#are not white they are from different cultures AND times

[asha-mage]

The costuming of each of Rand's ancestors is ALSO insane, each iteration of the cadin'sor a step forward towards the one we recognize on Janduin and the modern Aiel, and each reflecting the moment that ancestor lived in:

Charn has simple but well made work clothes that reflect his upbringing as someone form a culture that still practices agrarian farming in a sci fi utopia. It's simple brown that looks more rough and rustic standing in contrast to Miren's sleek white lab outfit, but still contains the hints of modern amenity: his over the shoulder cape, the buttons on his coat and shirt. This is someone who lives in a society where he could be wearing something more clearly modern, but deliberately choose something humble and simple.

Then you have Rhodric in a much sleeker and darker version: the rustic agrarian element has been traded for a straight lines. Everything is imminently practical, from the thick soled work boots, to the leather vest with it's own clip and zippers, to the trousers that allow for range of motion. Rhodric was living through a time of war and now apocalypse. Even his people, sworn to peace, have been altered by the realities of the world they live in, and what their role servants to Aes Sedai, leaders in that war, demanded.

Centuries later, the cadin'sor has been entirely lost, and Jonai is in what we can recognize now as Tuatha'an style clothing, which makes sense since this is where the two cultures split. Gone are the sleek uniform lines of Rhodric was wearing but the deliberate rustic vibe Charn had has not returned. Instead everything is clearly (and messily) hand made. Threads are hanging off a poncho that is clearly hard used. Everything is ill fitting- on Jonai and every one else in this scene. Adan's shirt hangs askew because it's to large while Sulwin's skirt drags in the skirt because it's to long. Their are all these efforts at bright colors and patterning- but their irregular and imperfect. The breaking is taking it's hold and exacting it's price.

Two generations later, Jonai's great grandson, Lewin and his fellows have something that that is first step towards modern Aiel cadin'sor. Everyone had adopted browns and grey, brighter color has been dramatically scaled back, and while stuff still isn't fitting great, it's fitting better. Practicality is back as the main focus, and we see sharp lines return as well. Lewin is the ancestor that most resembles Rhodric, because like with Rhodric he has had to make concessions in himself for the realities of a violent world. The veil appears for the first time, and the colors are now locked in: brown and grey, to match their desert environment.

Jumping forward centuries again to the pre-Clan Aiel, we get Mandein, a sept chief from right before the Aiel cultural identity starts to codify. He is wearing a leather cuirass over a simple linen shirt- the colors are consistent now. and everything is well fitted. The biggest difference is how his rank as a chief is conveyed: he is slathered status symbols, from his cloak, this sea shell necklace, to his spear with special inlay- all things that demonstrate his singular importance in a society grappling with scarcity. Their is also no uniformity when we see the other sept chiefs during the meeting- everyone is styled differently, draped in different kinds of status symbols. The modern Aiel as a culture now exists, but a common cultural identity is still in the process of forming and getting locked in.

And then finally Janduin- post that cultural identity being codified for two thousand years. He and all the other Aiel warriors are uniform with a clear vision- and being influenced by aesthetic sensibilities that incorporate every step backwards through time. A curiass that seems heavily based on the vest of Rhodric and the others during the war period but with the clear underpinning of being real armor like what Mandein wore, a metal buckler strapped to his back right where the Aiel work hats used to hang during Charn's day, and of course, Lewin's veil but also his same basic silhouette and linens. The only one not represented here is Jonai- which makes sense since that is the lowest point in the Aiel's history, reduced to refugees being preyed upon without anything but their oath and each other to sustain them. Most strikingly to me is the complete absence of any status symbol- Janduin leads many many more people then Mandein but his spears are the same as his soldiers, and nothing marks him out as their leader even in the thick of combat...because such symbols are unnecessary. His right to lead, we know, is carved into his arm.

[what-even-is-thiss]

More than once I’ve seen footage of right wing politicians saying “America for Americans” and I know what they mean. They mean straight white English speaking people who were born with citizenship. Which disgusts me.

At the same time though, what’s an American? That’s not a thing with one clearly defined answer. What’s an American? A citizen of the United States? That’s a very narrow definition. American isn’t an ethnicity or a singular static culture. In fact the word American in the way I’m using it and they’re using it is very specific to English as I’m sure my friends from Latin American countries will be very quick to remind me of.

What’s an American? That’s not a thing that can be solidly defined. And with the way they’re using it, does that include the people who were first here before almost all of us? Probably not, considering they blew up parts of some tribes’ sacred land to build their stupid border wall during his first term.

“America for Americans”. What a stupid phrase. An American is all kinds of things and all kinds of people. It’s a thing with a lot of grey area in it. What’s an American? Ask that question to ten people and you’ll get twelve different answers. Shut the hell up.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi there! Do you happen to have any resources on the cultural importance of wigs, especially for Black women? A lot of the Black women in my life wear wigs, and I don't see the topic in your lessons. Thanks!

I mean, I feel like it's in line with the rest of the history of Black hair, which is creativity and expression. I know growing up I heard "even the Egyptians wore wigs" a lot, and those were emblematic of style and wealth (to be able to afford a GOOD quality wig means you got some money, specially these days). The ability to quickly and conveniently change styles for fun (as Black hair can take a long time), and to have a bunch of wigs for any occasion. Protective styles underneath to properly care for the hair and let it rest. Maybe they got cancer or alopecia and are nervous about it.

Some people might have worn straight hair wigs to present "acceptable hair" to white employers without having to press your own natural hair underneath. But even then, some Black women just like having long tresses, to incorporate our own style and expression into it, and that's okay too. But yeah, it's not much different from why anyone else might wear wigs.

(I just wanna say, I'm proud of myself for having called all of this article!)

[rametarin]

For real though

And then they go through that ridiculous, "You know our white supremacist male chauvinist capitalist patriarchy is what does this to the neurodivergent."

Pardon the fuck out of me but back in the late 80s/90s, people knew what autism was. But if you had the wrong views, or takes, then no benefit of the doubt was given; you weren't neurodivergent if you disagreed, you were willfully wrong and therefore evil. Did you touch someone and the social convention says that's bad? They'd make excuses that the reason why you did that was because you were nurtured "wrong" and blahblah patriarchy, again. Thank goodness for our Progressive, Enlightened views, you see, because "we" treat the neurodivergent well, while those evil poop-bad not-us tribe treat the autistic or neurodivergent like animals.

They would make examples of neurodivergent people as just being wrongthinkers and then strut and peen in front of their friends about how they'd "just dunked on the FASH. :^)" while sycophantic, histrionic bandwagoners cry and cheer in moral support while they did it, taking every opportunity to do it as loud and as public as possible.

It was like social guerilla work and bear baiting at the same time, and it was always the higher functioning, socially maladjusted but intelligent ones. Like a rap battler picking out the person with speech impediments and slower wits to "put in their place" and be loud.

And the big fucker of it is, yes, it exists within Leftists (capital L), but specifically, it's the capital P Progressives. It's from a very particular set of practices and values that put shaming and antagonizing someone into submission in view of everyone both to elevate themselves, degrade you, make the surrounding people afraid to say anything or approve of the shaming, and establish a line in the sand about where you're socially allowed to stand before the willfully ignorant mob comes for you.

And while the behavior has similar uses and functions in more right wing type concentrated cultures, such as religious communities of fire and brimstone preachers, it's used under different contexts and for different ends.

This is a weird question, but do you feel like leftists discriminate against autistic people? I'm autistic and though a lot of leftists claim to care about autistic people, a lot of them are also the first ones to call people they disagree with autistic incel neck beards or shame autistic people for not understanding every single nuance of their political beliefs or just straight up invent new social rules faster than anyone could reasonably be expected to keep up with them and blame you if you don't understand them.

absolutely and that is why

leftist and progressive social spaces are about perfectly navigating a very rapidly changing set of rules made so that people will violate them and then be punished for violating them. autistic people are bad at this, and are punished for it.

[blueiscoool]

Ancient Greek and Roman Statues Were Not Only Beautiful But Also Smelled Nice

New research suggests that sculptures were perfumed with sweet-smelling fragrances such as rose and beeswax. In ancient Greece and Rome, statues not only looked beautiful—they smelled good, too.

That’s the conclusion of a new study published this month in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology. Cecilie Brøns, who authored the study and works as an archaeologist and curator at the Glyptotek art museum in Copenhagen, finds that Greco-Roman statues were often perfumed with enticing scents like rose, olive oil and beeswax.

These fragrances were “not merely decorative but symbolic, enhancing the religious and cultural significance of these sculptures,” writes Bill Giannopoulos for the Greek City Times. In some instances, the scents were also applied in ways that helped preserve the statues.

While reading ancient Greco-Roman texts, Brøns noticed a handful of references to sweet-smelling statues. She was intrigued, so she decided to go looking for even more mentions of scented sculptures.

Brøns was surprised to find lots of evidence in texts by Cicero, Callimachus, Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder and Pausanias, among other writers. Several of these texts mentioned anointing statues of Greek and Roman deities—including one depicting Artemis, the Greek goddess of wild animals, in Sicily. Statues of rulers, such as Egypt’s Berenice II, were also perfumed, Brøns finds.

The statues were anointed in different ways. In some instances, they were covered in a mixture of waxes and oils through a process known as “ganosis.” In others, they were coated in olive oil as part of a process called “kosmesis,” which was meant to help protect the sculptures from the elements.

The fragrances would have made viewing the statues not only a visual experience, “but also an olfactory one,” Brøns writes in the paper.

Ancient Greeks and Romans often decorated sculptures with colorful paint, as well as jewelry, fabrics, flowers, garlands and ribbons.

Today, ancient Greco-Roman statues housed in museums are typically stark white and devoid of decoration. But research by Brøns and others suggests that wasn’t always the case.

By the time people in Italy began excavating ancient artworks during the Renaissance, the vibrant pigments had mostly faded away—and any color that had managed to survive quickly disappeared once the statues were exposed to the air and sunlight; cleaning procedures also erased many lingering traces of color.

“Taking their cue from these seemingly unpainted marbles, artists like Michelangelo left their Renaissance sculptures similarly unadorned,” wrote Meilan Solly for Smithsonian magazine in 2022.

The myth of the all-white Greco-Roman sculpture persisted after Johann Winckelmann, an 18th-century art historian and archaeologist, wrote that “the whiter the body is, the more beautiful it is as well. Color contributes to beauty, but it is not beauty. Color should have a minor part in the consideration of beauty, because it is not [color] but structure that constitutes its essence."

But, in reality, ancient Greeks and Romans embraced bold colors, which archaeologists call “polychromy.” Brightly hued paints and embellishments would have created the illusion that statues were alive—and scents would have added to that illusion, Brøns tells All That’s Interesting’s Kaleena Fraga.

“For example, a cult statue of a god or goddess with such decoration placed in a temple, would have given the visitor to the temple the impression that the divinity was somehow present in the temple,” she adds.

By Sarah Kuta!.

[bolters-and-rivets]

I see it like this; all throughout history an ever increasing number of subgroups of society have become more accepted, and when that happens society moves right along to other groups to be shitty to.

there once was a time when being racist also applied just as much to where you came from as it did the colour of your skin. at least up to the early 1900s the Irish and itallians were not considered white races by the definition of the day, but they and other races of whiter skin became gradually more accepted in anglocentric culture and now racism is regarded as something only people who aren't white are subjected to.

warhammer 40,000 takes place so far in our future that it stands to reason by our own real world history that of course queer folk are accepted in M41. Racism likewise seems to have more or less vanished, instead the targets of suspiscion, othering, and bigotry are defined by their removal from the human baseline; so it's the abhumans, mutants and psykers that are the target of humanity's hatred towards their own kin, and allegories alluding to the bigotries of today's society are best applied to those group.

there are probably Queer folk that would make the less inclusive parts of the queer community around today (because we sure as hell aren't perfect either) have screaming conniptions, but at the same time there are probably subsects existing today that have vanished entirely that would have them going "really?" I'm a person commited to acceptence over understanding, so regardless I'd be more than down to share a lho stick and see how they're fucking with gender & sex after 38,000 years of social ebb and wane.

Personally I feel that as the Eldar and their kin are not of our race, our tendency towards bigotry shouldn't be applied to them. they are absolutely capable of bigotry, but it should operate on a different logic that displays their alienness.

Pretty sure there's also a Necron in The Infinite & The Divine who transitions after biotransference, but I can't remember their name

TIL that there's a canon trans Drukhari Wych Succubus. Like actually stated that she used to be male, but after reaching this rank she transitioned into being a female Drukhari and seems to be totally cool with it.

Slay.

[memento-morianon]

(Image description: simple colored drawings of a fat drow with a long tail, titled "Mori's dance friend: Holiday." The drawings include a full body pose of Holiday sitting on a bench, a small doodle of them dancing on a pole, and a close up profile their face. They have short white hair tied in a small ponytail, long facial whiskers, and very pale skin with a slight purple tinge and freckles. Their nose is red and blue like a mandrill nose. They are shirtless in the full body drawings, only wearing dark colored dance shorts, and they have a sunflower tattoo on their right shoulder. They also wear tinted glasses and have three piercings in each ear. End description.)

Need a new dude for a minor plot reason, because Mori needs to have a chat with a friend while he's dancing to take his mind off his anxiety, and the friend he usually hangs out with when he visits the university campus is definitely not a dancer! So now he has a dancer friend.

Holiday is a drow minstrel in the more traditional way. drow have two different types of males: chamberlains and minstrels. chamberlains are the ones who bond with matriarchs and become leaders in the actual cavern colonies. minstrels are the ones who wander the outside world and only visit the caverns now and again. they both go through puberty and gain a powerful instinctive urge to leave their birthplace, but minstrels also go through rapid weight gain to sustain them on their long journeys. they have come to accept many other non-male drow as fellow minstrels over time, and they especially accept half-drow as their own kindred. in the time of the main story "minstrel" has come to mean "drow who live outside the caverns/ drow who live as nomads/ half-drow who don't connect with the culture of cavern drow"

terms of address: ki/kir (though it's easier to use human pronouns in the image description)

minstrels have their own culture, mostly traveling alone but also having permanent camp areas where they keep communal supplies and gather up to exchange stories and information. traditionally, a young minstrel will forsake kir birth name and go on a journey of self discovery to pick a new one. this new name is chosen by finding A Favorite Thing about the outside world. something that really brings joy or comfort in contrast to the lonesome and frightening experience of leaving the caverns. something that helps the minstrel embrace kir new life outside. many half-drow also follow this tradition but keep their new name as a middle name or nickname instead of their main name.

if a minstrel finds a way to claim a personal territory, ki might be able to settle from all the wandering and live in a more permanent home. which is what happened with Holiday, who met Mori as a fellow student in the university dance studio and has now gotten a job as a dance instructor. Holiday named kirself after visiting a gnomish sunflower festival, which is a harvest holiday. ki got a tattoo of a sunflower as a memento of the occasion.

probably not the absolute closest of Mori's friends, but they hang out at the dance studio together pretty much every time Mori is at the university for his regular work and they pass along gossip and chat about things.

Holiday prefers pole dancing, Mori prefers aerial silks. I don't think Holiday is in a long term relationship at the moment, but I do think ki has game and pulls hotties with ease. Look at that physique. That power. Typical cavern drow are aroace by default and only some of them discover they feel attraction when they venture into the world for a time to gain more education and experience. But minstrel drow are usually allosexual by default, and their whole original purpose in the eusocial structure of drow culture is to have sex with random matriarchs so their species doesn't hit another awful genetic bottleneck. Holiday doesn't really visit the caverns much, but ki does enjoy sex. Might have a few casual partners, for fun.

I'll be retconning Holiday into the story for a chapter lol but on my next draft I'll make sure ki is more reasonably present.

[kn11ves]

my comic is live right now!

kyle and rex is an absurdist drama set in a stagnant afterlife where everyone lies, cheats, manipulates, and hurts each other in order to gain political power and admiration from the public.

with characters constantly haunted by ghosts of the past, trying to stay on top of the food chain despite constant betrayals and having their secrets held up above their heads, comes back kyle, from his long stay back as a guiding spirit on earth, to take back reigns of the throne in the inbetween. though much like everyone else, hes got a long list of dirty laundry that many are aching to reveal. there are no real friends here.

⸻

updates every 2 weeks, at 6:30 pm central US time! (SP & ENG)

WEBTOON: english link + spanish link

TAPAS: english link + spanish link

FANEO: spanish link

[bluejay-makes]

Drow kiddos growing up in different cities

[cosmogyros]

It's fucking weird how rude people are about immigration sometimes. And I don't just mean bigots being biased and stuff. I mean that, on a REGULAR basis, people ask me if I'm thinking about "going back to the US". And I'm just like... no? What do you mean "back to the US"? I live in Germany. I LIVE IN GERMANY.

I literally fucking started learning German and obsessing on German culture in high school, then I went to college in the US and majored in German Studies, including two study-abroad programs in Germany, then I moved to Germany for grad school and lived there for three years and worked in various German-speaking jobs while studying, then I had to temporarily return to the US but found a German-translation-based job at the US branch of a German company, and made a bunch of German or at least German-speaking friends in my new US city, and then a few years later I was able to move back to Germany, where I got a work visa sponsored by my employer and a full-time salaried job, and after a few more years I acquired my permanent residency, and soon I'll be applying for citizenship.

And people still sometimes ask me whether I'm considering "going back to the US". Like... dude? Would you ask a Mexican living in the US about their plans for "going back to Mexico"? That is rude as fuck.

Immigration is fucking hard. Why on earth would I have gone through all this shit just to throw it up in the air like "Oh well, never mind!"

[j-esbian]

it is a bit sad to see how many usamericans have internalized the idea that we’re all the same and have no culture or accent diversity aside from “generic american” (manufactured for cable news) “southern” (incredibly diverse btw) and “new yorker”

turn off the tv and go outside

[ablednt]

Granted I have the overall geographical and cultural knowledge of a 4th grader but from what I can tell the nuclear family model really does seem to be a white colonial invention

Different cultures have different approaches but I mainly hear about either large family units where multiple generations support each other and raise their children and grandchildren together or an "it takes a village" approach where children are raised somewhat communally

And I can't really speak on it much or claim that these families were free of abuse or that children aren't often an oppressed group basically everywhere I know of but the way ownership of your children is so engrained into white society is so bizarre

Like once you notice it you can't unnotice it even the most loving well meaning parents don't know what to do about it because everyone is so isolated from their own families and their own communities so you wind up with 1-2 parents who have full legal ownership of their child and are raised in a culture where you don't have personhood until you're 18 and all attempts at self actualization before them are seen as clueless rebellion. Like our culture is so divorced from the concept that a parent is someone who is helping mentor and care for their child so they can thrive as a fellow human being and it's actually so alarming

And ik this problem isn't unique to white and colonized people but it's honestly really soothing to hear about how other cultures approach and view parenting and community as a whole and to internalize it doesn't have to be this way

[irhabiya]

i think my favorite thing that i got out of my medical anthropology elective is how culturally defined health and illness are... very interesting to think about

[faunandfloraas]

inadvertently stopped using my freckle fade cream without thinking.... right around the time i started making gifs of felix.... coincidence?

[aromanticasterisms]

emilie is sooo flower based omg. she was made for me

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

..