#The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern

[empirearchives]

The Development of French Women’s Rights — according to Carla Hesse

Women’s status in relation to their husbands during the Revolutionary era:

“Legal reform, however, did not go so far as to render the civil status of married women equal to that of their husbands. This radical proposal, initiated by the legislator Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, was definitively rejected by the Convention in 1793. So even at the revolutionary high water mark, the legal standing of married women still remained contingent to a certain extent on the will and consent of their husbands.”

Divorce and other rights in the New Regime:

“By abolishing in 1791 guild restrictions imposed by the former regime, revolutionary legislators opened all professions, including publishing and printing, to women, as long as their husbands (if they were married) consented. Prescriptive primogeniture was abolished and divorce legalized in September of 1792.”

***Divorce was legalized in September 1792, but abolished in 1816 during the Restoration after the fall of Napoleon.

Women’s status in relation to their husbands under the Old Regime:

“Under the Old Regime, in short, a married woman’s right to publish her work was contingent on her husband’s consent. She was not permitted to sign any contracts without her husband’s consent, she could not, on her own, make a legally binding arrangement with a publisher. And, if she did publish, the legal claim to her work belonged to him unless he explicitly authorized his wife to act on her own behalf.”

“Few women wrote and published under the Old Regime, and many of those who did were legally separated, unmarried, or widowed. Perhaps the two most widely read women writers of the eighteenth century, Mme de Gaffigny and Mme Riccoboni, for example, did not in fact begin their literary careers until after they were separated from their husbands.”

A conclusion from the author:

“They were denied the vote in 1789, prohibited from political mobilization during the Terror, denied civil equality within marriage.”

Source: Carla Hesse, The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern

[haggishlyhagging]

One of the first twentieth-century works to try to redress this pathological omission of women from what has conventionally been written as history is Mary Beard's Woman as a Force in History. Showing how, despite male dominance, women have in fact been important shapers of Western society, this pioneering woman historian led the way back into prehistory as a source of the lost human heritage. Of particular relevance here is Beard's documentation of something that to conventional historians would seem even more outrageous than the correlations shown by Winter and McClelland between "feminine" and "masculine" values and critical historical alternatives. This is that periods of the rising status of women are characteristically periods of cultural resurgence.

From the perspective of the Cultural Transformation theory we have been developing, it is hardly surprising to find a correlation between the status of women and whether a society is peaceful or warlike, concerned with people's welfare or indifferent to social equity, and generally hierarchical or equalitarian. For, as we have seen throughout this book, the way a society structures the relations between the two halves of humanity has profound, and highly predictable, systems implications. What is surprising is that, without any such theoretical framework, writing at the beginning of this century, Beard could see these patterns and remark on them in what is still one of few attempts to chart the activities of women in Western history.

In Women as a Force in History, Beard remarks on "the wide-reaching, and influential activities of Italian women in the promotion of humanistic learning" during the Renaissance. She notes that this was a time when women—along with "effeminate" values like artistic expression and inquiry—were beginning to free themselves from medieval church control. She documents that in the French Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries women played similarly critical roles. Indeed, as we will see, during this period—which launched the secular revolt against what Beard calls "the barbarisms and abuses" of the old regime—it was in the "salons" of women like Madame Rambouillet, Ninon de Lenclos, and Madame Geoffrin that the ideas for what later became the more humanist, or in our terms more gylanic, modern ideologies first germinated.

This is not to say that women have not also helped to keep men and "masculine" values in power. Despite the emergence of great figures here and there, women's part in our recorded past was by necessity largely played in the androcratically prescribed role of the male's "helper." But as Beard repeatedly shows, although women have helped men fight wars, and sometimes even fought in them, theirs has generally been a very different role. For not being socialized to be tough, aggressive, and conquest-oriented, women in their lives, actions, and ideas have characteristically been "softer," that is, less violent and more compassionate and caring. For example, as Beard remarks, "one of the earliest—and perhaps the first—rivals of the hymnology of war, hatred, and revenge made immortal by Homer was the poetry of an Aeolian woman called Sappha by her people but uniformly known in later times as Sappho."

This insight is also found in another pioneering work focusing on the role of women in history: Elizabeth Gould Davis's The First Sex. Like books by other women trying to reclaim their past with no institutions or learned colleagues for support, Davis's book has been criticized for veering into strange, if not downright esoteric, flights of fancy. But despite their flaws and perhaps precisely because they did not conform to accepted scholarly traditions books like this intuitively foreshadow a study of history in which the status of women and so-called feminine values would become central.

Like Beard's, Davis's book puts women back into the places from which they were erased by androcratic historians. It also provides data that make it possible to see the connection at critical historical junctures between the suppression of women and the suppression of feminine values. For instance, Davis contrasts the Elizabethan age with the Puritan regression that followed, marked by virulent measures to repress women, including "witch" burnings.

But it is primarily in the works of today's more exacting feminist historians and social scientists that we can find the data needed to flesh out and develop a new holistic theory of gylanic-androcratic transformation and alternation. These are the works of women such as Renate Bridenthal, Gerda Lerner, Dorothy Dinnerstein, Eleanor Leacock, JoAnn McNamara, Donna Haraway, Nancy Cott, Elizabeth Pleck, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Susanne Wemple, Joan Kelly, Claudia Koonz, Carolyn Merchant, Marilyn French, Francoise d'Eaubonne, Susan Stownmiller, Annette Ehrlich, Jane Jaguette, Lourdes Arizpe, Itsue Takamure, Rayna Rapp, Kathleen Newland, Gloria Orenstein, Bettina Aptheker, Carol Jacklin, and La Frances Rodgers-Rose and men such as Carl Degler, P. Steven Sangren, Lester Kitkendal, and Randolph Trumbach, who, painstakingly, often using obscure, hard-to-find sources like women's diaries and other hitherto ignored records, are gradually reclaiming an incredibly neglected half of history. And in the process, they are producing the missing building blocks required to construct the kind of historical paradigm needed to understand, and move beyond, the one-step-forward-and-one-step-back alternations of recorded history. For it is in the new feminist scholarship that we begin to see the reason behind something the French philosopher Charles Fourier observed over a century ago: the degree of emancipation of women is an index of the degree of a society's emancipation.

-Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future

[ameliafuckinjones]

Wondering how Pluto eventually re-entering Aquarius this November is going to affect America's Aquarius moon in the 3rd house. In mundane astrology, the moon represents the public mood/the masses of a nation, especially the women, while the 3rd house governs over how a nation/government/philosphers/leaders communicate to the general public via media and technology. It also represents transportation, young people, and the community. Pluto is a planet of regeneration, death, and rebirth, while Aquarius is a sign of enlightenment and rebellion.

Another thing to look out for is Englands Aquarius 12th house cusp and France’s Pluto in Aquarius in the 4th house. I also believe this is France's pluto return? The place where pluto was positioned when modern France was born via the French Revolution (aka Pluto in Aquarius). Which is funny because America's pluto return - the place where pluto was positioned (in Capricorn, btw) when America declared independence and began the Revolution - is getting ready to finally end after 16 years.

When Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, the Great Recession happened (which started in America), and America was hit hard economically due to its Pluto in Capricorn in the 2nd house (house of economy, wealth and finances) within the birth chart. Pluto in Capricorn has also been kicking Englands ass as well, with its Capricorn sun ( national identity/pride, government, leaders) in the 10th house (of public image and reputation, leaders like kings and prime ministers, and the government itself), Mercury (planet that governs over communcation, commerce and trade, and negotiations) in Capricorn in the 10th house and Venus (planet of harmony, diplomacy, and culture etc) in Capricorn in the 11th house (alliances and association with organizational groups). Pluto in Capricorn affected all of these areas, which I'm going to assume helped manifest Brexit 😭😭😭 though America's economic anxieties manifested Tr*mp so 🤷🏾‍♀️. France doesn't have any Capricorn within its birth chart and suprise suprise, the French have mostly been smooth sailing this Pluto in Capricorn in comparison to England and America.

12th house represents hospitals and prisons and the people who work in these places, dark societal secrets and endings, so this Pluto moving into Aquarius might affect this area for England (perhaps call for reforms with regards to the NHS?). The 4th house represents the home, family, and the core foundation of a country so France’s foundations as a country, how it deals with family and the home might shake up a bit (or maybe more than a bit) in a revolutionary way as Pluto enters Aquarius, thus embarking France on its Pluto return for 19 years (it'll end in 2043 i believe). Then England will enter its own Pluto return right after, with Pluto entering Pisces 😈 the last time this happened England was in the middle of its Industrial Revolution, fighting in the Napoleonic Wars and producing Romantic writers like Lord Byron. This era also helped establish England as the Empire.

Given that Aquarius takes a significant role in their birth charts its safe to say that America, England and France are going to be in for some interesting suprises these next few months and perhaps the next couple decades. Keep in mind it was under a Pluto in Aquarius (Pluto had entered Aquarius sometime in January this year before going back into Capricorn this September) that Kamala Harris became the presidential candidate for the Democrat Party and social media/technology had a lot to do with the rapid amount of support she gained in such little time, driven mostly by young women (ahem brat summer and coconut edits) but also young Americans in general. Social media has kind of been Kamala's main way of effectively communicating to women with regard to reproductive rights, among other things. Also, for England and France they both had their elections during a Pluto in Aquarius and we saw Labour come back into power after 14 years while the youth in France helped vote in (what I'm going to assume is) a left leaning government while keeping the far-right at bay (which at first was feared to win). Prisoners will see an early release in England to alleviate the overcrowding in prisons and this policy was drafted up and proposed beneath Pluto in Aquarius, and there's been some rumbling about the NHS as well with Starmer promising that the system will be re-imagined. With the linked articles, you sort of see these two problems (prisons and hospitals) combined, which is heavily related to the themes of the 12th house in mundane astrology.

All this is to say that people from all the mentioned countries should expect to see a lot of exciting changes this coming November!

[empirearchives]

It’s not true that “their access to formal art education and official exhibitions were wiped out” during the Napoleonic era. The salon of 1806 saw an increase in women’s participation of over 1600 percent since 1789. Napoleon himself sponsored and supported female artists during his entire rule. There was actually an increase in women’s involvement in the arts and that shouldn’t be erased.

Source: Heather Belnap Jensen, “The Journal des Dames et des Modes: Fashioning Women in the Arts, c. 1800-1815,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 5, no. 1 (Spring 2006)

Also, women were already subordinate to their husbands at the time this was painted, before the Napoleonic code.

“Legal reform, however, did not go so far as to render the civil status of married women equal to that of their husbands. This radical proposal, initiated by the legislator Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, was definitively rejected by the Convention in 1793. So even at the revolutionary high water mark, the legal standing of married women still remained contingent to a certain extent on the will and consent of their husbands.”

Source: Carla Hesse, The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern

Marie-Denise Villers,Portrait of Young Woman Drawing,detail,1801.

[conceptsofvisuallanguageoli]

Research - Fashion Design Movements Through Time

Here I am going to look into the era - picking out key elements about the fashion at the time to see how I can apply them to my type design. To mirror this I will also be looking at the times with how type was designed then to - the combination of these things will help me access how to begin my initial sketches.

I will highlight key words that will help when designing.

1600–1650

Characterized by the broad lace or linen collars. Waistlines rose through the period for both men and women. Other notable fashions included full, slashed sleeves and tall or broad hats with brims. For men, hose disappeared in favour of breeches.

The silhouette, which was essentially close to the body with tight sleeves and a low, pointed waist to around 1615, gradually softened and broadened. Sleeves became very full, and in the 1620s and 1630s were often paned or slashed to show the voluminous sleeves of the shirt or chemise beneath.

1650–1700

Characterized by rapid change. The style of this era is known as Baroque. Following the end of the Thirty Years' War and the Restoration of England's Charles II, military influences in men's clothing were replaced by a brief period of decorative exuberance which then sobered into the coat, waistcoat and breeches costume that would reign for the next century and a half. In the normal cycle of fashion, the broad, high-waisted silhouette of the previous period was replaced by a long, lean line with a low waist for both men and women. This period also marked the rise of the periwig as an essential item of men's fashion.

1700–1750

This era is defined as late Baroque/Rococo style. The new fashion trends introduced during this era had a greater impact on society, affecting not only royalty and aristocrats, but also middle and even lower classes. Clothing during this time can be characterised by soft pastels, light, airy, and asymmetrical designs, and playful styles. Wigs remained essential for men and women of substance, and were often white; natural hair was powdered to achieve the fashionable look. The costume of the eighteenth century, if lacking in the refinement and grace of earlier times, was distinctly quaint and picturesque.

1750-1775

Fashion in the years 1750–1775 in European countries and the colonial Americas was characterised by greater abundance, elaboration and intricacy in clothing designs, loved by the Rococo artistic trends of the period. The French and English styles of fashion were very different from one another. French style was defined by elaborate court dress, colourful and rich in decoration, worn by such iconic fashion figures as Marie Antoinette.

After reaching their maximum size in the 1750s, hoop skirts began to reduce in size, but remained being worn with the most formal dresses, and were sometimes replaced with side-hoops, or panniers. Hairstyles were equally elaborate, with tall headdresses the distinctive fashion of the 1770s. For men, waistcoats and breeches of previous decades continued to be fashionable.

English style was defined by simple practical garments, made of inexpensive and durable fabrics, catering to a leisurely outdoor lifestyle. These lifestyles were also portrayed through the differences in portraiture. The French preferred indoor scenes where they could demonstrate their affinity for luxury in dress and lifestyle. The English, on the other hand, were more "egalitarian" in tastes, thus their portraits tended to depict the sitter in outdoor scenes and pastoral attire.

1775–1795

Fashion in the twenty years between 1775 and 1795 in Western culture became simpler and less elaborate. These changes were a result of emerging modern ideals of selfhood, the declining fashionability of highly elaborate Rococo styles, and the widespread embrace of the rationalistic or "classical" ideals of Enlightenment philosophies.

1795–1820

Fashion in the period 1795–1820 in European and European-influenced countries saw the final triumph of undress or informal styles over the brocades, lace, periwigs and powder of the earlier 18th century. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, no one wanted to appear to be a member of the French aristocracy, and people began using clothing more as a form of individual expression of the true self than as a pure indication of social status. As a result, the shifts that occurred in fashion at the turn of the 19th century granted the opportunity to present new public identities that also provided insights into their private selves. Katherine Aaslestad indicates how "fashion, embodying new social values, emerged as a key site of confrontation between tradition and change."

For women's dress, the day-to-day outfit of the skirt and jacket style were practical and tactful, recalling the working-class woman. Women's fashions followed classical ideals, and stiffly boned stays were abandoned in favor of softer, less boned corsets. This natural figure was emphasized by being able to see the body beneath the clothing. Visible breasts were part of this classical look, and some characterised the breasts in fashion as solely aesthetic and sexual.

This era of British history is known as the Regency period, marked by the regency between the reigns of George III and George IV. But the broadest definition of the period, characterized by trends in fashion, architecture, culture, and politics, begins with the French Revolution of 1789 and ends with Queen Victoria's 1837 accession. The names of popular people who lived in this time are still famous: Napoleon and Josephine, Juliette Récamier, Jane Austen, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Beau Brummell, Lady Emma Hamilton, Queen Louise of Prussiaand her husband and many more. Beau Brummell introduced trousers, perfect tailoring, and unadorned, immaculate linen as the ideals of men's fashion.

1820s

During the 1820s in European and European-influenced countries, fashionable women's clothing styles transitioned away from the classically influenced "Empire"/"Regency" styles of c. 1795–1820 (with their relatively unconfining empire silhouette) and re-adopted elements that had been characteristic of most of the 18th century (and were to be characteristic of the remainder of the 19th century), such as full skirts and clearly visible corseting of the natural waist.

The silhouette of men's fashion changed in similar ways: by the mid-1820s coats featured broad shoulders with puffed sleeves, a narrow waist, and full skirts. Trousers were worn for smart day wear, while breeches continued in use at court and in the country.

1830s

1830s fashion in Western and Western-influenced fashion is characterized by an emphasis on breadth, initially at the shoulder and later in the hips, in contrast to the narrower silhouettes that had predominated between 1800 and 1820.

Women's costume featured larger sleeves than were worn in any period before or since, which were accompanied by elaborate hairstyles and large hats.

The final months of the 1830s saw the proliferation of a revolutionary new technology—photography. Hence, the infant industry of photographic portraiture preserved for history a few rare, but invaluable, first images of human beings—and therefore also preserved our earliest, live peek into "fashion in action"—and its impact on everyday life and society as a whole.

1840s

1840s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a narrow, natural shoulder line following the exaggerated puffed sleeves of the later 1820s and 1830s. The narrower shoulder was accompanied by a lower waistline for both men and women.

Shoulders were narrow and sloping, waists became low and pointed, and sleeve detail migrated from the elbow to the wrists. Where pleated fabric panels had wrapped the bust and shoulders in the previous decade, they now formed a triangle from the shoulder to the waist of day dresses.

Skirts evolved from a conical shape to a bell shape, aided by a new method of attaching the skirts to the bodice using organ or cartridge pleats which cause the skirt to spring out from the waist. Full skirts were achieved mainly through layers of petticoats. The increasing weight and inconvenience of the layers of starched petticoats would lead to the development of the crinoline of the second half of the 1850s.

Sleeves were narrower and fullness dropped from just below the shoulder at the beginning of the decade to the lower arm, leading toward the flared pagoda sleeves of the 1850s and 1860s.

1850s

1850s fashion in Western and Western-influenced clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, the mass production of sewing machines, and the beginnings of dress reform. Masculine styles began to originate more in London, while female fashions originated almost exclusively in Paris.

In the 1850s, the domed skirts of the 1840s continued to expand. Skirts were made fuller by means of flounces (deep ruffles), usually in tiers of three, gathered tightly at the top and stiffened with horsehair braid at the bottom.

Early in the decade, bodices of morning dresses featured panels over the shoulder that were gathered into a blunt point at the slightly dropped waist. These bodices generally fastened in back by means of hooks and eyes, but a new fashion for a [jacket] bodice appeared as well, buttoned in front and worn over a chemisette. Wider bell-shaped or pagoda sleeves were worn over false undersleeves or engage antes of cotton or linen, trimmed in lace, broderie anglaise, or other fancy-work. Separate small collars of lace, tatting, or crochet-work were worn with morning dresses, sometimes with a ribbon bow.

1860s

1860s fashion in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on crinolines and hoops and the emergence of "alternative fashions" under the influence of the Artistic Dress movement.

In men's fashion, the three-piece ditto suit of sack coat, waistcoat, and trousers in the same fabric emerged as a novelty.

By the early 1860s, skirts had reached their ultimate width. After about 1862 the silhouette of the crinoline changed and rather than being bell-shaped it was now flatter at the front and projected out more behind. This large area was largely occupied by all manner of decoration. Puffs and strips could cover much of the skirt. There could be so many flounces that the material of the skirt itself was hardly visible. Lace again became popular and was used all over the dress. Any part of the dress could also be embroidered in silver or gold. This massive construct of a dress required gauze lining to stiffen it, as well as multiple starched petticoats. Even the clothes women would ride horses in received these sorts of embellishments.

1870s

1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterised by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.

By 1870, fullness in the skirt had moved to the rear, where elaborately draped overskirts were held in place by tapes and supported by a bustle. This fashion required an underskirt, which was heavily trimmed with pleats, flounces, rouching, and frills. This fashion was short-lived (though the bustle would return again in the mid-1880s), and was succeeded by a tight-fitting silhouette with fullness as low as the knees: the cuirass bodice, a form-fitting, long-waisted, boned bodice that reached below the hips, and the princess sheath dress. Sleeves were very tight fitting. Square necklines were common.

1880s

1880s fashion in the in Western and Western-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the bustle. The long, lean line of the late 1870s was replaced by a full, curvy silhouette with gradually widening shoulders. Fashionable waists were low and tiny below a full, low bust supported by a corset. The Rational Dress Society was founded in 1881 in reaction to the extremes of fashionable corsetry.

1890s

Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines, tall collars, and the rise of sportswear. It was an era of great dress reforms led by the invention of the drop-frame safety bicycle, which allowed women the opportunity to ride bicycles more comfortably, and therefore, created the need for appropriate clothing.

Another great influence on women's fashions of this era, particularly among those considered part of the Aesthetic Movement in America, was the political and cultural climate. Because women were taking a more active role in their communities, in the political world, and in society as a whole, their dress reflected this change. The more freedom to experience life outside the home that women of the Gilded Age acquired, the more freedom of movement was experienced in fashions as well. As the emphasis on athleticism influenced a change in garments which allowed for freedom of movement, the emphasis on less rigid gender roles influenced a change in dress which allowed for more self-expression, and a more natural silhouette of women's bodies were revealed.

The 1890s brought the beginnings of a change in how fashion was presented as well. While illustrations still dominated fashion magazines, printed fashion photographs first appeared in French magazine La Mode Pratique in 1892, where they would continue be a weekly feature.

1900s

Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the severe, long and elegant lines of the late 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signalled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.

With the decline of the bustle, sleeves began to increase in size and the 1830s silhouette of an hourglass shape became popular again. The fashionable silhouette in the early 20th century was that of a confident woman, with full low chest and curvy hips. The "health corset" of this period removed pressure from the abdomen and created an S-curve silhouette.

1910s

Fashion from 1910 to 1919 in the Western world was characterized by a rich and exotic opulence in the first half of the decade in contrast with the somber practicality of garments worn during the Great War. Men's trousers were worn cuffed to ankle-length and creased. Skirts rose from floor length to well above the ankle, women began to bob their hair, and the stage was set for the radical new fashions associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

1920s

Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time. The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles. From 1925, the public more passionately embraced the styles now typically associated with the Roaring Twenties. These styles continued to characterise fashion until the worldwide depression worsened in 1931.

1930–1945

The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans (called at the time "sunburns") became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.

1945–1960

Fashion in the years following World War II is characterized by the resurgence of haute couture after the austerity of the war years. Square shoulders and short skirts were replaced by the soft femininity of Christian Dior's "New Look" silhouette, with its sweeping longer skirts, fitted waist, and rounded shoulders, which in turn gave way to an unfitted, structural look in the later 1950s.

1960s

In a decade that broke many traditions, adopted new cultures, and launched a new age of social movements, 1960s fashion had a nonconformist but stylish, trendy touch. Around the middle of the decade, new styles started to emerge from small villages and cities into urban centers, receiving media publicity, influencing haute couture creations of elite designers and the mass-market clothing manufacturers. Examples include the mini skirt, culottes, go-go boots, and more experimental fashions, less often seen on the street, such as curved PVC dresses and other PVC clothes.

Mary Quant popularized the mini skirt, and Jackie Kennedy introduced the pillbox hat; both became extremely popular. False eyelashes were worn by women throughout the 1960s. Hairstyles were a variety of lengths and styles. Psychedelic prints, neon colors, and mismatched patterns were in style. 

US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy arrives in Venezuela, 1961 In the early-to-mid 1960s, London "Modernists" known as Mods influenced male fashion in Britain. Designers were producing clothing more suitable for young adults, leading to an increase in interest and sales. In the late 1960s, the hippie movement also exerted a strong influence on women's clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints.

1970s

Fashion in the 1970s was about individuality. In the early 1970s, Vogue proclaimed "There are no rules in the fashion game now" due to overproduction flooding the market with cheap synthetic clothing. Common items included mini skirts, bell-bottoms popularised by hippies, vintage clothing from the 1950s and earlier, and the androgynous glam rock and disco styles that introduced platform shoes, bright colours, glitter, and satin.

New technologies brought advances in production through mass production, higher efficiency, generating higher standards and uniformity. Generally the most famous silhouette of the mid and late 1970s for both genders was that of tight on top and loose on bottom. The 1970s also saw the birth of the indifferent, anti-conformist casual chic approach to fashion, which consisted of sweaters, T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. One notable fashion designer to emerge into the spotlight during this time was Diane von Fürstenberg, who popularised, among other things, the jersey "wrap dress". von Fürstenberg's wrap dress design, which was among the most popular fashion styles of the 1970s, would also be credited as a symbol of women's liberation. The French designer Yves Saint Laurent and the American designer Halston both observed and embraced the changes that were happening in the society, especially the huge growth of women's rights and the youth counterculture. They successfully adapted their design aesthetics to accommodate the changes that the market was aiming for.

1980s

Fashion of the 1980s was characterised by a rejection of 1970s fashion. Punk fashion began as a reaction against both the hippie movement of the past decades and the materialist values of the current decade. The first half of the decade was relatively tame in comparison to the second half, which was when apparel became very bright and vivid in appearance.

Hair in the 1980s was typically big, curly, bouffant and heavily styled. Television shows such as Dynasty helped popularise the high volume bouffant and glamorous image associated with it. Women in the 1980s wore bright, heavy makeup. Everyday fashion in the 1980s consisted of light-coloured lips, dark and thick eyelashes, and pink or red rouge (otherwise known as blush).

The early 1980s witnessed a backlash against the brightly colored disco fashions of the late 1970s in favor of a minimalist approach to fashion, with less emphasis on accessories. In the US and Europe, practicality was considered just as much as aesthetics. In the UK and America, clothing colours were subdued, quiet and basic; varying shades of brown, tan, cream, and orange were common

1990s

Fashion in the 1990s was defined by a return to minimalist fashion, in contrast to the more elaborate and flashy trends of the 1980s. One notable shift was the mainstream adoption of tattoos, body piercings aside from ear piercing and, to a much lesser extent, other forms of body modification such as branding.

In the early 1990s, several late 1980s fashions remained very stylish among both sexes. However, the popularity of grunge and alternative rock music helped bring the simple, unkempt grunge look to the mainstream by 1994. The anti-conformist approach to fashion led to the popularization of the casual chic look that included T-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and sneakers, a trend which continued into the 2000s. Additionally, fashion trends throughout the decade recycled styles from previous decades, notably the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Due to increased availability of the Internet and satellite television outside the United States, plus the reduction of import tariffs under NAFTA, fashion became more globalised and homogeneous in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

2000s

2000s fashion is often described as being a global mash up, where trends saw the fusion of vintage styles, global and ethnic clothing (e.g. boho), as well as the fashions of numerous music-based subcultures. Hip-hop fashion generally was the most popular among young people of all sexes, followed by the retro inspired indie look later in the decade.

Those usually age 25 and older adopted a dressy casual style which was popular throughout the decade. Globalization also influenced the decade's clothing trends, with the incorporation of Middle Eastern and Asian dress into mainstream European, American and Australasian fashion. Furthermore, eco-friendly and ethical clothing, such as recycled fashions and fake fur, were prominent in the decade.

In the early 2000s, many mid and late 1990s fashions remained fashionable around the globe, while simultaneously introducing newer trends. The later years of the decade saw a large-scale revival of clothing designs primarily from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

2010s

The 2010s were defined by hipster fashion, athleisure, a revival of austerity-era period pieces and alternative fashions, swag-inspired outfits, 1980s-style neon streetwear, and unisex 1990s-style elements influenced by grunge and skater fashions. The later years of the decade witnessed the growing importance in the western world of social media influencers paid to promote fast fashion brands on Pinterest and Instagram.

2020s

The fashions of the 2020s represent a departure from 2010s fashion and a nostalgia (or pseudo-nostalgia) for older aesthetics. They have been largely inspired by styles of the early to mid-2000s, late 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, and 1960s. Early in the decade, The Face remarked on the rapid nostalgia cycle in 2020s fashion: "We’re trapped in what might be called a revival spiral". Popular brands in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia during this era include Adidas, Nike, New Balance, Globe International, Vans, Kappa, Tommy Hilfiger, Asics, Ellesse, Ralph Lauren, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Playboy, and The North Face.

During the 2020s, many companies, including current fashion giants such as Shein and Shekou, have been using social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as a marketing tool. Marketing strategies involving third parties, particularly influencers and celebrities, have become prominent promotional tactics. E-commerce platforms such as Depop and Etsy grew by offering vintage, homemade, or resold clothing from individual sellers. Their goal is to promote and support small businesses and the environment instead of major retailers. Thrifting has exploded in popularity in the fashion industry of the 2020s due to it being centered around finding valuable or staple pieces of clothing at a reasonable price.

[imthebadguyyy]

Human Rights Issues (around the world)

a/n - this is simply to help educate ourselves on the human rights issues and how educating ourselves on such issues can help the people who have no choice but to continue to live under inhumane conditions. after yesterday i still find myself incredibly annoyed and upset at how some people with platforms are unable to educate themselves on important issues, if you have an issue with this, please scroll on instead of leaving a negative comment.

tw- violence. human rights violations, killings (articles talking about them)

first of all, what are human rights? by definition, they are -

'Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more.  Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination'

under human rights come several sections such as,

1. Economic, social and cultural rights

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entered into force in 1976. The human rights that the Covenant seeks to promote and protect include:

the right to work in just and favourable conditions;

the right to social protection, to an adequate standard of living and to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental well-being;

the right to education and the enjoyment of benefits of cultural freedom and scientific progress.

2. Civil and political rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its First Optional Protocol entered into force in 1976. The Second Optional Protocol was adopted in 1989.

The Covenant deals with such rights as freedom of movement; equality before the law; the right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; peaceful assembly; freedom of association; participation in public affairs and elections; and protection of minority rights. It prohibits arbitrary deprivation of life; torture, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment; slavery and forced labour; arbitrary arrest or detention; arbitrary interference with privacy; war propaganda; discrimination; and advocacy of racial or religious hatred.

3. some articles going into further details will be linked below if you're interested

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948),

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965),

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), among others.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

while it is easy to make articles, pass laws and advocate for change, human rights go back way into the past. as wikipedia says,

'While belief in the sanctity of human life has ancient precedents in many religions of the world, the foundations of modern human rights began during the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period. The European wars of religion and the civil wars of seventeenth-century Kingdom of England gave rise to the philosophy of liberalism and belief in natural rights became a central concern of European intellectual culture during the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment. Ideas of natural rights, which had a basis in natural law, lay at the core of the American and French Revolutions which occurred toward the end of that century, but the idea of human rights came about later. Democratic evolution through the nineteenth century paved the way for the advent of universal suffrage in the twentieth century. Two world wars led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.'

the violations of such rights are prominent all through out history, whether it be the apartheid, the holocaust, child Slavery in the LRA, Forced sterilization for disabled underage girls, Forced examinations of Afghan women,Uganda's “Anti-Gay Bill”, Child Labour During the Industrial Revolution,Slavery in The United States to name a few.

you might be wondering why i'm bringing this to your attention. its because even now, people all around the world have to deal with laws, policies etc that are in direct violation of human rights, and whats worse is that people aren't educating themselves on such issues around the world. as human beings, we cannot be ignorant to the struggles of others, and must work towards building a better future for generations, because these are basic human rights. not educating ourselves is unacceptable. i understand that such news and topics are uncomfortable, have negative energy, but it is a mark of privillege that we are able to turn away from such topics and ignore them.

what about the men, women, children, and people who live in countries where their gender. sexuality, religion, race is a cause for worry and may be the very reason they are scared to leave their houses in fear of being arrested or killed?

here is a current list of countries that are under fire for human rights violations. do not scroll further if you are uncomfortable with such topics.

1. Afghanistan

The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after regrouping in Pakistan and waging an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. The Islamic fundamentalist group ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.the Taliban regrouped across the border in Pakistan and started taking back territory they thought was rightfully theirs less. By August of this year, the Taliban had seized most major cities, including the capital of Kabul. The group’s swift offensive came as the United States withdrew its remaining troops from Afghanistan as outlined in a 2020 peace agreement with the Taliban. They are likely to impose harsh rule, and have been linked to al qaeda as well. despite their pledges to respect the rights of women and minority communities. this poses a threat to Afghan security, health services, and economic opportunities.

under the previous taliban rule, women were denied formal education and were usually forced to stay at home. During the Taliban's five-year rule, women in Afghanistan were essentially put under house arrest, and often forced to paint their windows over so that no one could see in or out. this time around, they have claimed to not impose such restrictions on women.

some further articles - Treatment of women by the Taliban - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org

https://www.bbc.co.uk

2. Canada

the longstanding and systematic discrimination against the indigenous community in canada has been an area of concern for a long time. but while the world focuses on issues mostly in the middle east, there is a present tendency to overlook issues in larger, more powerful countries. Many of these relate to the rights of Indigenous peoples, including violations of their right to safe drinking water, violence against Indigenous women and girls, and violations of the right to food in these communities as a result of failures to mitigate the impact of climate change. Canada also ha serious issues with human rights issues abroad, such as abuses by Canadian mining companies and the government’s failure to stop the arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen despite the United Nations to asking them to refrain from providing arms and military support to the parties in the conflict. The government has also failed to take meaningful steps to repatriate dozens of Canadians, most of whom are children, unlawfully detained in life-threatening conditions for nearly two years in prisons and camps for Islamic State suspects and their families in northeast Syria.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/canada

3. Saudi Arabia

saudi has a history of absolutely terrible human rights, and i doubt i will be able to cover all of it. with a history of discrimination against women, poor women's rights etc, saudi is one of the countries in the world where the situation is heart wrenching.

almost all known Saudi Arabian human rights defenders inside the country were detained or imprisoned at the. Grossly unfair trials continued before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) and other courts. Courts resorted extensively to the death penalty and people were executed for a wide range of crimes. Migrant workers are even more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation because of the pandemic, and thousands were arbitrarily detained in dire conditions, leading to an unknown number of deaths.

women's rights are practically non existent, with rules such as women not being able to enter the country unless they are accompanied by a sponsor or male relative. The Saudi Embassy advises women to dress conservatively in public; that means wearing ankle-length dresses with long sleeves and not pants. In many areas, particularly the capital, Riyadh, women are pressured to wear a full-length black covering called an abaya and to cover their heads. Women in restaurants not accompanied by a male relative often are not served, and religious police known as the Mutawwa travel in public watching for violations of social mores. Any public display of affection is considered offensive. A woman traveling with a man who is not her husband, sponsor or a male relative can be arrested.

im linking some articles below before my rage makes me type out too much -

https://en.wikipedia.org

https://www.amnesty.org ›

https://en.wikipedia.org ›

https://www.theweek.co.uk/60339/things-women-cant-do-in-saudi-arabia

https://www.equaldex.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

4. France

surprised to see france on the list? well,

issues revealed include the recurrent unlawful use of force by police, particularly in deprived urban areas with a high proportion of ethnic minority residents, at least 15 such incidents between March and April in 15 cities. In some cases, police officers also made racist and homophobic remarks.

islamophobia is also on the rise, which holds a particularly political significance since France has the largest proportion of Muslims in the Western world, primarily due to the migration from Maghrebi, West African, and Middle Eastern countries. the reports of discriminations against muslims are reported constantly in the media in the muslim world, but once again, as a high ranking country, such issues are not always brought to light.

https://en.abna24.com ›

5. North Korea

north korea has significant human rights violations, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government; forced disappearances by the government; torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and punishment by government authorities; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including in political prison camps, etc. Authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. Members of the security forces committed numerous abuses.The government takes no steps to prosecute officials who committed human rights abuses

https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/north-korea/

https://www2.law.columbia.edu ›

https://www.hrw.org ›

6. Israel/ Palestine

Since the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians began in the mid-20th century, there have been many cases of human rights violations along the Mediterranean coasts of Western Asia, including the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Millions of Palestinians are living in miserable conditions, with reports of deaths escalating since the civil war began in 1948. In just the last three Gaza conflicts in 2008, 2012, and 2014, the Israeli army has killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians. These attacks violate international humanitarian law because of the excessive use of force. Palestinians had long been victim of brutal Israeli assailant forces. The innocent Palestinians civilians and children are not only victim of discrimination but are maltreated, battered and are forced to displace from their ancestral land.

Human rights in the State of Palestine - Wikipedia

7. United States

while the united states is a free, liberal country, racism, misogyny, homophobia, are prominent issues, among others.

Much of the criticism is directed at the existence of systemic racism, weaker labor protections than most western countries, imprisonment of debtors, invasion of its citizens' privacy through mass surveillance programs, police brutality, etc. once again, i will be linking helpful articles

https://eurekajournal.net

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/north-america/united-states-of-america/report-united-states-of-america/

these are only 7 countries i have picked to write about, althought there are many many more countries that face similar issues. but why is it important to educate ourselves on these topics?

as human beings, it is our responsibility to stand up for equal rights for everyone, to play our role as active citizens and define the society we want to evolve in.

while we may not have the ability to change or heal the world, it is our responsibility to learn about the issues we still face, and work towards that change. the news may be negative. gutting. sad or heartbreaking. but the people who have no choice, who have no voice, are in worse situations. i'm not asking anyone to do anything they're uncomfortable with. i simply ask you to educate yourselves, so you know about whats happening in the world.

to brush asides women's rights, lgbtq rights, equality, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia or other issues because you think it affects your positive energy is a disgrace. Millions of people also do not like listening or agree with the bad shit but they have to put up with it because they cannot ignore it, or cannot escape their issues.

as a female poc, i resonate with some of these issues, even those that i cannot resonate with, i try my best to understand because i cannot be ignorant or turn a blind eye to the struggles of others. its a mark of privilege to say that you do not want to talk or interfere with social issues.

if anyone would like to add to this post, go ahead, if you do not agree with what im saying, scroll on. i wasn't able to cover all the issues in the world, but i have tried my best to cover the important ones.

once again, i ask you to sympathize with social issues.

(this was different to my anger filled rant, and i hope that this was educational instead of a mess of me screaming my anger out in words)

[letterboxd]

A Cinematic Outcoming.

From Istanbul to Chicago, and C.R.A.Z.Y. to Spirited Away, Letterboxd member, writer and film programmer Emre Eminoğlu explores the films that drove his gay awakening.

“I see it as my duty to never shut up about how representation matters.” —Emre Eminoğlu

I was one of the luckiest ones, yet I had no idea how lucky I was. Growing up in Istanbul, Turkey, a predominantly patriarchal, conservative and homophobic society, my luck was being born into an open-minded, secular and loving family.

In this bubble, I was isolated from the struggles of the majority of my people. I was not bullied at school by my peers, I was not forced into being someone else by my family. Yet I still had that voice in my head. As soon as I realized something could be different with me, I became my own bully and forcefully adopted a fictional persona: ‘exceptionally normal’.

Coming out was hard, but coming out to myself was harder. Although I was perfectly aware of my sexual identity, I could not come to terms with the possibility of being ‘abnormal’. Cue cinema. Watching films was a way of escape for high-school Emre—it still is—and it was inevitable that I would come across some LGBTQ+ films. I was not consciously in search of a ‘truth’ about myself but I started seeing my reflection in them, as they slowly disarmed the bully I involuntarily created.

Twenty years later, now, as a 34-year-old gay man professionally writing on cinema and television, I see it as my duty to never shut up about how representation matters. Streaming LGBTQ+ shows on various platforms, seeing widely released, mainstream LGBTQ+ films, listening to the music of openly LGBTQ+ stars, and hearing words of wisdom like “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”, I am confident that the personal, inner bully that I created twenty years ago would not survive a week in today’s world.

‘C.R.A.Z.Y.’ (2005)

Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was definitely not the first LGBTQ+ film I ever watched, but it was an invaluable juncture in my life. It was a hot summer in Istanbul, freshman year of college was over. One of my best friends, who had been accompanying me through most of my cinematic discoveries, told me about a French-Canadian film with this guy on the film poster with David Bowie makeup on his face. We headed to an independent theater in Kadıköy to see it.

Zachary Beaulieu was different. As the lone gay son in a family of five boys, he too was forcefully adopting a fictional persona, and his way of escape was music. He was constantly worried about how to be worthy of his parents’ love, how to realize their ideals of him, and how his difference and truth contradicted all of that. Zac’s 1960s basically mirrored my story in the 2000s. I perfectly muted the life-changing enlightenment I was going through and did not vocalize my inner screams.

In two hours, C.R.A.Z.Y. helped me realize my true self and admit my sexual identity after all those years. It was a personal threshold I had been longing to cross… but there was still a lot to go through.

‘Les Amours Imaginaires’ (Heartbeats, 2010)

Liking someone, falling for someone, being loved, dating someone, sex, refusals, misinterpretations, heartbreaks, break-ups, bad sex. On the other side of the closet, I was being introduced to new, sometimes euphoric, sometimes gut-wrenching experiences. But coming out to my friends was still a challenge. I was feeling so lonely keeping all these wonderful and horrible experiences in my chest.

But I was not alone: LGBTQ+ films were my life’s understudy. The same heartbreaks, worries, and disappointments I was going through were right there on the silver screen. I took note as two best friends, Francis and Marie, fall for the same guy and navigate their friendship in Xavier Dolan’s Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats, 2010). I studied how a popular student, Jarle, falls for the new guy in school, but cannot risk his reputation to be with him in Stian Kristiansen’s Mannen som Elsket Yngve (The Man Who Loved Yngve, 2008) and I watched as close friends Tobi and Achim become lovers, until one’s need to keep everything secret threatens to destroy the relationship in Marco Kreuzpaintner’s Sommersturm (Summer Storm, 2004).

Things were not always accessible via online platforms and the internet, so film festivals were often the only chance to see the latest independent and queer films. Two of the biggest film festivals in Istanbul, thankfully, had LGBTQ+-focused sections; !f’s Gökkuşağı (Rainbow) and Istanbul Film Festival’s Nerdesin aşkım? (Where are you, my love?) felt like home.

‘Tomboy’ (2011)

Being the lone avid cinephile among my friends, I was used to seeing half of my festival picks alone. Even before coming out to myself, my hopes for a romantic relationship included, among other things, having a festival partner. When I, fortunately, found the one, I was delighted to have also found the perfect festival partner. Shortly after our first month together, the first film we saw at a film festival was Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy (2011).

Although I was a 24 year old cis man, I was more than able to empathize with the title character, a ten-year-old trans boy. With his family unaware of his true identity, Mickaël experiences the liberation of a fresh start when ‘mistaken’ for a boy after they move to a new neighborhood—finally able to introduce himself as Mickaël, not Laure.

Changing my career path, a new job in the creative industry, and a stable relationship had similar effects on me. I was still not completely out to my parents, or some of my friends, schoolmates, and acquaintances from my past, but I was freed of the obligation to explain anything to my new friends or colleagues. I would proudly introduce them to my boyfriend, or simply correct people by saying I was attracted to men during a conversation. The perfect festival partner turned out to be a perfect partner as well—over the past ten years, he has helped me grow and be proud of myself.

‘Weekend’ (2011)

We moved in together in the fifth year of our relationship. Right above our bed hangs a poster of Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (2011). At the time we saw it, it was just another film that we watched together and liked—no significance, no symbolism. It is the story of two young men, Russell and Glen, who are fascinated by the connection they find between each other, and are surprised how their one-night-stand evolved into the perfect weekend. When Glen reveals that he will be leaving for another country the very next day, it only makes their connection stronger, and their time together more precious. Being a timid and socially anxious person, none of my romantic relationships or my friendships had formed this organically. Even my first date with my partner was a disaster. We built what we have now over time, slowly and patiently. I did not believe in ‘weekends’.

And yet, one summer night, we met a guy on Grindr, as we occasionally did. What we thought was just another one night stand was in fact a transformative experience for us both. Intense conversation, a triple connection, the drinks we enjoyed instead of hurrying to bed, and the passionate sex turned that casual one-night-stand into a magical reality for us. We realized that we still had feelings and instincts to discover in ourselves and in each other. Over a week-long, unexpected, unpredictable polyamorous fling, we learned to act as one instead of two—only to find out that he was leaving for another country the very next week. This was our ‘weekend’.

‘Hamam’ (Steam: The Turkish Bath, 1997)

Thinking how LGBTQ+ films of other cultures and languages had played a significant role in some precious, threshold-crossing moments of my life, it was alienating not being able to feel embraced and represented openly in Turkish cinema. There were certainly multiple Turkish LGBTQ+ films or characters, but they were in films addressing more urgent issues—right to live, violence against LGBTQ+ individuals, honor murders, trans murders—rather than the nuanced experience of queer love.

Although I discovered it years after it was released, Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek’s Hamam (Steam: The Turkish Bath, 1997) was a mind-blowing experience for me. The relationship, and the sexual tension, between Francesco, the Italian heir to a building with a Turkish bath in it, and Mehmet, the young son of the family managing the compound, felt much closer to my story and my cultural, familial identity.

Aşk, Büyü vs. (Love, Spells and All That, 2019)

Today, I am glad to see more and more filmmakers finding the courage to maintain the LGBTQ+ narrative in Turkish cinema, despite the oppressive, intolerant and exclusionary policies. Some are telling the youthful, urban stories I was longing for at the time: In Leyla Yılmaz’s Bilmemek (Not Knowing, 2019), Umut, a high-school athlete from a middle-class family in Istanbul, is bullied by his so-called modern and open-minded teammates after not replying to a query about whether he is gay or not. In Ümit Ünal’s Aşk, Büyü vs. (Love, Spells and All That, 2019), Eren and Reyhan, two adult women reunite in the magical atmosphere of The Princes’ Islands on the Istanbul coast, decades after they were forcefully separated by their parents.

The story of me coming out to myself all started with an urge to escape reality through cinema, and on the way, I found films that gave meaning to my muddled existence. When I saw Levan Akin’s And Then We Danced (2019), I smiled as I noticed the Spirited Away poster in Merab’s room; this minor detail another reminder that I was not alone. Merab, a gay dancer who is part of a very traditional and conservative Georgian dance company, was dealing with similar challenges in his life. He was trying to discover his true identity in a society that does not celebrate being different. He was too, finding an escape in cinema.

Coming out was hard. It still is. A recent Instagram post by the 27-year-old actor Connor Jessup, who came out as gay two years ago, reminded me coming out is not a single moment, but a never-ending process, a ‘becoming’. He writes, “When I first came out, a friend wrote to me and said, ‘Now you can really start coming out.’ Start? I thought. I just did it. But he was right. […] I’m going to keep trying. I’m going to keep looking.”

I keep trying, and looking. Learning about myself, my identity, my relationship. And LGBTQ+ films keep helping and inspiring me, just as they did in my journey to accept myself and become the person I am today. This is the power of cinema; unconsciously, you see your past, actuality and possibilities through the stories filmmakers tell. And I am so grateful to these filmmakers.

Related content

The Ten Greatest Turkish Films of All Time, according to the Turkish Film Critics’ Association

Emre’s Favorite LGBTQ+ Films: a personal top 50

Queer Films in Turkish Cinema—a list by Atakan

The Top 100 Turkish Movies of the 21st Century: Emre’s personal favorites

[historic-old-guard-lover]

Historically Booker’s native language would be Occitan and not French . He would also probably deeply resent standard / Parisian French since the government did their damnest to erase regional languages and still do it today .

Agreed! There was another post about this, but since I got an ask (I love you, anon) I’ll elaborate. Buckle up for a primer on the evolution of the French language with a brief aside for troubadours, traveling musician-poets you wish were still a career option. No, being a rock star is not quite the same.

In the early medieval period (as early as ~900CE), the country we now call France had a language divide between the northern and southern regions. In the north, they spoke langues d'oïl which is what eventually became modern standard French. In the south, they spoke Occitan or lenga d'òc and a modern form of this language is known as Provençal. Looking at the regional sub-dialects, the more northern Occitan begins to sound like a langue d’oil and the more southern dialects begin to sound like Spanish.

As I touched upon in a previous post, this is because they all share similar roots as a romance language. Even though modern standard French is a langue d’oil, occitan managed to sneak a few things into the language. If you’ve learned French as a second language, you’ll know that when you respond yes (oui) to a negative question (you don’t like cheese? / tu n’aimes pas le fromage?) that you use a different yes (si). This is a skeleton of Occitan! 

The why of the invention of “standard French” is, as most “standard” things are, a detour into nationalism. In 1635, Cardinal Richelieu (under Louis XIII) founded the Académie Française (French Academy) which was tasked with standardizing the French language so that it could be exported to the rest of Europe and used to gain further prestige of the role of French philosophers during the Enlightenment. During the French Revolution, it was disregarded, but Napoleon Bonaparte restored it as part of the Institut de France (Institute of France) in 1803. To this day, the Académie is tasked with publishing the French dictionary and inventing new words for things such as “e-mails” so that the French needn’t stoop to using English loan-words.

Another part of this was the Toubon Law (August 1994) which required French (the standard French from the Académie) to be used in all official documents and advertising. It required all advertising to use French and even set a certain percentage of music on the radio that must be French. This law was literally the government going “let’s make the French french again.” If a school doesn’t instruct in French (modern, standard French of course), then they can’t receive government funds. The only exception is Breton-language schools (Breton is as north as it gets and is a langue d’oil so it still helps crush Occitan).

Since the previous paragraph probably made you mad as heck, let me give you some irony to laugh at: some French people refer to this as the loi Allgood (“law” Allgood). To explain this joke, it helps to know that Toubon is the last name of the Minister of Culture at the time the law was passed. If you break down his last name, it sounds like “tout bon” in French which translates to “all good.” People took this law saying make everything French, goddammit and replied, sure thing Minister All-Good. I love it.

Now, for the troubadours! I learned standard modern French in high school, but at university I came across Occitan because of those romantic poets. I’ll put this aside below the break so you can continue on with your day if for some reason you’re not interested in medieval French rock star-poets...

Let me begin by quoting the Wikipedia definition:

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz.

Right away you may notice a few things: 1) they wrote and sang in Occitan; 2) it was an equal-opportunity field (though it was rare for a woman to be one). The first Troubadours were mostly noblemen, but later ones could come from any social class. Yes, you read that correctly: egalitarian travelling poets! If that doesn’t sell you on these performers, I don’t know what will. The troubadours spread their tradition throughout Europe and the only thing that could stop them was the Black Plague.

As you’d expect, they mostly sang about love. A lot of their poems were about courtly love and chivalry, but they could also get bawdy. The especially good performers would be sought after by courts like famous painters. Troubadours are essentially the apex bards: romantic, witty, charming, talented, and able to make serious bank.

To finish this, I will leave you with one of the bawdiest troubadour poems I know of, Farai un vers, pos mi somelh (The Ladies with the Cat) by Guillem de Peiteus. It’s essentially the story of a dude who has sex with these women who pick up a knight on a pilgrimage (though it plays with reality and this guy’s fantasies). I’ll include it in the original Occitan, and then a translation by Robert Kehew (I believe), verse-by-verse. Forgive me for my commentary in between, but I just want you to understand how freaking clever this poem is!

Farei un vers, pos mi somelh Em vauc e m’estauc al solelh. Domnas i a de mal conselh,    E sai dir cals: Cellas c’amor de cavalier    Tornon a mals.

While sound asleep I’ll walk along In sunshine, making up my song. Some ladies get the rules all wrong;    I’ll tell you who: The ones that turn a knight’s love down    And scorn it, too.

The singer is establishing himself as a troubadour. The protagonist is dreaming, so we should be careful about what is real and imagined. He’s also invoking the trope of the philandering knight constantly falling in love and breaking his heart.

Domna fai gran pechat mortal Qe no ama cavalier leal; Mas si es monge o clergal,    Non a raizo: Per dreg la deuri’hom cremar    Ab un tezo.

Grave mortal sins such ladies make Who won’t make love for a knight’s sake; And they’re far worse, the ones who’ll take    A monk or priest-- They ought to get burned at the stake    At the very least.

The Middle Ages were not at all chaste; yes, monks and priests were having sex. This isn’t as sexist as it may come across on a first reading however. He’s not saying women shouldn’t have sex (he’s actually saying that it’s a sin not to being having sex), he’s just upset that women who are clearly willing to have sex are turning *him* down. He’s not going to get any awards for feminist of the year, but he’s not the worst. I’m sure this would rouse cheers from a tavern.

En Alvernhe, part Lemozi, M’en aniey totz sols a tapi: Trobei la moller d’en Guari    E d’en Bernart; Saluderon mi simplamentz    Per sant Launart.

Down in Auvergne, past Limousin, Out wandering on the sly I ran Into the wives of Sir Guarin    And Sir Bernard; They spoke a poper welcome then    By St. Leonard.

These are recognizable locations along a pilgrimage route. There’s a good chance that these names are replaceable (Bernard can be replaced with any last name that rhymes with a saint) and this song could be used to goad the audience. And no, he hasn’t had sex with these ladies yet. They’re just saying hello (for now).

La unam diz en son latin: “E Dieus vos salf, don pelerin; Mout mi semblatz de bel aizin,    Mon escient; Mas trop vezem anar pel mon    De folla gent.”

One said in her dialect, “Sir Pilgrim, may the Lord protect Men so sweet-manned, so correct,    With such fine ways; This whole world’s full of lunatics    And rogues, these days.”

I think most would agree that this is happening in the knight’s sex-dream because she’s just sweet talking him. The awesome part is that the “dialect” reflects the singer actually adopting a Northern French language (they’re mutually intelligible). Guillem didn’t have to go that hardcore, but he did.

Ar auzires qu’ai respondut; Anc no li diz bat ni but, Ni fer ni fust no ai mentaugut,    Mas sol aitan: “Barbariol, babariol,    Babarian.”

For my reply--I’ll swear to you I didn’t tell them Bah or Boo, I answered nothing false of true;    I just said, then, “Babario, babariew,    Babarian.”

This guy just mocks their accents as a reply. Wildin’.

So diz n’Agnes a n’Ermessen: “Trobat avem que anam queren. Sor, per amor Deu, l’alberguem,    Qe ben es mutz, E ja per lui nostre conselh    Non er saubutz.”

So Agnes said to Ermaline, “Let’s take him home, quick; don’t waste time. He’s just the thing we’d hoped to find:    Mute as a stone. No matter what we’ve got in mind,    It won’t get known.”

In this stanza we see two repeats and a new thing. First, the names are easy to replace (Agnes doesn’t even have to rhyme with anything) so that this can be done to call out a specific woman’s name. Second, the language skills are being flaunted again as this Occitan-speaker is just casually showcasing that he can sing about sex in other languages too, thankyouverymuch. Lastly, this is WOMEN voicing their desire, not men. The man is silent, they think he’s incapable of speech. This is two women in a poem/song getting to steer the story how they please. Stepping back, this is a guy’s sex-dream so you could argue he’s just got a kink for dominant women, but regardless that’s a pretty cool way to turn masculinity on its head.

La unam pres sotz son mantel Menet m’en sa cambra, al fornel. Sapchatz qu’a mi fo bon a bel,    El focs fo bos, Et eu calfei me volentiers    Als gros carbos.

Under her cloak, one let me hide; We slipped up to her room’s fireside. By now I thought one could abide    To play this role-- Right willingly I warmed myself    At their live coals.

Yes, this dude is saying he’s more than happy to let the women take charge. Don’t kink-shame him.

A manjar mi deron capos, E sapchatz agui mais de dos, E noi ac cog ni cogastros,    Mas sol nos tres, El pans fo blancs el vins fo bos    El pebr’ espes.

They served fat capons for our fare-- I didn’t stop at just one pair; We had no cook or cook’s boy there,    But just us three. The bread was white, the pepper hot,    The wine flowed free.

A capon is a castrated rooster, fattened for eating. He’s being fattened (and emasculated by letting them take control) before the women get down to their  fun with him.

“Sor, aquest hom es enginhos, E laissa lo parlar per nos: Nos aportem nostre gat ros    De mantenent, Qel fara parlar az estros,    Si de renz ment.”

N’Agnes anet per l’enujos, E fo granz et ac loncz guinhos: E eu, can lo vi entre nos,    Aig n’espavent, Q’a pauc non perdei la valor    E l’ardiment.

“Wait, sister, this could be a fake; He might play dumb just for our sake. See if our big red cat’s awake    And fetch him, quick. Right here’s one silence we should break    If it’s a trick.”

So Agnes brought that wicked beast, Mustachioed, huge, and full of yeast; To see him sitting at our feast--    Seemed less than good; I very nearly lost my nerve    And hardihood.

So yes, he’s joking about almost loosing his boner and there’s that language play again. The big part of the ending, however, is the imagery of the red cat. Cats are typically associated with women, and the color red tempts the mind into thinking of it as female passion or some kind of prowling sexuality (with undertones of evil). The subtext here is that they’re going to test him by letting this cat scratch him up to see if he’ll cry out. If he can keep his mouth shut and allow the womens’ passions, he can stay. If he can’t, he’s out. Ultimately, I’m going to say that this poem is subtly for women’s empowerment. Go scratch up your knights, ladies.

[kimabutch]

Hey if you want to ramble about the extremely fucked history of wet nursing, I’d be interested to hear it?

Oh wow ok, so I’m a little concerned about getting things wrong since it’s been several years since I’ve researched this in detail — so please take whatever I say here with a grain of salt, more to encourage further research than as law. 

With that said! Wet-nursing (which is the act of breastfeeding and often caring for another person’s infant) is, imo, value-neutral — obviously there are some health benefits for birthing parents to breastfeed their own children, but there are plenty of situations in which wet-nursing is required or preferable. And also obviously, it’s something that’s happened across all cultures, historically and presently, to a greater or lesser extent. 

However, I mostly studied 17th-18th century French and English wet-nursing where wet-nursing was, for a while, extremely commonplace among the upper classes (actually in France, wet-nursing was more widespread to even the lower-middle class and continued as an industry well into to the 19th century.) 

And this is where the fucked up parts are, so I’m gonna put them under the cut. CW for serious sexism, racism, and classism.

So, the people employed as wet-nurses were almost always low-class, and in the colonies, they were often enslaved Indigenous and/or Black women. Both lower-class (often rural) people and people of colour were regarded as 'closer’ to nature (more animalistic, more in tune with how parents are ‘naturally’ supposed to act, more fertile), which made them better at breastfeeding.

There were also strong beliefs about what kinds of breasts were best for breast-feeding, and these were often associated with Black women (actually, the racism surrounding breast shape is a whole Thing, and also one I know a lot less about.) 

Particularly in colonial America, this ties in to the “Mammy” stereotype — which comes from enslaved Black women who acted as wet-nurses and who were “idealized” as submissive, motherly, de-sexualized, etc. (again, I studied wet-nursing mostly in a European context, so this isn’t something I know as much about.)

In France and Britain themselves, wet-nurses were either brought in from the country to live with the families or (more commonly, especially in bigger cities like London) infants were sent to live with the wet-nurses: there was this idealized pastoral image of ‘simple’ rural life, with country air that was better for children. 

Many rich fathers were glad for the lack of screaming child around, and also for the chance to churn out children more quickly — since you’re less likely to get pregnant while lactating. 

It shouldn’t be too surprising that wet-nurses weren’t particularly well-treated, paid, or regarded, despite their apparent necessity. I mean, even in cases when they were literally vital, for example, in foundling hospitals, for infants whose parents were dead, they were often mistreated — I can’t find my source for this, but I remember reading a harrowing account of a foundling hospital in which wet-nurses were given experimental treatments for syphilis to pass onto the infants in their care, but the treatment included fucking mercury, leading to mass death. 

Also, wet-nurses who had children of their own sometimes had to wean them earlier to give more milk to others’ children, which...... is not good (I think this may have been more of a problem in France than England, as France again had more of a wet-nursing industry.)

Anyways! When anti-wet-nursing pushback came, it came hard, and, unsurprisingly, that pushback was full of the same sexism, racism, and classism that had spurred wet-nursing in the first place!

Now, poor country folks weren’t good and wholesome, they were neglecting or even drugging their charges, they were stealing from their employers, etc. (I suspect, though don’t know, many of these same accusations were levelled at Black and/or Indigenous wet-nurses)

Now, mothers were considered selfish if they didn’t breastfeed, unloving and unfit and trying to take men’s place; during the Enlightenment breastfeeding became this symbol of women’s "natural” drive to stay at home and care for kids (and men were even counselled to supervise their wives while breastfeeding, because apparently they couldn’t manage it themselves.) 

There was also this whole medicalization of breast-feeding that went along with the field of midwifery becoming male-dominated, medicalized, and forcibly & deliberately pushing out women midwives — not that it’s a bad thing that birthing parents got better medical care before, during, and after birth, but it came with the belief that neither a birthing mother nor any other woman could fully understand childbirth. 

That’s a lot of rambling, but I hope that whets your appetite! I’ve included a few books that I referenced when I was researching this — again, this was many years ago when I was an undergrad with access mostly to my uni’s library. I have no doubt there are better, more current & accurate sources for this same time period, and definitely encourage you to look for them. 

Fildes, Valerie. Wet Nursing: A History from Antiquity to the Present. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988.

Schiebinger, Londa. Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science. Boston: Beacon, 1993.

Sussman, George D. Selling Mothers’ Milk: the Wet-Nursing Business in France, 1715-1914. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1982.

[the-daily-tizzy]

An anthropological theory

Your World History Lesson for the day -

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel.

Beer required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. 

Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. 

That's how villages were formed.

The wheel was invented to get man to the beer.

These two were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: 

Liberals

Conservatives.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to BBQ at night while they were drinking beer. 

This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were less skilled at hunting learned to live off the Conservatives by showing up for the nightly BBQ's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. 

This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men evolved into women. 

Others became known as girlie-men. 

Some noteworthy Liberal achievements include

the domestication of cats, 

the invention of group therapy, 

group hugs, 

and the concept of democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that Conservatives provided.

Over the years, Conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. 

Liberals are symbolized by the jackass for obvious reasons.  

Modern Liberals like lite beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. 

They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. 

Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard Liberal fare. 

Another interesting evolutionary side note: many Liberal women have higher testosterone levels than their men.  

Most college professors, social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, film makers in Hollywood, group therapists and community organizers are Liberals. 

Liberals meddled in our national pastime and invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink real beer. 

They eat red meat and still provide for their women. 

Conservatives are big game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, engineers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots, and generally anyone who works productively. 

Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. 

They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. 

Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. 

That is why most of the Liberals remained in Europe when Conservatives were coming to America. 

They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history. 

It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before - possibly - reposting it.

A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be reposted immediately and copied to an e-mail to be sent to other true believers - and to more Liberals just to piss them off.

And there you have it.

Let your next action reveal your true self. 

I'm going to have another beer.

[empirearchives]

Women writers in Napoleonic France:

“In the archives of the Napoleonic Ministry of the Interior we discover that Félicité de Choiseul-Meuse, was dependent on official patronage for her survival. Remembered today as the author of the infamously pornographic pastiche of Rousseau’s Nouvelle Heloïse, titled, Julie, ou j'ai sauvée ma Rose (1807), among many other works, Choiseul-Meuse clearly found an audience for her literary productions, not only in the market-place, but in the corridors of power as well.”

“There is also considerable evidence of the sustained inclusion and recognition of women of letters by the major literary and scientific academies—for example, Louise de Kéralio (history), Pauline Guizot (moral theory), Fanny de Beauharnais (novels), Charlotte de Bournon, Countess of Malarme (novels), Claudine Guyton de Moreau (natural sciences), Anne Marie de Montgergoult de Coutances, Countess de Beaufort d'Hautpol (poetry), and Sophie Bacquié (poetry). After years of patronage from the Napoleonic regime, in 1815, Mme Dufrénoy became the poet laureate of the Française Académie, its highest literary honor.”

“In 1804 Fortunée Briquet, with whom I began, compiled a Dictionnaire historique, littéraire et bibliographique des françaises et des étrangères naturalisées en France. In her dedication of the work to the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, Briquet reflected on the tumultuous fifteen years since the Old Regime had fallen. She exulted that ‘No other century has begun with such a great number of women of letters.’ To prove it, her Dictionnaire offered the literary records of 583 women from the age of Clovis to the present, culled from a very impressive range of bibliographic sources.”

Source: Carla Hesse, The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern

[cincinnatusvirtue]

On this day in history:  Battle of Leuthen (1757): Frederick the Great perfects his oblique order.

The Seven Years War (1756-1763) is regarded by many as the first true world war.  It was fought on five continents and in many oceans, it was at its heart a battle of supremacy for worldwide influence, namely between Britain and France.  Its origins were in colonial conflict between these two powers in North America which became known as the French & Indian War.  However, it was also fought with a particularly ferocity in Europe.  Britain was not a main participant involved in the European theater, instead this sector of fighting largely centered around their two main allies in this conflict and question of continental supremacy in Central Europe.  it was the seeds to the so called German Question, would German speaking lands of Europe, then divided into the many entities of the Holy Roman Empire, be lead by the continual leadership of the Hapsburg Realm known based in the Archduchy of Austria or would it follow the Kingdom of Prussia?

Prelude: The German Question

-By the 18th century, the Holy Roman Empire, Central Europe and the German speaking peoples of Europe had largely been under the leadership of Vienna and the Hapsburg dynasty, then known as the Archduchy of Austria with its rulers serving as Holy Roman Emperor.  A title that conveyed certain ceremonial & political weight with it.  The Holy Roman Empire was a collection of mostly German speaking states that was concentrated in modern day Germany mostly alongside other parts of Central Europe.  The Hapsburgs were its leading family and also held sway directly over parts of Italy, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Italy and other parts of the Balkans.  In the past its traditional enemy was the Ottoman Empire, long seen as the last bastion between Christendom and the spread of Islam throughout Europe.

-Its success against the Ottomans in the Great Turkish War (1683-1699) alongside Russia, Poland, Venice and other nations has essentially reversed the trend of Ottoman encroachment.  Instead, the Turks now found themselves on the defensive and largely having to compete at against an expansionist Russia.  Meanwhile, Austria challenged its longtime enemy France, now run by the Bourbon dynasty for control over influence within continental Europe.

-Austria sought Britain and the Dutch Republic’s assistance in containing French supremacy in Western and Central Europe, all these nations had a mutual interest in containing the expansion in French power which was coupled with the Bourbon’s taking over Spain and its empire too.

-Austria and France clashed in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) and the subsequent War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748).

-It was in the last 17th and early 18th century and the aforementioned wars, that the Kingdom of Prussia, centered in northeastern Germany and run by the Lutheran Hohenzollern dynasty looked to gain power and influence.

-Prussia was comparatively small relative to Hapsburg lands but it built its reputation on its military prowess, starting with Frederick WIlliam, Elector of Brandenburg.  As a member state of the Holy Roman Empire, it had a vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor, who was not a direct rule of other members of the fragmentary “empire” but a “first among equals” and one who held the most sway over the collective.

-Frederick William, his son and grandson (Frederick I) & (Frederick William I) were recognized Electors of Brandenburg and in the latter two’s case as Kings in Prussia and they made many military reforms that improved Prussia’s army.

-Under Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau who served as Prussia’s royal military overseer a number of key reforms which set it apart from all other European armies were implemented.  Firstly, he replaced the traditional wooden ramrod of muskets with which a soldier must plunge the musket ball into the barrel with an iron ramrod.  The difference was stark, a more durable iron ramrod had a longer shelf-life than wood, was less prone to breaking and therefore was quicker for reloading.  Secondly, he introduced the goose-step march which slowed the march of the army, conserving their energy when going into battle and providing for more uniform cohesion.  Thirdly, he increased the role of the fife and drum musicians, making musicians out of some soldier and increasing the size of military marching bands, which was seen to boost morale.  Fourth, he introduced relentless drilling with emphasis on the rate of fire and the maneuverability of units in formation.  Fifth, the officer corps were directed and limited to the Junker (Prussian nobility) class which had a good miltary education and was firmly loyal to the Prussian nation and King.  Additionally, firm but harsh corporal punishment was introduced to instill discipline and deter desertion.  Finally, politically the introduction of mandatory conscription was more enforced in Prussia.

-All these elements left in place the Prussian Army becoming perhaps the most well oiled war machine in Europe at the time with only Austria, France, Britain and Russia being competitors, in time they would come to find out just how well trained and efficient this force was.

-As Prussia’s military reputation grew, so did its influence in the world of German politics and Austria clearly began to see it as a rival.  Though initially, in the War of the Spanish Succession, both nations were together to curb French influence, with the Prussians serving with distinction as mercenaries under the Holy Roman Empire’s banner.

-1740, however changed things when two new rulers came to rule over Prussia & Austria.  It started with Frederick II, the new King of Prussia.  Frederick had a troubled relationship with father, Frederick William I.  His father was well educated in government and military affairs and had hoped his son and heir would be inclined towards such matters too.  Frederick was instead, prone to the burgeoning trends of the Enlightenment then coming into full flourish and sweeping Europe’s philosophy circles.  Frederick was more interested in music, the arts and philosophy.   His father also physical and mentally abused him, beating him with a cane and calling him many insults.  To add to the strain, he appears to have been a homosexual, something punishable by death even for a royal during that time.  Famously, he attempted to flee to Britain with his tutor/lover Han Hermann von Katte to escape the abuse by his father.  However, both Frederick & Katte were caught in 1730 during their flight.  Katte and Frederick were technically army officers and Frederick William I wanted to make an example of them for their flight as a betrayal of the nation.  Though Katte’s initial sentence was imprisonment until the King’s death, Frederick William I instead ordered his execution.  He made his son watch his friend and lover die by beheading, Frederick is said to have passed out at the sight of his lover’s execution by his father’s order.  Frederick himself was also imprisoned by his father for the next two years.

-Eventually, father and son somewhat reconciled.  In part, because he got Frederick to marry a woman, Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfsbuttel.  However, Frederick remained a semi-closeted gay man and never had children with his wife nor had any physical intimacy with her, though appears to have had no affairs with other women either.  Instead, he always maintain an interest in the military and quite probably had male lovers & confidantes.  Instead, the couple maintained separate residences over the course of their lives and Frederick knew full well the marriage was for political purposes.  It was to last from 1733 until his death in 1786.

-Frederick came to the throne in 1740, having inherited a Prussia with a stable economy, efficient administration & most important of all, well trained and sizable army relative to its population.  All things despite their often strained relationship he owed to his father.  Of his father after his death he said:

“What a terrible man he was. But he was just, intelligent, and skilled in the management of affairs... it was through his efforts, through his tireless labor, that I have been able to accomplish everything that I have done since.”

 -1740, also saw accession to the Austrian throne, Maria-Theresa, daughter of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria.  She had married, Francis, Duke of Lorraine, a Franco-German, portion of the Holy Roman Empire.  Together, they would co-rule the Hapsburg Empire & give rise to the Hapsburg-Lorraine branch of the family, as Maria-Theresa was the last in the senior line of the Hapsburg family, which is declared to “die out” due to no more direct male heirs.  Their subsequent branch would head the family and rule Austria in its many iterations through World War I in the form of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

-The issue of Maria-Theresa’s gender came to be the powder keg for growing Austro-Prussian conflict.  However, it was a smokescreen to expand Prussian power at Austrian expense, being just a convenient excuse other rulers needed to undermine Hapsburg rule as Holy Roman Emperors.  Charles VI, aware of the problems caused by having no male heirs and relying on a system of primogeniture, where the eldest surviving legitimate male son or nearest male relative was given to rule, was forced to spend much of his reign using diplomacy and concessions to the other Electors of the Holy Roman Empire and great powers of Europe, to recognize his daughter as his heir and as Holy Roman Empress and ruler of Hapsburg lands.  The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was the recognition by the other powers of Europe of her succession to these lands.  

-However, looking to weaken the Austrians and get the balance of power set about in a more favorable fashion, France & Prussia backing the relative of Maria-Theresa, Charles-Albert of Bavaria, proclaimed his right to become Holy Roman Emperor.  Making him in effect Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.  He was of the House of Wittelsbach and his reign interrupted the Hapsburg claim to the title for the preceding 300 years.  Citing, Salic Law, from the Middle Ages, neither France nor Prussia could truly “respect” a woman’s claim to hold the title of Holy Roman Emperor or to rule over the Hapsburg lands.  For France it was about controlling the balance of power, for Frederick of Prussia, now Frederick II, it was a chance to increase Prussia’s profile.  So launched the 8 year long War of the Austrian Succession.  The war saw Frederick II invade Austrian Silesia in modern day Poland.  With this Maria-Theresa & Frederick II were ever after archrivals.  

-  By 1745, Frederick’s army time and again surprised the Austrians and  Europe at large and had more or less secured its war aims, Silesia.  He secured for himself a reputation as a great tactician and for the Prussian army, a sense of true respect for their performance. The treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle in 1748 ended the war, Maria-Theresa was declared to be Holy Roman Empress and ruler of all Hapsburg lands with her husband who became Francis I as Holy Roman Emperor.  Their family would continue to succeed them ever after.  However, Frederick got to retain control of Silesia and this caused simmering tension and resentment with Maria-Theresa.  

Diplomatic Revolution:

-In the years following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle, the political goals of Europe’s great powers realigned.  Britain and France still retained colonial rivalries the world over and both sought to have a favorable balance of power on the continent as well.  Austria & Britain had been traditional allies for decades but with British support for Prussian claims to Silesia, Maria-Theresa no longer felt Britain could be a dependable ally in what she sought, a reclaiming of Silesia, she needed help to achieve this and turned to an unlikely place, its former rival...France.

-Meanwhile, Britain felt Austria itself was too weak to take on France and therefore was willing to subsidize other powers to contain French ambition on the continent while the Royal Navy & British Army took French colonies elsewhere.  So a partner switch developed.  Prussia & Britain signed an alliance in January 1756.  

-Meanwhile. France at first declared neutrality thanks to diplomacy from Austria which no longer had borders on France’s natural borders and this lead to a thawing of icy relations.  A series of treaties was signed between Austria and France in 1756-57 which formed an anti-Prussian coalition between the two and later supplemented by Russia & Sweden.  France agreed to support Austria regaining Silesia, and subsidies for Austria to maintain a large army against the Prussians.  In exchange at the war’s end, France would gain the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium).  This would allow France new ports to threaten Britain.

War:

-War had broken out 1756 officially between Britain and France though their North American colonies had been fighting since 1754.  

-Frederick II, sensing the growing alliance against him wanted to preempt any Austrian attack against Silesia and thusly invaded the Austrian ally, the Electorate of Saxony in August 1756, this kicked off the war and lead to many back and forth battles over the next 7 years.

-The war shifted in 1757 to Austrian Bohemia (Czech Republic) and left Prague under siege by the Prussians at one point.  Frederick garnered many important early victories but was forced to withdraw in this instance.

-By late 1757, the French were providing Austria the long awaited support for its thrusts into Silesia.  Prussia was gradually pushed back following the retreat from Prague and now was facing pressure from multiple approaches.  

-This approach culminated in the November 1757 Battle of Rossbach, the only physical battle to involve both France & Prussia against each other.  Frederick caught the Austro-Franco army by surprise and inflicted 10,000 casualties to his less than 1,000.  France essentially remained a non-entity in this theater for the next several years, though they did continue to fund the Austrians.  Austria’s real support would come later from Russia & Sweden against Prussia.

Battle of Leuthen:

-Meanwhile, another and even larger Austrian army was looking to engage Frederick, this one was lead by Maria-Theresa’s brother in law, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.  He sought to engage the Prussians and defeat Frederick decisively.  Indeed he did defeat the Prussians, not under Frederick’s command at the Battle of Breslau in late November 1757 which threatened all of Prussian Silesia in December with 66,000 soldiers under his command.

-Frederick meanwhile had 33,000 meaning his troops would be outnumbered 2 to 1.  Learning of the fall of Breslau, he moved his troops, 170 miles in just 12 days, a very accomplished maneuver given the roads and transport of the times.

-Prince Charles, aware of Frederick’s approach’s toward Breslau, the provincial capital of Silesia.  He sought to stop the advance 17 miles west at the town of Leuthen.

-The Austrians hoped to check any Prussian countermove with a force running north to south spread out around Leuthen, knowing the Prussians would come from the west.

-Charles had placed his command in the village church tower to give him more of a vantage point over the rolling countryside displayed before his army.  This meant he should be able to anticipate any move Prussia made.

-Frederick however, was quite familiar with the land, having used the Silesians countryside around Leuthen as parade and drilling grounds for the Prussian Army during peace time.  Rarely one, to do the expected Frederick wanted to use his tactical prowess against the Austrians.  

-His first step was to survey the land and hatch a plan.  Austria’s strongest concentration of troops was on the left wing (south end) and their front stretched five miles north to south.  Frederick, decided he would make the Austrians think he was in one place and then show in an unexpected place.  His goal was to get the Austrians to react to this deceit which would provide an opening to his advantage.

-Realizing a series of low lying hills running almost parallel to the Austrian line lie in front of both armies.  Frederick planned to use these hills to cover his troops movements for the main strike.  First however, a force of cavalry would would launch an attack to distract the Austrians on the north end of the battlefield, the more lightly concentrated side.  The Austrians thinking the attack was now coming from the north instead of the south would transfer the greatest concentration of troops from the south to north and check the Prussian attack.  Meanwhile, Frederick employing his favorite tactic, oblique order would march from behind the hills to the now weakened south end of the Austrian line, perform a right angle turn and blast volleys into the weakened line, and roll it up from the south end, essentially performing a bait and switch on the Austrians.

-On the morning of December 5th, 1757, fog came onto the field, making it hard to see either side, this helped the Prussians more than the Austrians.

-Prince Charles saw Frederick’s initial moves early in the morning but interpreted them possibly as a retreat at first  Meanwhile, Prussian cavalry attacked the north end of the Austrian line from the woods, indeed it seemed as if the Prussians were attacking the north end, having expected a southern end attack initially hence the greater concentration of troops.  The worry was this attack coming from an unexpected direction could contribute to the Prussians rolling up the Austrian line.

-Charles reacted by shifting his entire southern flank’s reserve to reinforce and extend the line to the north.  His transfer of troops drew out the line’s length and weakened the southern flank.  They would in fact be facing the weaker Prussian attack, while the stronger attack would hit their originally anticipated southern flank, now weakened by deception.  Little did he realize, he had fallen in Frederick’s trap.

-Indeed, Frederick marched his troops quietly in the fog and behind the hills before the Austrians, before he performed a right turn and executed oblique order, essentially moving the bulk of one’s forces against the weakened flank of the enemy and pushing them back so as to create an opening that forces the enemy line to shift, contort and break.  His troops were well timed and disciplined to pull off such a maneuver.

-The main Prussian force marching south behind the hills was in two parallel columns.  They moved past the length of the Austrian line and out of sight totally before veering eastward until they formed virtually a right angle with the Austrian line who was surprised by the sight of the Prussian army emerging from fog in battle line formation.  The Prussian infantry opened fire with devastating volleys, keep in mind, the rate of five for Prussian infantrymen was 5 shots a minute per man compared to the 3-4 averaged by other European armies of the time.  Their hard training had paid off with a faster and consequently more damaging rate of fire than their enemy.  

-The Prussians now pushed forward against the confused and bedazzled Austrian army, which ironically, seeking to avoid being rolled up in the opposite direction, weakened their originally stronger side only to be rolled up anyway from a now completely unexpected direction.

-The Austrians had a few regiments try to check the Prussian advance from the south and indeed some artillery pointed south held them at bay but Frederick ordered some artillery of his own to be placed on one of the hills to the west of Leuthen, which in turn enfiladed the Austrian guns and forced them to withdraw.

-Meanwhile the Austrians tried to shift everything south in order to maintain control of the situation but the Prussian cavalry which had launched the screening attack on the Austrin north flank intially had withdrawn until was called into action by Frederick once more, causing more confusion for the Austrians who ultimately withdrew from the field, heading northeast.

-Frederick wanted to pursue but snowfall made him call off the pursuit.  That night, Frederick arrived at the castle at nearby Lissa, occupied by both Austrian officers and refugees from villages caught near the battle.  He politely surprised the Austrians by acknowledging they did not expect his presence their that night but did ask for lodging.  Subsequently he went on to besiege Breslau and force an Austrian surrender.

-The war was far from over and Frederick and indeed Prussia’s fortunes fluctuated until its conclusion in 1763, in which Prussia would technically be the winner, retaining Silesia, in exchange for the recognition of Maria-Theresa’s son, Joseph as her heir.  Though the war exhausted both sides in terms of manpower but ultimately, Frederick stopped Austrian +other Germans, French, Russian & Swedish armies from ending Prussia and his reign altogether.

-As a result of his tactical & strategic performance in this war and the preceding War of the Austrian Succession, he earned the historical moniker, Frederick the Great.  The Battle of Leuthen was one illustration of the man’s tactical prowess, perhaps the most perfect example of this and more broadly of how far Prussia’s army had come from a comparative German backwater to the premier army on the European continent.

[astrallines]

The Crumbling Tower of 2020

Notes on the Triple Conjunction

Hello friends. What follows is a short introduction to the incredibly rare and historical astrological conditions of the year 2020. This was written with the intention of accessibility first and foremost; I believe it’s important that people have some idea of this moment in a historical context, and the tools to evaluate the themes and stories that are emerging currently and in the near future. To my eyes astrology is at its most useful when it is neither prescriptive nor prophetic. It is foremost a tool of psychological midwifery; reading the meaning of the world and its events.

So it’s in my interest to be painting in broad strokes. If you want concrete predictions or exact dates for orbs of conjunction now and in history, then there is a vast field of mundane astrology for you to Google. The myths I’m unfolding here are only for context and consideration—I hope you find them helpful.

Also, there will be a major western bias in my evaluation of history, which sucks, but that’s the milieu I grew up in and can speak to, and it remains the information most easily available. But of course astrological conditions are affecting the entire world. We can still trace the vibe through western examples.

Our Axial Moment There are two incredibly rare astrological events happening this year. One event is the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the sign of Aquarius. These two planets come together routinely, mechanically, every 20 years. But the rhythm of their waltz is such that each meeting takes place in signs of the same element for 200 years at a time. So when they conjoin in Aquarius, in the last weeks of 2020, that will be their first time together in an air sign since the 14th century.

Since 1802, all of their conjunctions have been in earth signs. (Much more on the significance of this later, but some may already notice this 200 period’s coincidence with the industrial revolution and the age of capital). In the 200-odd years before 1802, they would join every time in fire signs—and for the 200 years before that, water. One waltz more brings us back to the 1300s and 1200s, the previous epoch of air signs. Returning to the present day, we should realize that since an age like this persists for two centuries at a time, it is essentially impossible for someone who witnesses such a transition, to have ever even known anyone who witnessed the previous transition. That is, the 100 year old person in December 2020—even if they had, as a newborn, shared a breath with a 100 year old person—would not reach far back enough in history to have even a dim, second-hand knowledge of the epoch of fire (1603-1801). These periods are effectively the frame edges; the curtains around the drama of the world stage.

Rare as it is, the other historical aspect of the year is much rarer: the fact that Saturn and Jupiter will also conjoin Pluto in Capricorn before they dance their first step together in Aquarius. Though these 3 will never occupy the exact same degree together, they will come very close, on and off throughout 2020. Of course a triple conjunction of planets will always occur in more unpredictable intervals than any pair of planets because of the 3 separate orbits. Famously—well, famous among astrologers—it last happened in the sign of Capricorn during the founding year of the city of Babylon, 1894 BCE.

History of the Elemental Epochs Because the Jupiter-Saturn synodic cycle is so regular, and because we didn’t know about outer planets til the 18th century, the dance of these two planets through the elemental stations is by far the oldest astrological tool for determining epochal periods. It has long been assumed to be the basic attitudinal/affective backdrop of the zeitgeist. (Now that we know about Pluto, we have a new vibecheck every 12 years! But isn’t it funny that generations didn’t have names until we noticed Pluto in 1930?)

I would be remiss not to mention that there are overlaps between these periods. For instance, Jupiter and Saturn were briefly conjunct in an air sign (Libra) for a few months in 1981. So toward the end of each epoch, humanity gets a little multi-month preview of the coming age. 1981 and the transitional period is a whole other topic in itself, but that’s all I’ll say here.

Even though these elemental ages have been observed for so long, we don’t have a ton of historical examples to draw upon to get a sense of the nature of a particular epoch. As for the air age that we’re entering into, we can refer to the high medieval period as the last instantiation, but to get a third example we have to go into history 6 centuries before that! Soon the world starts to look so different from the current day, that we have to stretch the imagination that much farther. So let’s just a get a brief summary of the previous cycle through the elements.

Earth 1802-2020

This is the epoch we are still in as I write this. It began during the industrial revolution, and the earth themes are undeniable. Human begins have had a resolutely atomic understanding of the universe; materialism is rampant; and it feels that capital and capitalism are catalysts of most human drama. We take things literally and concretely: instead of speculating about other realms, we want to drive our spaceships to big slabs of land like the moon and Mars. We have discovered how to build and make so much STUFF!

Fire 1603-1801

This period is famous for the enlightenment and the French and American revolutions. The time of great sparks! Reason, brilliance, luminance ... self-validation and self-determination. This is really when human beings began to appreciate the value of the idiosyncrasy of a particular thinker. “THIS dude’s contribution” etc. Rights, laws, freedom, were all in vogue. “Here I am!” say the fire signs.

Water 1425-1602

Just as materialist scientism was born out of the liberating thought of the enlightenment, so were the insights of the enlightenment enabled by the world-broadening discoveries of the renaissance. During the water epoch, everyone was sailing everywhere, being introduced to new cultures, and the “new world” was reached by the Europeans. At home, classics of antiquity were being rediscovered and the world was broadened in that sense. Shakespeare was poppin off in a big way. The concept of the stage is essentially water; water is the idea that there is an affective component to reality at all.

Air 1226-1424

Is it a coincidence that the least widely known stage of the cycle is the one we are now entering? Or is that just the nature of history, as it fades further into the past? This period was called, in the West, the “high medieval” era. It was marked by civic demarcations that more or less persist to this day—the previous few hundred years saw constantly changing borders, but now people grouped more firmly into ethnic or national identities drawn to territories. This is also where we got chivalry and the first real rights for women in a long time. And there was the discovery of an actual social life and leisure. “Hanging out” was invented, thank God.

Reality itself received a major patch update: we invented mechanical clocks, which caused people to relate to the passage of time in a totally new way. We used to just slice up the sunrise-to-sundown period into 12 equal parts; now hours were a constant length throughout the year. Common folk had glass windows in their homes for the first time, and the elite even wore glass in front of their eyes to correct their vision. Music became much more complex, as people had more time to take it seriously and form theories. People could go to libraries; for the first time ever there were more books in cities than in monasteries. Cities were finally the place to be. We invented the compass, the game of chess, and the printing press. The astrolabe, like the compass, allowed us to orient ourselves to something that was formerly hopelessly abstract (the stars). Most of this cool shit came from the Arab world, which was flourishing.

Air Epoch 2.0 That’s the historical overview. Obviously there is much, much more there for any anthropologist or history of philosophy ass person. But we are beginning to see some idea of the relation between the qualities symbolized by the elements and the respective periods. Now we can begin a more informed speculation.

The movement from the previous earth age to the previous air age seems to be one of dramatically more complex social relations. Less emphasis on the riches of a kingdom, and more emphasis on its culture, civility, and sophistication. Abstract things became the treasures. As we look to our own incoming air epoch, it is easy to envision a world that places more emphasis on networks instead of objects. Social media, gig economy, and blockchain all appear to be prefigurations of this. In terms of philosophy, it no longer seems very radical to conceptualize oneself as part of a universe whose essential composition is not defined by particles (nouns) but relations and processes (verbs).

What Was Babylon? I ain’t no student of ancient culture. Until a few months ago, I didn’t even know Babylon was where Iraq is. Of course I think it would behoove all of us to research as much as possible the previous instantiation of this astrological aspect, but I also think it’s valid to speak about its cultural impact through a layman’s osmosis.  As far as I can tell: what is Babylon best remembered for? The miraculous hanging gardens, the Tower of Babel, and the law code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi’s code, inscribed onto a stele about a century after the founding of Babylon is celebrated as the first known written laws, some 190 edicts long—and by the estimation of modern scholars, supremely humanitarian for its time. What is the modern equivalent of the ancient innovation of codified laws? Hard to fathom, but something for us to consider as the new age dawns.

More famously, there is the story of the Tower of Babel. A persistent image of human hubris, even today people respond to the tower motif as a symbol of defiance of God or of nature, and it is routinely invoked when artists and pundits comment on the ecological folly of industrial enterprise. Human beings tried to use their intellectual capacities to reach the position of God. Without reading the Bible, I can tell you that the punishment for this was the diversification of languages. All of a sudden people couldn’t speak to each other, because there were so many ways to speak.

Today we take for granted the many languages of human beings, so what is the modern equivalent of this event? Taken as a metaphor, the variation of languages could represent a variation of worldview. Styles of interfacing with reality. Because the element of air is so closely associated with concepts like perception, the structuring of thought, communication, and virtual realities, we might imagine that in the new age we will begin to understand just how deeply diversified our mechanisms of interpreting reality are. Phenomenology seems like a pretty fringe field in our current world, but AI is certainly not; and content creators have increasingly brought phenomenological themes to the center of their work over the last couple decades. Just as the previous air epoch (12/1300s) saw the advent of movable type, perhaps we will soon develop novel means of recording our impressionistic realities.

Finally, Babylon was host to the famous hanging gardens. Supposedly built by king Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife who missed the natural beauty of Iran, it is still unclear whether this wonder of the world ever existed in physical reality. In any case, the story is relevant: a ruler, in the midst of tremendous infrastructural expansion, and with it the inevitable subjugation of nature, finds that his greatest cultural influence across the centuries is ecological restoration. Looking at these three legacies of Babylon together is rather interesting: the law code stele, though purportedly divine in origin, is unquestionably real to our materialist sensibilities—you can go and see it. The Tower of Babel, taken from the Bible, was probably not real in the same fundamental way; though there was without question a great ziggurat in Babylon, the Biblical account is not literal. The hanging gardens is the most mythological. So between the three we have different concentrations of myth and historical fact.

Second Second Life I write this in the first few weeks of social isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. There is much more to be said about the connection between this unprecedented social condition and the imminent radical astrology—maybe the subject of some other essay. But off the dome, we can see plainly the defaulting of Capricornian things: governments, businesses, economies, and social infrastructure. Without much of a choice, we are withdrawing our energy from the material to which we are accustomed. We’re cooped up in our houses, where the merciful currents of the internet continue to draw us on, to operate in cyberspace as normal. New social functions and vocabularies are already emerging as we are forced to reconsider the online networks that have seemed so toxic for the last few years. People find themselves operating “peer to peer” out of necessity. Some “inessential” products may no longer be available on amazon, but your neighbor might have them. More importantly, people are reaching out to each other for nothing more than human contact. We’ve been wringing our hands about the importance of human connection, but capitalism—through spectacle or stranglehold—has drawn us away from putting it first.

Social service is (along with certain essential aspects of the internet) ruled by Aquarius. Saturn, governor of concern, has already ingressed into this sign, but will retrograde back out in a few months; and then at the end of the year, it will be joined by Jupiter, who greases the wheels, expands the potentiation of Saturn’s concern, and affords prosperity to those who take social service seriously. And together they will inaugurate the new age.

[my18thcenturysource]

How important was French in the English gentry and aristocracy classes?

Well, hello! (read please in the voice of Eva Green), the fast answer to this is: pretty much for appearances and practical reasons, but many did not managed to master the language.

(This was supposed to be a short response to this ask and well, it ended as a long LONG post. You all have been warned (ohohohohohoho).

Now, this is the LONG answer:

The French language have been an important part in the courts of England since the Norman Conquest in 1066 (Flashback to the Middle Ages!), when French was used at court and by the aristocracy, clergy, and law courts. I mean, the Normans were French, therefore they spoke French, BUT it was not the language of the common people, they spoke English (kind of, or more properly, the Middle Ages version of English, Old English and then Middle English). In the 13th century the French territories of the Norman king were lost, and the high class became more focused in their English lands. With the black plague in 1349-50, 1/3 of the English population died and the English language rose with the dead of Latin and French speaking clergy and the rise of the middle class. English finally became the official language in courts and Parliament in 1362.

Making a wild jump forward to the 18th century, French was taught to the aristocracy, and it was important in intellectual circles, and was a language largely taught in other European courts even before the 17th century (let’s remember that in the 18th century, France became the major European power replacing Spain), since the French cultural influence in the continent was (and still is, worldwide) very strong, being considered the cultural, learning, and fashion centre of Europe, and of course the French nobility was married with a lot of European nobility.

What does this even mean? Well, if you wanted to learn anything in the illustration period, you had to know French and Latin. If you wanted to learn dance, all the books  were in French (until they started to be translated into English); if you wanted to know the latest fashions, you had to know French to read the magazines… and there’s a long etcetera. Even the treaties of Ultrecht, Rastatt, and Baden (which ended the War of Spanish Succession) were written in French, it was the language of global diplomacy and commerce. Think of it as we nowadays think of English: if you’re from Mexico, Congo, Poland, Japan, or wherever, you’re expected to know English and you know that a lot of academic and business doors are going to be closed if you do not speak the language.

Now, let’s move to Britain where  French was considered to be a light, clear Language, and in contrast, English was energetic and warm, therefore both were suited for the Enlightenment agenda. But, also thinking about the conflicts between both countries, many Britons (especially some Tories) dismissed the French language at all, to the point that fluency in any foreign language was reason for mistrust (yeii monolingual patriotism #not), and being bilingual could be a dangerous ability in the age of intrigue, espionage and war.

Philip Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, used French words constantly in his letters, not only was he bilingual but he also managed to be very critical of the French manners and attitudes, like seen here in a 1751 letter to his illegitimate son:

But as the 18th century advanced, the middle class was rising along with their desire to be perceived as refined, they also looked for the learning of French, not to be fluent in the French court, but to raise their social status within Britain itself. This way, French was often taught in schools and at home, along other prized artistic skills like drawing, singing and dancing, being especially important for girls’ education, because boys were supposed to be taught “manly” languages, like Latin and Greek (modern European languages like Italian and French were for women).

French was a way to show polished social graces for the élite and middle classes, but it was not the only reason for desiring to learn: for the ones directly involved with the Industrial Revolution, the French language was a pragmatic choice to have a bigger market in Europe and North America, making business-related French to be learnt by tradesmen, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs, often using self-learning textbooks (like an 18th century Duolingo), like “Grammar of the French Tongue”, by Louis Chambaud (1750), but this could result in a perfect mastering of the reading and writing, and have absolutely no idea about the pronunciation, like the Scottish encyclopaedist William Smellie. This became so important for the industrial cities, that sometimes they favoured the teaching of French over Latin and Greek in schools.

Even with the options of learning, it was widely recognised that to be flawlessly proficient in French, you should live in France for a while, or the services of a native speaker were required. The Grand Tour would be a solution for the first one, making a particular kind of literature to flourish with popular and influential works like Tobias Smollett’s “Travels Through France and Italy” (1766), or John Moore’s “A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland and Germany” (1779). The ultimate purpose of the Grand Tour was for the aspiring gentlemen to acquire cultural refinement, that of course included perfecting their French. Now, being overseas was not always perfectly accepted, because, according to some Britons, some people returned to England as Catholics if they stayed in France for long enough, creating an aversion to their own country (me, laughing in Catholic).

So, to avoid the “dangers” of living abroad, a native speaking teachers were required. These men and women, French teachers at schools and governesses living in British homes, were often émigrés (especially after 1789, because you know, people liked their heads where they were supposed to be), with credentials hard to check, and of course Catholics (terrifying!). And if we add the fact that some of the most famous French people in the 18th century were atheists (Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire), that was even worse.

Anyway, even though the French language was surrounded of misconceptions, and class and education related status, even the most prominent writers, intellectuals, and politicians, could feel insecure and embarrassed by their lack of proficiency in the language. Like Horace Walpole, who despite being educated at Eton and King’s College Cambridge, confessed to Lady Hervey in 1765 that, when chatting in Parisian salons, he was “hampered in bad French”; or Edmund Burke, who in 1791 confided that he was ashamed “of the bad French which I speak”.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Resume:

So, as a resume of all this answer that ended up being a LONG post, here some key facts about the French Language in England during the 18th century:

It was the international language of the 18th century, spoke in European courts, in business meetings, and used for the writing of treaties.

It was considered appropriate for polite conversation.

A sign of refinement, education and sophistication.

Associated to gracefulness and good breeding.

People were supposed to imitate and know the French manners, and use them in few occasions, like while in France, but adapt to the locals in other places.

Since languages were gendered (like taken from r/pointlesslygendered), French was considered effeminate and foppish, being very refined, but lacking strength (of course the Brits did not know what to say after The Terror and Napoleon happened). Girls were supposed to learn modern European languages like French and Italian, and boys would learn “manly languages” like Latin and Greek.

It was a basic in the aristocratic education, and was expected to be learnt and mastered.

Aristocracy would learn French with native speakers at school, at home, or while traveling and living in Europe.

The middle class would learn though books, school, and if was possible, living abroad.

The use of the language chances with class: aristocrats would use French while traveling, in polite conversation at home, and at courts in Europe, especially France; the middle class would use it for business and learning of new technologies and science.

Sources to learn more:

TheHistoryOfEnglish.com

“The French Language and British Literature”, by Marcus Tomalin, Routledge, 2006.

“The long adieu: how Britain gave up learning French“, by Ed West, The Guardian 2016.

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 27 April – Blessed Nicolas Roland (1642-1678) Priest, Canon, Mystic, Apostle of the prayer, the poor, especially children, teacher and Founder of the Congregation of the “Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus” – born on 8 December 1642 in Rheims, Marne, France and died on 27 April 1678 in Rheims, Marne, France of natural causes, aged 35.   He was a friend, contemporary and Spiritual Director of Saint John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719). (Biography here: https://anastpaul.com/2018/04/07/saint-of-the-day-7-april-st-john-baptiste-de-la-salle-1651-1719-the-father-of-modern-education/).

Nicolas Roland was born on the small town of Baslieux-les-Reims in the ancient province of Champagne, 9 kilometers away from Reims, son of Jean-Baptist Roland (1611–1673), Commissioner of the Government and antique merchant.   He was Baptised on 23 July 1643.   His Godfather was his uncle, Fr Matthieu Beuvelet.

In 1650 he joined the Jesuit College at Reims, where he showed an active intelligence and the wish to become a Priest.   In 1653 he obtained the tonsure from Bishop Pouy at the Abbey of Saint Pierre les Dames.   Completing his preliminary studies, he travelled around France for while.

The young student then moved to Paris in 1660 to continue his studies in Philosophy and Theology, staying at the college of Bons Amis.   He joined several pious associations such as the “Friends Association” of the Jesuit Jean Bagot and one of Vincent de Paul.   He  considered joining the Jesuits and was also interested in the work of the Missionaries for a time and considered going to Siam after finishing his doctorate on theology.    But he was appointed to a well-endowed Canonry at Reims Cathedral, before being ordained a Deacon and was highly regarded as a Preacher but realised that his elegant style reached few of the faithful.   On 3 March 1665 he was Ordained a Priest.

In 1666 he left his parents house, moving to a house on Barbâtre Street, in Reims, where he began a life of poverty dedicated to charity.   He established contacts with the Saint Nicolas-du-Chardonnet Seminary where his uncle worked and there he was exposed to the ideas of Adrian Bourdoise, Fr Jean-Jacques Olier (the Founder of the Sulpicians) and the movement for the renewal of the French clergy.   Of all his apostolic activities, education of the poor, was the apostolate to which he was most attracted.

In Rouen he met yet another clergyman passionate about education of the poor, the Minim Blessed Father Nicolas Barre, who arrived in the city in 1659.   Barre had organised a group of men and women who worked in free schools located in several neighbourhoods of the city.   Roland returned to Reims with the intention of starting similar projects there.   On 15 October 1670 a Reims’ orphanage founded by Marie Varlet was entrusted to him and he gradually transformed it into a real school.   He asked Fr Barre to send two teachers from the Sisters of Providence to help.   On 27 December 1670, the teachers, Francoise Duval and Anne Le Coeur, arrived.   Fr Nicolas would later found with them, the Congregation of Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, dedicated to the education of poor and abandoned girls.

In 1672 he met a young Canon, John Baptist de la Salle and became his Spiritual Advisor. They stayed in touch while La Salle studied at the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Roland influenced La Salle to learn a type of spiritual detachment that he later demonstrated when he founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Official Portrait of Nicolas Roland, 1888

After the death of his father in 1673, Roland became more involved in encouraging the growing community of the “Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus.”   On 13 July 1673 he opened the first school of the sisters, at his own expense.   The Order received Diocesan approval and confirmation in 1675.

He wrote many spiritual works and published the “Notices for the regular people”. One of the notices left for the sisters reads:

“The sacred fire must embrace the sisters, it makes them inflame the others and above all the teachers, the students and all the people they come in contact with. That way with their example and edifying words, they will do good as the divine providence wishes. With this fire they will love their neighbour. God does not wish to divide the charity with which we love Him, we must give this one equally to all humanity. This is the principle on which we must encourage the teaching of girls in the schools, not making any distinction of their human and natural qualities.”

The following year he gave all his inheritance to consolidate the young congregation and increased his activities in favour of the poor and all those in any need, gathering a group of Priests around him who assisted in all these endeavours.

On 30 March 1678 he assisted, with great joy, in the first Holy Mass of Saint John Baptist de La Salle.   He encouraged De La Salle to trade his Canonry for a small parish but the Archbishop opposed this move and so the matter remained unsettled for the time being.

On 19 April 1678, he had to stay in bed due to a severe headache.   On the 23rd of the same month he prepared his Last Will and Testament, leaving the administration and care of his Order and their works in the hands of Saint John Baptist de La Salle.   On the 27th he died peacefully at Reims and was buried in the Sisters’ Chapel on the 29th.   Below is his Shrine, relics and the Chapel.   He was only 35 years old and yet he left behind a huge apostolic project, an infirmary, a hostel and four schools.

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Saint John Baptist de La Salle then continued with the final approval of his work and later on followed in his footsteps, founding the Congregation of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools for the Christian education of the poor.

He was Beatified on 16 October 1994 by St Pope John Paul II, who, at the Beatification of Blessed Nicolas said:

“This young Priest, Canon and Theologian of Reims’ Cathedral, friend and counsellor of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and Founder of the Sisters of the Child Jesus… This young man from a middle-class family, well educated, able to see various sides of a question, could have become rich and powerful and a man of distinction. But he was called to follow another course, another route to which he became passionately devoted. He lived in the world of his day, with its poverty and wretchedness, uncertainty and fear, where the rich dominated and the poor never had a say, he found the road shown him by God, a road shown him by and in prayer. And he invited everyone, the young, adults, children, priests to follow the same road and he trained them how to do so. He discovered that “God has so loved the world, that he has given his Son” to teach us how to pray to Him as a son, and how to speak to one another as brothers and sisters. This prayer is given to us in Jesus, by Jesus and with Jesus ……… .. This road is “the life we ​​live”, in which “we converse” , and have ‘relationships.'”

Be our guide Blessed Nicolas Roland

With the heart of a poor man, you gave up position and honour, you gave away your wealth and your health, to come to the help of poor and abandoned children.

With a gentle and humble heart, you, a young man with a vivacious character, managed to unite strength and patience, in order to take on the gentleness of the Child Jesus.

Your heart was often sad to see God so little known, so little loved and to see mankind disfigured. To repeat to everyone that God is love, and His greatness as a son of God, you founded a religious family completely devoted to Jesus in His Incarnation.

Enamoured for justice, you worked endlessly to that the child would be recognised in his dignity To achieve that, you have raised up loving and attentive teachers.

Priest moved by all human wretchedness, enlightened by the merciful love of the Father, you trained your brother priests to show God’s gentleness and to forgive others in God’s name.

Enlightened by the presence of God, your pure heart discovered Him in all kinds of work and in his suffering members.

As a spiritual guide, you knew how to calm anguished souls and taught them how to abandon themselves to God with confidence. You yourself kept calm in spite of trials.

As an apostle with a passionate heart, you suffered because of His name and until the hour of your death, you suffered misunderstandings but all in peace and joy, for the glory of His Kingdom.

Saint of the Day – 27 April – Blessed Nicolas Roland (1642-1678) Saint of the Day - 27 April - Blessed Nicolas Roland (1642-1678) Priest, Canon, Mystic, Apostle of the prayer, the poor, especially children, teacher and Founder of the Congregation of the…

[lawandordersvuimagine]

~~~~Racism and Sexism is Alive and Well~~~~~~

Dear Readers,

Thank you for taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedule to read this. I’m kind of breaking a few of my rules that I have set for myself as the author of this blog.

1) Never reveal any personal information or detail of my life.

2) Never discuss my beliefs or opinions.

3) To only post stories, imagines, one shots etc.

4) To stay completely and totally anonymous.

Today I feel I’m coming as close to some of these without breaking them as I can and others I’m outright throwing to the curb so to speak.

I live near a town in Texas called Atlanta. Atlanta, Texas is very small at only 5,638 as of 2016. It is a town where most peoples families have  lived here for generations. My own family came to this area in 1720 from South Carolina. It’s made up of farmers, oil rig workers, loggers and convenience store workers. It’s not very impressive. It’s a town most just stop in for a bite as they travel if they weren’t smart enough to stop in Texarkana. It’s not a town that should really take up any portion of ones mind but the last couple of weeks it has been on my mind for reasons that I find to be appalling.

 I’d like to introduce you to one Bessie Coleman. She was born in Atlanta, Texas in 1892. The tenth of thirteen children. She grew up working on cotton fields, went to a small segregated school that was a four mile walk and due to her savings running out she returned home after completing one term at Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University, now named Langston University. Early on she developed an interest in flying and went to become the FIRST WOMAN OF AFRICAN AND NATIVE AMERCAN DESCENT TO BECOME A PILOT. In 1916 at the age of 24, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers. In Chicago, she worked as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop. It was here she heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I about flying during the war. She took a second job at a chili parlor to procure money to become a pilot. Since American flight schools of the time admitted neither African Americans, Native Americans nor women, Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad.(Coleman received financial backing from banker Jesse Binga and the Defender.)  So what did she do? This amazing woman who grew up picking cotton saved up her money and went to France.

Bessie Coleman took a French-language class at the Berlitz school in Chicago and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920 so she could earn her pilot license. She learned to fly in a Nieuport 82 biplane. Bessie Coleman became the first woman of African American and Native American descent to earn an aviation pilot's license and the first person of African American and Native American descent to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

As you can probably tell, Bessie Coleman is a hero for African Americans, Native Americans and women everywhere even now in 2018. Which brings me to the point of my horror.

After discovering that such an amazing person came from such an unamazing town I started to inquire of those in charge of the city of Atlanta, Texas why no one spoke of Bessie Coleman. Why do we  have the Hall-miller Airport and not the Bessie Coleman Airport? Which if you ask who Hall-miller was they will tell you while chuckling that they were “Just a couple of drunks who hanged out at the airport” (and yes these “Leaders” of the city of Atlanta used “Hanged” instead of hung). Why isn’t there a scholarship program in her name? Why isn’t a street named after her in Atlantas downtown (even if it is a crummy downtown) Why isn’t the library named after her? Why are there no books about her in the library? Why is the only mention of her in this little town a half hidden small plague hanging in the post office? And do you know the answer they gave with sly half-smiles and disgusting gleams in their eyes? “Well..because she was black and we don’t want the blacks comin’ out at night and messin’ up the airport. They’ll just tear it all up if we let em out here. The sooner Coleman is forgotten the better.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen in this day of modern enlightenment of 2018; a group of old (pretty gross) men sitting around the table at the airport early in the morning with their coffee actually did say that. And all because a small, rundown, joke of an airport is where they like to meet up and lounge around all day.

I cannot adequately express my horror over this. A national hero for African Americans, Native Americans and women is being brushed under the carpet because a group of bigotries are threatened by her memory and the inspiration she would be to so many around here. I strongly believe it is the duty of a people to raise each other up, to inspire, build and fight for each other. I believe in equality with everything that I am. I’ve been called a feminazi before…although it really should be considered a compliment from the kind of person they were. And this agenda that these men have is them trying to form an elite with themselves as the elite. I cannot explain how much the actions of these men including the mayor (as to the new mayor or the old one I’ll keep that to myself) disgust me.

So here is my salute to Bessie Coleman. I truly hope that one day Bessie will get the credit and honor she deserves.