#1800s lesbians

[lemonbreelnd]

it's all i have to bring today - this, and my heart beside - this, and my heart, and all the fields - and all the meadows wide -

[zal-cryptid]

So if she lived by the Doll Hospital originally why did Elanor eventually move to her current abode? Did things go sour between her and Fanny?

It's complicated, but basically things never soured between them.

[stardustsernade]

A panel redraw that I did from a webtoon I really like called Nevermore and no one seems to know about it

So please read it 🙏

! I don’t own these characters ! All credits of the og panel to the original artist (og panel down below) ⬇️

[lesbianlenses]

[i-love-sufjan-stevens]

Victorian Queers + Couples

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Jean Alphonse Roehn (1799-1864) "The Awakening" Oil on canvas Currently in a private collection

[pinkstilettos-onmyface]

Me, 13 years old, watching Black Butler for the first time: Wow this is so cool thank you for showing me.

My friend: Yeah. Sebastian’s so hot, isn’t he?

Me, very much into Grell and on the verge of discovering something about myself:

[genderkoolaid]

hey, friend 😊✨

i've been pondering a few... outdated terms? (slurs?) idk. my dad called me "a little fruity" (affectionately) and someone else referred to me as "an elegant fairy", both in reference to my queerness. i just haven't heard those terms often and am struggling to find history behind them. i know you're not a search engine, lol, so feel free to ignore this ask, but do you have any answers for me?

where did these terms come from? what do they really mean? (and are they reclaimed/can i use them joyfully? they're cute, to me, but i know that slurs can be a tricky thing)

thanks so much x

(anon I have multiple etymology apps on my phone dw this is exactly the kind of question I love answering)

A lot of queer slurs started as euphemisms, so you could imply someone was queer without having to say they fucked men/women/crossdressed/etc. Queer itself started that way, since it originally meant "weird" or "crooked" and could've been applied to a wide variety of strange people- but "inverts" most of all, at least in the US. Fruity also comes from this, as it originally meant "odd person" and eventually became associated with gay men specifically.

"Fairy" has similar origins to "gay," in that both are euphemisms based around being delicate and fanciful, which implies gay men/transfems (although "gay" has also long had negative sexual connotations & was also used to refer to female sex workers). I'm not Black so feel free to correct me on this, but I have heard "sweet" gets used in a similar way in AAVE.

If you want to call yourself fruity/a fairy, go ahead! From what I know they don't really have any more sting in them than "queer"; they have been used violently, but there's also a long history of queer people reclaiming these words and using them joyfully.

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

❧✯…History said they were close…✯☙

[mxjackparker]

La Prostitution Contemporaine: Étude d'une question sociale (1884)

TRIBADES Jealousy, between girls addicted to the vice of sapphism, often causes quarrels, and sometimes veritable duels, in which the most frequently used weapon is the hair comb.

An illustration of multiple lesbian sex workers, printed within "La Prostitution Contemporaine" by Léo Taxil in 1884, with translated caption.

[terrorgatt]

A sneak peek at my new designs for Eve and Emilian (Emile).

[kokoabar]

Sunset smooch

[sorryyousawthat]

Jean Alphonse Roehn, “The Awakening”. 1800

[tiffbaxter]

1800s girlfriends

[your-everyday-theatre-kid]

this is one of my favorite conversations now

[bestoftweets]