#religous persecution

[swiftsnowmane]

Informed sources told Radio Farda that ten Baha’i women sentenced to lengthy prison terms by the First Branch of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court, presided over by Mohammadreza Tavakoli, endured various forms of “psychological torture” and “threats of physical torture” during their detention.

According to information received by Radio Farda, these women were threatened with “rape, sexual assault, fingernail pulling, sitting on an electric chair, and being scalded with boiling water” while being interrogated in the Intelligence Office building in Isfahan.

On October 23, 2023, Radio Farda reported that Yeganeh Aghahi, Yeganeh Rouhbakhsh, Negin Khademi, Shana Shoghi-Far, Mozhgan Shahrzaei, Parastoo Hakim, Arezoo Sobhaniyan, Neda Badakhsh, Neda Emadi, and Bahareh Lotfi had been detained by security forces in Isfahan and, after about two months, were released from the women’s prison in Isfahan.

The Isfahan Revolutionary Court’s First Branch sentenced eight of these women to ten years in prison and a fine of 100 million tomans, while two others received five years and a fine of 50 million tomans. Additionally, they all received two-year bans on leaving the country and using social media.

Torture and Threats of “Rape and Death” During Interrogation

Radio Farda’s information reveals that interrogators in Isfahan’s Intelligence Office used items such as “mobile phones and interrogation papers” to strike the women’s heads and faces to force them into making confessions against themselves, other detained women, and even family members and friends.

Based on the information received, interrogators from the Isfahan Intelligence Office, on multiple occasions, showed detainees boiling water and threatened to throw it on their faces. Instead, they splashed the contents of a bottle of ice-cold water on their faces.

In some cases, the interrogators placed an “electric chair” in front of these women, warning them that if they did not confess to “dictated statements,” they would be forced to sit in it and receive “electric shocks.”

The women were also reportedly subjected to hearing “sounds of other women being tortured,” with one instance designed to make a detainee believe another woman had died under torture.

According to these audio files, during the separate transfers of these women from the Isfahan Women’s Prison (Dolatabad) to the Intelligence Office building for interrogation, and in the interrogation rooms, no female officers were present. Instead, two or three male officers repeatedly threatened these women with “harassment and even sexual assault” through their behavior.

Based on information obtained by Radio Farda, “a male interrogator would sometimes get so close to these women that they could even feel his breath.”

Additionally, during the interrogations, which often lasted “over 12 hours,” if these Baha’i women requested to change their clothes due to temperature changes, the interrogators forced them to change their clothes in front of them.

Psychological Trauma Remains

Informed sources reported to Radio Farda that nearly ten months after their temporary release, some of these women are still grappling with psychological trauma from “torture threats and detention.” Some have developed “post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD), experiencing anxiety, flashbacks, and nightmares triggered by daily sounds or events.

Accordingly, several of these women have developed “post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD). They continue to experience flashbacks to the interrogation and detention scenes when they hear loud noises or encounter excitement in daily life, leading to restlessness and nightmares.

“Post-traumatic stress disorder” can occur after direct experiences of death, death threats, rape, sexual harassment, and similar events. Despite treatment, it may persist with the affected person for life.

Informed sources told Radio Farda that one of these women lost “more than five kilograms” after her release and began “medication treatment nine months later to help her return to a normal life.”

Additionally, the intensity of the “torture threats” and interrogations during detention has left one of these women “terrified of hearing her full name,” as it brings back interrogation images.

Moreover, due to the pressures experienced in detention, this woman has developed “memory issues,” struggling to recall certain events and retain some information long-term.

Confiscation of Property for the “Fund for Muslims”

The First Branch of the Revolutionary Court, in its ruling against these women, has ordered the confiscation of their mobile phones, laptops, all digital devices, any jewelry and gold they possess, as well as any amount of U.S. and Australian dollars they have, “for the benefit of the Fund for Muslims.”

The court has also sentenced eight of these women to pay a fine of 100 million tomans each, and the other two to pay a fine of 50 million tomans each.

Additionally, at the time of detention, any property deeds found in these women’s homes were also confiscated.

A few months after their detention, representatives from the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, which operates under Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, visited the family home of at least one of these women, whose deed had been seized, to inquire about the property’s ownership.

Ownership of many lands and properties confiscated from Baha’i citizens has been transferred to the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order Headquarters following confiscation by the Revolutionary Court.

Based on this, there is concern that, in addition to the seized assets, the Revolutionary Court is attempting to confiscate the homes of these citizens in favor of the mentioned Headquarters.

Last December, the Baha’i International Community reported that, two months prior, the Islamic Republic’s security forces had arrested “40 Baha’is” and searched the homes of “nearly one hundred Baha’i families” in various cities across Iran.

On August 1 of this year, 18 United Nations reporters and experts emphasized in a letter the intensifying persecution of Baha’i women in Iran, highlighting that they face double discrimination for being both “women and Baha’is.”

The authors of this letter described the Iranian government’s actions against Baha’i women as “systematic,” citing cases of arrests, summons for interrogation, disappearances, home searches of Baha’i women, property confiscations, travel restrictions, and extended detentions.

This past May, the Revolutionary Court in Isfahan sentenced an additional 15 Baha’i women to a total of 75 years in prison on charges of “promoting” Baha’i beliefs.

Despite the presence of 300,000 Baha’is in Iran, the Islamic Republic does not officially recognize the Baha’i faith. Iranian authorities have repeatedly labeled Baha’is as “spies and enemies,” issuing numerous rulings over the past four decades for executions, arrests, imprisonment, denial of education and business rights, and the destruction of homes and cemeteries of Baha’i followers.

[mychemicalraymance]

i’m really curious to see the connections between gerard and joan of arc that people make, because their interest seems twofold, but i see a lot of people only making the connection of like gender non conformity (which is there!!! and huge). but to me, a larger part of it is like.... the intermixing of contemporary reaction and myth (and like, martyrdom) with a modern context of what was probably “going on” with her. i also think it’s important to not dwell on christian symbols TOO much when making these connections, because while the root of this is a connection from mental illness to a certain sense of spirituality that comes from ideas within christian mythology, i don’t think any of the notions here are meant to be taken as fundamentally christian concepts, or that gerard necessarily believe joan’s crusade to be righteous in the fact that it’s christian. i think we can take the baby out of the bathwater here. 

Gerard is a spiritual person, and like,  seems to have a huge relationship with christianity (obviously, and a very catholic, righteous one at that). I think in that quote where he is describing joan of arc as “probably fucking crazy” and touched by the hand of god at the same time is really important. The connection he seems to make with his own mental illness and a sort of chosen-one narrative feels directly influenced from his understanding of stuff like this, of apostles and oracles, etc. We know he later on  connected Maya the Psychic with a personal experience of auditory hallucinations (though the major source i can find on this is the genius annotation with a link to a concert video where he doesn’t actually say what the annotation is claiming, so it’s up for debate?). It feels like you can make a much deeper connection between the two (gerard and joan) when considering the fact that he seems to be overlapping and mixing the idea of being a spiritual and religous martyr with being a mentally ill person who feels so strongly about something that they make themselves a target for what is right. i feel like gerard perhaps understands or understood himself as someone who in a previous era would be receiving visions and then being persecuted for it. that makes themes of like revenge and mortality also tie in nicely to the joan narrative but that’s probably less related. 

I think it’s not uncalled for also to draw out a discussion of gerard’s gender non conformity as a sort of “martyrdom” via the hands of the popular consensus. Like to me it really feels like gerard being so sort of flagrantly a target in the public understanding of mcr in order to be a figure for gay and/or fucked up teens is like. his noble cause that he was burned at the stake for. like literally a social martyr for the cause! i think he knew that the whole time. and if he wasnt doing that he didn’t want to do it anymore. 

so like to me joan is more of a philosophy than anything else to gerard, and there’s far more loops than just the fact that the two sort of overlap in terms of androgyny or gerard has an interest in her. and gerard HAS become a myth to us just like joan. gerard did sort of burn at the stake a little bit and you can honest to god see people understand gerard either as “Gerard” or like the person he actually is day to day. and “Gerard” is Joan of Arc. the gerard that isn’t aligned with the way we see him in terms of mcr isn’t “Gerard” to a lot of people, which is why you see people reacting to recent mcr so strongly, he’s “Gerard” to them again, and it’s like seeing a dead saint. 

[pizzapasta23045]

@kaeyapilled

ON KHAENRI'AH BEING AMERICA-CODED

Now! On pros.

Militiriziation, obviously an aspect that is very important to both Khaenri'ah and America, they both have just a looooooooooooot of military involvent and shit and that's... a thing...

Hotpot of cultures, people who got to the country due to religious persecution (arguably). They also seem to have a similar level of cultural unification, in the sense that people from the original bloodline have adapted some custums of the refugees and viceversa. They both have a "base" national culture and a looooot of diversity within it.

"The dream", America of freedom in general, Khaneri'ah of freedom from fate and the gods.

On cons.

Aristocracy, Khaenri'ah seems to have very strong aristocracy and a monarchy that does not appear to be even constitutional accorrding to current lore. America is about fredoom rahhhhhhhhhhh and shit.

Religous persecution, Khaenri'ah was persecuted religiously for most of it's history, America only in the beginning, before basically becoming one of the religious oppressors themselves and influencing most of the western world.

International power, Khaenri'ahns are not respected by the average Teyvatian, Americans are often seen as "living the american dream" by pre-internet generations and are envied (this is also a bit based on my prospective as a mainland italian, so a lot of people from my country moved to Italy FOR the american dream). The people who go to Khaenri'ah are major outliers.

[arizonaconservativegal]

I'm trans and it upsets me that you want peopleto persecute me and my kindfor the sake of their own religous beliefs. Just admit your a bigot already. You dont' careabout people been forced to serve WBC or whatever you only care abouthurting lgbtq people.

That's funny, I don't remember saying or even thinking any of that. You can actually take my comments at face value. They're pretty straightforward and there's really no ulterior motive here.

... athough there is one more thing - I don't like bullies

[a-simply-simping-simp]

I love how if a christian simply states that LGBTQ is a sin and against God's will, like not shaming or condeming or insulting the person nor the group, but just not agreeing or engaging in their activities, they are immediently the scum of the Earth and become a Judgy jerk. I also love that if literally anybody mocks and belittles the christian faith and scorns it and it's believers while dragging our traditions, holidays and saviour in the dirt while marketing it as some fat old man with a sack of presents, a dumb mutant bunny that lays eggs, or even using the symbol of peace from our God as their sign of pride, most less out of spite than others I will 100% admit, it's just funny and totally acceptable. Oh wait, no. I don't love it. I hate it. I hate it a lot.

I hate how God is a banned topic of discussion in public.

I hate how we are forced to agree to something people know we cannot support or we are labeled as disgusting.

I hate how saying Jesus loves you is an insult to people.

I hate how christian social persecution is so popular yet so unrecognized because it is a big religoun.

I hate how people always feel the need to throw shade and hate to the majority groups simply because of a past and a minority they possess.

I don't just mean christians, I mean all of them.

I hate how everybody dogs on white people because their ancestors used to be racist.

I hate how they are denied the rights to experience other people's cultures simply because of their skin.

I hate how minority groups sometimes abuse and missuse the hard work of their ancestors by using their skin color as a pass to say and do anything.

I hate how every tiny inconvenience ends with a "because I'm XYZ" when it has nothing to do with XYZ.

I hate that I have to tell people of my OWN race that they should stop being jerks to white people and stop picking fights with them if they want to put weave in their hair.

I hate how people think it's ok to say racist things about white people but when a white person says something to you, it's a problem.

I hate how black people can take on "white" characteristics but when a white person does it it's gross.

I hate how people only see two races when there are so many more.

I hate how it's all about black rep, and I love that I do, but when it takes it too far and now anything not containing a black person in it is discriminatory.

I hate how people expect anime and gaming industries from eastern countries to show black people when the people in the region are majority asian.

I hate how people are ok blackwashing characters but not whitewashing them, or even making them lightskinned.

I hate how people blackwash characters that are ALREADY A MINORITY like in anime because the characters are ASIAN.

I hate how people refuse to give representation to races that aren't black, like Eastern asians, southern asians, island pacificers, hespanics, middle eastern, etc.

I hate how when people say we are in a world where we have started accepting our differences, they are lying.

They are lying because accepting and ignoring are two different things.

Accepting them would be talking about things we don't agree on in regular conversations, welcoming friendly debate, not having to be afraid to say something out of fear of not agreeing with a social norm, not facing social persecution.

Today we do not have that.

Today we ignore our differences.

We avoid religous talk, political talk, saying we dislike a movie everyone else loves, saying we like a genre nobody else likes, hobbies other's could find a little odd like, mentioning family situations, mentioning, disagreeing with social norms, and so much more.

I hate it so much.

And I hate that the world doesn't hate it.

[honeyfromtherockblog]

Cornerstone

A few days ago I was reading in my Bible I was reading in Acts 4 and in vers 11 a certain cornerstone gets mentioned. While reading I didn‘t bother to understand that vers, I kind of just flew over it. After reading in Acts I wanted to read a little bit in psalms, i started reading psalm 118 and in vers 22 again the cornerstone got mentioned . Coincidence? I think not! God wanted to show me something for sure.

The question is…what does the Bible mean by the cornerstone ?

Let me tell you a story. There once was a Landowner who had a vineyard. He rented the vineyard to farmers and then he moved away. When harvest time approached he sent some of his servants to to the tenants to collect the fruit. The tenants killed his servants, this happended until he had to sent his only son ,because ’maybe they will respect him‘ he thought, but the tenants killed his son too. This parable was told by Jesus (matthew 21:33-46), he doesn‘t finish the story but he lets the listeners guess the ending. They tell him that the only logical thing is for the lanowner to do is to bring those wretches to an end and rent the vineyard to new tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. In the parable it is really obvious that the landowner is God our father and that the son is Jesus our saviour, but who are the first tenants? The tenants are religeous leaders such as pharisees,or religeos people in general, that don‘t accept Jesus. They don’t bear good fruit and reject the sevants and the son. But who are the servants? By the sevants Jesus means prophets or people that serve his kingdom in general. A good example is John the baptist, because he was a great prophet of God but the religeous leaders rejected him. The final question is ,who are the new tenants? The new tenants are the deciples and the church. The new tenants are the people that accepted the son and the servants. We are supose to be the new tenants. You might think to yourself now „but what does that have to do with the cornerstone?“. I have a vers for you: 1 Peter 2:6-8. Jesus is being compared to a cornerstone. He is the stone that the buildes (wicked tenants) rejected. Jesus is the cornerstone he is the fountation that we need to build on. If we reject him we can not be saved. There is no way to be saved but through him. We shouldn‘t be like the wicked tenants /the builderst that rejectet the son /the stone. Ephesians 2:20 explains this so good, better than i ever will. Jesus is the most important part, he is the cornerstone and the foundation,he is the way the truth and the life. He is the cornerstone that got rejected, that got persecuted and cricified.

I also have to think of the the parabel of the two men, one of them bulids his house on sand and the other man builds it on the stone. But when the storm came the house that was build on the sand was destroyed , but the house that was build on the stone was still standing. If we build our house without Jesus (the stone) our house will be destroyed. But if our foundation is Jesus our house will stand strong.

Conclusion: Jesus should be the most important part in our life. He should be the oune to hold it together, he should be the foundation. If we reject thene and don‘t accept him and don‘t build on him we are like the wicked tenants. He is the firm foundation.

Verses: psalm 118:22– matthew 21:41– acts 4:11– genisis 49:24– 1 peter 2:6,7,8– mark 12:10– ephesians 2:20– romans 9:32– matthew 7: 24 I want to encourage you to read these verses to get a better pictue of what i mean, because the living word of God can speak to you too.

Thank you for reading :) i hope I inspired you, have a great day <3

Jesus loves you <<<<<333333

Pls ignore spelling or grammar mistakes

[fromdusttosoil]

actually i am very glad that i get to live in a place that's majority non religous. It's a liberating feeling to know that i am free to live my life without ever really coming into contact with religion in a daily basis.

But i am also hyper aware that my family personally had to suffer for me to feel this way. That is one of the things that sometimes spoils the peace for me. Because i know that for me to be free from religion, religous people were persecuted.

[tigara666]

Authoritarian Capitalism

Some contribute more than others! Men contribute more than women! Admit that everything you believe in is wrong! 

Denmark is not a socialist country. I know because I have been persecuted by the state because of my beliefs. 

Women represent something meaningful to me. They are sacred. I tend to respond to women better than men, especially if they are in a position of authority. 

This has often been noticed by educators, co-workers and people working for the state.

I cannot count the number of times authorities have demanded that I admit that everything I believe in is wrong. They have even entered my home with the assistance of the police and forced me to make such an admission. 

I didn’t really care and pretended to agree and went on with my day like nothing had happened. I did not change my beliefs or behavior. They were baffled that I seemed to be unmoved by it. 

This has been going on for years. They seem to track me and show up when I’m in public and scream at me that I need to admit that everything I believe in is wrong. The police has confronted me but I’ve always managed to shake them off. 

Misogyny is not only tolerated by the state, it’s actively encouraged. 

They often stage these little rituals where they humiliate women because “men contribute more”. They do this to provoke intervention and then will force whoever dares to admit, that everything they believe in is wrong. 

Religious freedom does not matter. 

Free speech does not matter. 

All that matters is that they are more, don’t you dare express yourself or your individuality, bow your head, feel ashamed that you’re not more and do what you’re told. 

Be respectful towards women and everything you believe in is wrong. 

Stand up for yourself and everything you believe in is wrong, because they are more. 

Express any opinion or discomfort with any inequality and you’re told that some simply contribute more than others and they know best, because they are more. 

I’ve ignored and disregarded this for years because i found it so ridicules that I couldn’t take it seriously. 

Unfortunately I ended up working for the state and it all got a little too close.

I can no longer ignore this. 

Dear state. 

Some contributing more than others is OK. 

But Capitalism is about more than that. 

Capitalism is respect for individuality, free speech, free expression, and religious freedom. Capitalism should be about freedom and respecting peoples right to live their life however they choose, but this you deny, because you answer only to those who are more and shit on the others.   

[todaysdocument]

Philip Cowen went on an undercover mission to the Pale of Settlement in Russia to discover the cause of increased Jewish immigration from Russia to the U.S. His findings revealed appalling and unremitting persecution. Report (p. 1, 7 of 193), 12/31/1906.

Series: Subject and Policy Files, 1906 - 1957

Record Group 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004

Transcription:

New York, December 31st, 1906.

                                                                           SUBJECT:

                                                                                   Immigration from Russia.

[in pen #50,274]

Hon. Frank P. Sargent,

   Commissioner General of Immigration,

                                 Washington, D. C.

Sir:-

        I was directed by you to proceed to Europe to study the

subject of immigration to the United States, the special terri-

tory assigned to me being Russia.  I did this in light

of instructions contained xxxxxxx Department Letter No. 50,724

July 18th, 1906, and the personal instructions you conveyed to

me.

        I sailed from the United States on the steamship Kaiserin

Auguste Victoria on August 17th 1906, stopping over at Ply-

mouth to get some information in London.     While there I went

to Southhampton and Liverpool, then proceeded to Paris and, via

Cherbourg, to Hamburg on the Steamship Pennsylvania.   I visited

Bremen, Berlin and Konigsberg, proceeding thence to Russia via

Eydtkuhnen, after going to Bayoren, Memel, Tilsit and Insterburg.

Excepting St. Petersburg, Libau and Riga, my travels in Russia

were limited to what is known as the Pale of Jewish Settlement,

and even there I was unable, for lack of time, to go further

east than 31 degrees longitude, which would be a line run

from St. Petersburg, through Kief to Odessa.  This includes

about one-half of the territory in the fifteen (15) governments

comprising the Pale of Jewish Settlement, aside of Poland.

        I had planned, besides stopping in each of the governments

of the Pale, to visit the Jewish agriculturalists of Kherson and

Ekaterinaslaw, and the German agriculturalists of Saratov, whence

many are now coming to the United States, and also those sections

of Russia outside of the Pale of Settlement, as the Moscow,

Smolensk, and the Pskov governments, where many Jews have been

permitted to locate.       But as soon as I got into Russia I

found I would have to modify my plans considerably.  For one

thing, the deliberation that marks the life of the people in that

country, in decided contrast to the rush and bustle of the German

and English speaking peoples stood as a bar to rapid work.   To-

                                                                                                                  1 [handwritten]

[page 2]

I.   The exceptional laws against the Jews.

     II.   The efforts of the Government to Russianize

           Russia.

     III.  The pogroms, or uprisings against the Jews

            and the Intelligenzia of Russia.

     IV.   The political, Social and Economic condition

            arising from the foregoing causes, as well

            as from the effort to change the present

            form of government.

     V.   The expulsion of Russian Jews from Germany.

     VI.  The opening of direct passenger traffic be-

            tween Russia and New York.

     VII.  The prosperity of the United States.

     VIII.  The presence in America of a large Russo-

              Jewish population.

     IX.    Various other causes:  The limitation of

              employment open to the Jews; their relig-

              ious observances; the attitude of the Pol-

              ish workmen to their Jewish associates;

              the entry of the Poles into Business; the

              Effect of Pogroms on Business; the Introduc-

              tion of machinery.

1.     THE EXCEPTIONAL LAWS AGAINST THE JEWS

        These, known as the May Laws, were promulgated

May 3rd, 1882.  The two vital paragraphs read as follows:

        (1)  As a temporary measure and until a general revi-

        sion has been made in a proper manner of the

        laws concerning the Jews, to forbid the Jews

        henceforth to settle outside the town and town-

        lets, the only exceptions admitted being in those

        Jewish colonies that have existed before, and

         whose inhabitants are agriculturalists.

                                                                                                                7 [handwritten]

[soulrider-elena]

Thats an interesting thought about the soulrider part

( Also love your AU )

I was just thinking that if Jon Jarl was not there then the Druids would begin to look like some kinda satanist cult and around the medieval times they would probably be hunted and snuffed out. (somewhat)

Along with that the soulriders would be seen as a good force if they where helping around, but in medieval times it really didn't matter to the churches. If they thought you had something to do with witchcraft or any other magic besides the power of God, that was it for you. And if they did take out the Druids ( or most of them) for being a satanic cult then the SR would have no one to help them and if any remaining Druids did try they would possibly go through the same torture methods and persecution.

There could be possibilities for anything to have happend around that time but Id like to keep in mind that medieval was the '' Dark ages '' so it wasn't all the glory in what we see today ( dragons, knights, princess, ect. ect. ) it was filled with hunts for anything ungodly and torturing whatever the religious leaders thought was evil, even if something like the SR was fighting against evil the religeous leaders would only see the '' evil ungodly magic ''

Id also like to point out that only the religious leaders (priests) had accsess to the Holy Scripture and they twisted it however they wanted, the king also came into play with that and thats where Jon Jarl comes in. He glorified the Druids for being ' friendly neighbors ' and ' helpful natives ' and from the game now it seems that stuck with Jorvik for good.

( Again I keep thinking abt it, I love that concept in your AU )

lol

I was watching the video for the sso medieval event and..

I realized if the inhabitants during the medieval period on Jorvik KNEW soulriders existed without Jon Jarl ( who arrived in 1218 and being friends with the Keepers of Aideen and backing up their religion )

they would probably be treated like witches and made to confess/or accused of lying through brutal torture but only to be accused anyway then have to go through the horrific deaths

I havent heard of any soulriders/Druids being found and executed in the medieval period ( for what people would believe then their powers would be considered witchcraft and would hunt and execute them ) so I think that has something to do with the Druids and Keepers of Aideen being close with Jon Jarl so they where always recognized as friends and friendly natives

Now if anyone tries to say that they didn't do witch hunts and burn witches on Jorvik during the medieval period, it DID happen. If you do the quests with the witches in sso you see the mention that MULTIPLE TIMES and we can look back in the books and see a organization called the Sixth Hammer that was MADE for hunting and persecuting witches, even the quests in Galloper's Keep. They mention some of the spirits of persecuted witches, AND GALLOPER WAS PERSECUTED FOR IT TOO.

If you're curious about the Sixth Hammer in the books im refering to when they talk about what happend to Sand's first lover because she was tortured and persecuted for supposed witchcraft

( Note that Im not far in the books but I have deep dived in other places and took a look in the books that I do have )

If yall want go ahead and reblog with your thoughts, but I will warn yall that I will not tolerate this being used for starting or fueling fights. This post is just me rambling about my findings and looking for any others that have found similar info on this topic.

Im also going to point out that Im not targeting the medieval event. Im absolutely EXCITED and can't wait for the event, but Im posting this because I wanted to share my thoughts and how it contrasts with the REAL medieval period/ ' Dark Ages '.

Have a lovely day!

[culturecalypsosblog]

Todays Greek Mythology blog is on Hera/Juno

🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛🏺🏛

Greek Name

Ἡρη

Transliteration

Hêrê

Latin Spelling

Hera

Translation

Juno

HERA was the Olympian queen of the gods, and the goddess of marriage, women, the sky and the stars of heaven. She was usually depicted as a beautiful woman wearing a crown and holding a royal, lotus-tipped sceptre, and sometimes accompanied by a lion, cuckoo hawk, & sometimes peacock.

MYTHS

Some of the more famous myths featuring the goddess include:--

Her marriage to Zeus who seduced her in the guise of a cuckoo bird.

The birth of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) who she produced alone without a father and cast from heaven because he was born crippled.

Her persecution of the consorts of Zeus including Leto, Semele and Alkmene (Alcmena).

Her persecution of Herakles (Heracles) and Dionysos, the favourite bastard sons of Zeus.

The punishment of Ixion, who was chained to a fiery wheel for attempting to violate the goddess.

The assisting of the Argonauts in their quest for the golden fleece, their leader Iason (Jason) being one of her favourites.

The judgement of Paris, in which she competed against Aphrodite and Athene for the prize of the golden apple.

The Trojan War in which she assisted the Greeks.

Many other myths are detailed over the following pages.

FAMILY OF HERA

PARENTS

[1.1] KRONOS & RHEA (Homer Iliad 15.187, Hesiod Theogony 453, Apollodorus 1.4, Diodorus Siculus 5.68.1, et al)

OFFSPRING

[1.1] HEBE, ARES, EILEITHYIA (by Zeus) (Hesiod Theogony 921, Apollodorus 1.13, Hyginus Preface)

[1.2] ARES (by Zeus) (Homer Iliad 5.699, Aeschylus Frag 282, Pausanias 2.14.3)

[1.3] ARES (no father) (Ovid Fasti 5.229)

[1.4] HEBE (by Zeus) (Homer Odyssey 11.601, Pindar Isthmian Ode 4, Pausanias 2.13.3, Aelian On Animals 17.46)

[1.5] EILEITHYIA (Homer Iliad 11.270, Pindar Nemean Ode 7, Pausanias 1.18.5, Diodorus Siculus 4.9.4, Aelian On Animals 7.15, Nonnus Dionysiaca 48.794)

[2.1] HEPHAISTOS (without father) (Hesiod Theogony 927, Homeric Hymn 3.310, Apollodorus 1.19, Pausanias 1.20.3, Hyginus Pref)

[2.2] HEPHAISTOS (by Zeus) (Apollodorus 1.19, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.22)

[3.1] TYPHAON (without father) (Homeric Hymn 3.300)

[4.1] THE KHARITES (Colluthus 88 & 174)

HERA (Hêra or Hêrê), probably identical with kera, mistress, just as her husband, Zeus, was called erros in the Aeolian dialect (Hesych. s. v.). The derivation of the name has been attempted in a variety of ways, from Greek as well as oriental roots, though there is no reason for having recourse to the latter, as Hera is a purely Greek divinity, and one of the few who, according to Herodotus (ii. 50), were not introduced into Greece from Egypt.

Hera was, according to some accounts, the eldest daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and a sister of Zeus. Apollodorus however, calls Hestia the eldest daughter of Cronos; and Lactantius calls her a twin-sister of Zeus. According to the Homeric poems she was brought up by Oceanus and Thetys, as Zeus had usurped the throne of Cronos; and afterwards she became the wife of Zeus, without the knowledge of her parents. This simple account is variously modified in other traditions.

Being a daughter of Cronos, she, like his other children, was swallowed by her father, but afterwards released and, according to an Arcadian tradition, she was brought up by Temenus, the son of Pelasgus. The Argives, on the other hand, related that she had been brought up by Euboea, Prosymna, and Acraea, the three daughters of the river Asterion and according to Olen, the Horae were her nurses. Several parts of Greece also claimed the honour of being her birthplace; among them are two, Argos and Samos, which were the principal seats of her worship.

Her marriage with Zeus also offered ample scope for poetical invention (Theocrit. xvii. 131, &c.), and several places in Greece claimed the honour of having been the scene of the marriage, such as Euboea (Steph. Byz. s. v. Karustos), Samos (Lactant. de Fals. Relig. i. 17), Cnossus in Crete (Diod. v. 72), and Mount Thornax, in the south of Argolis. (Schol. ad Theocrit. xv. 64; Paus. ii. 17. § 4, 36. § 2.) This marriage acts a prominent part in the worship of Hera under the name of hieros gamos; on that occasion all the gods honoured the bride with presents, and Ge presented to her a tree with golden apples, which was watched by the Hesperides in the garden of Hera, at the foot of the Hyperborean Atlas. (Apollod. ii. 5. § 11; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 484.)

The Homeric poems know nothing of all this, and we only hear, that after the marriage with Zeus, she was treated by the Olympian gods with the same reverence as her husband. Zeus himself, according to Homer, listened to her counsels, and communicated his secrets to her rather than to other gods Hera also thinks herself justified in censuring Zeus when he consults others without her knowing it but she is, notwithstanding, far inferior to him in power; she must obey him unconditionally, and, like the other gods, she is chastised by him when she has offended him Hera therefore is not, like Zeus, the queen of gods and men, but simply the wife of the supreme god. The idea of her being the queen of heaven, with regal wealth and power, is of a much later date. There is only one point in which the Homeric poems represent Hera as possessed of similar power with Zeus, viz. she is able to confer the power of prophecy But this idea is not further developed in later times.

Her character, as described by Homer, is not of a very amiable kind, and it’s main features are jealousy, obstinacy, and a quarrelling disposition, which sometimes makes her own husband tremble Hence there arise frequent disputes between Hera and Zeus; and on one occasion Hera, in conjunction with Poseidon and Athena, contemplated putting Zeus into chains Zeus, in such cases, not only threatens, but beats her; and once he even hung her up in the clouds, her hands chained, and with two anvils suspended from her feet Hence she is frightened by his threats, and gives way when he is angry; and when she is unable to gain her ends in any other way, she has recourse to cunning and intrigues Thus she borrowed from Aphrodite the girdle, the giver of charm and fascination, to excite the love of Zeus. By Zeus she was the mother of Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus.

Properly speaking, Hera was the only really married goddess among the Olympians, for the marriage of Aphrodite with Ares can scarcely be taken into consideration; and hence she is the goddess of marriage and of the birth of children. Several epithets and surnames, such as Eileithuia, Gamêlia, Zugia, Teleia, & contain allusions to this character of the goddess, and the Eileithyiae are described as her daughters. Her attire is described in the Iliad she rode in a chariot drawn by two horses, in the harnessing and unharnessing of which she was assisted by Hebe and the Horae Her favourite places on earth were Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae.

Owing to the judgment of Paris, she was hostile towards the Trojans, and in the Trojan war she accordingly sided with the Greeks. Hence she prevailed on Helius to sink down into the waves of Oceanus on the day on which Patroclus fell In the Iliad she appears as an enemy of Heracles, but is wounded by his arrows and in the Odyssey she is described as the supporter of Jason. It is impossible here to enumerate all the events of mythical story in which Hera acts a more or less prominent part; and the reader must refer to the particular deities or heroes with whose story she is connected.

Hera had sanctuaries, and was worshipped in many parts of Greece, often in common with Zeus. Her worship there may be traced to the very earliest times: thus we find Hera, surnamed Pelasgis, worshipped at Iolcos. But the principal place of her worship was Argos, hence called the dôma Hêras. According to tradition, Hera had disputed the possession of Argos with Poseidon, but the river-gods of the country adjudicated it to her. Her most celebrated sanctuary was situated between Argos and Mycenae, at the foot of Mount Euboea. The vestibule of the temple contained ancient statues of the Charites, the bed of Hera, and a shield which Menelaus had taken at Troy from Euphorbus. The sitting colossal statue of Hera in this temple, made of gold and ivory, was the work of Polycletus. She wore a crown on her head, adorned with the Charites and Horae; in the one hand she held a pomegranate, and in the other a sceptre headed with a cuckoo. Respecting the great quinquennial festival celebrated to her at Argos, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Hêraia. Her worship was very ancient also at Corinth (Paus. ii. 24, 1, &c.; Apollod. i. 9. § 28), Sparta (iii. 13. § 6, 15. § 7), in Samos (Herod. iii. 60; Paus. vii. 4. § 4; Strab. p. 637), at Sicyon (Paus. ii. 11. § 2), Olympia (v. 15. § 7, &c.), Epidaurus (Thuc. v. 75; Paus. ii. 29. § 1), Heraea in Arcadia (Paus. viii. 26. § 2), and many other places.

Respecting the real significance of Hera, the ancients themselves offer several interpretations: some regarded her as the personification of the atmosphere others as the queen of heaven or the goddess of the stars or as the goddess of the moon and she is even confounded with Ceres, Diana, and Proserpina. According to modern views, Hera is the great goddess of nature, who was every where worshipped from the earliest times. The Romans identified their goddess Juno with the Greek Hera

We still possess several representations of Hera. The noblest image, and which was afterwards looked upon as the ideal of the goddess, was the statue by Polycletus. She was usually represented as a majestic woman at a mature age, with a beautiful forehead, large and widely opened eyes, and with a grave expression commanding reverence. Her hair was adorned with a crown or a diadem. A veil frequently hangs down the back of her head, to characterise her as the bride of Zeus, and, in fact, the diadem, veil, sceptre, and peacock are her ordinary attributes. A number of statues and heads of Hera still exist.

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

HYMNS TO HERA

I) THE HOMERIC HYMNS

Homeric Hymn 12 to Hera (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :

"I sing of golden-throned Hera whom Rhea bare. Queen of the Immortals is she, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and wife of loud-thundering Zeus,--the glorious one whom all the blessed throughout high Olympos reverence and honour even as Zeus who delights in thunder."

I hope you enjoyed this blog more to follow soon.

Culture Calypso’s Blog 🏺🏛🏺

[tamamita]

One of the reasons mormons have such weak religous discourse is because they primarily use gaslighting to win arguments. From an outside perspective its really weak, but from an inside perspective it's incredibly manipulative and hard to argue against.

If you were to bring up religous discourse that sheds mormonism in a bad light, you or your sources would be called "disingenuous" and you'd be completely ignored. Things like the CES letter, which is a big letter that highlights all the factual problems with mormonism, will get called "anti-mormon propaganda" despite being written by someone who was mormon at the time. I've even heard people say he only pretended to be mormon just to seem more credible.

Mormons use some other factors to "prove" the church is true, one big example being forcing kids to baptize when they're 8 years old then going "but you chose to be baptized because you knew the church was true" whenever a kid expresses doubt after that.

Same with the racism, if you were to point out mormon racism to a mormon and they went to talk to their parent or bishop about it they'd be told you lied to them, and they'd show you modern doctrine that re-writes history.

Long ask and I'm not completely sure where I'm getting at, but mormons argue completely differently with nonmormons than with mormons. It's the fact that they can just label anyone "anti-mormon" and have their opinion essential erased from mormon culture that they don't care about learning their doctrine or having discussions with other religions

I think most of you have a different idea of how I approach the belief. It is not based on the atrocities within that community, but rather how you dismantle the belief from the inside and then turn to the atrocities. Let me explain what I mean:

Theology is the core value that turns ones conviction against the masses. It is not easy to convince an individual to change belief, because of the atrocities perpetrated by some of the community members, because they’d rather stick to their “truths” as an objective world-view accompanied by its philosophy. Therefore, any religious member would consider YOUR viewpoint to be completely atrocious or lacking any ground thereof. It doesn’t convince people in the long run. This is the power of indoctrination.

You can’t always rely on the social aspects and moral questioning, because their morality is not in line with how outsiders view them. For example, premarital intercourse is a big no in all Abrahamic beliefs, however, for an outsider, arguing about this aspect would get you nowhere, as their view on ethics and morality is not in line with your ultimate truth. To shame them for any outlandish view will only strengthen their belief, because every religious person believes that persecution and marginalization is expected as you adopt such view, and that the end of the day, they’re in the right. For example, if you were criticize a religious belief for let’s say... homophobia, many of its strongest adherents would consider it an attack on their moral perspectives and would assume YOU are ther one discriminating them. There’s a clash between certain moral and ethical points that often result in a stalemate, even though, you would be considered correct in your approach. 

You have to strive against a core belief from the inside, question its theology, question its godhood, question its fundaments in order to dismantle the belief. You have to prove it from their own sources and sometimes by the use of others why their particular views are incorrect. Try to argue why certain Holy Personalities would be supportive of LGBTQ+ an etc. You can’t speak from your own perspectives, why YOU believe this is right, you have to argue against them by their own source materials. You have to consider that certain holy personalities have a particular wisdom that would back your moral views. You can not succumb to insults or tomato throwings because they don’t hold to the objective truth in your society, it won’t work, it rather causes them to believe that they’re the victims. But as ex-community members, you have to understand that they have the right to point out the flaws within that religious belief they were a part of. You, as a community member, have to listen and give ears to them and understand why their views will never be in line with yours.

[skaldish]

I got an OCD therapy workbook and in the symptoms checklist, most of the symptoms in the religion section would only be things that would emerge in a Christian framework. But from what I've read online, I don't think it was a failure of the book and the author being Christian normative, but rather a reflection of the kind of patients who had religion influenced OCD. Any other religion related OCD symptoms would end up in other sections. Intrusive thoughts about persecution could happen to members of any minority group. While intrusive thoughts about disturbing a service would be the same as doing it a movie theater. It's rude, but not against your diety in most other religions. And I can only speak to Judiasm, but we actually kind of discourage compulsive praying because there's a time to say each prayer and then it maxes out. Not to say that people of other religions can't end up with religion based aspects of their OCD, but I feel like Christianity creates a framework that encourages it.

The symptoms listed were "fear of having blasphemous thoughts and doing something against one's religous values" (if said values are more of a moralitly thing, it crosses over to the scrupulosity section, or other sections like aggression or sexual). "Fear of screaming out blasphemous statements while in a place of worship". "Fear of being punished by God for "bad" thoughts" "Fear of using God's name in anger" "Fear of seeing something red or the number 666"

This just seems relevant to the current topic of discussion on your blog.

That is fascinating! I wonder if there's studies done on this, whether Christianity correlates to worsened OCD symptoms in people who have it. Just gonna file this one away in my brain to look up at some point, many thanks!

[odoes]

🐉 (I'm particularly curious about how the Vorta in your crew relate to this aspect of their background; if you feel like answering for anyone else that'd be cool too!)

🐉 How religious is your OC? Do they pray to any god(s) or do they not believe in that kind of stuff? What is their view of religion in general? Where do they believe people go when they die? If your OC is not religious why not and what do they believe in otherwise? - it's definitely extremely complex for both of them, miros deserted on purpose after the founders knew his cloning was messed up and possibly irreparable so he basically wouldn't continue to be allowed to live if he was caught. for solaris, she could have hitched a ride or even fixed up her ship enough to return to the dominion but she just... didn't want to. so she's also afraid of being persecuted for that, though it's not as serious as miros's situation. so both of them still inherently revere the founders but are also quite afraid of them and being in the alpha/beta quadrant most of the time, now the founders are a bit more of an afterthought than an immediate concern. but there's still the nagging feeling of wanting to please them above all else and it becomes hard to ignore completely once in a while.

qadira is my only other religous oc (muslim), her husband doesn't practice any beliefs of his own but he celebrates all the islamic traditions and holidays she observes, the only exceptions being as a joined trill he physically can't tolerate ramadan because he needs to eat for two, and he's really a bit too busy to perform all five salah every day, but depending on his shifts he tries to do at least two with his wife.

sulev and silja being estonian they primarily celebrate jaanipäev and hold a festival for it each year on the holodeck, but it becomes more of a traditional festival to include everyone than it is any actual religious observation!

[talkingtotheapples]

fully agree with ur who gets to punch brandin urine post but i just wanted to ask what brendon did specifically to dallon? ive seen a lot of talk about it but its all really vague and any attempts to look it up come up with nothing dbhdhdhhdh

1)dallon wasnt credited properly for his work on too weird too live to rare to die(maybe vices? no one ever talks about this but i think if he designed the cover Maybe May e he also helped with the writing idk)

--- honestly i think i reason why the things youre finding are vague is because most of the information is vague; across the years dallon has said things along the lines of "i wrote a lot more for panic than i was credited for" but we dont have anymore details than that, there are Details that have come out across the years(like a demo from dallons old band) that leads me to believe he was probably the main writtwr for too weird to live too rare to die, which while he is credited on every song but one thats Not how brendon presented it(which was much more like he was the main wrtiter and dallon Helped) also brendon Hates dallon now so where he once in interviews would credit dallon's song writing in this album he instead credits the producer butch walker

2) the mistreatment

--- theres a long of old periscope videos from,,, 2013 to 2016(maybe) of brendon hang out on tour ect and it features him(and zac hall) being Quite mean to dallon and back in the day when i watched these i thought it was like Jokes and i think that 100% what brendon wanted the Audience to think but like now breezy has talked more about dallons treatment in the bad its uh 100% evident that this was just straight up workplace bullying(from a boss to an employee) including religous persecution

3) did dallon get forcibly demoted--maybe

dallon became a full member during twtltrtd meaning he wrote and played on the album. in 2015 spencer smith announced he was leaving panic and almost immediately panic released their first single for their new album, and Then dallon fans noticed that dallon was credited even as a musician on the song, after asking about on twiter dallon confirmed that he was now a touring member again. Now dallons said he started working on idkhow in 2016 so he wasnt choosing to step down to work on that, dallon still friends with soencer and as far as i know spencer wasnt involed in literally workplace bullying him and that increased when spencer left, My Theory is that spencer presence was offering dallon some protection which was then lost and brendon then demoted him 1) cos he could 2) cos he Hated him for hinting he wrote more songs than he got credited for

[forestwater87]

Tales of Fandom Past: Harry Potter and the Shipping Slaves

So, in my spare time I read a lot, lot . . . lot of fandom_wank. A lot. More than should be possible, considering it’s a dead website linking mostly to other dead websites, but I’m a woman addicted to drama who has the gift of long periods of quiet at work, so I’m working my way through almost 2 decades of fan history and it’s just fascinating.

Fandom, back in the ‘00s? Was so much more wild than it is now.

Plagiarism! Fake suicides! Fraud! Theft of real people’s actual money! Stalkers, both real and made up! Fanfic writers so popular they finagled it into mountains of free stuff and a book deal! Everyone was really gross and homophobic! 

There were no rules, and that made it a terrible and incredibly fun time to be part of a fandom.

And we’re not talking enough about it. I guess that’s where I come in.

I’m interested in telling these stories -- not in the incredible level of detail of the MsScribe Saga or the Cassie Claire Plagiarism Debacle, but enough for us to all have a moment to think: Hold on, what the fuck was fandom doing during the entirety of the Bush administration?

A lot, it turns out. Much of it totally wild.

Today’s topic: Shipping wars are as bad as slavery

Date: August 2005

Fandom: Harry Potter

Supposed topic(s): Shipping, canon

Content warning(s): Accidental and ironic diminishing of slavery, complaints about political correctness and free speech, racism in general, lots of hurt feelings and drama

"Now, I'm not black, but boy, do I feel for the black people. If I lived in the 1800's, I wouldn't keep slaves, and if someone has a difference of opinion than me now, that's fine, believe what you want."

Background

In August of 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had been out for a little less than a month, the film version of The Goblet of Fire wouldn’t come out until November, and the last Potter movie had been released over a year ago. In terms of shipping, fans had just discovered, to either their delight or horror, that Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione were canon; while some would continue to hold out hope that there would be a last-minute reversal of expectations, most of the fandom both on and off the internet was in agreement: 

The shipping wars were over, and the Harry/Hermione fans (a.k.a., H/Hr fen, or “Harmonians”) had decisively lost.

The Harmonians’ ire seemed to have been pretty evenly split between J.K. Rowling -- who they felt had let them down -- and the R/Hr and H/G shippers (a.k.a. “Herons” and “Chocolateers,” respectively, though I’m not sure anyone actually used those terms for themselves; they appear to have been given from without), who were taking a victory lap. Depending on one’s perspective, this was either a long-overdue celebration by two groups of shippers who’d faced the fandom’s ire for approximately 5 years and were now vindicated, or it was the tactless gloating of sore losers who were thrilled to get one over on their hated enemies. Either way, tensions were no lower just because canon had decided the victors, and the battleground seemed to shift from the books to the movies -- where shippers of all kinds were in debate over which romance would win out onscreen.

Enter Emerson Spartz, a teenager in charge of one of the most popular fansites at the time and king of creating controversy . . . who had very strong opinions about shipping, and Harmonians in particular.

The Inciting Incident

Emerson had already incited the ire of Harmonians by calling them “delusional” in an infamous interview with J.K. Rowling. The wound was still raw, having come shortly after the release of Half-Blood Prince, and in some circles Emerson was already Public Enemy #1.

Therefore, when Emerson was one of two “anti”-Harmonians interviewed in a San Francisco Chronicle article about the shipping wars, some fans cried foul.

More responses can be found in a summary of the incident here, but personal favorites include a letter sent to the author of the SF Chronicle piece:

The majority of Harry/Hermione shippers are not merely upset that we didn't get what we wanted in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. That makes us sound childish. While I'm forced to admit that there has been much bile and vitriol posted on various H/Hr shipping sites, the majority of us are reasonable people. What really hurt our feelings was the way the Mugglenet/TLC article made it seem as if J. K. Rowling herself felt we were really dense, missing her "anvil-sized clues." Emerson's subsequent "apology" for the harsh words directed at the Harry/Hermione 'shipper community was a non-apology, which you [the author of the SFC article] would have known if you had done more than just take his word that he apologized. He simply used the "apology" as an opportunity to issue another dig. I suppose not much better can be expected from a child of 18 who has suddenly become a bit of a celebrity. But I do expect better from a colleague; a professional writer. ...

You have assisted one side of the argument and failed to represent the other. Did you attempt to interview the webmasters of any Harry/Hermione shipping sites or did you merely cut and paste posts that were pointed out to you by Emerson and Melissa? Your article shows no evidence that you made any attempt to give the other side equal time, so to speak, and as a result, you have contributed to the perceprtion [sic] that ALL H/Hr 'shippers are irrational, bitter, spoiled brats. And that's quite unfair. (Hughes, 2005, paras. 13 & 18)

Or this comment in a Harmonian forum by a disappointed reader: 

History is written by the victorius [sic] (or something like that), isn't it how the saying goes?. I'm afraid we are witnessing it firsthand. Herons feel they are the winners on this war, and as such, they feel they have a right to treat us anyway they want to, and they think we have no weapons to defend ourselves since even J.K seems to have sided with them. Even if most of us are pretty reasonable people, at this point anything we say in regards of J.K's apparent disregard for our feelings (thoughts, opinions, whatever), will be gladly taken as the lashing out of sore losers. ::sigh:: I say, just ignore Emerson, he's just some lost kid desperate for attention. And how good can the guy who wrote this article be if he didn't bother to check the facts before he went slandering us?, not much me thinks. (Remolina, 2005, para. 21)

These responses, while perhaps silly or overblown, were not enough to make history. That honor belonged to a Harmonian going by the username Panther.

How, one might wonder?

The Blowout

Ya know, come to think of it, people like Emerson were probably the kinda people that started slavery. I mean, think about it, they thought the slaves were animals, just because they had different colored skin. Emerson thinks we're stupid and delusional for having different beliefs. Get the similarities here, people? Now, I'm not black, but boy, do I feel for the black people. If I lived in the 1800's, I wouldn't keep slaves, and if someone has a difference of opinion than me now, that's fine, believe what you want. (Panther, 2005, paras. 23-25)

The reaction was immediate and explosive from Panther’s fellow Harmonians. Some understood and empathized with Panther’s view; they saw it as a bit hyperbolic, but agreed with the underlying point being made.

I can see where they were going with this...a different analogy would probably have been better. Maybe the religious persecution during Mary Tudor's reign, or the Salem Witch Hunt/Trials, the religous [sic] crusades, the wars in Bosnia etc. We harmonians are being "persecuted" for our differening viewpoints/perspectives. (Anndee Granger, 2005, paras. 30-32)

The belief that H/Hr shippers were being persecuted for their beliefs was a pervasive one, and extended to fans, Emerson and other fandom “authorities,” and the author herself.

No, what we are experiencing is not at the same extreme level because of the world we now live in, but the base level is still the same. The base level taking us back to different beliefs and views without the ability to be heard in the correct manner, and yes it does feel like a form of persecution. (*Under your Skin, 2005, paras. 36-37)

While not on the same level as slavery, the intolerance of their ship did call to mind other examples of discrimination and bigotry:

Of course no one is dying because of this, but all in all we are being persecuted for our different beliefs. "Bloody" Mary Tudor, killed Protestants because she so hated their different views on Christ. This is an extreme indeed, but the mentality behind it, the vitrol [sic], is the same. (Andee Granger, 2005, para. 38)

This extreme point of view, while widespread, was not universal among the Harmonians. Many of them were . . . understandably appalled by the comment and those agreeing with it:

No wonder other people find it easy to portray us as reactionary and vicious. Some of you bloody well are. (jane99, 2005, para. 43)

I agree that it is very vicious and out in left field . . . Slavery was an oppressive movement for hundreds of years, resulting in the deaths of millions. I would hardly regard that with 'shipper treatment, nowadays. However, the schoolyard bully is a very appropriate analogy, in my opinion. Hopefully you understand the difference. (myrhlyn, 2005, para. 52)

The Response

NarcissaM brought the subject to the outside world by posting it in fandom_wank -- a defunct LiveJournal specializing in fandom drama, which now exists primarily in archives -- and the result was universally disbelief and amusement. The responses ranged from insightful, if crass, commentary . . .

Emerson did not kill your dog, tell you that Santa wasn't real, and touch you in your swimsuit areas. And the more I read the more I'm convinced that H/Hr fans aren't angry because what he said was insulting, they're angry because what he said was *accurate*. (iczer6)

I'm also wondering where keeping slaves was a matter of, y'know, people having different beliefs, and not the subjugation of an entire culture by another which had more money and more powerful weapons, and needed a lot of manual labor but didn't want to pay for it. (slackerbitch)

To good old-fashioned sarcasm and snark:

That's not the stupidest thing I've ever read, but it's in the top five. (Anonymous)

That's right. There is a conspiracy, Hermionians! The world is against you and want to take a shit on all your fan fiction! XD (Anonymous “Mary”)

QUICKLY! SOMEBODY CALL A WAAAAAHBULANCE! WE HAVE INTERNET PERSECUTION! (aerobot)

F_W, known for good and ill as a site that takes nothing seriously except the desire to laugh at themselves and especially others, took the slavery comment and ran with it:

So how much does a healthy H/Hr fan with good teeth go for these days? (xero-sky)

Which H/Hr's are in the big house and which ones are working in the fields? ... We didn't land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us! *throws up the fist* (prettyveela)

If we're going to start enslaving delusional people, I want to start with the scientologists. Who's with me? (ladybirdsleeps)

Big Daddy Heron:*hits the H/Hr fan with a whip* Your ship name is H/Hr, H/Hr! Say it! H/Hr shipper: H-Harmony (sewingmyfish)

Bully for the slaves! In fact they would have been sooo much better off if all we 21st century people could trade places with the whites that lived back then. Not only could we tell them to get a life, none of us would have kept slaves! (chief)

You know, just like slaves, they have to work out in the hot sun for no wages and be beaten and whipped and raped and sold like cattle deal with an author not writing the fictional pairing they wanted. (slackerbitch)

Mere hours after the controversy was reported to F_W, a user named ahiru created some icons to celebrate the controversy:

And with some more chuckles about the inherent ridiculousness of such a claim, the fandom and its onlookers dropped the subject.

For a few months.

The Aftermath

In November 2005, some users rediscovered the icons made by ahiru and found them insensitive and racist. This is immediately reported to F_W not once but twice, and the folks there were no longer entertained, responding with less amusement than outright hostility. A couple of F_Wankers understood to at least some extent why there might be people who didn’t love the icons, though they did generally come down on the side of parody and feel those upset were missing the point of the joke. A lot of F_Wankers were upset about political correctness and free speech, and were eager to point out the oppression faced by other groups of people.

Someone anonymous entered the fray with racist guns blazing, and was summarily eviscerated by gleeful F_Wankers.

After that, the dust settled, and all was quiet on the fandom front . . . at least, until the next inevitable disaster.

Further Reading

The Interview that sparked the Emerson outrage

An offshoot of Harmony that believes in Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson’s undeniable chemistry and romance

A collection of Harmonian controversies, 2006-2010

Other HP controversies