#to a lot of the inclusivity it purports

[coochiequeens]

They all have he/him on their lanyards and it’s extremely clear they identify as men and are here to take opportunities away from the actual women and [non-binary] attendees.”

By Reduxx Team September 28, 2023

A major networking conference focused on centering women in computing is facing backlash from some participants after a flood of males were allowed to attend, reportedly due to the event’s inclusivity policies.

Created in 1994 and inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the AnitaB.org Grace Hopper Celebration purports to “bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront.” While the conference was historically focused on women, recent developments in its gender inclusivity policy saw its branding open up to “non-binary” participants as well.

In its most recent Press Release on the conference, AnitaB.org deemed it “the world’s largest gathering of women and non-binary technologists.”

But the week-long conference, which costs $650 to attend for students and academics but over $1,200 for the general public, is facing heat this year after some female attendees noticed a “significant number of men” attending the event.

In a now-scrubbed Change.org petition, one female attendee calls on the Grace Hopper Committee (GHC) to provide women who purchased the pricy tickets a full refund, and commit to banning men in the future.

“GHC (2023) is named after our pioneering female programmers, who have paved the way for gender equality within the tech industry. This event was established with the intention of empowering women by creating a safe space where they can connect, learn, and thrive. However, by allowing men to participate, GHC fails to uphold its own mission,” petitioner Agnes Lu wrote in the description.

The petition was uploaded on September 26, but deleted on September 27. A cached version of the page shows that it had collected over 2,700 signatures in the 24 hours it had been active. The reasons for removal are currently unknown.

Similar sentiment was shared on Reddit as a conference attendee posted “why are there so many men at Grace Hopper?”

Posted two days ago, the user wrote: “I’m seeing entire groups of just men, at a conference that’s sole purpose is to give opportunities to WOMEN and non-binary individuals in a male dominated field. I attended last year and did not [see] any male identifying student attendees. This is genuinely infuriating.”

The user goes on to articulate in the replies that there are a limited number of networking slots available and internships are fiercely competitive.

Like in the petition, the user claimed there was an obvious discernible difference between males and “non-binary” individuals, an issue that quickly became a point of contention in the comments.

“They could just be non-binary, gender queer, etc, or that could just be men trying to get a leg up. No way to know,” one user wrote in response, to which the original poster replied: “They all have he/him on their lanyards and it’s extremely clear they identify as men and are here to take opportunities away from the actual women and [non-binary] attendees.”

But the attempted defense was quickly undermined, with some users calling the original poster a “TERF” for failing to include gender-diverse non-binary people.

“Nonbinaries, including he/him nonbinaries, belong at grace hopper and are welcome there. TERFs like you are the ones who shouldn’t be there,” one comment reads.

“Lots of NB go as he/him. The only way you could possibly know is if you asked them,” another claimed.

On X (formerly Twitter), users debated how males could be “gate-kept” from the conference without being exclusionary, to which few solutions were provided.

The conference was held in Orlando this year, in tradition with previous years, but has announced it will relocate for the next iteration due to changes to recent state legislation regarding LGBT people.

In a statement on their site, AnitaB.org claims that Florida has introduced an “onslaught of legislation that not only devalues women and non-binary people and, at the intersections, those who live as members of the LGBTQIA+ community but is also aimed at erasing Black history.” It states that the 2024 conference is being arranged to be held in another location.

One of the featured speakers this year was trans-identified male Sasha Costanza-Chock, who describes himself as a “researcher and designer who works to support community-led processes that build shared power, dismantle the matrix of domination, and advance ecological survival.”

Costanza-Chock spoke on a panel with Alejandra Caraballo, a trans-identified male attorney, on the “Intersection of Tech and Social Justice.” The panel was described as “diving into the critical intersection of technology and social equity and explore how technology can inadvertently become a barrier for underserved groups.”

[thebreakfastgenie]

I can tell a lot of the "zero COVID" people online are not serious because they're so attached to the word "pandemic." If you are trying to advocate for people who are immune-compromised, you should know that endemic viruses are very serious for immune-compromised people! Influenza and even the common cold have made immune-compromised people extremely isolated for their own safety forever. If you've ever been immune-compromised or loved someone who was you know this! "Endemic" does not mean "not serious." I think advocacy for public health policies that take the needs of immune-compromised people into account is important, especially now that technology (including a lot of advances that happened during COVID) provides us with more options to balance inclusivity and safety. That's why it's so frustrating when I see content online that purports to be doing that and just isn't!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chloe Simon at MMFA:

After a week of right-wing media spreading baseless smears about Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets, conservative activist Christopher Rufo posted a video allegedly showing a cat on a barbecue grill in Dayton, Ohio. Dayton police have issued a statement saying “there is no evidence to even remotely suggest” that any community is eating pets — but some in right-wing media ran with the story, claiming that Rufo’s video falsely “confirmed” the rumors about migrants and animals. 

Last week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, promoted baseless and racist rumors about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets. During the September 10 presidential debate, Trump claimed, “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” Right-wing media also jumped on the narrative, calling Haitian migrants “locusts,” zombies,” and “weird Third World aliens.” [The Associated Press, 9/11/24; Media Matters, 9/10/24]

On September 14, Rufo posted a video purportedly showing a cat on a barbecue with the caption, “EXCLUSIVE: We have discovered that migrants are, in fact, eating cats in Ohio. We have verified, with multiple witnesses and visual cross-references, that African migrants in Dayton, the next city over from Springfield, barbecued these cats last summer.” Rufo did acknowledge in his Substack that “this single incident does not confirm every particularity of Trump’s statement. The town is Dayton, not Springfield; cats alone were on the grill, not cats and dogs.” However, he continued that the video “does break the general narrative peddled by the establishment media and its ‘fact checkers’” and that “independent journalists are already on the hunt and could reveal more.” Prior to releasing the video, Rufo claimed he would “provide a $5,000 bounty to anyone who can provide my team with hard, verifiable evidence that Haitian migrants are eating cats in Springfield, Ohio.” [Twitter/X, 9/14/24, 9/11/24; Substack, 9/14/24]

Rufo, a senior fellow at conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, is a conservative activist known for his right-wing crusades against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and higher education. Media Matters has described his career as a long attempt to “inject bigotry and incorrect information into mainstream discourses about gay and trans people, drag queens, and the academic discipline known as critical race theory.” [Vox, 9/10/23; Media Matters, 1/6/23, 7/27/23; The Guardian, 2/21/24]

Dayton police have categorically denied that any group has “engaged in eating pets.” In a statement, the department wrote, “We stand by our immigrant community and there is no evidence to even remotely suggest that any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets. Seeing politicians or other individuals use outlandish information to appeal to their constituents is disheartening.” Rufo’s video has also received a lot of backlash online, with open-source intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander writing that it was “clearly chicken you weirdo. Dude’s never seen chicken that wasn’t dino-nugget shaped.” In a further attempt to verify the video’s claims, CBS News reached out to veterinary experts who cited the image’s poor quality, while another “noted the legs looked ‘weirdly distended’ and in his opinion, did not look like cat legs.” [Twitter/X, 9/16/24, 9/14/24; The Independent, 9/15/24; CBS News, 9/16/24]

Right-wing disinformation purveyor Christopher Rufo posted a video purporting that cats were cooked on a barbecue grill in Dayton, Ohio. Dayton PD, however, shot down Rufo’s rumor-mongering by stating that there is no evidence of cats being grilled in Dayton.

[meikuree]

FINALLY someone who didn't 100% love BES. I did enjoy some of it but I lean on the "disliked it on the whole" side and it's been so weird seeing everyone praise it to high heavens. I take it that you enjoyed it more than I did (I did not like a lot of the 3D visuals, unfortunately, so the visuals don't really redeem it for me), but I'd love to see some balanced takes from you anyway <3

anon, you're in good company! honestly i've been baffled by the blandly, one-note positive reception to this (30% of my grief has to do with BES's base story, and 70% has to do with uncritical fannish responses), because... to be uncharitable... I have some big problems with its construction. feel free to come off anon and kvetch in my DMs if you want, I'll probably share your sentiments. sorry for how long i've taken to answer this!

to be fair the show does some things right and I think its achievements/innovations in art style and animation are to be lauded; I'm not going to speak over that when I'm not an expert on animation or media theory, but it's a bad sign when praise about any media amounts to "well, it looks pretty" or hinges so heavily on its aesthetics. to be extremely clear this doesn't fully apply to BES, because it does have deft character work, compelling characters, and some impressive cinematic instantiation/inhabitation with its attention to setting and detail -- i was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of deets like yaki-ire etc etc. -- but even on its purported selling points of japanese historicity and nuanced narratives about race, sexuality, gender, revenge, etc. I think it fails. it has glaring blindspots.

tldr: BES suffers from some (white) american/french narratorial sensibilities that kneecap the full potential of its story

or: BES pinged as an insufferably american and/or ahistorical rendition of its japanese building-blocks to me in some ways

it's probably just a case of misaimed audiences, and This Show Not Being For Me, but I've been baffled by:

how seamlessly some scenes around sex work and brothels and eroticism in this show slide in with orientalist tropes about japan being the Weird Sex and Kinky country despite the japanese-american creator at its helm, who's also spoken out against tropes like that -- until a buddy gave some context that those undertones seem to have been inspired by bande dessinées (french comics) with not-unsimilar tropes that may have been transplanted carelessly into BES by the studio

and this is what I mean by 'american/french' sensibilities -- I don't mean american/french in the most skin-deep representational sense, as in the studio that made it is an american-french one or whatever, as 'representation' is too often conceived on tumblr to be limited to, but on the deeper epistemological level of its worldview, frameworks of sexuality/race, and the cultural terrain it's working off or conversing with. BES includes storylines/arcs/even mawkish dialogue far more reminiscent of those in american cartoons. which is not an issue except of one of taste, but fannish responses holding it up as a groundbreaking commentary on race are orbiting a different universe imo

more egregiously it sustains overtones of that american favourite about the grand, Super Existential! Super Inevitable! and intrinsic clash of Cultures and Civilisations with a big C (a highly discredited idea in critical academic circles now, thankfully, no thanks to samuel p. huntington)

I almost wish the show had maintained a greater separation from IRL analogues or just invented a fresh fantasy universe because why set it in edo-era japan if you're not going to engage with the sociocultural norms, or narratorial traditions of that era

see: literary genres around jitsuroku (revenge narratives), how revenge would have been treated as a tool of sociocultural legitimisation then, the apparent forgettance of the entire history of nanban trade and the fact that japan as a geographical entity was not technically ethnically homogeneous, or only homogeneous from a hegemonic pov, given the existence of the ainu, the kingdom of ryukyu, and northern communities of hokkaido although tbf japan's borders probably didn't include them

i was hoping for an internal critique of or just more nuance about the 'japan = ethnically homogenous' narrative in the show and was more disappointed as it went on -- imo it's a narrative often most stridently parroted by the japanese government for nation-building interests and by others to avoid interrogations of the actual complexity of striations, divisions, etc in japan e.g. with burakumin (lower-'caste'* peoples)

* note: caste is an imperfect and not fully accurate descriptor

a significant part of my ire is reserved for the handling of 'whiteness' in this show although it's mostly hand-wringing over the complexity of intended audiences in this show, which might not be fair to blame on the creators; yes, whiteness is foreign and Other and bad, but what about the material and historical precursors that gave rise to that Otherness in the first place, where are they?; and look! whiteness is demonised; but the cartoon's being released in the USA and europe. it's certainly true that japan is institutionally hostile to foreigners and xenophobic, kudos for depicting the politics of that, but BES's american audiences mean i'm ambivalent about its in-universe premise that what is in fact an oft-fetishised trait in mixed race children (blue eyes) is bad (and the show's aesthetics don't support it; mizu's eyes are portrayed in the most beautiful way possible even though she's diagetically meant to be hideous and monstrous)

[skaruresonic]

Why are your examples for how you hate how glorified Lancelot is and how much he overshadows Arthur, a film called King Arthur where Lancelot is killed off without cucking Arthur, Warlord Chronicles, a series about Arthur where Lancelot is a weakling who again gets killed off (and written out of the television series), and Mary Stewart books about Merlin and Arthur where he doesn't appear? You seem to be getting what you want?

Lancelot being portrayed differently or being killed off doesn't solve the problem of novels that purport to be "truer" to the spirit of pre-Galfridian Arthuriana but still include him. The fact that he's often included in these kinds of tellings - and in so doing, continues the time-honored tradition of giving other characters the shaft - is the underlying problem. You literally cannot parade your work as a bona-fide "original" telling and then have Lancelot in it, or have Lancelot's spirit possess an analogue.

I don't care about Lancelot as a character, and going "oh he's a coward in this one" or "he doesn't go by the name Lancelot in that one" doesn't solve the problem, especially when his inclusion is both A.) anachronistic and B.) unnecessary. Regardless of however he's treated, he's still hogging screentime that could go to other characters.

I guess I'm more bothered by what Lancelot represents than the actual character, but it still ain't a good look when the guy commonly upheld as the shining paragon of knighthood throughout history is actually kind of a weenie who people nonetheless simp for. Like. Couldn't he be a smidge cooler? Why do I have to get stuck reading about this self-flagellating asshole again for the 1,000th time?

There's a lot of juicy drama to be gleaned from pre-Galfridian stories if you (general you) just exercised the same amount of imagination and empathy you extend to post-Galfridian tales, but everyone gets stuck on the affair like it's the only thing that could possibly give Arthur's character any personal gravitas (aside from incestuously conceiving Mordred) and I am beyond sick of it.

Did you know that Arthur killed his son Amr, and buried him beside a spring in Ergyng? We're not told why, only that Amr's tomb of stones changes dimensions every time it is measured.

What kind of story could one construct from that source material? Why did Arthur kill his son? Was it in anger? An accident? Was his hand forced? How does he feel about his son's grave? What about Gwenhwyfar? How did she react to the news?

...No? We're just gonna do this same old song and dance again? Fuck me, can't have shit in this Chili's.

---

and Mary Stewart books about Merlin and Arthur where he doesn't appear?

Yeah, no, you weren't paying attention when I said Mary Stewart and Rosemary Sutcliffe hollowed out the pre-established character of Bedwyr in order to make him a Lancelot analogue. They literally took an older character and said "Eh, you'll do."

That part pisses me off really badly because it's disingenuous. You're not making your work truer to the spirit of the original source material when you do stuff like that, you're just bending the source material to suit later Anglicized tropes, slapping a vaguely Welsh coat of paint on it and going "good enough." I think Welsh tales deserve better treatment than that. They deserve to be told on their own merits.

Bedwyr is emphatically not "Lancelot but Welsh," and I strongly feel it borders on cultural appropriation to portray him as such. The implication is he previously had so little character that you can discard it and replace it with something else. He ain't like Creoda of Wessex where he was just a name. He had a role.

Besides, I struggle to even think of a single instance where he interacts with the queen. He's always at Cai's and Arthur's side. The only reason he was made The Best Friend Who Cucks The King is because he had a heartbeat and was handsome in Guinevere's general direction. I guess.

Mary Stewart gets a bit more of a pass from me in that her work is set in a more Malory-esque world, but Rosemary Sutcliffe purported to set her novels within a purely historical framework, which just makes her creative liberties even more egregious. And don't @ me with "but she made Arthur bi, though"; so did Marion Zimmer Bradley. Doesn't mean shit when we're just recycling stale old tropes.

The fact that Lancelot and his entire French retinue feature in such works at all is my problem. I want to read about other characters, other plot threads, other internal conflicts. Give someone else a turn on the mic. Technically you shouldn't even have Merlin here, either, but eh, beggars can't be choosers ig.

Like, it'd be different if I was reading something firmly set in Malory's world, what with jousting and the Round Table and shit. But if I'm reading something that markets itself as a "true tale," then I hold certain expectations. Expectations that are always let down.

This isn't even getting into the fact that Lance's influence made many other characters passive, flanderized, or redundant. Cai devolves from a sarcastic but faithful right-hand man to a coarse buttmonkey whom Percival knocks out cold, and it's treated like a joke. Bedwyr is only heard from at Camlan and his supposed best friend status is paid lip service at best. Llacheu whomst? Arthur used to be the medieval version of Chuck Norris before the Normans came along and said "um ackshually enough of that Welsh bullshit, now you need to stay home, eat hot chip and lie about Mordred's parentage."

Extreme overgeneralization, ofc, but God I wish I could properly convey just how insane the way this site dismisses Welsh!Arthur and pre-Galfridian stuff drives me.

Yeah, he was more savage, brutal, and ruder than his Normanized counterpart, but as the resident asshole apologist in these here parts, I feel the need to point out those are the qualities that made him an effective ass-kicker. He was also incredibly energetic and generous. Dude literally digs up the head of the island's previous defender because it doesn't seem right to him that the island ought to be defended by anyone's strength but his own.

Welsh tales celebrate different qualities of character than French romances, which is part of the reason why that one "modern Arthurian tellings aren't anime enough" take rubs me the wrong way. It'd be like saying modern translations of Beowulf aren't anime enough.

...I kinda lost the plot here, but you get my point. If you like Lance, more power to you, God bless, but it really drives me batty to see him show up everywhere, even in places where his inclusion is needless or otherwise wouldn't make sense.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Nicole Russell

Published: Apr 8, 2024

DEI-based programs purport to exist to address mostly racial and gender inequalities, but they’re often ineffective at colleges, and even harmful in corporate America, where these students go next.

Anti-discrimination laws have been around for decades. For the most part, they’re effective.  

But diversity, equity and inclusion policies – in companies, organizations and institutions of higher learning – are anti-discrimination laws on steroids. We can see that in Texas.  

Texas A&M University had an annual DEI budget of $11 million. From 2015 to 2020, the number of Black Aggies who “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they “belonged” at Texas A&M had dropped about 30%, according to the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, a conservative think tank.

DEI-based programs across the country purport to exist to address mostly racial and gender inequalities, but they’re often ineffective at colleges and universities, and even harmful in corporate America, where these students go next.

Texas leaders realize what others don't: DEI programs are wasteful  

This is playing out in Texas now at the University of Texas (UT), which just laid off at least 60 employees who worked in diversity, equity and inclusion-related positions, according to the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The mass firings were for efficiency to comply with Senate Bill 17, which went into effect in January. The new law bans Texas’ public universities and colleges from funding any offices or programs with a DEI-based aim.  

Several Texas outlets have slammed the bill again after this news leaked. It’s easy to see why. That’s a lot of people who now need new jobs, and this is a tough environment for people looking for employment. But in some ways, the sheer number of DEI positions, the reaction and statistics about DEI prove the need for a closer look at DEI.  

First, Texans support the law. A June poll showed that 49% of Texans "strongly” or “somewhat” support the ban, while only 34% oppose it. 

Second, it’s excessive. According to the American-Statesman, 40 of the 60 staff were let go from the Division of Campus and Community Engagement, where the median annual salary is approximately $69,000.

That’s more than $2.7 million a year in salaries just for 40 employees. That could have funded need-based in-state tuition for four years for, say, nearly 60 Black or Hispanic women – because poverty tends to disproportionately affect those demographics. 

Third, in some ways it’s ineffective at best and hypocritical at worst. (Especially in corporate America.) 

DEI has failed at its own goal

In 2022, almost 35% of UT’s enrolled students were white. About 25% were Hispanic or Latino. A little more than 5% were Black.

The faculty was even less diverse. In 2021, almost 70% of UT’s fall faculty were white, just 10% were Hispanic and 5% were Black.  

In 2022, students at UT released a report that claimed the university “does not offer the inclusivity that LGBTQIA+ students and other historically oppressed groups demand.”  

So almost $3 million worth of employee salaries are pushing DEI initiatives and they’re still failing.  

Administrators at Texas A&M and UT must have thought DEI was doing something good, or they wouldn’t have had so many staff working in this capacity. But surely, they had seen data showing their numbers weren’t improving. They were worsening. DEI initiatives often lead to feel-good roles but no real-time results. 

It’s certainly a good idea to reverse structural racism where it thrives and to dispel gender biases that keep historically marginalized people from achieving their best potential. But we have anti-discrimination laws for this.

DEI-based organizations and initiatives at a college level communicate to a generation of kids – who are already hyperfixated on themselves – that their educational success depends on a particular, perhaps marginalized, aspect of themselves.  

Students become further obsessed with these handful of identifiers and expect the world will lend them a leg up. Does a corporation owe a new graduate a job because he’s gay? Because she’s Muslim? Isn’t hiring a new college graduate because of their identifiers – and who succeeded thanks to DEI efforts in college – the opposite of equity and inclusivity?  

DEI initiatives fail college grads in the workplace

DEI initiatives in the workplace are also now facing backlash, per one report by Paradigm, following the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action ruling.

In a survey of 1,000 hiring managers across the United States by ResumeBuilder.com, 1 in 6 “have been asked to deprioritize hiring white men,” almost half have been asked to “prioritize diversity over qualifications,” over half “believe their job will be in danger if they don’t hire enough diverse employees,” and 70% “believe their company has DEI initiatives for appearances’ sake.”  

So now fewer people who are qualified for employment will get a job because they’re not marginalized? Nobody is supposed to care about the white guys anymore because they’re part of a privileged patriarchal system, but by the looks of these hiring practices, that’s no longer true. And refusing to hire someone because they’re a white male is, well, against the law. 

Last fall, Bloomberg reported that the year after Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs and 94% went to people of color. Given that only about a quarter of the U.S. population is not white, that's a high percentage.

Anti-discrimination laws succeed where DEI falls short

Is there a better way to achieve what DEI has failed to? Or is DEI in and of itself unnecessary? Texas Republicans seem to think the latter is true – and that’s why they banned it.

One could say that’s to be expected of a legislature that’s 70% male and half white. They don’t need DEI; they’ve already tasted success. 

Two things are true: Thanks to decades-old state and federal anti-discrimination laws, American colleges and workplaces offer equity and equal rights under the law. Where these laws are broken, they’re challenged in court and overturned – like the Supreme Court’s decision last year that affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.  

It’s also true that where DEI programs in colleges exist, they’re too expansive and simultaneously ineffective. Where they were perhaps originally a good idea decades ago, they’ve gone so far past the Overton Window, they’re either achieving little on college campuses or achieving the opposite in American workplaces, forcing companies to hire token representatives and eschewing merit-based hires because of sex and race.  

The news that 60 people were let go sounds harsh, but it’s a short-term consequence to fixing a longer-term problem. DEI advances people in work and schools because they’re marginalized, not because of merit. In the end, in the name of inclusivity, it ends up being quite an exclusive club. 

[briny]

^not my post, take under cut

i was thinking abt this idea of ahistorically "progressive" fiction being harmful and I think.. I am less interested in this lens of viewing fiction than I used to be. I consider it a very normal reaction to be uninterested in the "liberal project of sanitizing colonial violence" and I believe that the cultural privileging of stories that superimpose images of marginalized people onto the roles of oppressors over stories about how those marginalized people were resisting indicates that the dominant culture does want to foreground their narrative and will adapt in many ways to keep their ideas alive - but I also know that marginalized people have always had many layers of identification and relationships to the concepts represented by historical fiction that permeate our culture most deeply, and it feels so bleak to say that we can't morally explore these identifications without first and foremost fully representing the depth of our abjection. I think lots of people have talked about the inability of fiction to serve as moral authority or even education, and about how the perceived moral imperative for poc to acknowledge abjection and oppression all the time can further degrade our sense of resilience and dignity. as far as my personal taste, I judge a piece of "historical" fiction on how well it explores and connects the concepts it purports to find identification in. not to say I need all my historical fiction to be highbrow, to cover all ground, or even be nuanced! I just want a coherent internal viewpoint. Sometimes the conceptual gap between the story's take and the actual events it's chosen to represent is too big and jarring, and the conclusions that the story presents come off as delusional or projected - this is how I feel about hamilton, I have no idea how the telling of american history from a founding father's perspective particularly serves its central aim of remaking history to include oppressed peoples, and it perturbs me that this is hamilton's answer to "who lives who dies who tells your story". I don't feel this way about all "sanitized" narratives, bc they aren't all contriving to retell history in an "inclusive" way, they're interested in different ideas that don't have to do with making a statement on historical narrative itself. It feels normal for people who intimately know what it is to be desubjectified to be drawn to the dignity and preciousness of courtly romance, or to bond-making amongst those who exist outside the law. I'll never pretend that these identifications aren't loaded or fraught, but it feels both reductive and like a bad faith assessment of your peers/of yourself to assume these multiple fascinations boil down to a power fantasy of being in the oppressor position. I guess I am interested in what value, if any, the post-colonial psyche would find in these identifications - would history and identity begin at the point of total decolonization? Does everything before that point no longer serve us? Is our yet to be decolonized present even serving us? I don't really want to refute op's stance or even disagree with it, but if we're accepting the project of critically analyzing pop culture thru the lens of identity representation I do want to keep following the thread that's there

anyway please don't @ me if you have a grad degree in media studies or something this is off the top of my dome and I've never seen bridgerton so if I'm very wrong abt it well! then I'm very wrong

[enzymedevice]

It seems that OP found the book through the UK Fetish Archive Instagram, which posted its title page without comment in a potentially misleading way, so I’m considering contacting them to see if they know any more about the book's authorship than that person's search. It's interesting to see trans people acknowledged this way, so perhaps further interrogation can reveal more about this subsection of the kink community's trans allyship if nothing else. Contemporaneous examples of "lost texts" from the early 90s would be interesting to hear about as well - in my previous reblog of this post I mentioned Marianne Martindale's Wildfire Club but the Archive will have broader knowledge.

I also did my own search just in case this turned out to be a rare example of a text that did have the history it purports to and can confirm that practically every name, place and event mentioned in the book's foreword is seemingly fabricated, with the exception of Charles Carrington. He was indeed an erotica publisher whose inclusion would likely add an aura of legitimacy for enthusiasts to whom his name would be familiar. It's done with great care and knowledge regarding the time period and location (even mentioning real local newspapers), with a lot of things that might be true (a notorious flagellation brothel on St James's Street makes complete sense!), but upon research are verifiably false.

I'm reading a book named "A Guide to The Correction of Young Gentlemen Or, The Successful Administration Of Physical Discipline To Males, By Females" - essentially, a fantasy femdom BDSM book, written in 1924 by Alice Kerr-Sutherland but first published in 1991.

It has some genuinely fascinating stuff to say about gender, and I feel like it's worth looking at/thinking about in the context of Historical Gender Stuff. This 100 year old book has the following to say:

"The truth is that some young gentlemen would rather they had been born young ladies: they cannot admit this openly, because in the male world to confess as much would lead to instant ostracism if not worse; but they cannot conceal it either, and by preferring the company of girls, and soft, feminine clothing, and by flinching during the rough pursuits to which all boys, willing or no, are occasionally heirs, they attract opprobrium."

"Such boys weep too readily for their fellows' tastes - weeping is a great crime among boys unless it is generally admitted that circumstances left little choice - and are hounded for that reason."

"Just as there are girls who had rather been boys - we all know examples of the type - there are boys who, in a kinder world, would have been born into the gender more suited to their dispositions."

"Many young people of this sort are riven with a guilt they do not deserve but have been forced, by the conventions of society, to adopt; they are confused, ashamed and thoroughly unhappy."

"The ideal thing to do would be to treat these cases on their merits, send them to girls' schools, and so on. (The same thing should happen with those girls who would rather be young gentlemen.) Boys of this sort are girls in any case-in all respects save one."

"Most subjects of this sort have a secret name - a girl's name."

[god-whispers]

week in review headlines

"behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me." psa 40:7

AI can create a 'new Bible,' influential author declares: 'In a few years, there might be religions that are actually correct' Yuval Noah Harari — an influential author, professor, and renowned public intellectual — said recently that artificial intelligence can create a "new Bible."

Advanced Technology Paving The Way: US Airforce AI-Enabled Drone Turns On Its Operator Recently the U. S. Air Force conducted a simulation in which an AI-enabled drone tasked with destroying surface-to-air missile sites attacked the very officer who was controlling it.

The ultimate goal of the Globalists is to create a singleton The ultimate goal of Agenda 2030 is to create a “singleton,” Dr. Jacob Nordangård said.   A singleton is a world order in which there is a single decision-making agency at the highest level…“I don’t think they will succeed because they don’t work from truth, they work from lies.  And truth always wins in the end,” Dr. Nordangård said.

Is AI the end of the world or the beginning of something new? AI is the end of the world! In something out of the start of a horror movie, this week top artificial intelligence researchers called for major regulation of the technology, releasing a one-sentence letter: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Air Force base hosts drag show it calls ‘essential for military readiness’ Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada hosted its first officially organized drag show earlier this month and said the event was essential for the morale and overall readiness of its troops.

PRIDE MONTH: Here’s How the Navy Is Training Sailors on Proper Gender Pronouns The Navy is training its members to create a “safe space” by using proper gender pronouns in a new instructional video modeled after a children’s show.

Europe Horrified by Surge of Migrant Children Engaging in Mock Gang Rapes and Beheadings Migrant children’s disturbing mock rapes and executions in Europe reveal a culture of silence, where politicians, police, and media deliberately ignore the crimes to protect their immigration policies.

DEATH is the new GREEN: Ireland to cull 200,000 cows to meet so-called “climate targets” Over the next three years, the government of Ireland is planning to murder upwards of 200,000 head of cattle because allowing the creatures to live might “warm” the planet too much, they claim.

GREAT RESET: World’s Largest Asset Management Firm BlackRock Behind Forcing DEI And ESG On Companies Via Chinese-Style ‘Social Credit’ Scheme Last week I was researching a story about the DEI page on the Chick-fil-A website, and all the purported furor it was generating. I’ll be honest, I knew about the environmental, social, and governance initiatives known as ESG, but I knew nothing about the diversity, equity and inclusion of DEI. Where is all this coming from, and why is nearly every major company doing it? As it turns out, there is a simple, one-word answer to that question. BlackRock.

Xi Jinping is Directing High-Level National Security Officials to Prepare for Conflict With the West On May 30, 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping said to his top national security officials to be prepared for “worst case scenarios” and “stormy seas.”

GROOMERS: US Department of Education Wishes Kids a ‘Happy Pride Month The US Department of Education is wishing children a ‘Happy Pride Month’ and has changed its Twitter profile picture to the so-called ‘progress pride flag’.

Examining ‘Pride Month’: The Days Of Lot Before Our Eyes Our Sodom-like society continues to rage toward the Judgment-producing moment in which Jesus said He will be “revealed” (Luke 17: 28). There will be at that future time, the Lord foretold, things going on which will look exactly like things that were happening as the vexed Lot observed his surroundings in the doomed city of Sodom.

3 in 10 Young Americans and Mostly Democrats Support Government Cameras Installed in American Households, Survey Says In a society increasingly shaped by technology and security concerns, a concerning trend is emerging among younger generations in the United States.

PHILADELPHIA mosque caught performing child bride marriages A Philadelphia mosque has been allowing marriages between child brides and adult men. According to Clarion Intelligence Network, sources are aware of an investigation into the underage marriages that have taken place for years.

The Church of Psilomethoxin Uses Psychedelics to Worship The army vets behind the Church of Psilomethoxin have a unique sacrament – one that involves a drug derived from shrooms and a poisonous amphibian.

South Africa plans to limit water for white people by enacting “race quotas”… This is one of those story titles that makes you go, “Is this for real?” But then you actually open it up and realize it’s true, leaving you wondering what on earth is going on in our messed up progressive clown world.

Journalists Are Asking Ukrainian Soldiers To Hide Their Nazi Patches, NYT Admits The New York Times has been forced to very, very belatedly deal with something which had long been obvious and known to many independent analysts and media outlets, but which has been carefully shielded from the mainstream masses in the West for obvious reasons.

Claim: Assisted Suicide Becomes 3rd Leading Cause of Death in Quebec — 7% of All Deaths Canada looks set to face another record-shattering year of euthanasia deaths in 2023 after a reported 35 percent rise to some 13,500 state-sponsored suicides in 2022, an analysis of official data shows.

[coochiequeens]

So here you have something there's never been a complaint about in 40 years, that I've heard of, and now all of a sudden we can't do it because it'll offend people. What is one supposed to make of that?

Actors warned John Cleese that his Life of Brian stage show should not include a scene about a man wanting to be a woman and have a baby, the comedian has said.

The Monty Python star is working on a stage production of the troupe’s 1979 comedy film, The Life of Brian, which parodies the Messianic message of the New Testament.

In the film version, a character named Stan explains that he wants to be a woman called Loretta and “have babies”, before being told by Cleese’s character Reg that this was impossible.

This exchange reportedly met with opposition from actors in a readthrough of the script for the planned stage show because it could “offend people”, raising doubt as to its inclusion in the final production.

'You can't do that stuff nowadays'

Cleese said performers involved in the readthrough told him: “We love the script, but you can't do that stuff about Loretta nowadays.”

Speaking to the audience for his one-man show, he added:  "So here you have something there's never been a complaint about in 40 years, that I've heard of, and now all of a sudden we can't do it because it'll offend people. What is one supposed to make of that?

“But I think there were a lot of things that were actually, in some strange way, predictive of what was actually going to happen later."

The potentially offensive scene features Eric Idle as Stan telling his fellow members of the People's Front of Judea “I want to be a woman”, and adding “from now on, I want you all to call me Loretta”.

He explains that this is because he wants to have babies, and explains that “it's every man's right to have babies if he wants them”.

'You haven't got a womb'

Cleese’s character Reg explains “you haven’t got a womb”, but the People’s Front decide that they will champion Stan’s right to have babies, as it is "it is symbolic of our struggle against oppression”.

Cleese revealed the concerns with the script amid a growing debate about gender ideology, which purports that people born female who identify as male are men, and could give birth to children as men.

This idea has been reflected in the NHS, with the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust recently employing the phrase “birthing people” instead of mothers in an announcement about perinatal mental health care.

In 2021, Brighton and Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust unveiled “gender inclusive” phrases to be used as best practice by medical staff, advising that “birthing parent” was the more appropriate term.  The word “breastmilk” was replaced with “chestmilk”.

'I've changed some things'

While it remains to be seen if Cleese’s script will include Stan’s wish to be a woman, the star has said that audiences can expect some differences between the stage show and the film.

Cleese said: "I think Life Of Brian is our best film. We are going to do it in London in the second half of next year and I've changed certain things."

According to the Daily Mail, he said: "There is a new character - Fiona Pilate, Pilate's wife - who falls in love with Brian. And, spoiler alert, Brian does not get crucified. But rest assured he will still sing Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life."

The film was accused of being blasphemous when it was first released, and was banned in Ireland as part of a clerical backlash against the comedy, often cited as the greatest of all time.

[kristinakyidyl]

I answered this once and then TUMBLR ATE IT. >.<

Anyway, in Westeros, yeah…faithfulness is a bit hard to believe. @turtle-paced was talking about faithfulness in westerosi arranged marriages this week and they made some good points, but the arranged portion aside…it’s basically a matter of whether or not a nobleman wants to be faithful. There’s nothing saying they need to be, and plenty aren’t. Aegon the IV is, of course, the most prominent example of this (with rumors that Naerys wasn’t faithful either.). And not for nothing, but I think Rhaegar and Elia actually had a pretty amiable relationship and he wasn’t faithful to her, as evidenced by the existence of Jon Snow. Now, there’s a lot of conversation about whether Elia consented to that because we’re not told much about her, but there’s kind of evidence that she did consent. Mostly that, despite seeing Rhaegar run off with Lyanna, they are fiercely loyal to the Targs. I also think if Elia hadn’t consented to the inclusion of Lyanna in their marriage that Rhaegar wouldn’t have taken her to a tower in *Dorne*, of all places, but the fact is we don’t know and based on what we do know - it looks a lot like Rhaegar was unfaithful. Even in love matches, people aren’t faithful in westeros. Corlys and Rhaenys were, by all accounts, a love match (or at least not a forced one; Rhaenys chose him.), and yet…Addam and Alyn exist. Daemon and Rhaenyra weren’t faithful in their respective marriages. Maegor wasn’t, either. The mad king wasn’t in the beginning of his marriage. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, there were certainly more. Hell, there’s a theory floating around out there that Alyssa wasn’t Jaehaerys’s daughter based in her looks, attitude, and the fact that Lucamore the Lusty was in the Kingsgard at the time. I don’t know that I necessarily believe the theory given Jaehaerys and Alyssane’s relationship, but it’s not something that can be discounted out of hand, either. So, I mean, yeah. Aegon’s fidelity IS noteworthy in the context of westerosi nobility. More than that, though - and I really should have been clearer about this - he refused other offers of marriage. The other Targs that openly practiced polygamy collected wives like Pokémon. Aegon clearly just wanted Rhaenys and Visenya. Even after Rhaenys died, he refused to consider remarrying despite his purported dislike of Visenya. I mean, really, given how little we know of Aegon’s personality, he could have been gay or ace and his sisters covered for him. Rhaenys kept a lot of pretty men around her, and there were rumors that Aenys wasn’t Aegon’s (personally I don’t think that’s true, I think the sisters were faithful to him as well and that Aenys’s health was a result of the incest. He also started to get stronger after bonding his dragon, which was common amongst the Targs.), so even with the 3 of them there were rumors. And yet, Aegon didn’t seem to be bothered by his son’s health, and didn’t seem to treat Rhaenys any differently. He didn’t put a stop to her habit of collecting attractive men, either, so it must not have bothered him all that much. So yeah I mean I think their fidelity to each other is actually a sign that they genuinely cared for each other, or at least were united in a single goal and outward appearance to the public.

[anhed-nia]

I wanted to separate the following rant out from my review of LAMB, which is spoiler-heavy, because I feel seriously about this topic and I don't want to bury it at the end of something basically separate. The use of the term "genre fluid" (which I admit is a fun pun) as a modifier for what might otherwise be considered horror movies, and the discussion of movies being "horror-adjacent", first reached my ears in festival-related panels and conversations last year, and this year it's apparent that these concepts are being institutionalized. It seems to me that horror has been singled out exclusively for the little mollifying makeover that these ideas apply, and I find that extremely suspicious, perhaps even insulting. Ahem.

They don't need your stinkin' modifiers.

I'm getting really sick of hearing people talk about movies being "genre fluid" or "genre adjacent" or, in one way or another, "not really a horror movie (even though it looks and acts like one)". I feel like these hair-splitting discussions are often not in good faith. For one thing, what are they meant to accomplish, if it is NOT catering to people who still look down on horror? How is our understanding of a film deepened by the insistence that it is "not really" horror? I genuinely don't know, and conversations around this topic always sound like a lot of insidious marketing language to me. And I don't usually hear this from the mouth of someone who doesn't think they made a horror movie at all, and is surprised and delighted to have found appreciation from the horror community; it's usually someone who is a self-described horror fan, who seems to have made a horror movie and submitted it where horror cinema is showcased...and then they kind of walk back on what the movie is once they're asked, as if the "horror" label is depriving them of something. It's one thing to say that a movie like LAMB incorporates some horror elements into what is chiefly a fantasy—and there do exist truly genre-bending movies, like THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW which has the audacity to do everything at once—but it's another thing to suggest that a film's dominant horror nature is diluted or subjugated by the inclusion of anything that isn't...well, whatever "pure horror" is presumed to be, which is rarely defined in these evasive analyses. I always suspect the speaker of trying to gain something by distancing themselves from the oft-maligned genre; I detect an implication that horror needs to be "elevated" by the introduction of non-native elements, as if horror itself cannot contain elements of drama, humor, and tragedy. (How does one even tell a story without one of those three things? Is "pure horror" supposed to be non-narrative?) One way I can tell there's a problem here is that we simply do not hear these arguments about other genres. You never hear someone nervously saying that their musical is "comedy-adjacent", or having coy, tricky debates about whether a drama is no longer a "real" drama once it incorporates one or two surreal elements. People throw around hyphenates like "romantic comedy" and "sci-fi/fantasy" all the time without couching them in a ponderous open-ended interrogation. Sometimes this is a matter of what I call "hot take syndrome", where people compete to say the least likely thing the most convincingly; I'm reminded of certain frustrating conversations I've had with people who think they're breaking new ground by claiming that LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL is "actually a romance, NOT an action movie," as if a relentless blood-drenched action movie ceases to be that, if it has a (dicey) relationship at its core. But I think in the case of horror specifically, there's something condescending and cowardly going on that people—especially fans and professionals who purport to love horror—just don't want to admit to openly. It's apologism, and it stinks.

[marzipanandminutiae]

What was the deal with aesthetic dress reform and how is it different from normal Belle Epoque fashion?

So I actually had to go to Wikipedia about this, because while I knew the rough basics about Artistic/Aesthetic Dress- medieval inspiration, loose silhouettes, interconnected with the Pre-Raphaelites, purporting to improve on various aspects of women’s fashion depending on who you asked -I didn’t know the specifics myself.

It seems like how much it was about reform could vary wildly. In a lot of ways it reminds me of modern historybounding/vintage fashion, albeit with less research done into the actual time period it was kind of referencing. There was kind of this idea of hearkening back to the sartorial Good Old Days of natural-dyed colors, hand-embroidery, emphasis on individual craftsmanship, and loose, flowing silhouettes. The reform in question almost seems to have been more aesthetic than practical, much of the time.

(It seems to have almost had some Regency influences at times, which is really interesting considering that Regency was still recent enough to potentially fall under “Great-Grandma’s clothes” rather than “artistic and ancient.” And the idea of wearing old clothes wasn’t socially popular, as I’ve mentioned before.)

As for the differences...I can think of no better illustration than this painting from 1881:

(Detail from “A Private Viewing At the Royal Academy.” William Powell Frith, 1881. He’s contrasted Artistic Dress fashions, at left and right, with popular styles of the day, center. Honestly  I think the corseting on the Popular Fashion contingent is exaggerated and the Artistic Dress women look more like photographs of average 1880s ladies in terms of waist size. But it’s a satire, so I suppose that’s the point.)

As for extant examples, I feel like some ended up looking better than others:

(Tea gown by Liberty of London, 1897. While it’s definitely not conducive to tightlacing, I think the inclusion of a train belies the idea that Artistic Dress was all about making women’s clothing more practical. And I love this gown, to be clear.)

(Dress, also by Liberty of London, 1890s. It’s difficult to imagine the figure that this weird mushroom/muffin-top shape would flatter, and the color definitely isn’t helping.

(”Mrs. Luke Ionides,” by William Blake Richmond, 1882. Another one that I really love.)

(”Symphony in Flesh Color and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland,” by James McNeill Whistler. 1871-74. She’s making it work, but this really just looks like a nightgown to me. Which seems to be a common issue among many Artistic Dress gowns.)

So yeah. That was a thing. Hope this provides at least a basic, useful primer!

[loki-zen]

To attempt to be a little bit more constructive, here’s something that maybe most people don’t know:

Unless you know a lot of disabled people personally (not through your job, at least if you ‘work with disabled people’ rather than have them as colleagues), and/or have done a lot of reading and engagement with a variety of self-advocates/self-advocacy groups, then it is highly likely that almost everything you have seen that purports to be anti-ableism or for disabled people is, in fact, abled people bullshit which drowns out our voices and which is, if anything, counter to our actual priorities and goals.

A lot of this stuff seems to have the express purpose of redirecting energy away from addressing our material interests, and towards pointless feel-good goals like ‘awareness’, ‘stigma’, and the PR-friendly appearance of inclusion.

This isn’t necessarily deliberately malicious, although the effects are what they are.

of late, a lot of people (some perhaps in the above category and parroting what they’ve heard, others trollishly tryna start discourse using us as pawns or reductios ad absurdum) have been using gross half-understood caricatures of some of the actual theory behind our activism, ensuring that anyone coming across it will be able to pattern-match it to something ridiculous-sounding and dismiss us out of hand.

Please for the love of fuck think before you repost.

[nomanwalksalone]

MY RALPH OUTLET

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

A recent conversation with Ivy revisionist Berkeley Breathes led to me a revelation. The relationship between Prep and Ivy, I ejaculated, is that of birds and dinosaurs. Just as my mom’s evil African Grey who used to eye me balefully was the collateral heir to the thunderous hundred-foot-long Ninjatitan zapatai (they did it, they really gave an animal the scientific name Ninjatitan, so prep is the existing offshoot of a look that otherwise died in the 1970s, or 65 million years ago in fashion years. Existing Ivy exponents are no dead clade walking, but as authentic as rumored plesiosaurs subsisting in Loch Ness: impossible, ridiculous and fascinating latter-day inventions. What actually and organically has continued to evolve following the death of Ivy is messier, sloppier and more casual, less precise and thus more adaptable… and may even owe its survival to its adoption and adaptation by American’s most important designer, Ralph Lauren.

There’s a lot to unpack from the free-with-purchase-at-these-fine stores Polo-branded baggage of the above paragraph. As I’ve written in earlier pieces, reading Richard Press’s Threading the Needle and the interesting if misbegotten Ivy Style museum exhibition monograph helped sharpen the picture of what Ivy style is perceived to be now (the old Take Ivy book helped provide a more contemporary picture of it at the time that Ivy was on its last legs). Youthful as it purported to be (its very name localized it to college years at privileged college campuses), Ivy still included aspirations to a kind of maturity: grown-up clothes in the form of tailored jackets, and sobriety’s leash itself, the necktie. Even if decades ago such clothes could exist in more casual registers by nature of their materials or patterns (J. Press’s famous tweeds, for instance), they existed as prescribed forms of uniform at prep schools and (at least as a de facto uniform) universities at midcentury. From the 1960s, student rebellions of various forms threw off such uniforms among young people. At my own prep school, legend had it that protestors against the old coat-and-tie uniform even came to school naked (this was several years before it also went co-ed). Legend? I suppose if I had wanted to investigate, I could have asked teachers who had been at the school since shortly after graduating from it in 1952, or the octogenarian who had taught there 60 years straight since 1929.

The death of a frankly prosaic tailored uniform opened up two planes of possibility: one for the more casual sorts of Ivy play clothes that younger students had worn that were less restrictive and less costly than tailored clothes; and another plane of imaginary romance and dash for myths to write themselves. Ralph strode in and straddled them both, and preps welcomed him. No more did the privileged student have to order jackets from LL Bean or Barbour, piqué shirts from Lacoste and loafers from Bass or Brooks Brothers in New York. Instead, Ralph’s shop-in-shops in better department stores across the country offered a one-stop experience for an entire look immersed in the sort of generalized Anglophilia and muddy horsiness (from the brand name Polo on down) that put America’s aspirational middle classes at ease in their social insecurities.

1980’s The Preppy Handbook gave us an informative snapshot of its time and this attitude: Polo items infiltrated the various shots of preppy accoutrements, as do the various carefree, confident corner-cutting that began to mark its difference from dead Ivy: moccasins held together with duct tape and a lack of any care about fit, and later, provenance: the book points out to us to notice the sloppy hemming job on a grown-up Prep’s suit pants, and tells us the credentials of former Prep hall-of-famer Lisa Halaby are now in question for marrying a man “whose blazers fit perfectly”: the incredibly elegant, Camps de Luca-clad King Hussein of Jordan. Preps were happy to wear Izod’s licensed Lacoste shirts instead of the original, and over the decades to wear Ralph as he expanded into a brand supported (according to biographer Michael Gross) by its outlets, and later Ralph pastiches like Tommy Hilfiger. The populations wearing prep changed in appearance: prep schools themselves became somewhat more inclusive, at least in appearance, and other populations appropriated aspects of the look that Ralph popularized, even if old curmudgeons like Lewis Lapham missed no opportunity to sneer at Ralph for now making expensive copies of traditional garments in cheap factories.

I used to share that rather snobbish sentiment, before realizing that for better or worse Ralph captured all the problematic romance of nostalgia without the boredom of latter-day Ivy irredentists, arguing over details of collar roll and shoulder construction irrelevant to everyone but themselves. One writer in the Ivy Style monograph suggested that Ralph started his business in reaction to seeing Brooks Brothers (where he had sold ties) losing its way. Rather, both Ralph and Brooks Brothers were reacting to changing times that killed Ivy as anything but a historical look. Ralph moved into fantasy, bringing elements of 1930s English dandyism (too flamboyant for Ivy to have espoused even in an abdicated, morganatic manner) and of other senses of loss: lost colonial empires through exotic and safari imagery and lost WASP fortunes and heritage in the decoration and presentation of his boutiques, most infamously in the conversion of Manhattan’s Rhinelander Mansion into his New York flagship. His boutiques around the world followed its inspiration. Even if their décor was ersatz copies of its old wood, the Ralph Lauren staff knew how to trigger that strange sense of transport which is momentary acceptance in prep enclaves, like when a beblazered boys’ chorus began singing carols in the gallery of one boutique during our holiday browsing.

He made prep more interesting, more visible and accessible, and more new than its traditional retailers had. In the beginning, at least, he probably kept some in business, too. Such is the case with an amazing vintage handmade Fair Isle sweater, made in Britain for Ralph Lauren in traditional wool with traditional heathered colors… and metallic lurex, more commonly associated with punks, giving it gold highlights. A deep dive looking for handmade Fair Isle sweaters turned up this example (a Scottish knitter friend told me that if I wanted a new handknit sweater, I had better pick up “a pair of pins” myself, since even one of the famous handknitters was photographed using Shima knitting machines). It made one of the staples of prep (as the distant, extant vestige of Ivy) novel, arresting, yet coherent. Even if, 35 years on, the Ralph Lauren empire has retrenched, its brand and manufacturing approaches called into question, what he does today is still the heir to the best, or most redeemable, of what prep was.

[tvandenneagram]

The Mortal Instruments Enneagram Types - Type Descriptions and Tri-types under the cut

Clary Fray: 4w5 - 6w5 - 1w2

Clary is brave, creative and stubborn. She will always try to do what she believes is right and will follow her heart when she makes decisions.

Clary is very artistic and has a talent for creating runes. She expresses herself through her art and and carries her sketchbook with her everywhere she goes, using it like a diary.

Clary will fight for what she believes in and will often put herself in danger if it means protecting those she cares about. She is stubborn and it is difficult to change her mind once she has made a decision

Clary is very romantic and is preoccupied with her relationship with Jace. She has extremely strong feelings for Jace and somewhat idealises their relationship. Type 4s are often very attached to their romantic partners and search for an ideal partner, which I think is what we see Clary doing with Jace.

I considered typing Clary as a 6 because she is very loyal, however I think that she is more preoccupied with finding out who she is in the world than her safety. I also think she does not make her decisions based on fear and that she doesn’t really plan out her actions very much. While this could indicate that she is counterphobic I think it is more likely that she is a type 4.

Clary has a wing 5 because she is more introverted and withdrawn than a wing 3 would be.

Jace Herondale/Wayland/Morgenstern/Lightwood/whatever name he has this week: - 6w7 (cp) - 8w7 - 3w4

Jace is independent, headstrong and sarcastic. He presents himself as haughty and arrogant, but uses this attitude as a defense mechanism for his insecurites.

Despite Jace’s flippant attitude he has a strong moral core and is very dutiful. He is a very skilled fighter and takes his training seriously. Underneath his pompus exterior, Jace is hiding distinct feelings of inferiority. He is extremely self-loathing in the original trilogy and often purports things to be his fault when they are not. Jace believes that he has been fed demon blood and attributes his conflicts with this. He hates the feelings he has for Clary and blames it on being part demon. Even when all this is disproven, Jace still carries his mistakes like a burden and believes that he is defective. Some type 6s (especially counterphobic 6s, like Jace) feel like the world is ‘against’ them and I think this attitude comes across from Jace, especially earlier in the series.

Jace has very complicated feelings towards Valentine. While Valentine was abusive and is known to be evil, he is also the man who raised Jace. Jace holds onto his positive memories of Valentine, despite all the lies and abuse he suffered upon him. 6s often have complex relationships with their parental figures and they seek their support. 

Jace will fight for his issues head on and often runs straight into battle to protect the people he cares about. I think Jace is the counterphobic variant of 6, as he is more likely to show his aggression and put themselves in dangerous situations. Counterphobic 6s are also often rebellious and defiant to authority (because they don’t trust it), which is something we see in Jace. 

I considered typing Jace as an 8 because he is very assertive and values strength. However I believe that Jace is assertive and acerbic because he doesn’t trust easily. He puts walls up because he is scared of letting people in because he doesn’t want his trust to be broken. When Jace lets someone in he is very loyal and will do anything for them. 

Jace has a wing 7 becomes he is more emotionally expressive and more likely to react than a wing 5 would be.

Alec Lightwood: 1w9 - 2w1 - 6w5

Alec is principled, caring and brave. He is straightforward and doesn’t care much for pretenses.

Alec is serious and responsible. As the oldest member of his family, Alec put it upon himself to be the protector of his family. He felt that he had to be the most responsible and as a result became very dependable. Alec is extremely compliant and concerned with the rules of the Clave. 

Alec is very concerned with what others think of him. He is so scared of what his parents and friends would think of him if they found out he were gay so he kept it secret from everyone except Izzy. Alec knew since a young age he was gay, but bottled his feelings up, because the Clave said it was wrong. He was scared to go against the Clave’s laws and was worried of losing his family’s respect. 

Alec can sometimes come across as judgmental, rigid and condescending, which are common flaws of Type 1s. Underneath all that, Alec is the harshest critic on himself and he holds himself to impossible standards. Despite being very accomplished, he never thought he was good enough and would discount his successes. Alec is often afraid to make a mistake, which results in him being very careful and practical when making his decisions. 

Alec initially had a snobbish attitude and prejudice towards Downworlders, but opens up more as he interacts with them. In his relationship with Magnus, Alec becomes more carefree and loosens up a bit. He still shows insecurities within this relationship, but is able to overcome them. 

Alec has a wing 9 as he is more guarded with his emotions than a wing 2 would be. 

Magnus Bane: 7w6 - 4w3 - 9w8

Magnus is eccentric, worldly and kind. He really wants to find love and acceptance in the world.

Magnus is very flamboyant and whimsical. His personality contrasts quite distinctly with Alec’s more serious and reserved demeanour. Magnus is very open and does not compromise himself for anyone. He is inclusive and accepting of all people, having friends of all different walks of life.

Magnus enjoys a good party and seeks out experiences. As an immortal, he has had quite a storied life and has been all over the world. At times, it can seem like he doesn’t take situations very seriously and will make snarky jokes about them.

Deep down, Magnus yearns for the love and acceptance he never got from his parents. He had a difficult childhood and was not accepted by his family because he was a Downworlder. Due to this trauma, Magnus tries to repress his negative feelings and numb them with more ‘fun’ experiences. While he appears to be very open, he is actually deceptively guarded and is very hesitant to share deep and honest experiences with others. Magnus appears lively and jovial but is hiding a jaded and cynical worldview.

In his relationship with Alec, Magnus is initally the much more active party. 7s are assertive types and if they want to do something they will do it. We often see Magnus being the one to act first whereas Alec was too scared to act on his feelings for a long time. However, as time passes and their relationship becomes more public we see issues begin to form and Magnus is the one to pull away. When Magnus hears about Alec’s idea to turn him mortal, Magnus feels betrayed and breaks up with him. After their break up, Magnus is very avoidant of Alec and ignores him. This is quite typical of 7s, who hate to confront feelings. 

Magnus has a wing 6 as he is more relationship focused and personable than a 7w8.

Isabelle Lightwood: 3w2 - 6w7 - 1w2

Izzy is fierce, passionate and confident. She can come across as vain or narcissistic, but is actually very insecure and vulnerable.

Izzy is charming and magnetic. She has a quality about her which draws people in. Izzy is comfortable with her looks and will often use them as a means to get what she wants. Despite her outgoing demeanour, she is actually very distrustful and fragile. Izzy is guarded with her true feelings and is hesitant to let people know the real her. 

Izzy has a bit of an image that she has crafted of being rebellious and promiscuous to protect herself. She dated a lot and many of these dates were people her parents wouldn’t approve of. Izzy would form meaningless relationships so that she wouldn’t have to worry about forming real feelings or being hurt. She also did this in part to detract attention from Alec so her parents wouldn’t be suspicious of him.

Izzy is very protective and loyal to her friends. She loves them very deeply and is devastated whenever something bad happens to them. Izzy always tries to be there for her family and defends them with everything she has. She is particularly depressed when her brother Max dies as she blames herself for the death. She thinks that she failed him because she didn’t listen to him when he tried to tell her something was wrong. Izzy holds onto this guilt and even skipped the funeral because she felt she did not deserve to be there.

Izzy desperately wants love, but is hesitant to trust any man. Her mother confided in her when she was younger about her father’s infidelities and told her never to trust a man. As a result, Izzy is the character who takes the longest to open herself up to love. She is passionate about Simon, but is scared to love him because she thinks it will only bring her pain. 

Izzy has a wing 2 because she is more grandiose and showy than a wing 4 would be. 3w2s are generally more concerned with their outward appearances and appearing desirable compared to 3w4s.

Simon Lewis: 9w1 - 4w5 - 6w5

Simon is calm, nerdy and accepting. He is a great friend and is courageous when he needs to be.

Type 9s look for normalcy and struggle with change, which is something we see in spades with Simon. When we first meet Simon he is the only mundane character. He is the ‘normal’ one surrounded by all the magical creatures in the TMI universe. Later on, Simon is transformed into a vampire (well first he’s a rat, then he’s a Daylighter and then he’s a Shadowhunter) and longs to be normal. He resists his vampiric urges and refuses to drink from humans for an extremely long time. Simon struggled for a long time to accept this change and was worried about how it would affect his relationships with his loved ones. He desperately craved a normal life and once he became a Daylighter he tried as best as he could to lead as normal a life as possible.

Simon is non-confrontational and is afraid to share his true feelings for the fear that it might change his relationships. At the beginning of the series, he had been in love with Clary for years but never mustered up the courage to say so. He is initially very jealous of Jace and tries to get Clary not to like him. When he is dating Clary he realises her true feelings lie with Jace and ends the relationship. At his core, Simon truly cares for his friends and just wants them to be happy.

Simon is a great listener and genuinely cares about his friends feelings. He is something of a sounding board and both Clary and Izzy with both feeling very comfortable talking about their problems with him. When Max died, Izzy was able to find comfort in Simon. He listened to her and was able to give her solace and understanding. 

Simon is a people pleaser and is scared to hurt other’s feelings. Sometimes, this can lead to him making some mistakes. 9s fear conflict and will try to avoid it at all costs. They avoid saying negative things because they don’t want people to react badly or hurt their feelings. We see this in the whole mess with Maia and Izzy. I actually hate this storyline but I feel it is a good example of Simon’s general 9-ness. When Simon was dating both girls he showed the 9s indecisiveness, people-pleasing and fear of conflict. I feel that Simon wasn’t honest with either girl because he was scared of their reaction and scared of hurting their feelings. I also feel like Simon was confused in his feelings and couldn’t decide which girl was actually the one for him. 

Simon has a wing 1 because he is more repressed and uptight than a 9w8 would be. His 1 wing also influences him to want to be a ‘good’ person, which is part of why he is so upset when he becomes a vampire (which he feels is turning him into a ‘monster’). 

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Images adapted from Google

The Infernal Devices Types (x)