#and when jackie o refused to let the media use her kids in photo ops after jfk was killed my grandma fell in love instantly.

[atopvisenyashill]

apologies if you're not american, but i was watching a youtube video about the kennedy family and their various misfortunes and it just made me think about a twentieth century AU of jaehaerys and alysanne's family. if you didn't know, joseph p. kennedy was jfk's dad and ever since his first son was born, he was pushing for one of his kids to become the first catholic president of the united states. he had nine kids with his wife and pushed all of them to successful in one way or another.

most horrifyingly, joseph had his eldest daughter, rosemary, lobotomized because she was born with an intellectual disability and while she was at a convent, she had snuck out a couple of times and the nuns feared she engaged in pre-marital sexual activity. the lobotomy took away rosemary's ability to speak or walk and joseph had her carted away to an institution and never visited her. rosemary's siblings wouldn't know about the lobotomy until 20 years later. that entire story just made me think of gael, daella, and saera all at once.

Okay first off, i am an american, i wouldn't say i know a LOT about politics but there are a few eras I've read a few books on and gone on wiki spirals over because they're interesting to me personally, and second of all, I THINK ABOUT ROSEMARY KENNEDY AT LEAST TWELVE TIMES A DAY.

I have like, a whole rant that revolves around her that I will spare everyone but omg. Her story is like, breathtakingly horrific, and she isn't the only person to be subjected to this sort of behavior as a form of social control; a lot of women were lobotomized by their fathers and husbands for "unruly" behavior that usually amounted to them either having some sort of mental illness (like bipolar disorder or depression) or were just like, regular horny 20 year olds. The Kennedys in general are insane and I will admit to finding them a bit fascinating because the entire concept of Camelot was essentially just some rich american family attempting to remake the concept of Divine Nobility in the usa? Insane behavior especially when you look at contemporary royals who are often miserable as fuck on an emotional level (which monarchy is it where they're so strict about marrying they're practically gonna die out soon icr but it's like...these people are INSANE why would you want to emulate them, emulate some rich people who don't regularly get guillotined at least damn). But anon, if you're interested in this, one of the podcasts i listen to, behind the bastards, has a two parter on the guy who invented lobotomies and just did a two parter about the kennedys (with a focus on rfk jr, but he went into the kennedys in general). the lobotomy one is real good it made me want to throw up a bit lol.

ANYWAYS. I definitely agree that the Kennedys are a really good modern example of the Jaehaerys & Alysanne era Targaryens. Like, a patriarch attempting to make himself and his family into legendary heroic myths while they're still alive, willing to feed as many children as necessary into the meat grinder if it means getting a leg up, the public having this beautiful idyllic image of them but its all this fake, hand crafted image to hide this incredibly sinister reality. can't have your girls exhibiting sexual agency, but can't let them exist without Serving The Family as baby making machines either, so you punish them for having sex when you don't want to, and when their bodies fail because they're too damn young to have kids, you punish their mothers for grieving. you force your wife to have more kids that you won't take care of, you punish your wife for not wanting to be parted from them, you punish your wife for not wanting them married young, you ensure your sons will never lift a finger to help their sisters, and you play god with your own family and then rage at them when they don't act like puppets on a string for your benefit.