#Scottish culture

[gemmahale]

Y’know what? If I’m going to be writing Scottish family members and such for Righteous Fury, I should have someone Scot-pick it. (This is a play on @pfhwrittes’ Brit-picking he helps me out with.)

I know I want to include Scots, because it’s a language that deserves more exposure, and it makes sense for the MacTavishes to speak it, I think. (We canonically know Soap slips terms into conversation, so he’s not unfamiliar.)

I’m drawing a blank on who might be able and willing to help me with this. I’m more than happy to negotiate a price, because expertise deserves compensation.

I don’t know that knowledge about the CoD characters is necessary. Probably gives an advantage though.

Help an author out, friends?

I want this to be done right, not by the seat of my pants.

[wwemcumuscleslover]

One of the thing I love in Drew Mcintyre is how he teaches us that sometimes taking time to work on yourself is the best you can!

He was fired around 2014, makes great journey in TNA AND INDEPENDENT PROMOTIONS, coming back around 2017, did an amazing run in nxt and inside the main roster, is proven to be an amazing storyteller.

[mekanikaltrifle]

Styrofoam Scots and why the fuck I don't like American takes on Scottishness/Celticness/fairies/whatever else and wish they'd leave us well enough alone

OKAY. so. I want to preface this by saying I am in no way the Last Word in All Scottish Shit Ever, and there actually are other Scots around who probably don't give much of a fuck about this. Or Changeling. However, they were not asked and so that's their business! :D

This is also gonna be really fucking image-heavy so watch out for that.

Part 1- Styrofoam Scots: What the Fuck Are They? So, the name as implied is a colloquial term used to mean North Americans (usually) who boast some Scottish ancestry, who act as if this makes them special in some sort of way. Usually in a disturbing blood-and-soil, aggressively possessive of land they've likely never fucking seen kinda way. They will henceforth be referred to as 'Styros' for simplicity's sake. Follow under the readmore for the full scoop...

If you're diaspora Scottish and are interested in the country to a normal degree, you are not a Styro. Even if you're a bit over-eager about kilts and tartanry and ceilidhs and shit. If you're part-Scottish and were born or raised elsewhere, you are also not a Styro. You may just be a bit out of the loop. That's fine, you have your own shit to do.

Now of course this is Urban Dictionary, but elsewhere (often Facebook) there's groups online about actually showing and discussing-- and often chiding-- these Styros on their attitudes regarding Scottishness and their perceived claim over it.

We don't like this shit lads. 5.7K is quite a lot of folks in a country with 5.5 million people.

The stupidity of this assertion, as you can guess ranges from the incredibly fucking silly/incoherent:

(I have honestly no fucking idea what this one's trying to say. A 'gealtachd' i think is meant to be Gaeltacht, which is not a person or a speaker of any Gaelic language like he is attempting to do... but actually is a district of Ireland? Generally an Irish-speaking one? More than one Canadian gael uses this term incorrectly and I really have to wonder what they're doing out there.)

Anyway they run the gamut from there to, uh DOWNRIGHT HOSTILE and xenophobic/bigoted and truly fucking ABHORRENT (antisemitism, racism and white supremacy warning)

I'm not gonna put too many more of these nastier posts on here cause I think we get the picture. So, a Styro is generally someone who acts as if their distant and historic family relationship with Scotland makes them somehow educated to speak on it, often over actual Scots, and regularly they engage in a few unpleasant thing such as:

Conflating the Scots and the Irish in the same group, which is not appropriate in the slightest despite the similarities and shared history between the countries (and I'll explain that later)

Aggressively promoting misinformation regarding 'tartanry', clans, Scottish history and its place in the British Empire

Claiming modern Scots are somehow 'lesser' than they are for 'not stucking to traditions' and 'forgetting our culture'

Hopefully you're starting to see a pattern here-- this is all very clearly sounding like Scottish-flavoured white supremacist LARP.

That's cause often, it fucking is.

There's a North American picture of Scottishness which is permanently frozen in a hazy, nightmarish portmanteau of Braveheart and Outlander-type green-hills-and-heather fantasy, and the timeperiod of intense religious and socioeconomic upheaval the ancestors of these people left behind-- unwillingly more often than not--or were forced out of for religious extremist views.

This frozen sick-saccharine hellscape is in no way indicative of a real Scotland that exists, or has ever existed. Much like this hellscape 'AI' picture floating around the Styro facebook group that haunts the everloving shite out of me.

The longer you look at it, the worse it gets. I can't stop staring... FUCK the pipes Danny Boy, the GIGANTIC BISCUIT calls...

Part 2- So How Does this Relate to Other Weird CeltyShit Online/In Real Life?

Good question. I'm glad you asked. This is where properties like Changeling: the Dreaming and whatever other American fantasy fairies thing you can think of come in.

So, while I don't think the creators of 'fairy' media are actively Styros, or insane racist bigot thundercunts, I do think they hold that same falsified mishmash fake idea of what Scottishness/Celticness is. Scottishness (and Irish- and Welsh-ness) have been mysteriously conflated into one big mixed up generically Fantasy cultural mash that, while these three individual cultures share similar myths and some with the same origin point, has absolutely zero bearing on the real stories anyone in these countries could actually tell you. The mythology has been so thoroughly ripped away and dissolved over time to the point of not really mattering that much (for better or worse) that not only is the American idea of 'fairies' kind of alien in the first place, the insistence on using generic 'celtic' fonts and art styles, boiled down ideas and very derived misuses of endangered languages becomes kind of an insult.

'Endangered?'

Yep. Irish is currently being learned by more people than actually can speak it, and the same holds true for Scottish Gaelic (or its proper name Gàidhlig)

Bad times for the Gaels, but things are very steadily on the upswing. These languages, as well as our individual cultures, are endangered by colonialism (whether oppressed by it, or a participant in it), and the homogenisation of all cultures on the British Isles into one neatly-controllable 'British' identity that surprise surprise... is mostly English. So, this shit is bad for the public image of Scotland and Ireland and so on as individual, modern countries with people currently living in them and trying to move forward with everyone else. This has been a tough battle, especially for Scottish Independence seekers who have been fighting to maintain Scotland's image as a modern and thriving country with real potential... rather than a heather-covered backwater fairyland for rich people to use as grouse moors...

oh did I not mention that too? Asides from spiritually fucking stealing our land, a disturbing amount of our physical land is also owned, often by people who don't fucking live here , often to make themselves fucking look better environmentally and in total fuckin secret because apparently we don't get a fucking say.

lovely shit, love being a fucking grab bag for a bunch of cunts.

Not a pretty sight, huh? We're not the only ones going through this, mind, but when the only image of Scottishness online is dominated by Outlander, ScottishPeopleTwitter, Fairy Shit and The Fatal CeltyShit Stew, you can see how it's harder and harder to convince anyone that we're a modern fucking country that should be treated as such. Not when we're apparently just here to be taken for a ride, taken apart for someone's fantasy land, and we can't even appreciate our own home or history because what isn't dominated by fantastical bullshit is pervaded with white supremacist bullshit.

If I'm not mistaken isn't this some weird fake native american/shamanist thing? I am deeply fucking confused Part 3: Okay that Sucked.

It really did. Side note: FUCK Outlander. and Diana Gabaldon. I could go on a rant about her actual heaping shite rambles about Scots, and how much I loathe that her fake CeltyShit Doctor Who fanfic has somehow pervaded even the 'Scottish History' section of my own fucking local library here in fucking Dundee what the FUCK. BUT. I digress. This fake image of Scottishness as some tartan-and-warrior nobility clan shit is an aggressive and dangerous image which gives a pass to hide just how fucking horrific Scotland was as part of the Empire. Nowhere here do you see any acknowledgment of who we actually are, what we've actually done and who suffered at specifically our imperial hands. Actually, one of those is the Irish!

Fairies are fun and all, but I personally find them to be a deeply unappealing diversion attached to an internet culture of intensely rancid shit which just cannot seem to accept modern Celtic nations as even existing. We do, we're trying to do better-- mostly-- and we're not some mystical fae people who exist in the far flung pipe backed mists of time with no relation to real life.When Changeling: the Dreaming turns around and calls their 'fairy homeland' of Scotland Alba, they step over and erase not only the historical Alba, but also the modern one, the name for the country as said by the Gaels. It's real, and it looks nothing like the thing they're tacking fairies onto and more to the point, Scotland isn't even really covered anywhere else other than as a nice backup home for a Fianna character, or the orogin of the main villains of WtA, the Black Spiral Dancers. (Scotland also briefly makes a mention in Wraith the Oblivion 20th as having a major Necropolis in its Shadowslands and I actually do like that one cause it finally reads accurately to the real myths of the area) Also, every Scot I know has a story about an American asking us if we have internet access, drinking water, electricity in our homes...

I always have a lot more to say on this subject and can elaborate as and when, but I think this will do for now... thanks for coming with me on this weird wee journey. :D I hope this makes sense as to why the fake Scottish 'Fairy Kingdom of Alba' Changeling thing is... Just not for me. It rings immensely ill informed and shallow, at the end of the day.

[retromexicat]

We know tribes in Horizon are inspired in various real life ancient civilizations, pre-modern world and its a fun exercise to try to guess what cultures inspired which tribes. The Carja was the Aztecs and Roman empires. The Nora look Viking & Celtic. The Quen with the Asian dynasties. And the Tenakth look very inspired in northern Native-American, most specifically the Anishinaabe cultures.

But until now I realized how much of Scottish hierarchy they have:

- Clan systems: Desert, Lowland and Sky.

- Subculture division with Highlanders (Sky Clan) and Lowlanders (tropical forest) and the Tenakth addition of the Desert clan.

- Same culture/tribe but still struggling with clan wars as ancient clans fought for reputation, wealth, territory and survival.

- Having to reunite the clans against the civilization that wanted to colonize them despite having the same origins, one considered superior to the other. For the Scots it’s the English, for the Tenakth it’s the Carja.

- And lastly, the Tenakth fashion that includes a type of “skirt”, most seen worn by men. This skirt resembling the Scottish “Kilt”. I think the Tenakth whose outfit resembles the most the traditional and full ensamble of how the Kilt is worn is Hekarro:

[art-portraits]

Reverend Robert Walker

Artist: Sir Henry Raeburn (Scottish, 1756-1823)

Title: Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch

Date: About 1795

Medium: OIl on Canvas

Collection: Scottish National Gallery, Scotland

ABOUT THIS ARTWORK

This serene skater is thought to be the Reverend Robert Walker, minister of the Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh Skating Society. The club - the oldest of its kind in Britain - usually met on the frozen lochs of Duddingston or Lochend on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Walker's pose, as he glides across the ice, looks effortless, but would have been recognised by fellow skaters as a difficult and sophisticated manoeuvre. This small picture, showing a figure in action, is quite unlike other known portraits by Raeburn. The painting is commonly known as The Skating Minister.

[royalty-nobility]

Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland

Artist: John Singer Sargent  (American, 1856–1925) 

Title: Portrait of Millicent Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (1867-1955)

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1904

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Millicent Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland RRC was a Scottish society hostess, social reformer, author, editor, journalist, and playwright, often using the pen name Erskine Gower. Her first husband was Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland.

[georgies-ftts]

my rant about americans and how they refuse to believe that british people are allowed to have culture for some reason cause i saw a tiktok and it did it’s job of pissing me tf off and i needed to rant.

getting real fuckin sick of just rude arse americans saying that the british have no culture (in a way that isn’t satire)

Britain consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

i genuinely fucking dare you to go up to someone who was born and raised literally anywhere in Northern Ireland and tell them they have no culture because you will be launched into next fuckin sunday

My mother is Scottish, her parents were both scottish, so we’re their parents and their parents and so on. You want to look my mother in the eyes and tell her she has no culture?

With her four different middle names all deriving from different branches of our family?

that the glengarry that hangs on my aunts wall, that my grandfather wore in the war has no significance to history of our country?

That different sports and songs, though only sports and songs, that carry great meaning, stories, myths, beliefs and history all mean nothing?

that the highest points of our country that stand away from the mainland that date back to at least 500bc are without culture?

that the welsh language, dishes, music, myths, saints, folklore and battles all what? just mean fuck all?

that the english, yes even the fucking english, do not have a culture of their own, one from hundreds of years ago with folk dancing and saints and traditional dresses and flowers and patterns aren’t cultured?

Kilts? Clans? Instruments? Folk songs? Traditional meals? Saints? Myths? Religions? Fucking Halloween?

Piss off genuinely it makes me so unbelievably fucking mad because you refuse to look past a time in history for a second. Not ignore it but just see anything else for a second and see what you’re missing out on, the pure beauty you refuse to acknowledge because you were tainted to believe we’re all a load of arseholes so please for the love of fuck either piss off and leave us alone or just look at the truly amazing history of four different countries and find some fuckin respect jesus h christ.

[clearlypanickingatthedisco]

Scottish highlands got me feeling all kinds of ways ❤️

[charlierainfordsso]

I'm currently heading down to the Royal Highland show (for non-Scots, a huge 4 day country show, live music, agriculture, crafts, food and contests- well worth a visit) so brace yourselves for a photo barrage of any and every draft horse I can find. If anyone has requests for photos of specific animals or breeds of horse, cattle, chicken or sheep, let me know and I'll try to get some.

[rmsstevielol]

Ok hello im back to rant again!

Todays topic is Kilts, Tartan and the importance of them to our culture 😜

So, kilts and tartan have been a part of Scottish and Irish culture for CENTURIES right? And don’t even come at me with “oh Victoria introduced clan tartans🧐🧐” they still had them before! Anyways my main issue is that it’s becoming a worldwide type thing or a thing that can be used by anyone.. it is literally somebody’s culture and it should not be used just for fun.

I am CONSTANTLY seeing stuff like “GRWM kilt addition” and it’s someone who has no Scottish or Irish relation and they aren’t even wearing it properly, mostly Americans and English people which is very annoying becuase they don’t even acknowledge where it’s from or how to wear it properly. Another thing is that tartan is being made for different religions Or sexualities and even an English one exists now.. can we not do that because it, once again, belongs to a culture and by making different tartans for all these different things, it takes the meaning and importance of it to our culture. I literally see SO MANY schools in England and people wearing it in general wearing it, referring to it ‘plaid’, like no, it’s tartan.

Also I definitely do not fw the royals wearing the Stuart tartan or any tartan in general because im not being funny but they literally have barely traceable Scottish genealogy and they even went as far as BANNING the Stuart tartan for anyone apart from the royals, even though they literally not Stuart’s and there are actual Stuart’s out there, who still wear them, but still the fact there is a law that they cannot wear there own family tartan is actually disgusting. The royals aren’t Scottish or Irish therefore should not wear them. I swear i see many wealthy English people wearing kilts like it’s a thing of nobility for everyone.. it’s not.

Tartan and kilts are not just a thing to show off your wealth and high status, they are our culture and something that is very much valued and appreciated in modern day, bringing me on to my next point, that “clan tartans aren’t relevant” or “kilts aren’t that important anymore”, which is extremely false. I know many families, including my own, who wear their own family tartan and kilts all the time and they’re something that is highly valued and respected by them, it is something that is important to us because it gives is pride in our family, culture and history. We wear them to important events too! So by random non Scottish/Irish people wearing them anywhere (in the wrong way) it takes away the whole meaning of that. Also wearing someone’s clan tartan and not knowing anything about it, does not sit right with me at all, like just wear your own cultural clothing.

I saw a very specific example of taking kilts and using them as an “accessory”on a TikTok video, a couple months ago, where a young English woman was showing how she “styles” a kilt. This kilt was a proper, authentic, Scottish kilt and the way she was handling it and talking about it was very disrespectful and just rude. She first stated how she didn’t like the length, as it made her look like a granny, where she then started to pin it up to make it a mini skirt.. how much more do I really need to say. It’s plain rude and disrespectful, if you cannot wear it respectfully and properly then don’t wear it at all, simple as. Another thing with this woman, is that she was completely arrogant to the comments trying to correct her and call her out on her behaviour, she was pretty much disregarding them as “petty�� not admitting her wrongs in any way.

Now, before you all come at me, hear me out. I know cultural appropriation is a very very controversial topic but if people are truly outraged by it then why is the appropriation of tartan and kilts not taken more seriously, it is the same exact thing. If i were to compare, the issue with the appropriation of Native American culture and how there are awful costumes made of them on Amazon, is very similar, if not the same situation as i am talking about with the kilts and tartan, for example, the cheap, stereotypical costumes of Scottish people on Amazon or the “sexy” mini skirt “kilts” with the matching hats.. see how similar the situations are. I do believe that a lot of what im seeing regarding how kilts and tartan are being worn, is cultural appropriation and is not being paid attention to nearly enough.

I used to brush it off as “not that deep” or “not as bad as others”, as a lot of other people do, but as i see more and more of it, the more offensive and disrespectful it is getting and nobody is doing a single thing about it. So, yes, it is that deep and If you say you respect all cultures, yet find yourself doing these things, then you aren’t really the person you thought you were.

My culture isn’t a joke, isn’t a costume, is not something to be altered or changed to your satisfaction and it is not something to show off your wealth, so please stop and let us have it back as something to be proud of.

Share this around if you can 🤍

That was a long rant but it was needed, so, if you made it all the way to here, thank you for reading it :))

just to clarify, as always, i do not hate English people or American people and I don’t completely hate the monarchy, I am just using them as examples, as they are the ones I’ve seen most doing the things that i mentioned :)))))

[itspvg]

A growing annoyance I have with Americans is that they just fucking lump Irish and Scottish culture in with each other because we are both Gaelic cultures.

I love my Scottish folks. We both have had to tolerate and been manipulated by a shitty neighbour for centuries. But Christ. We are not the fucking same. We have very specific and culturally entrenched traditions with vibrant origins and meanings. That has developed and grew out of our independent histories.

Then you have some poorly informed/educated fucking yank blast out some of the most easily debunked and egregious "facts" regarding our history, culture and practices. And the fucking confidence these fucking space cadets spew this shit out. Like full chested brash arrogance to their followers like they are a fucking expert and noted scholar on the subject. It's fucking painful to watch as an Irish person.

Google is free. Try reading before "educating" everyone else on a culture you ain't fucking part of. You fucking spanners.

[jerry-hornes-foot]

Been seeing a lot of patter about Scotland on here recently, like non Scottish folk sharing Scottish memes/videos/news

So if any of my non Scots mutuals want a taste of #scottishculture boy oh boy have I made the mix for you lmao

[selkies-world]

This book is due for release in Spring 2025. Here is my question for readers (located anywhere).

It's set in Glasgow in 2028, and at least half of the dialogue is written in Scots & there is a good heaping of Scottish and Irish slang throughout it. Do yous want a glossary at the back, to translate the Scottish slang & Scots terms & Irish slang into plain English? I've never seen this offered for any other languages or cultures, but I try to make my books as accessible as possible, so I figured I'd offer.

This poll is open to everyone - no judgement on whether or not yous think you'll be able to understand written Scots.

PLEASE REBLOG FOR HIGHER SAMPLE SIZE

Here is a sample of an exchange between 2 characters in my book:

A: "What are you doing here?”

B: “Thought I’d pop by, just t’ see how everythin’s goin’. See if he wan’ed the walls repain’ed or the floor ripped up, or –”

A: “I meant where’ve you been? What have you been up to?”

B: “Oh, that version of ‘what are you doin’ here’. Not a lot, unless you count college houndin’ my ass and my dorm bein’ on the verge of bein’ a health hazard since Star discovered a new brand o’ cleanin’ products at this new store we found, but then she accident’lly made a new variation o’ mustard gas again on Monday, so we’re stayin’ at Tommy’s ‘til the dungeon master says we can go back withou’ dyin’ or somethin'. Also, Charlie-Cat said one o’ us needed t’ gae you a break, an’ he left this mornin’ so won’t be back for anoth’r week, an’ Tommy’s workin’ ‘til la’e tonigh’, so.”

A: “I’m still processing the ‘again’ part of Star making a new mustard gas. How’d she manage to do it by accident a second time?”

B: "Third. A’ this poin’, I don’t even know, t’ be hones’.”

A: “You said Charlie sent you?”

B: “Oh, yeah. He said t’ babysit Danny for you so you can go ge’ some rest. I mean, I’m pre’y sure he mean’ so tha’ you can go eat somethin’ other than fas’ food an’ get some new clothes an’ get a shower – seriously, you really need tha’ shower. A’ this poin’, I’m surprised Danny hasnae woken up jus’ t’ complain abou’ the stink in ‘ere, seriously, I smelle’ onions as soon as I opened th’ door, how he hasnae smelle’ it lyin’ here nex’ t’ you for weeks is – hah!”

Here is another sample of an exchange between 1 of those characters and another not featured in the first:

A: "You feelin' any better?"

B: "Yeah, I needed the kip."

A: "See, sometimes I can forget that you're from Edinburgh, then you go an' say shit like that and I have to remember."

[art-portraits]

Sir Alexander Morison, 1779 - 1866. Alienist

Artist: Richard Dadd (English, 1819-1887)

Date: 1852

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: National Galleries, Scotland

About this Artwork

Hat in hand, as if bidding farewell, Alexander Morison, a pioneer of psychiatric medicine, stands before his estate in Newhaven, just north of Edinburgh. This portrait was painted at the end of Morison's seventeen years as consultant to Bethlem Asylum in Surrey. The artist, Richard Dadd, was one of Morison's patients. He had murdered his father believing him to be the devil. Dadd, hospitalised at Bethlem, did not visit Scotland, but based his image on a sketch by Morison's daughter. The two tiny women are fishwives, and are probably based on photographs taken by Hill and Adamson.

[hairtusk]

'Wool waulking is a traditional Scottish process of finishing and strengthening newly woven woolen fabrics. It is a significant social and cultural activity, often carried out by women in the Highlands of Scotland. The Gaelic songs that are sung during waulking have a distinctive rhythmic pattern that aids in synchronising the work.'

(Video and text via Inverness Outlanders)

[rmsstevielol]

When are people gonna realise that stuff like this is offensive. It feeds into the stereotypes about Scottish people as well as completely dismissing Celtic/Scottish culture and making it seem like a joke and not important. People always seem to take things like out traditional clothing and traditional music and just chuck it about like it’s just a song or just a joke.