#charlottemarney

[sansadaynes]

ASOIAF AU: After the chaos of the War of Five Kings and the onslaught of the Army of the Dead wrought havoc across the Seven Kingdoms, five queens of some of the Great Houses of Westeros came together to forge peace across the continent; Asha Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, Shireen Baratheon of Dragonstone, Sansa Stark of the North, Arianne Martell of Dorne, and Myrcella Baratheon of King’s Landing. The Seven Kingdoms separated into the sovereign states they were prior to Aegon’s conquest.

[fanchonmoreau]

harlots, amelia/violet, "because I prayed this word: I want.” (sappho, fragment)

The Bible stories that Amelia tells her aren’t like any ones that Violet has heard before. 

She’s been on the street with the preachers and picked up clients near the churches, so she likes to think she’s heard the lot of it. The virgin birth, the prostitute redeemed, the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. And then, inevitably, hell and fire and brimstone. 

But there’s no damnation in Amelia’s stories.

“Have I told you the one about Tamar?” Amelia asks quietly as she pulls down her scratchy, warm blanket and welcomes Violet into her bed. It’s the dead of night, and Violet has been with johns since sunset. Her body aches from it. 

“Tamar?” Violet echoes as climbs into bed. She reaches for Amelia’s hand but doesn’t get any closer to her. There is something ineffably pure about Amelia that Violet feels she might sully, should she touch Amelia after being with a john. She wants so badly to hold her, but the men she sees, she doesn’t want them anywhere near Amelia.

Amelia takes her hand, and laces their fingers together. “Tamar. Judah, he’s the son of Jacob, promised Tamar his youngest son’s hand in marriage so she can continue the family line. But as the son grew up, it became clear that Judah had no intention of keeping his promise.” 

Violet chuckles. Amelia likes the stories where the women win, and, to be honest, so does she. “So what does she do?” 

“She pretends to be a prostitute,” Amelia whispers. “And she lures Judah in when he is traveling. She gets pregnant, twins. And when Judah finds out she’s pregnant by a man who is not his son, he arranges for her to be burned to death,” she finishes in a delighted hush. 

Violet squeezes her hand. “But?” 

“But as insurance for her fee, Tamar had taken Judah’s staff, seal, and cord. So she brings him these items and says, whoever these items belong to is the father of my children. Thus Judah had to let her live, and he had to acknowledge that she has continued the family line.” 

Violet closes her eyes and leans her head against Amelia’s shoulder. She’s so tired. “She doesn’t marry the son?” 

“No, I don’t think so, in the end,” Amelia says, running her fingers through Violet’s curls. Violet wants to turn away, but she doesn’t have the energy to move. “But her children are the ancestors of King David, who is the ancestor of Jesus Christ.” 

“I would have thought she’d have gone to hell,” Violet murmurs, almost half asleep now. 

“No,” Amelia says. Her voice is soft and sure, and it anchors Violet to wakefulness. “The best way we have to love God is to survive in His world. Even when all the odds are stacked against us.”

Violet draws a tentative arm across Amelia’s waist. She feels Amelia immediately shuffle closer. “Is it?” 

Amelia nods into Violet’s forehead. “Sometimes providing for ourselves and the people we love is an act of great praise for Him.” 

Violet breathes Amelia in. She thinks of the food she’ll buy with the wages she’s earned, the medicine. The little money she’s stashing away for them, to do what with, she’s not yet sure. But at this moment, it seems possible that it might be enough. 

She wraps Amelia in her arms, and holds fast. 

[glorianas]

saturday night vs sunday morning

[buffyboleyn]

charlottemarney replied to your post “Are there good septas in ASOIAF? We get examples of friendly septons...”

it reads like resentment at catholic school nuns probably

YEP. no judgement because it’s justified, but he’s got a lot of that going around. Not very subtle. Yet it feels so misogynistic when the Problematique Institution produces male authority figures that get to be cool sometimes. There’s no p cool lady vanguard of the Seven who means well à la Luwin?  I guess it’s a symptom of GRRM’s general “women don’t have friends/women have friends!??” problem

unlikablefemaleprotagonist replied to your post “Are there good septas in ASOIAF? We get examples of friendly septons...”

it's been a long time since i read the first book, but septa mordane died protecting sansa, right? she might be the exception to the rule

i’d have to go back too. but as much as i remember, joffrey had her killed to isolate sansa/out of spite against house stark in general. that march to the swords was the show’s invention, iirc the show kind of softened her.

On the series’ spectrum of septa okayness, septa mordane is one of the better(?) ones, although that’s obviously not saying much (brienne’s septa: any man that compliments you is a liar! look in the mirror, uggo! now, why is your self esteem so low?). 

sure, septa mordance was a supportive teacher when Sansa was well-performing compulsory femininity - sewing, dancing, gracing courts right. But she was always quick to remind Sansa that she should never question the will of male authority figures. I remember once when Sansa was watching Ned in the gallery and shocked that Ned didn’t send Loras out to take control of Clegane - iirc she frames it not as “your dad make the right choice by not sending out the hothead inexperienced teenager” but like “you should never question your dad’s choices no matter what.” and when Sansa is obviously made uncomfortable by Littlefinger’s leers at the tourney, Mordane reminds her of her manners and to respect his station. And of course, there’s her unconstructive criticism of Arya (”blacksmith’s hands”). 

Septa Mordane isn’t actively abusive like Brienne’s septa, but she does acts as the passive voicepiece for patriarchal pedagogy. just Doing Her Job to shape the Stark girls into good feminine examples for the house and ruling class hegmeony. Septa Mordane kind of passes the very low septa bar of “never actively sexually humiliated her charge, just groomed them to be vulnerable to male authority in that general way” into being okay septa representation

[calamity-bean]

re your last post, another key difference i'd add between wife and mistress is that it was really, really hard to get rid of your wife unless she'd done something incredibly scandalous (public adultery, for instance) but /incredibly/ easy to get rid of your mistress. i'm not exactly sure how far reaching contracts were but like, men def got rid of their mistresses pretty much when they got tired of them so really easy to fall into penury once you reached a certain age, even w a keeper.

of course, like you said, a kept mistress had her own property so if she saved well (keeping expensive presents, for example) that could definitely help but we saw george howard and haxby believing charlotte didn’t have the right to take her gifts since the relationship was over + being a high class courtesan in itself required such a lavish lifestyle (see: charlotte’s gaming debts) that it doesn’t seem like much of a recipe for long term security.

This is really good input, thank you!!! So, that added security is another benefit to put on the wife’s side in wife vs. mistress, and I suspect that the danger of precisely such a scenario is why Margaret is so insistent upon the importance of a contract that includes the provision of a pension in the event of the keeper setting his mistress aside. I’m hazy here, but as far as I remember, Charlotte never actually signed the contract with Howard, right? Just kept stringing him along? If she had, and if that contract had included a pension, I wonder whether that would have made a difference after their relationship was over. Like you said, the end of that relationship leaves Charlotte in a bad place financially — she’s been living very lavishly, and now she has no access to all those expensive gifts … but since she cheated on Howard with Haxby, would Howard have considered any hypothetical contract between her voided by her, and thus any hypothetical promise of a pension void as well?

I was sort of thinking about that as I answered the previous ask, because even under the best of circumstances, even if a mistress had a contract and was supposed to get a pension and her keeper set her aside with no wrongdoing on her part … How much of a guarantee is there that he would honor that pension? Would the woman have any legal recourse if he chose not to? I honestly have no idea, but it’s something I’d be worried about if I were the mistress. So that’s another ugly reality complicating Margaret’s plan.

[medievalcat]

hmmmm history tumblr

 I’ve learned a lot of interesting stuff and met cool, well informed, smart, funny, nice people who I enjoy interacting with (or if I don’t “know” them I enjoy seeing what they put out there whether its pretty gifs, information that I wouldnt know otherwise maybe from topics I don’t know, or memes….I love a history meme) I think that there’s a lot of discussion here that’s interesting? I find a lot of the “what if” scenarios that are often proposed in historical topics I’ve interested in are discussed in nuanced and interesting ways here…a lot of fun imaginings of what it would be like if x topic got the movie/show it deserved….a lot of good ppl in this bar

[summoneryuna]

charlottemarney replied to your photoset: asoiaf edit ↳ Princess Elia Nymeros Martell...

what are these gifs of her in period costume from??

the french film sophie’s misfortunes and the spanish film finding altamira!!! 

[carterhaughs]

Poldark

1. My opinion of the show in less than 5 words: misogynistic failure of imagination2. If I approve of the ending: rewriting the ending myself so nope3. If I ever re watch it: I rewatched Elizabeth and George (separately and together) scenes all the time and dislike anything with Ross in it, which is the rest of the show. Used to love the promise of all the characters in season 1 but can no longer rewatch it like I used to because of how much I loathe Ross. I’ve distanced myself from the show for a while because I’m so bitter and furious about it (and will never watch new episodes again) but my love for the characters hasn’t waned in the least bit and I intend to keep writing for them. The show and its subsequent character assassination beyond season 2 is dead to me. 4. Who my favorite character is: Elizabeth Warleggan (and HOW!)5. Who my least favorite character is: Gross Poldick, the most hypocritical and frankly evil protagonist framed as a hero I’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of enduring6. My favorite scene: this will have my heart forever and ever7. My favorite romantic pairing: George/Elizabeth8. My favorite non romantic pairing: George/Francis, George/Caroline, Elizabeth/Caroline, Elizabeth/Demelza, Elizabeth/Verity, Elizabeth/Dwight…just my favs getting to have the friends the narrative denies them lol

Put a movie or TV show in my ask

[rizahmad]

charlottemarney replied to your post: don't cancel tom yet! it looks like he's just...

and he wrote that role for himself! (the character is native american not black but like…. just as bad.)

omg i thought it was only him appropriating native american mysticism my bad,,, lmfao gj tom

THATS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING THO LMAO LIKE NO ONE WAS FORCING HIM TO DO THAT...EXCEPT HIMSELF

trust no one not even your subconscious edgy racist ass

[sansadaynes]

That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. You will not rob me of my birthright!

ft. Yara Shahidi as Young!Arianne Martell

[thewritingpossum]

@charlottemarney

Mike Ashley. I bought his book a couple of years ago for like 3$ (new, in a library where they overprice things and it’s a huge ass book. I should have know better) and never read it. Turn out I really could have live my whole life without reading it but now that I started, I need to finish to see how bad it get. 

[glorianas]

charlottemarney replied to your post: lauramoon replied to your post: ...

……same

lil me watching early s2 brutus totally Fucked from killing ceasar: i don’t really understand this but i like it

[marzipanandminutiae]

What's up with Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton though?

Okay, so this is something I didn’t even know until after I’d experienced full-force Hamilton mania. The show is brilliant, obviously, but something about the women in it kind of didn’t sit right with me. “Me, I loved him?” That’s all these women who were instrumental in the founding of an entire country get to say and be in the whole show? 

I got curious and started researching, and I stumbled upon this very interesting article contrasting the real Schuyler sisters with the versions present in Chernow’s biography, and by extension in Hamilton. I was surprised to learn that Eliza was described by her contemporaries as impulsive, with a “strong character...bursting through at times in some emphatic expression.” Kind of sounds like a far cry from the soft-spoken, idealized domestic angel in the musical. And then I read in that article that Chernow had an unfortunate tendency to conflate Eliza with his own late wife.

So, to me, the case of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton is a perfect example of the point in that post by @charlottemarney. Readers shouldn’t be able to tell which female historical figures a straight male historian wants to have sex with- or, in this case, reduces to a paragon of traditional femininity to be placed on a high pedestal.

(Also, a number of Hamilton’s best speeches were written in her handwriting. Whether that means she wrote them herself or acted as an unpaid secretary, the effect is still the same- she did a hell of a lot more for her husband and the cause of American independence than just “love him.”)

[calamity-bean]

@charlottemarney replied to your post “so i was reading the comments on a Harlots article and”

i googled bc i was curious what terrible pics there were and now i'm looking at bunny and the bull stills and wheezing

NO, THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I INTENDED, LET THE POOR MAN REST

@meridaweasley replied:

I think it's the wig? It's not doing him any favors (imo). In the other photos of him, the short hair gives more prominence to his cheekbones. Also, his hair has always appeared a bit unkempt to me?

The hairstyle is ... not his most flattering, and yeah, it’s probably a significant factor here. That and the fact that Haxby literally never stops scowling. But even so, I honestly don’t think it’s terrible? Like, it’s no perfectly fwooshy John Segundus hair, but it’s really not bad. I've actually grown rather fond of the wild, floofy curls. They’re fun! And while they’re not best for his forehead shape, I don’t think they detract from his mouth / nose / eyes / general face region.

The scowling, though. That’s probably not helping. I wish Haxby would, like, legitimately smile. Just once.

[medievalcat]

charlottemarney: i read this as obama and the cheeseboy

hbo has changed so much

[blackinperiodfilms]

Fancasting: Regé-Jean Page as Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

Alessandro de' Medici (22 June 1510 – 6 January 1537) called "il Moro" ("the Moor"), Duke of Penne and also Duke of Florence (from 1532), was ruler of Florence from 1531 until 1537. [x]

Officially, Alessandro was the illegitimate son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino (1492-1519), but it was rumored that Lorenzo’s cousin Giulio (later Pope Clement VII), had fathered him. Alessandro’s mother, Simonetta da Collevecchio, was allegedly a Moorish slave who had worked in the household of Lorenzo and his parents during their exile in Rome.

As the first of the Medici to be installed as a hereditary ruler of Florence, Alessandro has received surprisingly little study. Historians have criticized his rule for its severity, but contemporaries were more favorable. They commented on his political skills, spontaneous generosity and concern for the poor, as well as his informal style of leadership. Like other members of the Medici dynasty, Alessandro was also a patron of the arts. [x.] 

                                        ~ Inspired by charlottemarney ~

                     Who do you think should play Alessandro de' Medici?