#history time with R

[house-of-mirrors]

Today in labor history, July 6, is the anniversary of the Battle of Homestead which happened in 1892 near Pittsburgh, PA. Here's a summary of a lecture I watched about it.

The Steelworkers Union went on strike against Carnegie Steel who, under leadership of Henry Clay Frick, wanted to double hours and half wages. The mill shut down July 1 and the workers had the support of more or less the whole town. The conflict came to a head in the early hours of the morning on July 6, when the hired Pinkerton detective mercenaries tried to make a river landing and force the Homestead mill to open. Historians don't know who fired the first shot, but the workers and townspeople were able to successfully prevent the Pinkertons from taking the town and reopening the mill after several deaths and injuries. The mercenaries were run out of town to the rail station and forced to leave.

Unfortunately, they won the battle but not the war. Soon after, the US National Guard was called in and reopened the mill. Most of the striking workers were fired, the steel and iron union was dissolved, and the company got what they wanted: half pay and double hours. Later on in the early 1900s, a few steel companies were bought together and merged to create the first billion dollar company in the US. The steelworkers Union didn't recover until the 1930s.

So anyway, here's a great holiday for July! Celebrate the spirit of sticking it to the man, support labor issues, and live your life in a way that Andrew Carnegie would hate you

[maliciouscigarette]

The sack of Rome, August 24th 410 CE, colourised.

Art by Psicochurroz

[robotsandramblings]

Hunter & Omega: Firsts & Lasts

~ first hello ~ last goodbye ~ first & last appearance together

**[on-screen / in-show]

[sofusenpai]

i have many thoughts but. my viera in their traditional clothes ^^

[pocketgalaxies]

keyleth: i was part of vox machina

everyone: ohhhh whoaaaa

me: WHAT YEAR IS IT?????

[fearmeeeee]

British museum stop pretending things you stole are yours challenge

[raytorosaurus]

this is another one of the parts of ntlis that really stuck with me :((. part of why it irritates me when ppl overlook the role everyone in the band played to the music's themes and emotions and messages, not only gerard. they all put a lot of themselves into it. it's my chemical romance, not gerard way and the hormones - and lyrics aren't the only way for musicians to express things really deeply and earnestly.

[intersex-support]

Something that has been helpful for me when having conversations about what counts as intersex is to really engage in enquiry about what the label means and how we're using it. To me, it's been more helpful to think through questions like:

What purpose does labeling a variation as intersex serve?

In what ways is societal understandings of "typical" changing?

Why was the label of intersex created and has our use of the label shifted?

What ways are we building intersex community? What do we want intersex community to look like?

How do our experiences of oppression impact our understanding of intersex as a term?

What sources are we drawing from when we develop definitions of intersex?

What is the history of the way intersex has been used?

What ways has intersex community been exclusionary in the past, and is that in line with our current values?

Definitions of intersex have always been tied up with what the medical world decides to classify as differences of sex development, but especially in the past twenty years as intersex community has grown more connected, we've started to have a lot more self-determination in our communities. But I think a lot of people still really have a misconception that intersex is a biological "third sex" that is strictly medically defined, and that there are clear cutoffs between intersex and endosex.

Instead, I'd like to bring in the concept of compulsory dyadism to introduce a framework where intersex is an intentional political label used as a way to build community for the people whose variation of sex characteristics are most impacted by the stigma and violence associated with compulsory dyadism.

Sex diversity is not just limited to intersex people. Even within the boundaries of dyadic/endosex bodies, people have variations like different amounts of body hair, penis size, hormone levels, breast size, as well as things like disabilities affecting any of those traits. For example, very few people actually have all the "ideal" traits that line up with this constructed idea of an endosex body that has the exact "correct" amount of estrogen, the right size chest, the ability to bear children, "normal" periods. Many endosex people might have a variation in one of those aspects at differing times during their life, such as during menopause, for example. And this framework can help us understand how diagnoses such as endometriosis are not intersex, but people might still notice overlaps in certain experiences.

But the reason that not everyone is considered intersex and the reason that having a separation between endosex and intersex is important is because of the stigma and violence associated with straying further and further from that dyadic norm, and intersex is a label used to describe people who are the most impacted by that stigma and violence. We have been socially labeled as "deviating" the most from the "normal" sex binary, and consequentially face intersexism both on a systematic and personal level. Our collection of sex variations becomes located entirely outside of the sex binary, and as a result, we often face curative violence, social stigma, and systematic exclusion from many parts of society.

This definition isn't a perfect definition. I think we need to have room to develop more nuance around the fact that many intersex people might not feel like their experience of being intersex has brought them any personal stigma or violence, as well as understanding that there isn't going to be a universal intersex experience. Even when discussing how intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism compared to endosex people, I think it's important to recognize that within the intersex community, our additional intersecting identities are absolutely going to influence our experiences with oppression and that it's vital to intentionally uplift the members of our intersex community who are most impacted by oppression. In the United States, the creation of the sex binary was an explicitly racist process, and racialized intersex people are subject to additional layers of stigma, violence and scrutiny. (Check out chapters 4-6 in the book Cripping Intersex by Dr. Celeste Orr for a really in depth discussion of how antiblackness and compulsory dyadism are forces behind why the Olympic sports sex testing has pretty much exclusively targeted Black women from the Global South, regardless of whether or not they are actually intersex. Also recommend reading The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Dr Kyla Schuller.) I also have talked with many intersex people who are tired of us always being represented through trauma narratives in the media, and who want us to be able to build a definition of intersex that isn't based around violence or tragedy. And I think that's really important that we also share our stories of intersex joy, and pride, and healing. I think that claiming intersex can be something really radical, and that's super valuable to me.

Overall I think that if we build our discussions around who is intersex on concepts to do with our social and political location, and take into consideration concepts like compulsory dyadism, sex diversity, and disability, we are going to be able to understand why any of it matters better than if our determinations of intersex identity are based solely in medicalized concepts of a third sex.

TL;DR: Although endosex people also have diversity when it comes to sex traits, intersex is still an important label that not everyone can claim. Compulsory dyadism is a force that affects all of us, but intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism and face intersexist stigma and violence for our intersex variations. As a result, intersex is an important label for us to claim so that we can build community and solidarity around our experiences. I think it is better understood as a sociopolitical label that describes the relationship between our biological bodies and the cultures we live in, rather than as a medicalized term that described a coherent "third sex."

other intersex people feel free to add on to this post-I'm only one person without all the answers, and would love to hear other perspectives!

[house-of-mirrors]

Tonight I'm thinking about the time Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show visited England and did a private performance for Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. FL story about rodeo performers when (tw for the article with mentions of period typical racism and colonialism violence)

(Old Charlie is his horse, "described as having 'almost human intelligence, extraordinary speed, endurance and fidelity'")

I cannot describe in words the emotion this makes me feel

Sir? Maam?

[gen4grl]

from artistic mental breakdown to 5 wips simultaneously lmao

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Today I, utterly perchance, learned that a friend and I share a bit of history.

Back in the 1630s, members of our respective families took opposing sides in the 30 Years' War and due to some wartime coincidences, my relative, let's call him "Great-Uncle B", a clergyman of some local power and import, felt threatened by the approaching army in which "Friend's Great-Uncle G" was a prominent-ish military commander, and fled to a place of safety.

The funny thing is, I don't believe my friend is aware of any of this, nor are our families geographically from the same region, so this very likely is the only time they (almost) crossed paths before said friend and I were introduced to each other almost 390 years later at a party.

[archiveofliterature]

thinking about how robin and ramy both have cultural new years (chinese new year and bengali new year)

[hotsugarbyglassanimals]

i feel like this site leaning heavily into the "pedophilia and incest and rape kinks are good" angle lately can be attributed to the mass expulsion of sex workers and black ppl on here ngl

[ql-of-all-time-bracket]

QL of All Time - Round 4 (Loser's Bracket): Why R U? TH (2020) vs HIStory 2: Crossing the Line (2018)

[aj-jesterdude]

yeah…I’m something of a splatoon profreshional….

[riggedbones]

I hope I come off as someone who hates disney. like my frozen corpse drag king persona will be read as satirical right