secretly-your-history-professor - Tumblr blog

[secretly-your-history-professor]

class is back in session

hello students, it's been a moment hasn't it?

[secretly-your-history-professor]

OP I LOVE YOU 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙/p

!!! it's the middle of pride month already, so here's some queer dead poets headcanons!

[secretly-your-history-professor]

What made you become accustomed to history, I meant to say.

ahh, understood, thank you for the clarification <:

honestly, history is like a heavy, warm blanket for me, and it always has been. when i was a much younger boy, i used to spend hours piecing apart books about medical history, mostly to try and impress my mother because she was very much one of those conditional love types. when that didn't work, i kept learning about it for myself, it was a form of escapism and a labour of love to read all about different people and places and events in history.

not to mention the way that it fit in my brain in a way that i didn't have the language for at the time (now i know its because of my autism). history happens in quiet places, with comforting, dedicated, and intelligent people, and it requires higher and critical thinking. i realize that might sound a touch elitist, but im afraid it's the truth. and the people around me that were interested in history were more than happy to chat about it for hours on end because no one becomes a historian for the money (median salary for historians where i live is about 60000 a year).

i want to be able to kindle and inspire others to explore history because of how much of a comfort it is to me. i can't help but feel a little twinge of hurt and sadness when history courses are dropped due to lack of interest, or when people make fun of historians for being dusty and old.

i know this was a bit of a ramble, but i hope i answered your question <:

[secretly-your-history-professor]

*Takes a seat*

Hello stranger, as a fellow history fan. May you share your point of view of history.

hello <:

wondering if maybe you could be a tad more specific with what you mean by "my point of view of history", please! do you mean my understanding of the general human condition, why im interested, do you mean to ask about a specific historical era/topic ?

i anxiously await your response dearest student <:

[secretly-your-history-professor]

yay ancient trans people <:

An Ancient Greek Transgender Person

We read this passage in class yesterday and I thought it might interest youse guys. The passage is from Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans 5; it’s a discussion between Clonarium, a young man, and Leaena, a courtesan who had an unusual experience at a drinking party.

Eventually Megilla, being now rather heated, pulled off her wig, which was very realistic and fitted very closely, and revealed the skin of her head which was shaved close, just as on the most energetic of athletes. This sight gave me a shock, but she said, ‘Leaena, have you ever seen such a good-looking young fellow?’ ‘I don’t see one here, Megilla,’ said I. ‘Don’t make a woman out of me,’ said she. ‘My name is Megillus, and I’ve been married to Demonassa here for ever so long; she’s my wife.’ ‘Then, unknown to us, Megillus, you were a man all the time, just as they say Achilles once hid among the girls, and you have everything that a man has, and can play the part of a man to Demonassa?’ ‘I haven’t got what you mean,’ said she, ‘I don’t need it at all. You’ll find I have a much pleasanter method of my own.’ ‘You’re surely not a hermaphrodite,’ said I, ‘equipped both as a man and a woman, as many people are said to be?’; for I still didn’t know, Cleonarium, what it was all about. But she said, ‘No, Leaena, I’m all man.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’ve heard the Boeotian flute-girl, Ismenodora, repeating tales she’d heard at home, and telling us how someone at Thebes had turned from woman to man, someone who was also an excellent soothsayer, and was, I think, called Tiresias. That didn’t happen to you, did it?’ ‘No, Leaena,’ she said, ‘I was born a woman like the rest of you, but I have the mind and the desires and everything else of a man.’ ‘And do you find these desires enough?’ said I. ‘If you don’t believe me, Leaena,’ said she, ‘just give me a chance, and you’ll find I’m as good as any man; I have a substitute of my own. Only give me a chance, and you’ll see.’

Translation: M. D. Macleod, Loeb, 1961.

So Megilla - who, as a side note, is from Lesbos - was born a woman but identifies as a man, going by Megillus. Still, for some reason, they* disguise themselves as a woman. The whole situation is a bit confusing but the bolded bit is clear: Megilla/Megillus is, in modern terms, transgender.

Lucian’s Dialogues are fictional, but the fact he mentions a trans person speaks for their existence at the time. Remember that whenever people claim trans people are a recent phenomenon!

*I’m using they/them pronouns because it’s unclear exactly how they refer to themselves. Greek conjugated verbs are mostly non-gendered (so what the translation renders as ‘she said’ is actually ‘he/she/they said’), but there is one participle in the feminine (οὐδὲν ἐνδέουσάν με τῶν ἀνδρῶν, I’m as good as any man) despite Megilla/Megillus asking Leaena not to refer to them as a woman. So, unclear.

[secretly-your-history-professor]

just out of curiosity:

just to recap: a goldilocks/romeo and juliet law is when two (usually teens) are both:

above the age of consent (my state is 16)

are within 3-4 years of age (depending on the specifics of the law)

they may have consensual sex that, in the eyes of the law, is treated the same as two people over 18. so for example, a 19 y/o and a 17 y/o having consensual sex would be legal under this type of law

they are often put in place with the idea that it will help people transition from high school to real life easier, especially relationship-wise.

please feel free to add further insight to your vote in the comments/reblogs <:

[secretly-your-history-professor]

update: did not die, was not fired, was in fact praised and said praise was passed to higher ups <:

next week im helping with a summer camp group

a little help please, students

slightly terrified for tomorrow

i volunteer at a battlefield and im giving my first tour of our field hospital all on my own tomorrow afternoon

i know my stuff but being autistic makes it kind of hard to properly articulate it without rambling on, especially since this is my special interest

any tips ?

[secretly-your-history-professor]

a little help please, students

slightly terrified for tomorrow

i volunteer at a battlefield and im giving my first tour of our field hospital all on my own tomorrow afternoon

i know my stuff but being autistic makes it kind of hard to properly articulate it without rambling on, especially since this is my special interest

any tips ?

[secretly-your-history-professor]

yall im such a goshdarn sap

i just helped my gf search the gender wiki for the perfect one and he really likes luneboy, and because im an old fashioned gentleman of a husband and i want to support him in everything, im trying to find luneboy resources to support my husband and show him theres other people like him he doesnt have tumblr so this is our little secret <; if anyone knows of any luneboy stuff around the interwebs pls let me know <3

[secretly-your-history-professor]

or zach bryan or randy travis or old crow medicine show or george strait or dolly parton or-

(plz no dying tho, ily(all) too much for that mess /gen)

i hate “anything but country” bitches. listen to some johnny cash and kill yourself

[secretly-your-history-professor]

students!

im literally crying over this (like in a sad, my-life-is-falling-apart way) because me and my partner can't seem to see eye to eye on this:

he is very driven by logic and i by emotions, which every so often causes a rift or fight because he can't understand why i like something "just because" (in this case it was european high class vs. american high class aesthetics), and i can't defend myself because i don't have a reason, that thing is just nice.

if you could id love to have a larger sample size, so reblog if you feel like it

thank you dears !

[secretly-your-history-professor]

For the nosy ask post, 44

44 (again, yay <:). did you know that there was a transmasc soldier in the civil war ? he was an irish immigrant that fought for the union (im pretty sure), and when he died and the military tried to deny him the proper funerary rites, his regiment-mates fought for him and made sure he had the proper honours at his burial <:

give me a couple hours to find his name honey and ill post it in the comments <:

[secretly-your-history-professor]

hey yall, im sorry i know it's been a bit since i talked about history but i have a pressing question:

are trans people allowed to present opposite of their gender and still be upset when they get misgendered ?

(im asking as a feminine/gnc trans guy that gets very hurt and upset when strangers misgender me)

if yall would, please reblog for a larger sample size (but you don't have to if you don't want, you can still answer without reblogging)

[secretly-your-history-professor]

gay cowboys yall

gotta love em <3

Brokeback Mountain (2005), dir. Ang Lee

[secretly-your-history-professor]

In regards to the “wanna be nosy post”, 25, 31 and 44! (:

25. museum date, drive-in movie, or a nice dinner out <:

31. "hey honey, i don't think ill be able to make it, im sorry /:"- sent to my friend about a graduation party

44. up to 98% of civil war surgeries used anesthetic, most commonly chloroform or ether (chloroform was preferred though, because ether is very volatile and flammable).

[secretly-your-history-professor]

for the nosy ask game, 15?

Dead Poets Society or Gone With the Wind <:

[secretly-your-history-professor]

plz yall, im curious what questions you have <:

Wanna be nosy? Here's your chance.

0: Height 1: Virgin? 2: Shoe size 3: Do you smoke? 4: Do you drink? 5: Do you take drugs? 6: Age you get mistaken for 7: Have tattoos? 8: Want any tattoos? 9: Got any piercings? 10: Want any piercings? 11: Best friend? 12: Relationship status 13: Biggest turn ons 14: Biggest turn offs 15: Favorite movie 16: I’ll love you if 17: Someone you miss 18: Most traumatic experience 19: A fact about your personality 20: What I hate most about myself 21: What I love most about myself 22: What I want to be when I get older 23: My relationship with my sibling(s) 24: My relationship with my parent(s) 25: My idea of a perfect date 26: My biggest pet peeves 27: A description of the girl/boy I like 28: A description of the person I dislike the most 29: A reason I’ve lied to a friend 30: What I hate the most about work/school 31: What your last text message says 32: What words upset me the most 33: What words make me feel the best about myself 34: What I find attractive in women 35: What I find attractive in men 36: Where I would like to live 37: One of my insecurities 38: My childhood career choice 39: My favorite ice cream flavor 40: Who wish I could be 41: Where I want to be right now 42: The last thing I ate 43: Sexiest person that comes to my mind immediately 44: A random fact about anything