept dragging anne back to her bullshit, back to the past. Not once did i think mariana was the one.. remember when mariana was like you should marry a man to anne.. that doesn't sound like someone who knew and loved you for 20 years it definitely doesn't sound like "the one"..

I know there no point of me dwelling on this. I just finished season 2 like two days ago and I'm just so disappointed i can't stop thinking about it.

looooool at

Sally saying “Mariana and Anne really should have been together” & “Ann Walker really was the other woman”

suddenly the second season makes so much more sense in the way it was written…

anyway — I disagree with her completely.

bye

edit: the interview

[chrischarambadiaries]

Nyasha David Releases New Album “Songs Of David” (Stream)

Nyasha David Releases New Album “Songs Of David” (Stream)

SO, how exactly would you describe the Nyasha David to a curious R&B fan? Hmmm. It’s a tricky business, but in October 2020, upon listening to his “Marry Anne/Mariana” jam, I wrote a piece in which I asserted: “A strong, inspiring, songwriter and singer nestled into traditional African R&B elements with fantastic songs, Nyasha David is the guy to watch” Well, I’m pretty excited that I could have…

[booksandchainmail]

continuing my read of Anne Lister's diaries, now up to 1820 (part 1 here).

It has to be incredibly awkward at these houseparties where Anne has had liaisons with multiple women there, but I'm given to understand this is also how modern lesbian socializing works

It gets brought up that the only thing preventing Anne and Mariana from living together (at least in retrospect) was money, with Anne needing to be able to provide ~30 pounds a year for Mariana, which sheds a new light on how focused Anne is on her financials and potential inheritance

Class keeps coming up! Mariana would be okayish with Anne having a lowerclass girl on the side, but not someone in their social circles

Notably Anne did not encode this passage: "Sat up lovemaking, she conjuring me to be faithful, to consider myself as married, & always to act to other women as if I was M---'s husband." And from then on she does! They talk it over a bit more through the next few days, and from then Anne focuses on how in time they may live together, and refers to Mariana as her wife

Mariana's later letters also reflect this: "I shall not lose you, my husband, shall I? Oh, no, no. You will not, cannot, forget I am your constant, faithful, your affectionate wife."

It is noted again that Anne has a gentleman's manners towards other women, and there's a bit where a woman stops to visit Mariana and says that other girls are scared of Anne, particularly citing her "deep-toned voice as very singular"

"Yet my manners are certainly peculiar, not at all masculine but rather softly gentleman-like. I know how to please girls." No one every accused Anne Lister of lacking self-confidence! Also, interesting to see the Takarazuka-style butch ethos of "woman who is better at being a man then men are" already present here.

"Musing on the subject of being my own master. Of going to Buxton in my own carriage with a man & a maidservant. Meeting with a elegant girl of family & fortune; paying her attention;taking her to see Castleton; staying all night; having a double bedroom; gaining her affections, etc. Mused on all this but did not let it lead to anything worse."

one of Anne's acquaintances mentions a local cook/housekeeper, Mrs Ruspin, who after several years "turn[ed] out to be a man", and then eloped to London with the housemaid and opened a shop

The most common word in this book is probably vulgar. Anne thinks everyone is vulgar: her neighbors, her family, random townsfolk, girls she's flirting with...

We now come to the house party from sitcom-hell: present are Anne Lister, Isabella (her longterm ex who she's trying to extricate herself from), Isabella's sister Charlotte, Nantz (the sister of Anne's wife, who Anne had a brief fling with), Nantz's sister Harriet, and Miss Vallance (new and pretty).

I truly cannot summarize the amount of fuckery going on in this section. Anne spends every evening hanging out for a bit in someone's bedroom, then she'll switch rooms and whoever the new room belongs too will pout about her having been somewhere else beforehand. Anne is paying a lot of attention to Miss Vallance, Isabella and Nantz are jealous, Anne is trying to console Isabella without changing any of her behavior, Charlotte is indignant on Isabella's behalf, Anne is half-heartedly and smugly sleeping with Nantz, etc

And of course Anne caps this off by starting to flirt with Harriet, meaning that she has now hit on all four of her wife's sisters

[ettucamus]

reading more of anne lister’s actual diaries and wow. she truly loves mariana for her entire life. i often wonder if she thought about ever leaving ann for mariana, when their marriage got unhappier, if she could have convinced mariana to run away from charles with her.

[ladygayfeels]

Anne Lister had Ann Walker put under the care of Dr. Belcombe for 4 months before they married in York, so he could assure her of Walker's state of mind - in other words - whether or not Ann was capable of drawing up a will that would give Anne access to her money.

It’s highly unlikely that they would’ve married if Walker had been deemed of unsound mind, as Ann would’ve been unable to write Lister into her will, and Anne’s first priority was financial stability, a.k.a... she only wanted access to Ann’s fortune.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Small brain: another movie about Anne Lister

Big brain: a movie about a different historical lesbian

Galaxy brain: a movie about one of the many partners Anne Lister had and the media now treats as basically extensions of her who existed only in their impact on her life