#And it’s also the first time I write Fausto!

[lieutenant-amuel]

Okay so mushroom for Ángel (although I feel like I know the answer XD), sunflower for Fausto and palm tree for Stanislaw and/or Lyudmila, if you'd like to

Thank you so much, Blue!

🍄 [MUSHROOM] How likely is your OC to eat random berries/mushrooms they find?

I love this question for Ángel XD Anyway, I think it’s quite plausible for several reasons: 1) he’s curious 2) he loves spending his time outdoors 3) he rarely thinks through

Ángel was strolling around the jungle trails, carelessly swinging his arms, until his eye was caught by a bush of bright red berries, “Oh, check it out, Gabe! Those berries look rad! I’m gonna taste it.”

Trudging through the thickets, Gabriel made his way to Ángel and stood next to the bush with his arms crossed and his eyes squinted, “Are you sure you should? What if they’re poisonous?”

“Is there any other way to find out?” Ángel laughed as he was examining the bush from all angles so he could choose the best berry to taste.

“Looking up in the atlas?” Gabriel muttered as he raised his eyebrow.

Ángel snorted and waved his arm at his incredulous friend. Once there was a berry that passed Ángel’s tough selection, he plucked it with a crunch and tossed it into his mouth.

Gabriel rolled his eyes yet he wasn’t surprised he’d been ignored again. As Ángel was chewing the berry, he turned to Gabriel and exclaimed, “See? Nothing happ—”

Ángel put his hand on his head as his knees buckled, and he fell on the ground. Gabriel’s eyes widened, and he rushed to Ángel, shaking his shoulder.

“Ángel!”

Gabriel grabbed Ángel’s hand and placed his fingers on his wrist to check his pulse and suddenly heard a giggle.

Gabriel frowned and saw how Ángel was slowly raising his head from the ground with a broad smile and intensifying laughter. Gabriel was staring at him, and once their eyes met, he pushed Ángel in his chest and got to his feet.

“Oh c’mon, Gabe! That was a joke!” Ángel exclaimed, trying to apologize yet he kept laughing.

He plucked a few more berries from the bush and caught up with Gabriel, handing them to him.

“As we got, they’re not poisonous,” Gabriel suspiciously looked at the berries and shifted his gaze to Ángel’s awkwardly smiling face.

Exhaling heavily, he took one berry and timidly put it into his mouth, slowly chewing it. Waiting for a few seconds to make sure nothing would happen to him, he looked at Ángel.

“Never joke like this.”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t want to put us in a berry situation again.”

“Now that was a very bad pun.”

“Yeah, I know. I had no ideas.”

Gabriel chuckled and took a few more berries from Ángel’s hand.

“You know, I plucked the berries you’re eating now from another bush. They taste even better.”

Gabriel froze for a moment and spat a berry out of his mouth which made Ángel laugh again.

🌻 [SUNFLOWER] Where would your OC get lost in the moment/beauty of the place?

Oh Fausto baby boy. It’s been such a long time since I’ve talked about him.

Okay, I’m not sure how to answer this question because I really don’t know x) But since he’s a musician, I can imagine him being absolutely fascinated by the concert halls especially when he performed on stage for the first time himself.

Fausto timidly pulled back the curtain and looked at the audience through a narrow gap. The concert hall was filled with people pointing their gazes at the stage and awaiting the beginning of the show.

Fausto clutched to the neck of his violin and abruptly moved away from the curtain, walking around the stage in circles.

It was the first concert he performed.

Many years spent composing on a violin and sharing his little works with his family and friends yet he couldn’t help but feel a lump in his throat and how his palms were sweating when he pictured himself in front of the crowd of people staring at him in his head.

Fausto stopped when his draining anxiety was replaced by the warm words of encouragement he heard from his parents the day before the concert.

You make us happy, mijo.

They were proud of him. They always told him that. They knew how passionate he was and had no doubt he would give his all today.

A slight smile shone on Fausto’s face, and he turned towards the curtain as it was slowly opening. The concert was about to begin. He took a deep breath and placed his violin on his shoulder, gazing at the applauding audience.

He closed his eyes, and his bow was slowly running over the strings. The music coming from the violin dissolved in the air and intertwined with the pictures of his past that he could see in front of him despite still having his eyes closed.

The day his parents gave him his violin and encouraged him to create and be himself. Family “concerts” he arranged with his Abuela Scarlett. The first time he visited “a secret concert” his Papá and Tío Ángel visited themselves when they were teenagers.

He got lost in the moment and lowered his hand holding a bow and heard a loud applause which made him wake up from the trance and open his eyes widely. He saw how people were getting up from their seats to give him a standing ovation and heard how they were screaming his name.

Fausto froze for a moment, and then his lips curled into a soft smile. He bowed and scanned the concert hall, noticing his parents who were clapping and cheering for him more than anyone else in the auditorium.

He chuckled as he was overfilled with his own emotions and bowed for the last time before the curtain was closed.

🌴 [PALM TREE] What are the stops on your OC's dream cruise? What boat are they on?

To be honest, this question is hard in itself and given the fact I hesitate giving the answer without discussing it with you first, it makes it even harder x)

Anyway, I’ll probably go with Lyudmila because her dream seems clearer to me than Stanislaw’s (I’m not sure what his dream even is?). She’s a knyaz, she wants to be a good ruler, to restore her kingdom to greatness, and given the fact how responsible and good at planning she is, she definitely knows what steps she has to make to achieve it. But the shadows of the past might pull her down.

After discussing the trade plans with the court, Lyudmila stayed in the council chamber to take a closer look at the treaties she thought of concluding with foreign kingdoms.

She smiled as she realized that Lachia’s position on the world stage was getting better and better every year and her own people rejoiced and felt more protected. They extolled her, they loved her, they didn’t hesitate to brag about how they had the best ruler in all of the EverRealm.

Lyudmila was flattered. But not in the sense that she felt unworthy of their praise. As a born royal, she always knew her own worth and strived to carry it as she was supposed to. Which, as she and the rest of Lachians could see, was successful.

She knew what she wanted to achieve and what was more important: she knew exactly what to do next to keep her kingdom flourished. It wasn’t exhausting, nor pressuring, it was natural and gratifying.

As Lyudmila was sorting out the papers, she came across an old torn sheet. She frowned and turned it to the other side with a quiet gasp. It was a letter Aleksandr wrote to her many years ago. When Stanislaw was gone.

Her eyes were running over the lines, and without reaching the end, she shook her head and put the letter on the desk to get back to her work.

It'd been several years since she’d found out the truth. Her best friend was to blame for the death of the man she loved. He’d earned her trust so he could lie to her and pretend that nothing happened. He betrayed her. And she still couldn’t forgive him.

She covered her forehead with her hand with a deep sigh as she couldn’t focus on anything else anymore. The only thing she thought about was Aleksandr. The day when she found out the truth.

Lyudmila kept standing in the middle of the room with her head down and suddenly heard a knock on the door. She turned her head and saw Stanislaw.

“Your Majesty,” he bowed as he kept standing at the doorway.

Lyudmila smiled, “We’re alone, Stasio. Come in.”

He entered the room, and Lyudmila was going to give him a hug but saw how he had his bandura on his back.

“I was going to play with the kids and thought I could perform something on my bandura!” He said and took a musical instrument in his hands, slowly strumming the strings.

“Remember how you heard me playing for the first time and then we spent our whole evenings together?”

“Yes. I remember. And how you were teaching me.”

“Trying to teach you,” Stanislaw laughed, and Lyudmila scoffed softly.

“And that was your favourite song.”

Stanislaw started playing, and Lyudmila was swaying slightly, remembering how she also heard this melody in her dreams when Stanislaw was gone. How it reminded her of him and how she never forgot him.

Once the music trailed off, Stanislaw glanced at Lyudmila and she fell into his arms.

“I love you.”

Stanislaw, not being caught off guard at all, responded to her embrace and whispered, “I love you, too, Miła.”

They released each other from their arms, and Lyudmila glanced at the desk filled with papers.

“You know, I’ve been working for quite a long time now, so I think I’ll join you.”

Stanislaw kissed Lyudmila on her forehead and took her hand with a beam. She smiled back.

OC Ask Game

[butch-reidentified]

Pitching New Terminology: GLAP (Gamete-Linked Anatomy and Physiology)

A little while back, I remember seeing someone on here talk about 2nd wave feminist attempts to coin new terminology/alter existing terms as part of their feminism ("herstory" and "womyn" for example) + my wife and I have been talking a ton for a few months now about how language can feel so limiting, as counterintuitive as most people likely would find that. One of the things my wife brought up is that it bothers and bewilders her that "sex" can refer to biological categories, to the state of being male or female, but can also mean intercourse. She said this feels very male to her, and thinks that this word being used to mean both of these things (both of which are very charged concepts with heavy connotations - but only because of patriarchy) is not only unnecessary, but arguably harmful to the feminist cause as well.

Not only that, but sex (as in maleness/femaleness) is itself very much in contention these days - its existence itself is challenged in addition to its definition and the parameters of its categories. Even outside of gender identity ideology (GII) and the conversation surrounding transgender identities, there is a fair amount of inconsistency in what exactly people think makes a human being male or female, be it large or small gamete production, the presence of either a penis or a vagina, some sort of checklist-like combination of sex characteristics, karyotype, hormone dominance, the infamous pseudoscientific "brain sex," or something else.

I agree with Dr. Rashad Rehman's succinct statement that "sex is defined by gamete production," from his paper (which I've posted on several previous occasions and you can read at this link) refuting both GII and the catholic church regarding human sex biology & intersex conditions. As I've said countless times on this blog and he says in his paper, this manner of categorizing human beings as male or female does not require successful production of large or small gametes. Rather, it defines a human being's sex according to which of two overall developmental pathways their body follows; has your body (your anatomy and your physiology, as referenced in the GLAP acronym's A and P) developed around the "intention," so to speak, of producing large gametes or small gametes?

This is what led to the acronym GLAP (for "Gamete-Linked Anatomy and Physiology"), which I introduced in a recent reblog. She and I coined this term together to offer a more precise, better delineated alternative to "[biological] sex," and an alternative bearing zero denotative or connotative relationship to sexual intercourse.

By not only defining sex in relation to gametes, but placing the very word "gamete" at the literal forefront of the term itself, GLAP leaves little room for debate or misunderstanding when it comes to discussions of maleness and femaleness in human beings. The importance of this is well-stated in Dr. Rehman's paper, particularly in the following section containing two quotes from the writings of MIT philosophy professor Alex Byrne. The first of these two quotes references Brown-educated feminist scientist (and GNC lesbian!) Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, and the second cites Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex."

[Please let me know if image description is needed; screen reader test worked on my end, but who knows?]

We believe this terminology has the potential to combat misinformation surrounding human biology as well as to open doors within the discourse pertaining to GII and transgender issues. We suspect - and hope - that removing the word "sex," thus removing the messiness that tends to come along with the word, could perhaps reduce tensions and reactivity in order to allow for conversations to be had that otherwise would rapidly escalate or be avoided entirely. Additionally, introducing a new term like this requires providing an explanation of its meaning and purpose, the process of which we believe will help facilitate such conversations. We also feel that the novelty and hint of silly-sounding-ness could support the goal of reducing the tension and emotional charge currently embedded in gender discourse.

[faustocosgrove]

i’m gonna be honest with y’all. the original intention i had of banking the reviews i made all year was to be all grinch like and declare how much i hate christmas each day. but since the occupation decided to bomb fucking bethlehem on the first day of christmas that feels too poor of taste a thing to do. but i’m not waiting for next year to do this because i don’t want the obligation to be on tumblr for a whole ‘nother year hanging over my head. so y’all will have to make do with my dumb reviews without me bitching and moaning throughout the 12 days of christmas about how much i hate christmas and consumerism and christianity in general and christmas music and christmas cookies and that one gif that always goes around tumblr of a kitten whose tail has been turned into a christmas tree. and on that note:

and on the fourth day of reviewmas I, Fausto, give to thee:

4 scantily clad teenaged girls (fbi open up! meme)

the 3rd time i read the same book about lawns maybe?

2 high school animes

and a ninja book

…from a guy who still thinks about the naruto series in the year 2023

Today’s feature is none other than 1993’s Dragon Half, a two episode OVA that is as skanky as it is hilarious. It’s sad that it’s only 2 episodes long since it’s funny as hell but it makes up for it by being so jammed packed full of jokes that you have to pause it to laugh so you don’t miss the next gag. It’s also so jammed packed with jokes that’s it’s honestly exhausting, so it still feels like binging a 26 episode series by the end of it.

The main conflict in the show is that main character Mink, the half dragon half human for whom the title refers to, is obsessed with Dick Saucer, a teenaged heartthrob/singer/celebrity/dragon slayer. Now you’d think that she could have reasonably picked any other teenaged celebrity to obsess over, except all her friends are also obsessed with Dick Saucer so clearly he is just that cool and her dad (the human parent) is a retired dragon slayer, so the whole dragon slayer wanting to kill dragons thing isn’t that much of an issue. For her anyway.

The first episode is mainly exposition for who all the characters are and how they relate to each other, but it also kind feels like watching a forbidden episode of the Kirby anime where Kirby, the King’s assistant snail thing, and metaknight have all been transformed into teenagers with metaknight being the only boy. it’s a bunch of wacky characters doing wacky things in a dungeons and dragons medieval fantasy backdrop.

the second episode is like the dark tournament arc from yu yu hakusho but jokes.

mink shows an impressive amount of skin, as does her best friend (can’t remember her name. the blonde one.) (and the villain teen girl) (and the villain teen girl’s dead mom in a flashback) but the younger girl character does not! it’s honestly sad that this is so noteworthy but the loli character is covered head to toe and the one instance of another character being a bit of a skeeze toward her is met with an angry bear. the series even draws attention to it during the swimming scene. the little girl does not wear a swim suit. so mink might have madonna style boob cones that bounce all over the place but the elementary school girl is a line too far for the creators of this show and i respect that. that’s a line that anime crosses way too often i mean even fucking naruto cannonically shows sakura thinking about sasuke’s penis when the two of them are 12. plus konohamaru doing the sexy no jutsu when he’s like 8. naruto sexualizes pre teen children more than the skanky OVA one where three teenaged girls run around in their 1980s jazzercise leotards that let the whole leg hang out in a way that it might as well be panties. like holy hell japan. anyway. mink does flash the audience in the finale so do yourself a favor and just don’t watch the last few minutes.

also the ending song is fun.

also! even thought there’s a lot of scantily clad teenaged girls i didn’t get the feeling that the writers wanted the audience to be fapping to them. maybe it’s just a sign of the times thing and it was sexy back then, but the show changes art style from sexy teenaged girl to SD rolling on the ground so much that if the characters were supposed to be fap material then the delivery was a complete bust.

[inapat16]

Suso Cecchi d’Amico, the forgotten screenwriter of the Italian cinema

Suso Cecchi d'Amico grew up in a stimulating intellectual environment, far from the fascist indoctrination. She was born of the union of Leonetta Pieraccini, painter, and Emilio Cecchi, man of letters, critic and journalist. Her father introduced her to the cinema: he was the director of the Studios Cines of Rome, where young talents were evolving. In the 1930s, she began to write with him: they translated plays together. These years were also marked by her meeting with the musicologist Fedele d'Amico, her future husband. He came from a line of intellectuals who provided Italy with its musical and theatrical training structures. Suso Cecchi d'Amico was therefore surrounded by illustrious characters at a time when the relationship between cinema and other arts was in full construction.

Her encounters in the theatrical and literary world led her to become a screenwriter. Her first attempt was a failure. She wrote the script for Avatar for the young producer Carlo Ponti. But this adaptation of Theophile Gautier was never shot. She then participated, in 1946, in Mio figlio professore by Renato Castellani, a film made with her father, Aldo Fabrizi, Fulvio Palmieri, Fausto Tozzi and Castellani. She then became involved in a wide variety of projects. Suso collaborated with Luigi Zampa, Vittorio De Sica and Michelangelo Antonioni. Proof of her eclecticism, she participated in 1958 in the writing of the founding film of the Italian comedy, The Pigeon by Mario Monicelli. Among all these encounters, the most decisive is the one with Luchino Visconti for whom she became his main scriptwriter. The new generation of Italian filmmakers also called on her. She also collaborated with Francesco Rosi and with Luigi Comencini.In a few years, Suso Cecchi d'Amico became one of the best and most fashionable screenwriters, the one who is asked to write a good film. She saw her work as that of a craftperson and when asked about a potential transition to directing, she answered s ironically:

« To be a director you have to have a dominant character, to believe firmly in it. Even my friend Monicelli, the most human person I know, even he is not an easy person at all. I would have been very mediocre. »

Overall, Suso Cecchi d'Amico wrote more than a hundred screenplays, spanning more than fifty memorable years of Italian cinema in full renewal. But today her name seems to be forgotten. That’s why this trajectory is very revealing of the central place given to the director but also of how the great names of Italian cinema have ended up erasing her name... when they could never have existed without her.

Juliette Corbel Vivas

[ducavalentinos]

Do we know anything about Cesare's mistresses? Who they were and how he treated them? Or if he was close to any of his illegitimate children? Do you think his affair with Sancia really happened?

We know some things, anon, but sadly not enough, and why we don't is a question that carries various possible reasons for it, which I won't get into here because I don't want to go off on a tangent 👀 but even with the limited information, we can conclude the women in Cesare's life were pretty interesting and cool ladies, and I'm just so glad you sent this ask because it gives me the opportunity to talk about them more, and also share what I have learned over the years about these themes of Cesare’s life, I’m sure I’ll probably forget something lol, but if that happens I’ll post it later here. I’ll divide it by categories of long-term mistresses and possible mistresses and women associated with Cesare. How I defined these categories are by my personal understanding between short affairs versus long-term relationships(more than one year), where children were most likely produced and acknowledged or legitimized by the father in some form, as well as differentiating between documents and information, what is more certain, and what is more dubious, what is documented and what is gossip and so on, following what is known, or can hinted about Cesare’s relationship with his mistresses, and his illegitimate children. Long-Term Mistresses: Drusilla: There is almost nothing about her, not even her real name since Drusilla is only a codename used to preserve her real identity. She was one of the ladies-in-waiting of Cesare's sister, Lucrezia, and we can assume she was a noblewoman from a minor house. It seems she became Cesare's mistress around 1497, and if we combine this information with the information of her departure to Ferrara with Lucrezia in 1502, and how Cesare was incredibly sad about it, this suggests not only a strong attachment, but that they seemed to have remained in a relationship from 1497 to 1502, and that would put her as the best candidate as the mother of Cesare's illegitimate children. Sacerdote writes the following about the relationship:

"...Drusilla, Lucrezia's lady-in-waiting, that afterwards follows her to Ferrara, perhaps was the mother of Cesare's two illegimate children. And her love with Cesare was so well known that the poet Fausto Evangelista Maddaleni, among his many Latin epigrams, also composed one “on the sadness of Cesare for the departure of Lucrezia Borgia and Drusilla”. Cesare dresses in mourning for the departure of Lucrezia and Drusilla: non tamen una abiit, simul heu Drusilla recessit. And Cesare calms his pain with tears."

A Sicilian woman is recorded as living with Cesare in Rome in 1498, she is said to have come back with him from his trip to Naples the previous year. Author José C. Deus makes an interesting questioning if this woman could not be the Spaniard-Neapolitan María Díaz-Garlón (more about her below). In any case, whether this was Garlón or a completely different woman, here we have another good candidate for the mother of Cesare’s illegitimate children. A woman who shared imprisonment with him in Naples, in 1504: The reason I put her here in this list is because according to Sacerdote this woman was not a courtesan, she was a true mistress Cesare had, and given he was pretty occupied during the first months of 1503, and how all hell broke loose after August for him, and that you simply do not request to share  imprisonment with someone you just met recently, I find very hard to imagine Cesare met her in 1503 or 1504, I mean, it is possible, sure, people do meet and fall in love during terrible times, too, but I’m more inclined to think they likely met in 1501 or 1502, and this woman might very well be the mother of Girolamo or Camilla Lucrezia. She clearly was someone Cesare seems to have trusted and wanted by his side, no matter what, and there is definitely a sense of loyalty and deep affection on her part. The fact her name isn’t recorded, not even a codename as in the case of Drusilla is very intriguing. It might imply she wasn’t a noblewoman, I often think if she might not have been the same woman from Bologna who is recored as workng at Cesare’s chancery in 1501, or if she was from an even more obscure, minor noble house, and/or there was a real effort on her part, or on Cesare's part, or maybe both of them, to keep their relationship as off the record as they could. Possible Mistresses/Women associated with him: Fiammetta da Michelis:  She was born in Florence, probably in 1465, her family left for Rome in 1478, and in Rome she became a "cortigiana onesta/a honest courtesan**, she was the mistress of cardinal Ammannati Piccolomini, and when he passed away in 1479, a commission of four prelates set up by Pope Sixtus IV, gave her some propriety which belonged to the late cardinal, those being: a vineyard near the Vatican, and three houses. One of these houses, the one which still stands today at the Via dei Coronari, near Piazza Navona and Piazza Fiammetta, named after Fiammetta herself, is sometimes claimed to have been a gift from Cesare, but after reading more about this, I don't think this is correct, at least I never found anything to supported it, it's more certain this house was included in the testament left by Cardinal Ammannati Piccolomini, and given to her by Pope Sixtus. It's uncertain when she and Cesare met, some put the date of 1493, others a bit later, and it is equally uncertain what was the nature of their relationship, again many do claim her to have been one of his mistresses, but the evidence is ambiguous, which it's why I hesitated in putting her in the first category, we don't know if she was truly his mistress, or simply his favorite courtesan. Sometimes these two were combined, sometimes they were separate things. It's possible she was his mistress, but it's also possible she was only his favorite courtesan whose company he enjoyed and/or had under his service to gather information for him about other men (idk why that's never considered djsjdjs), whatever the case, it is clear they had a good relationship and were close, because even by the time of her death, 1512, Fiammetta still signed herself as Fiammetta Ducis Valentini (of the Duke Valentino), and the heading of her will in the city archives was Flammettae Ducis Valentini Testamenti Transumptum. María Díaz-Garlón: daughter of Ferrante Díaz Garlón and Violante Grappina. It’s recorded that Cesare fell in love with her during his stay at Naples, and he spent 20.000 ducats just to win her favor. I believe it is possible she might have been the same Sicilian woman mentioned above, who came back with Cesare from Naples, and was living with him in Rome given the approximate dates, but if not, then it’s likely nothing happen or that they had an affair which ended with Cesare’s departure from Naples. Bianca Lucia Stanga: She was a Milanese noblewoman who caused a bit of scandal at the court of Milan with her ways. In  1497 Vincenzo Calmeta complained that she “has taken up fencing, dancing the gagliarda, carrying a dagger, wearing a cape like a braggart or gallant, and other doings which the female sex must not only avoid but abhor.” She is also said to have been quite arrogant, thinking of herself as “the most universal woman in the world / la più universal donna del mondo...” (hence  my blog title!  <3), Cesare most likely met her at Milan, and contrary to Calmeta and others, he didn’t mind any of that, what we know it’s that he was quite taken with her, to the point of wanting to bring her along with  him to the Romagna, and he requested so to the Milanese it seems, but we  don’t know what happened there, and if she was indeed a mistress, or someone he flirted with, or had a quick affair. Cleofe Marescotti: She was Bolognese noblewoman, daughter of Giascone Marescotti, an elder, noble Bolognese senator.  Cleofe was commonly called “Bella Bolognese” and she was known for her “elegance, refinement, as well as for a charge of excessive sensuality”. She was also accustomed to the rich and cultured air of Bologna, so when she married the patrician Cesenati Roberto Bencino, and moved to Cesena,  during the years of Cesare’s government there, she introduced all of  that to the city, within the noble circles, and she quickly became “the arbiter elegantiarum (arbiter of elegance) of the Borgian era”. Again, it’s uncertain when she and Cesare met, they might have met in 1502, at the very night where it is recorded Cleofe’s husband threw a banquet in Cesare’s honor, with Cesare and Cleofe being said to have danced together more than one time. A cronicler from Cesena, Zazzera, says of this event that Cesare was “assai invaghito /very enamored” with Cleofe, and it appears his feelings were corresponded. Or maybe they met before that, Cesare did spend a lot of time in Cesena, it was his beloved city and the one he wanted to make into the capital of his duchy in the Romagna. But just as with Fiammetta and Bianca, we don’t know if Cleofe was a mistress, or if they only flirted, or it was a  quick affair, it is possible since Cleofe is said to have had lovers and  apparently her husband didn’t seem to mind it, but in any case I don’t think there is enough evidence to claim her as a mistress.   Sancia d’Aragona: She was the illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples and his mistress Trogia Gazzela, born in 1478. She was first engaged with Onorato Gaetani, but when the threat of the French King Charles VIII loomed over the Aragonese dynasty, this marriage was dissolved and she was married to Goffredo/Gioffre Borgia. From everything I’ve read about Sancia, unlike Lucrezia or Giulia Farnese or other women of her time, she comes across as a woman with little tact or diplomacy with others. She had a strong temper, and she seems to have been very accostumed in getting her way, so when she didn’t, when something wasn’t to her liking, she wasn’t very subtle about it and she could be openly confrontational, which made the living together between her, her husband and her father-in-law, pope Alexander VI, difficult at times. Equally, she does not seem to have been as politically cunning as the women mentioned were. There is nothing, I’ve found, suggesting she had an active interest in politics, or was good at it. She seems to have been far more interested in enjoying life, and she did just that, she was a lively woman, and it’s not hard to see why she got along so well with the Borgia family, especially with Lucrezia and Cesare. She is known for saying: “Non c'è cavaliere italiano senza pugnale, come non c'è nobildonna italiana senza amanti / There is no Italian nobleman without a dagger, just as there is not Italian noblewoman without lovers.” And indeed she had her list of lovers which included men like Ippolito d’Este, Francesco Colonna, and of course Juan and Cesare Borgia, which gets to your question about the affair between her and Cesare. I mean, I think their supposed affair has more of a historical basis than the supposed affair between her and Juan, there is nothing to support she was Juan’s lover, or that he and Cesare shared her, that’s titillating gossip, and it’s usually used as another motive to give credence to the baseless fratricide accusation against Cesare. What the historical evidence indicates is that Sancia had a good relationship with Cesare, she is noted as being bold with him, meaning she spoke with him with a familiarity few people outside his family circle did. Cappello iirc writes of her being the only one who did not feared Cesare in Rome, but of course in his mind Cesare was a terrible monster, and it seems he projected his dislike and his own fear of Cesare into everyone else, from Rodrigo to Lucrezia, when there is nothing supporting that or most of the things he says about Cesare. But it is interesting to observe Sancia, as far as we know, never displayed any kind of fear or unfriendliness towards Cesare, which seriously further puts into doubt if her brother Alfonso d'Aragona was 1) murdered and 2) if Cesare truly had anything to do with it, because it does not seem to have changed her relationship with him at all, in fact, there are records stating she would often dine with Rodrigo and Cesare at the Vatican, and personally I don't think Sancia was the kind of woman who would just casually dine with her brother's murderer as if nothing had happened, so either she didn't believe Cesare to be the guilty one, or he truly wasn't the guilty one, we will never know. There is also an anecdote saying Ippolito d’Este fled Rome in 1502 because of his affair with Sancia, which apparently Cesare had a problem with, but it’s hard to know if he had a problem because he was jealous of Sancia, or if he was simply trying to avoid scandal in his family, or trying to avoid violence between d’Este and Gioffre, given the Borgia-D’Este alliance.  And finally in 1504, when Cesare arrives at Naples, it is recorded Sancia was the first person he visited, and that she received him (again hardly the behavior of someone who believes the other to have been her brother's murderer). At the time she was separated from Gioffre and living by herself at her palazzo, author Chamberlin imaginatively says “the fascination Cesare held for Sancia seems to have been undimished by his recent troubles”, maybe so, I don’t think it would be far-fetched to say they probably held a mutual fascination for each other that never severed, but it appears Cesare when he went to visit her then was also playing the marriage counselor between her and his brother Gioffre, trying to reconcile them back together. So, what to make of all this? does all this means they were lovers? not necessarily, there is enough to speculate an affair, but not enough to affirm it.  What often comes to my mind it's the possibility their affinity with each other, their closeness might have been maliciously interpreted or exaggerated by some, much in the same way the Borgia family's closeness with one another was maliciously intepreted as incest, as a way of attacking their reputation. All it can be said with certainty about Sancia and Cesare is that they seemed to have had a kind of friendship which lasted until the end. If they were or not romantically involved is something only they could say, I think both scenarios are possible. Dorotea Malatesta: She was born in Rimini on April 26, 1478, she was the illegitimate daughter Roberto Malatesta with a mistress, generally speculated to have been a Mantuan noblewoman who probably belonged to the Da Crema family. Dorotea was raised at the court of Urbino, and she was praised by her contemporaries for her beauty. In 1500, she was married to the Neapolitan nobleman and condottiero Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, who was 30 years her senior. The marriage was celebrated at Urbino, and there are different accounts of their marriage, some sources say she married Caracciolo by proxy at Urbino, and she was going to Venice to meet him when the so-called abduction happened, but other sources claim Caracciolo was at Urbino in 1499, where he met Dorotea, and in 1500 the marriage took place. Following this source, a few months after that Caracciolo was stationed to Gradisca, in defense of a possible attack from the Turks, Dorotea doesn't accompany him, deciding to stay at the court of Urbino. Only at February 1501, at the request of Caracciolo, is a trip arranged to take her to him at Venice.   Dorotea is often associated with Cesare, as being his mistress, or more incorrectly claimed as his victim, however, a caveat has to be made here, while it doesn’t look Dorotea was the victim of an abduction, (her case when analysed honestly looks like one of those cases which had been misjudged and lumped together with other real abductions that were common in these times, when in reality it was an elopment of lovers, also common then), it is unclear with whom Dorotea had an affair with: Cesare or Diego Ramires? all the evidence available heavily points to the conclusion she eloped with her lover rather than dutifully going to a husband she really didn’t seem to care for (we can’t know, but it seems the marriage was imposed on her, because everything there is about her relationship with Caracciolo shows a coldness, a dislike, an indifference on her part to him, while he seemed to have been crazy about her, almost pathetically so), but the evidence becomes more ambiguous when it comes to the identity of the lover, It's possible the lover was Cesare, but it's equally possible the lover was Ramires, and Cesare only covered for their affair. So now closing this caveat, and for completeness’ sake going with the hypothesis Cesare was the lover here, he and Dorotea must have met at the court of Urbino, and the fate of her father's side of the family could be speculated to have been the reason that brought them together, with Dorotea perhaps approaching Cesare to speak on her brother's behalf and the interests of her family. A little detail which it's oddly never connected it's that 1500 is the year Cesare took Rimini and Cesena from Pandolfo IV Malatesta, Dorotea's half-brother, and between the years of 1500 and 1501, he is recorded as making at least three trips to Urbino. And if we consider the lenience Cesare shows to Pandolfo (which even surprised Pandolfo himself lol), by giving a safe-conduct to him and his family, and by letting him keep some of his possessions, which while it's true it was characteristic of Cesare and how he treated the other lords of the Romagna as well, still it's possible to say Dorotea might have played a role here, and been an additional motive for Cesare's clemency with the Malatesta, and between their conversations about this, a courting might have taken place, and that led to their affair (and perhaps was also one of the reasons behind Dorotea not wanting to leave the court of Urbino) and in February 1501, when her husband firmly requests her presence by his side, the scandal of the so-called abduction happens. Some time later, there was gossip of her being seen by Cesare’s side, travelling through the Romagna with him, and then being with him Rome in 1503, but we don’t know how accurate this information is. If all of this is correct, if Dorotea was truly Cesare’s mistress and not Ramires’s, given the length of her “disappearance”, about two years, it would put her as a long-term mistress, alongside Drusilla. Also a good candidate for being the mother of Cesare’s illegitimate children, as well as someone he plainly seemed to have had strong feelings for, the claim that Cesare and Dorotea’s relationship, if they really had one, was not a romantic one is quite absurd to me (more on that below). Going back to Dorotea a bit more, by her actions and what can be known about her, and if you’ve read about the Malatesta (which I would highly recommend because they are such an awesome and interesting family to read about) she shows herself to have inherited more than a few of the characteristic traits of her father’s side of the family. The Malatesta, both men and women, at least the most famous ones, all share in common a strong personality: they tended to be passionate, determined, stubborn, and very entitled individuals. They didn't cared much about creating scandal, as long as they got what they wanted, and also were not keen on disclosing or explaining their actions to anyone, not even the Pope djsjdsjd, they had a haughty attitude about them. I think Dorotea checks all of these boxes, she seems to have been a passionate, determined, a bit haughty, and stubborn young woman. In my view, she went hell no in being with a husband she didn’t liked, eloped with her lover instead, stayed with him for two years, after that was over she refused in giving any details about her whereabouts during these two years she went “missing”, and in a rather persistent, stubborn way, she did everything she could to avoid going back to her husband. She only went back to him because he insisted, and I mean really insisted with the Senate of Venice in getting her back, and eventually she basically ran out of excuses to oppose her return to him, but it is noted she did so unenthusiastically 😂. Now, about Cesare's treatment of them, we can mostly just speculate because there isn’t much to make certain conclusions. I think the notable absence of historical records mentioning cruelty or violence on Cesare’s part to his mistress, or the women around him in general, not even at the height of his political career and power, when his life was even more closely watched and remarked upon by those around him, esp. his enemies, is a good indication to me he treated them well. Otherwise we would have something about it, it would have been documented, as it is in the case of some of the Malatesta men, or the Bentivoglio and others of Cesare's time. It's actually one of the most bizarre points about Cesare's historical literature I'd say, which I know I have talked about it before and I know I sound like a broken record, but it really does baffles me, this idea he was the worst with women, that he lacked respect or affection for them, when all the historical material which his own biographers present from time to time in their works while simultaneously making these claims, shows the very opposite. That he had a good relationship with the women in his life, he didn't had a problem with them. All of his problems consistently seemed to have come from his own sex, from the men around him. He doesn't come across as being insensitive, disrespectful, or a brute to them, he might had his flaws, as any human being, and his "vices", but being cruel or violent towards women doesn't look like it was a particular vice he had, (just as with him not being of a sadistic, bloodthirsty nature, although fiction loves to add that to their fictional portrayals of him) at least there is nothing substantial, or fact-based about it, so it does seem this is another historical fabrication, based on shady info and personal assumptions, which took off perhaps in the 1900s, because prior to that I don't see this trend in the writings about Cesare, and it is a random and strange one, too. By everything I've read, I think Cesare was much like his father in how he treated his mistresses, with the exception he might have been more overly generous with them in matter of gifts and such, in a way Rodrigo was not, like Rodrigo had a generous nature, but I think it's kind of undeniable Cesare was on a whole new level. I think there is enough info which hints both men were overall responsible, doting, pleasant and protective lovers. Once they really liked a woman, they were capable of genuine, strong emotions, and they did took care of them, and the offspring which resulted from their relations with them. Quick examples of that can be seen in how both Rodrigo and Cesare were sensitive in the matter of wanting to preserve the reputation of the woman they had a relationship with it. It might be one of the reasons why we don’t know much about them, but also why in the legitimization and other documents of their children, at the mother’s name it’s only said she was a single/married woman, no identity, which helped in preserving her reputation. And if we consider Dorotea was Cesare's mistress, and the information is correct and she was with him in Rome when it all went to hell, something quite interesting comes to light here, and we might have a more clear view of Cesare’s responsibility and protectiveness towards women close to him: Dorotea is said to have been included in the group of women of his family whom he made sure to sent to Castel Sant'Angelo for protection, where he later followed up himself with the children (Bellonci makes a baseless claim that he sent both Sancia and Dorotea as prisoners, but that's just her bias talking louder and it's incorrect, all the Borgia women, including his own mother, were sent to Castel Sant'Angelo to avoid the reprisals of the Orsini and the Colonna who were calling out for Borgia blood and killing any Spaniard they found). He didn't need to do that. Many men wouldn't have, they would have simply ordered their men to sent Dorotea back to her husband and best of luck to her. They had fun and it was good while it lasted, but bye now, nothing to do with him, one less problem on his list, that's for sure. But we don’t see Cesare doing that, if Dorotea was truly with him, the fact he kept her by his side even when it was incredibly stupid and disadvantageous for him to do so, given her presence just added more salt to the wound between him and Venice, something he didn’t need at that moment at all, highly implies he cared about her and her safety, which further denies the popular claim Dorotea was simply a whim of his, or like his sex toy, and that there was nothing romantic about their affair. It's a claim that really defies logic when you think about it, especially when also following usual descriptions about Cesare's character which they throw around in their narratives.   Finally, when it comes to his illegitimate children, I tend to think Cesare, just like Rodrigo, and other noblemen, certainly had other illegitimate children we never heard about, because they only legitimized or took responsibility for the children they absolutely were certain of their paternity + with women they had a long relationship and/or an emotional bond with. So just by the recordings of Girolamo and Camilla Lucrezia in connection to Cesare being their father, how it looks he brought them into his family, how they were taken care of (in their education and their well-being) is in itself, for me, is a hint of sentiment, of closeness to these children and their mother on his part. But other than that, we can’t know how close he was with them, we can assume they were with him in the Romagna, so he did spend time with them, only these moments were one of those moments which happened within his private life and circle, therefore we don’t have any anecdotes of it. There is also the matter of their ages, if their birth dates are correct, Girolamo’s date of birth is put as 1501 and Camilla Lucrezia 1502, they were infants when Cesare was around, which limited things a bit. If we consider Giovanni aka Infans Romanus to also have been his child, and that he was born in 1498, then he might have been the child with whom Cesare had most contact with, and perhaps was closest with, too. Sacerdote writes that Cesare “...always had been lovingly interested in the Infans Romanus…” and in Rome 1503, like I said above, there is one mentioning of the Borgia children being with him. He was seen leading two children by hand to the Castel Sant’Angelo to escape the Orsini who were after them:

“He [Burchard] speaks of due infantibus, two children, who were with Cesare; then he says his daughters were also taken to the castle (Castel Sant’ Angelo). From other news it would appear that he had with him the Infant Romnaus Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Nepi, and the baby Rodrigo, son of Lucrezia Borgia and Alfonso. Most likely he had with him these two infants, who were in fact entrusted to his tutelage, and then his sons (or his daughters) were also sent to the Castle.”

**A honest courtesan was a woman who was usually well-educated and worldly (sometimes even more so than the average upper-class woman), and often held simultaneous careers as performers or artists. They were typically chosen on the basis of their "breeding"—social and conversational skills, intelligence, common-sense, and companionship—as well as their physical attributes. It was usually their wit and personality that set them apart from regular women. Sex constituted only a facet of the courtesan's array of services. For example, they were well-dressed and ready to engage and participate in a variety of topics ranging from art to music to politics. (x) Sources: Gustavo Sacerdote, Cesare Borgia: la sua vita, la sua famiglia, i suoi tempi. José Catalán Deus, El Príncipe del Renacimiento: Vida y Leyenda de César Borgia.  Le Vite dei Cesenati Vol. III, Michele Andrea Pistocchi. B. Baroni, Le donne di casa Malatesti

[shannybasar]

England reach Euro 2020 final

Our first final of a major tournament since 1966 - although Italy will be really hard to beat.

Phillipp Lahm writes in The Guardian that Mancini and Southgate set the example other countries should follow:

Gareth Southgate has given his team a lot but two things stand out. First, with his letter to the nation, in which he addresses racism among other things, he showed that he sees his role as national team coach as a social one as well as a football one. Second, he has made his team believe in his plan, which is: nobody will score against us easily or quickly. England have conceded only one goal this tournament, in the semi‑final against Denmark.

Up front, Southgate can rely on many talents, but above all Raheem Sterling. It is also worth pointing out that he is happy to use many players from clubs not part of the so-called Big Six, ie Leeds, Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton. This also strengthens England’s identity.

Another big winner of this tournament are Italy. Since kick-off in the opening match in Rome, Roberto Mancini’s team have showed they are a very solid unit with a clear approach. The team are combining that old Italian virtue of defending, which was particularly needed in the semi-final against Spain, with international components higher up the pitch.

Lovely piece on how the England team's effort to combat racist abuse is profound for fans from minority backgrounds:

The children dressed in traditional robes huddle around the small screen at a Muslim boarding school in Blackburn. They gasp momentarily before the room erupts into cheers as the England captain, Harry Kane, scores his winning goal.

The heartwarming video, which went viral after England’s Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark, is one of many videos and photographs of people from minority backgrounds celebrating the team’s success – a symbol of the strides that have been made in making English football more inclusive.

A new report by British Future, “Beyond a 90-minute nation”, found that two-thirds of white and ethnic minority citizens agree that the England football team is a symbol of England that “belongs to people of every race and ethnic background”. Just one in 13 people disagreed.

The Atlantic on What Euro 2020 Has Revealed About Englishness:

Throughout the tournament, the English team has put its values quite literally at the center of the stadium. Before every kickoff, England’s players have taken a knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, replicating the gesture made popular by the American football player Colin Kaepernick. The team’s captain, Harry Kane, wore a rainbow armband to mark Pride month—a gesture that took on even greater significance after European soccer’s governing body blocked the city of Munich from illuminating its stadium in the rainbow colors of the Pride flag. Other members of the squad also expressed their support. Off the field, England’s players have advocated on issues ranging from racial equality in sports to the government supplying free school meals for underprivileged children during the pandemic.

Daniel Storey on how the team are a collective personification of a better England

This team feels different and is treated differently because it is different. This tournament - and 2018 too - has been a triumph of unity. As an antidote to the deliberately divisive politics of our time, a group of young men from disparate backgrounds have sacrificed individual achievement and club rivalry to form a team that matches every definition of that word. They have used their position to fight against social injustice and inequality and they have made those who sought to denigrate that aim look spectacularly dim. One football team cannot change society, perhaps they cannot even make a difference.

Within that collective, individuals have established themselves as de facto cultural leaders. Raheem Sterling has railed against the racist abuse targeted at players of colour and become a leader of the team after being subject to unfair media victimisation. Marcus Rashford campaigned tirelessly against child hunger and poverty. Jordan Henderson was awarded an MBE for his services to charity. On Friday morning, it was revealed that England’s players will donate their prize money from the tournament to the NHS.

From Penguin's 11 literary quotes about the beautiful game:

“All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.” - Albert Camus

James Horncastle in The Athletic on how Mancini brought the Azzurri came back from the brink after they failed to qualify for the last World Cup:

Mancini has built his team around the quality of Verratti, Insigne and Jorginho, all of whom were available to Ventura but were either played out of position or called up sparingly. Two-thirds of that trio has experience of recent Champions League finals with PSG and Chelsea and as their twenties draw to a close they have reached a maturity that shows on the international stage.

Mancini also wanted to send a message to coaches in Serie A that it was time to put faith in the country’s youngsters. He called up Nicolo Zaniolo before the dynamic Roma midfielder had even played a single minute for his club. The move set the tone for his tenure and the next thing Mancini knew Zaniolo was starting at the Bernabeu in the Champions League.

The team has come together on and off the pitch too, mirroring the band of brothers that is Mancini’s staff with Vialli, Alberigo Evani, Attilio Lombardo and Fausto Salsano reunited 30 years after Samp’s Scudetto and presumably hoping that, in the event they do make it to Wembley, they will be able to put the ghosts of 1992 to bed. As the head of Italy’s delegation, Vialli in particular wants to inspire those around him after coming through 17 months of chemotherapy following his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer.

“Winning isn’t important,” Vialli said. “Thinking like a winner is. Ten per cent of life is what happens to you. The other 90 per cent is your approach to it. I hope my story can help others take on what life throws at them in the right way.”

On how Giorgio Chiellini gives Italy the psychological edge:

Before the Belgium game, Chiellini said a captain’s role was to “sdrammatizzare” – to diminish and ease the tension in important moments for the rest of his team. “There’s no need to raise anxieties higher than they already are,” he said. “Adrenaline will come on its own.”

In his biography Io, Giorgio, Chiellini describes the psychological aspect of anticipating a striker’s thoughts as “the most important part of my game”, but he has always sought to impose himself on opponents. Spain’s Álvaro Morata likened training against him to trying to steal food from a gorilla’s cage, but the great ape persona was the defender’s own creation, cultivated with a chest-beating celebration and a cartoon image that used to appear on his website.

[katyhudsonsvlog]

Katy Perry - Billboard Summer Beats Concert (Part Of Me 3D Premiere)

https://64.media.tumblr.com/446788ea2bdb1b3fa2fbb0e0b445a8cd/tumblr_o715ysoEKV1sq182ao1_540.png Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Sydney

Katy Perry's Tour Costume Designer Dishes on 'Prismatic' Concert Outfits | Hollywood Reporter

The Prismatic arena tour’s costume designer was Marina Toybina and the gowns and dresses were designed by different fashion houses including Moschino, Roberto Cavalli, Fausto Puglisi. The Ying Yang dress was designed by Johnny Wujek and Marco Marco. Katheryn Hudson approved each designer’s sketch before production.

The Prismatic set designer was Baz Halpin + team. Katy’s songs for Prism have the pop Svengalis Dr Luke and Max Martin as a common denominator and the Prism songs were written about Katy’s ex husband and the others were a ‘trap’ for Katheryn’s soon to arrive 1111 twin flame who was never publicly mentioned as Katheryn remains hidden as ‘KATY PERRY’ is fronted by a series of different clones of Katheryn Hudson so it’s a well faked show that spreads no love and light to the Universe because behind the pink pap, pop, innocent, fun-loving persona, bubble gum front of Katy Perry lies a dark secretive world of great darkness, fake Katy’s and a Satanic message where she is quoted as telling her young fans to pray to Satan as she does, see ‘Birthday’ and ‘Wide awake’ videos played backwards. Actual witchcraft, devil worshipping all play their part in her apparent success and self-confessed cannibal Katy Perry admits she ‘sold her soul to the devil’ and scooped career earnings of $1 billion. https://youtu.be/wHknzzJeK6Y  is a Christian right exposed documentary. Katheryn is prone to suicidal thoughts racked with guilt and with the absence of pop duo Dr Luke and Max Martin on her 2016 Witness album which was poorly received and most recently her 2020 album Smile bombed and just desserts the Christian right believe she can hardly chart anymore with her singles so the fake Katy Perry’s turn to the TV talent shows which is ironic as Katy’s career was a real nonstarter for 7 years in the wilderness prior to selling her soul and relying upon other people who write her songs and a well oiled pop factory record label.

Katy’s position in social media is also a ‘con’ with 58% of her Twitter followers paid for and 20% inactive fake accounts set up by fans for award voting purposes, with similar stats on Instagram and Facebook. So, I thought I would enlighten you to the alcoholic, hard drug ‘consuming’ Katy who ex husband says he was sick to the stomach with Katy’s vapid, vacuous, empty celebrity and consumerism lifestyle which has seen Katy blow ¾ quarters of a $ Billion fortune on ‘the good times’ such as tipping strippers and pole dancers $25,000 on a good night out with her then boyfriend John Mayer (Jaty). When Katy celebrates her birthday, she flies out 66 of her best friends to Egypt 5 star. Katy Perry is one of biggest porn stars in the Hollywood porn industry. Katy had been sold by Lucifer into hard core porn, prostitution rackets and pure filth Satanic rituals where she became a vampire and a cannibal. As founder of ‘Chimera’, the first ‘celebrity stars’ escort service in Hollywood she rose to become the filthiest hooker in town https://www.facebook.com/KatyPerrysEscorts charging $160,000 for a no holes barred weekend with full permission to use videos and cameras, there was no end of takers.

 In 1935 the Rockefeller Foundation had an interest in making sure the US music industry adopted the audio frequency 440Hz standard in 1935 as part of a “war on consciousness” leading to “musical cult control” thus tuning all music to 440Hz turns it into a military weapon.  The great 440 Hz conspiracy, and why all of our music is wrong: Alan Cross - National | Globalnews.ca

I quote from one of the many online articles on the subject: “The monopolization of the music industry features this imposed frequency that is ‘herding’ populations into greater aggression, psychosocial agitation, and emotional distress predisposing people to physical illnesses and financial impositions profiting the agents, agencies, and companies engaged in the monopoly.” Going a little deeper, we end up at the doorstep of the Nazis. It is said that propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels insisted that on 440 Hz tuning in Germany because he believed it made people think and feel in specific ways, making them “a prisoner of a certain consciousness.” And if you’re trying to mobilize the population for Der Fuhrer, that’s exactly what you want, right?

·                   There’s more from the Tinfoil Headphones crowd: “The powers that be are successfully lowering the vibrations of not only the young generation but the rest of us as well. These destructive frequencies entrain the thoughts towards disruption, disharmony, and disunity. Additionally, they also stimulate the controlling organ of the body — the brain — into disharmonious resonance, which ultimately creates disease and war.”

·                   There’s something to think about the next time you pop in some earbuds. Does listening to music make you feel more warlike and diseased?

·       I’ve also been told that the different effects these frequencies have on our chakras. Songs tuned to 440 Hz work on the third eye chakra (the “thinking”) while 432 Hz stimulates the heart chakra (the “feeling”). Therefore, 432 Hz music increases the spiritual development of the listener. It may even have healing properties.

·       Alan Cross is a broadcaster with 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.

·       Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing History of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play

·       So, Katy Perry what exactly have you done during your career of a "war on consciousness" that is of any use? You are party to a mind control system scamming a $1 Billion fortune that you have blown 3/4 of on a vapid, vacuous, mind numbing celebrity materialistic lifestyle and your fake twitter account https://www.twitter.com/katyperry has a simple bio; LOVE LIGHT yet you must hate the public who have to listen to your mind control weapons that has wrought darkness lowering vibrations and nullifying our evolving consciousness.

[sayitaliano]

Sanremo 2020

Here a few ways to watch Sanremo online starting on tuesday february 4th 8:30 pm (it’ll probably start with a 5 minutes “anteprima = preview” every night), until saturday february 8th, when the final will be broadcasted.

/ Official website / you can find loads of videos and interviews here + the latest news.

Rai’s website dedicated section (here)

Starting from January 27th, a 6 minutes show about Sanremo has been broadcasted every night, with interviews and random curiosities (here - PrimaFestival section right below the host Amadeus’ photo)

The usual Dopofestival, with the analysis of the show at the end of each night, won’t be broadcasted onTV but only on RaiPlay (here - L’Altro Festival)

CasaSanremo - A website about Sanremo and all the artists who will take part, with more infos and interviews. Follow them also on their Social Media Channels, usually they make live video/interviews/shows on FB for example.

Some video interviews on Sorrisi&Canzoni (where you can find also other infos about Sanremo)

To watch it live:

Raiuno -> just click on the first video on the left, or here , to open the Raiuno streaming immediately (I added the whole Rai channels things in case you had troubles connecting directly and wanted to try from there) I’m not sure you have to log in to watch a live, but it’s through just an email or FB btw

Sanremo in signs language live

I’ll try to write down some more infos/links through the week.

——-

Hosts & Guests + Other Stuff

This years’ host will be Amadeus (who choose the songs taking part into this Sanremo), a TV and radio host. He will be accompanied by 10 female co-hosts, all coming from TV, songs, sport and information fields: Francesca Sofia Novello, Laura Chimenti, Antonella Clerici, Diletta Leotta, Emma D'Aquino, Sabrina Salerno, Alketa Vejsiu, Mara Venier, Georgina Rodriguez, Rula Jebreal. They will appear on few nights (or just one) each. The radio and TV host Fiorello will be present all the 5 nights, same as the famous singer Tiziano Ferro. They will appear on stage randomly to entertain and sing, maybe also with other guests. Some of the one-night guests might be the singers Al Bano & Romina Power (with a new song, probably on day 1), Zucchero, Ghali, Gianna Nannini, Biagio Antonacci, Tony Renis, Massimo Ranieri, Jhonny Dorelli, i Ricchi e Poveri (all the 4 members who originally started the band), Ultimo, Lewis Capaldi, Dua Lipa, Mika (these last 3 probably on Thursday and Friday night); the actors/singers of a couple of Italian movies: Pierfrancesco Favino, Kim Rossi Stuart, Emma Marrone, Claudio Santamaria (Gli anni più belli - Gabriele Muccino) and Diego Abatantuono, Christian De Sica, Angela Finocchiaro, Massimo Ghini, Paolo Rossi, Rocco Papaleo (La mia banda suona il pop - Fausto Brizi); and let’s not forget the Oscar winner Roberto Benigni. For the 70° anniversary of the competition, a 300 meters red carpet has been held in Sanremo to connect the roads nearby to the Ariston theater. The names of the past 69 editions’ winners are written on the red carpet and they may stay there also after the end of the competition (not sure though - take a look at the pics here). An outside stage, called Nutella stage, has been build in the streets of Sanremo. Guests and hosts will randomly go there as well to cheer the crowd.

How it works 

Differently from last year, this year the young/newbie section is back. So there will be 24 singers in the Campioni (champs) section and 8 in the Giovani (young/newbies) section. The winner of the competition of the Campioni section will represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest: if he/she/them won’t accept, the choice will be another artist, usually the 2nd classified. Another difference with the past edition is that the “Duets night” will take place on the 3rd night. The Campioni’s singers will perform (with another Italian or foreign artist) a song from a past Sanremo edition. This special evening will be called Sanremo 70. Differently from the past, the rank at the end of the 3rd night, will change also the rank after the 2 first nights (votes will be added to the general rank).

Day 1 - co-hosts: Rula Jebreal, Diletta Leotta. Prob. guests: Fiorello, Tiziano Ferro. “Gli anni più belli” actors, Emma Marrone (will sing too), Gessica Notaro and Antonio Maggio, Al Bano & Romina Power. We’ll hear 12 Campioni’s songs (in order of performance: Irene Grandi, Marco Masini, Rita Pavone, Achille Lauro, Diodato, Le Vibrazioni, Anastasio, Elodie, Bugo e Morgan, Alberto Urso, Riki, Raphael Gualazzi) and 4 Giovani’s (Eugenio in via di Gioia, Fadi, Leo Gassman and Tecla Insolia). 2 songs of the Giovani will be excluded after two different 1 vs 1 contests (Eugenio in Via di Gioia VS Tecla Insolia || Fadi VS Leo Gassmann). The two winning songs (one for each contest) will pass to the 4th night. We’ll have a first rank of the 12 Campioni who performed tonight.

Day 2 - co-hosts: Emma D’Aquino, Laura Chimenti, Sabrina Salerno. Prob. guests: Fiorello, Tiziano Ferro. Zucchero, Ricchi e Poveri, Gigi D’Alessio, Massimo Ranieri, Paolo Palumbo, Novak Djokovic and his wife. The remaining 12 Campioni’s (in order of performance: Piero Pelù, Elettra Lamborghini, Enrico Nigiotti, Levante, Pinguini Tattici Nucleari, Tosca, Francesco Gabbani, Paolo Jannacci, Rancore, Junior Cally, Giordana Angi, Michele Zarrillo) and 4 Giovani’s songs (Fasma, Matteo Faustini, Martinelli & Lula, Marco Sentieri) will be performed tonight. 2 songs of the Giovani’s will be excluded after two different 1 vs 1 contests (Martinelli & Lula VS Fasma || Marco Sentieri VS Matteo Faustini). The two winning songs (one for each contest) will pass to the 4th night. We’ll have another rank of the 12 Campioni who performed tonight, and then one with all the 24 contestants (a mix with day 1′s rank).

Complete rank after 1 play of each song:

24 - Junior Cally - No grazie 23 - Bugo e Morgan - Sincero 22 - Rancore - Eden 21 - Elettra Lamborghini - Musica (E il resto scompare) 20 - Riki - Lo sappiamo entrambi 19 - Rita Pavone - Niente (Resilienza 74) 18 - Enrico Nigiotti - Baciami adesso 17 - Achille Lauro - Me ne frego 16 - Paolo Jannacci - Voglio parlarti adesso 15 - Anastasio - Rosso di rabbia 14 - Raphael Gualazzi - Carioca 13 - Giordana Angi - Come mia madre 12 - Alberto Urso - Sole ad est 11 - Marco Masini - Il confronto 10 - Levante - Tikibombom 9 - Michele Zarrillo - Nell'estasi o nel fango 8 - Tosca - Ho amato tutto 7 - Irene Grandi - Finalmente io 6 - Diodato - Fai rumore 5 - Elodie - Andromeda 4 - Pinguini Tattici Nucleari - Ringo Starr 3 - Piero Pelù - Gigante 2 - Le Vibrazioni - Dov'è 1 - Francesco Gabbani - Viceversa Day 3 - co-hosts: Georgina Rodriguez, Alketa Vejisiu. Prob. guests: Tiziano Ferro. Roberto Benigni, Mika, Lewis Capaldi, “L’amica geniale” actors. Duets night “Sanremo 70″, in order of performance:

MICHELE ZARRILLO Ft. FAUSTO LEALI – Deborah (Fausto Leali e Wilson Pickett, 1968) JUNIOR CALLY Ft. i VIITO – Vado al massimo (Vasco Rossi, 1982) MARCO MASINI Ft. ARISA – Vacanze romane (Matia Bazar, Sanremo 1983) RIKI Ft. ANA MENA – L’edera (Nilla Pizzi e Tonina Torrielli, 1958) RAPHAEL GUALAZZI Ft. SIMONA MOLINARI – E se domani (Fausto Cigliano e Gene Pitney, 1964) ANASTASIO & P.F.M. -  Spalle al muro (Renato Zero, 1991) LEVANTE Ft. FRANCESCA MICHIELIN, MARIA ANTONIETTA – Si può dare di più (Gianni Morandi, Enrico Ruggeri e Umberto Tozzi, 1987) ALBERTO URSO Ft. ORNELLA VANONI – La voce del silenzio (Tony Del Monaco e Dionne Warwick, 1968)   ELODIE Ft. AEHAM AHMAD – Adesso tu (Eros Ramazzotti, 1986) RANCORE Ft. DARDUST, La RAPPRESENTANTE DI LISTA – Luce (Elisa, 2001) PINGUINI TATTICI NUCLEARI – MEDLEY “70 volte”: Papaveri e papere (Nilla Pizzi,1952), Nessuno mi può giudicare (Caterina Caselli,1966), Gianna (Rino Gaetano,1978), Sarà perché ti amo (Loredana Bertè e i Ricchi e Poveri,1981), Una musica può fare (Max Gazzè,1998), Salirò (Daniele Silvestri,2002), Sono solo parole (Noemi,2011), Rolls Royce (Achille Lauro,2019) ENRICO NIGIOTTI Ft. SIMONE CRISTICCHI – Ti regalerò una rosa (Simone Cristicchi, 2007) GIORDANA ANGI Ft. SOLIS STRING QUARTET – La nevicata del ‘56 (Mia Martini, 1990) LE VIBRAZIONI Ft. CANOVA – Un’emozione da poco (Anna Oxa, 1978) DIODATO Ft. NINA ZILLI – 24 mila baci (Adriano Celentano e Little Tony, 1961) TOSCA Ft. SILVIA PEREZ CRUZ – Piazza Grande (Lucio Dalla, 1972) RITA PAVONE Ft. AMEDEO MINGHI – 1950 (Amedeo Minghi, 1983) ACHILLE LAURO Ft. ANNALISA – Gli uomini non cambiano (Mia Martini, 1992) BUGO E MORGAN – Canzone per te (Sergio Endrigo e Roberto Carlos, 1968) IRENE GRANDI  Ft. BOBO RONDELLI – La musica è finita (Ornella Vanoni e Mario Guarnera, 1967) PIERO PELU’ – Cuore matto (Little Tony, 1967)   PAOLO JANNACCI Ft. FRANCESCO MANDELLI, DANIELE MORETTO – Se me lo dicevi prima (Enzo Jannacci, 1989) ELETTRA LAMBORGHINI Ft. MYSS KETA – Non succederà più (Claudia Mori, 1982) FRANCESCO GABBANI – L’italiano (Toto Cutugno, 1983) 

Final classification of this “Sanremo 70″ night:

Day 4 - co-hosts: Antonella Clerici, Francesca Sofia Novello. Prob. guests: Fiorello, Tiziano Ferro. Johnny Dorelli, Gianna Nannini, Ghali, Dua Lipa, Tony Renis. The 24 Campioni’s songs will be performed (in order of appearance: Paolo Jannacci, Rancore, Giordana Angi, Francesco Gabbani, Raphael Gualazzi, Anastasio, Pinguini Tattici Nucleari, Elodie, Riki, Diodato, Irene Grandi, Achille Lauro, Piero Pelù, Tosca, Michele Zarrillo, Junior Cally, Le Vibrazioni, Alberto Urso, Levante, Bugo & Morgan, Rita Pavone, Enrico Nigiotti, Elettra Lamborghini, Marco Masini). Also, the 4 Giovani’s songs that won on day 1 and 2 (Tecla Insolia, Leo Gassman, Fasma, Marco Sentieri), will be performed again in two different 1 vs 1 competitions (Leo Gassman VS Fasma || Teclas Insolia VS Marco Sentieri). The 2 winning songs (one for each contest) will be performed one last time (Tecla Insolia VS Leo Gassman) and the winner will be the Giovani’s section winner of the 70° Sanremo’s edition.

Leo Gassman is the winner of the Giovani’s section:

The Premio della Critica “Mia Martini” for the Giovani’s section to “Eugenio in Via di Gioia”:

We’ll also have a new rank for the 24 23 Campioni’s songs.

Bugo and Morgan got disqualified for changing the words of the song and leaving the stage.

Day 5 - co-hosts: Mara Venier, Diletta Leotta, Sabrina Salerno, Francesca Sofia Novello.   Prob. guests: Fiorello, Tiziano Ferro. Christian De Sica, Ultimo, Biagio Antonacci, “La mia banda suona il pop”’s actors. All the 23 Campioni singers will perform again their songs (in order of appearance: Michele Zarrillo, Elodie, Enrico Nigiotti, Irene Grandi, Alberto Urso, Diodato, Marco Masini, Piero Perlù, Levante, Achille Lauro, Pinguini Tattici Nucleari, Junior Cally, Tosca, Le Vibrazioni, Raphael Gualazzi, Francesco Gabbani, Rita Pavone, Anastasio, Riki, Giordana Angi, Paolo Jannacci, Elettra Lamborghini, Rancore) and after midnight (prob. more like 1.15 am.) we’ll know the competition’s first 3 classified and all the special awards winners.

Final standing:

Diodato

Francesco Gabbani

Pinguini tattici nucleari

Le Vibrazioni

Piero Pelù

Tosca

Elodie

Achille Lauro

Irene Grandi

Rancore

Raphael Gualazzi

Levante

Anastasio

Alberto Urso

Marco Masini

Paolo Jannacci

Rita Pavone

Michele Zarrilo

Enrico Nigiotti

Giordana Angi

Elettra Lamborghini

Junior Cally

Riki

Diodato said he will take part at the ESC 2020! Other Awards:

Campioni Section:

Achille Lauro - Me ne frego  (lyrics) Alberto Urso - Il sole a est    (lyrics) Anastasio - Rosso di rabbia  (lyrics) Bugo e Morgan - Sincero  (lyrics) Diodato - Fai rumore  (lyrics) Elettra Lamborghini - Musica (E il resto scompare)  (lyrics) Elodie - Andromeda   (lyrics) Enrico Nigiotti - Baciami adesso   (lyrics) Francesco Gabbani - Viceversa    (lyrics) Giordana Angi - Come mia madre  (lyrics) Irene Grandi - Finalmente io  (lyrics) Junior Cally - No grazie  (lyrics) Le Vibrazioni - Dov'è  (lyrics) Levante - Tiki Bom Bom  (lyrics) Marco Masini - Il confronto  (lyrics) Michele Zarrillo - Nell'estasi o nel fango    (lyrics) Paolo Jannacci - Voglio parlarti adesso  (lyrics) Piero Pelù - Gigante  (lyrics) Pinguini Tattici Nucleari - Ringo Starr  (lyrics) Rancore - Eden  (lyrics) Raphael Gualazzi - Carioca  (lyrics) Riki - Lo sappiamo entrambi   (lyrics) Rita Pavone - Niente (Resilienza 74)  (lyrics) Tosca - Ho amato tutto  (lyrics)

Giovani Section:

1. Leo Gassmann – Vai bene così 2. Fadi – Due noi 3. Marco Sentieri – Billy Blu 4. Fasma – Per sentirmi vivo 5. Eugenio in via di Gioia – Tsunami 6. Tecla Insolia – 8 marzo 7. Matteo Faustini – Nel bene e nel male 8. Gabriella Martinelli e Lula – Il gigante d’acciaio

FESTIVAL DI SANREMO ALBO D'ORO (Past editions’ winners)

1951 NILLA PIZZI Grazie dei fior 1952 NILLA PIZZI  Vola colomba 1953 CARLA BONI E FLO SANDON’S Viale d’autunno 1954 GIORGIO CONSOLINI E GINO LATILLA Tutte le mamme 1955 CLAUDIO VILLA E TULLIO PANE Buongiorno tristezza 1956 FRANCA RAIMONDI Aprite le finestre 1957 CLAUDIO VILLA E NUNZIO GALLO Corde della mia chitarra 1958 DOMENICO MODUGNO E JOHNNY DORELLI Nel blu dipinto di blu 1959 DOMENICO MODUGNO E JOHNNY DORELLI Piove 1960 TONY DALLARA E RENATO RASCEL Romantica 1961 BETTY CURTIS E LUCIANO TAJOLI Al di là 1962 DOMENICO MODUGNO E CLAUDIO VILLA Addio addio 1963 TONY RENIS E EMILIO PERICOLI Uno per tutte 1964 GIGLIOLA CINQUETTI E PATRICIA CARLI Non ho l’età 1965 BOBBY SOLO E THE NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS Se piangi se ridi 1966 DOMENICO MODUGNO E GIGLIOLA CINQUETTI Dio come ti amo 1967 CLAUDIO VILLA E IVA ZANICCHI Non pensare a me 1968 SERGIO ENDRIGO E ROBERTO CARLOS Canzone per te 1969 BOBBY SOLO E IVA ZANICCHI Zingara 1970 ADRIANO CELENTANO E CLAUDIA MORI Chi non lavora non fa l’amore 1971 NADA E NICOLA DI BARI Il cuore è uno zingaro 1972 NICOLA DI BARI I giorni dell’arcobaleno 1973 PEPPINO DI CAPRI Un grande amore e niente più 1974 IVA ZANICCHI Ciao cara, come stai? 1975 GILDA Ragazza del sud 1976 PEPPINO DI CAPRI Non lo faccio più 1977 HOMO SAPIENS Bella da morire 1978 MATIA BAZAR …E dirsi ciao! 1979 MINO VERGNAGHI Amare 1980 TOTO COTUGNO Solo noi 1981 ALICE Per Elisa 1982 RICCARDO FOGLI Storie di tutti i giorni 1983 TIZIANA RIVALE Sarà quel che sarà 1984 AL BANO E ROMINA POWER Ci sarà 1985 RICCHI E POVERI Se m’innamoro 1986 EROS RAMAZZOTTI Adesso tu 1987 GIANNI MORANDI, ENRICO RUGGERI E UMBERTO TOZZI Si può dare di più 1988 MASSIMO RANIERI Perdere l’amore 1989 ANNA OXA E FAUSTO LEALI Ti lascerò 1990 POOH Uomini soli 1991 RICCARDO COCCIANTE Se stiamo insieme 1992 LUCA BARBAROSSA Portami a ballare 1993 ENRICO RUGGERI Mistero 1994 ALEANDRO BALDI Passerà 1995 GIORGIA Come saprei 1996 RON Vorrei incontrarti fra cent’anni 1997 JALISSE Fiumi di parole 1998 ANNALISA MINETTI Senza te o con te 1999 ANNA OXA Senza pietà 2000 PICCOLA ORCHESTRA AVION TRAVEL Sentimento 2001 ELISA Luce 2002 MATIA BAZAR Messaggio d’amore 2003 ALEXIA Per dire di no 2004 MARCO MASINI L’uomo volante 2005 FRANCESCO RENGA Angelo 2006 POVIA Vorrei avere il becco 2007 SIMONE CRISTICCHI Ti regalerò una rosa 2008 GIO DI TONNO E LOLA PONCE Colpo di fulmine 2009 MARCO CARTA La forza mia 2010 VALERIO SCANU Per tutte le volte che… 2011 ROBERTO VECCHIONI Chiamami ancora amore 2012 EMMA MARRONE Non è l’inferno 2013 MARCO MENGONI L’essenziale 2014 ARISA Controvento 2015 IL VOLO Grande amore 2016 STADIO Un giorno mi dirai 2017 FRANCESCO GABBANI Occidentalis Karma 2018 ERMAL META e FABRIZIO MORO Non mi avete fatto niente 2019 MAHMOOD Soldi

[lo-lynx]

Masculine embodiment in ASOIAF- aka, what’s up with the eunuchs?

CW: Sexism, cissexism, rape, sex, description of genitalia and bodily functions.

Spoilers: All of A Song of Ice and Fire, and a tiny spoiler from Game of Thrones season 8.

“’I hold the man’s balls in the palm of my hand.’ He cupped his fingers, smiling. ‘Or would, if he were a man, or had any balls.’” (Martin 1996/2011, 194) Ah, classic Littlefinger burn about Varys. In George RR Martin’s world of ASOIAF such jokes are frequent, but when last time when I re-read A Game of Thrones this one joke in Ned’s fourth chapter stuck out. Perhaps it was because I had recently watched the last season of Game of Thrones where Varys comments on Tyrion’s ever-present jokes about Varys being a eunuch (Game of Thrones 2019, 04:27). Perhaps it’s because issues of gender and sexuality interest me in general (see: all of this blog). Regardless, it got me interested at seeing how eunuchs are described in the books. I soon found that the connection between a man’s genitals and masculinity seemed to be very strong. Now, before I go any further, I feel like two disclaimers are in order. 1: I’m not saying that having a penis is necessary to be a man, I’m saying that both our society and the world of ASOIAF seems to think so. 2: I’m not saying that GRRM thinks this either, I have no idea what his personal stance on these things are, but I’m saying that he seems to have transferred these views from our world into his world. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, why focus on this aspect of masculine embodiment in ASOIAF? Well, as I intend to show in this analysis, by analysing how eunuchs are portrayed in the books, I think one can infer quite a bit of how men and masculinity is conceived of in Westeros and beyond. So, firstly I want to give a brief overview of how sex/gender was conceived of in our medieval world (mostly to show how this DOES NOT seem to match ASOIAF), and secondly how these things are conceived of in more modern times and compare this to ASOIAF.

So, before the 18th century or so, European conception sex/gender relied on what has afterwards been called a “one-sex model” (Mottier 2008, 33). This model was very influenced by the Greek philosophical idea that men’s bodies were active, hot and strong; women’s bodies being passive, weak, damp and cold (ibid, 5).

As the historian Thomas Laqueur has pointed out, the classical model of gender involved a ‘one-sex model’: since gender was fluid, men risked becoming more feminized if they lost heat, while women could become more like men if their bodies heated up. The psychological consequences of such beliefs was [sic] that gender did not appear as a stable, biological characteristic, but as an identity that was potentially under threat. (Mottier 2008, 6)

That is to say, during this time sex/gender was seen as fluid, and not a biological fact. As mentioned, this view didn’t really change until the 18th century. Mottier describes that shift like this:

From the 18th century, the traditional idea of the ‘one-sex’ body, which conceptualized women’s bodies as similar but inferior versions of male bodies (with female genitals being thought of as internal, much smaller versions of male genitals) started to be replaced with the idea of a clear biological differentiation between men and women. Male and female bodies came to be seen as fundamentally, biological different, not as part of the same hierarchical continuum. The gender hierarchy remained, however. (Mottier 2008, 33)

From this we can infer then, that during the medieval period in Europe, female bodies were perceived as sort of defect versions of male bodies, not fundamentally biologically different. It was after this model was replaced with the ‘two-sex model’ that men and women were seen as biologically different creatures. This biological difference also began being used as a justification for social difference (and inequality) between men and women. That is not to say that such social difference didn’t exist before that, but it wasn’t though to be the result of biological differences in the same way. In my view, this later conceptualisation of sex/gender is much more in line with how sex/gender seems to be perceived in ASOIAF. Throughout the books there are several references of women being of the gentle/weaker sex, or similar descriptions. One such is in Catelyn’s last chapter in A Game of Thrones when Catelyn tries to persuade Robb’s lords to sue for peace with the Lannisters. The Greatjon then says that because she is a woman she does not understand such things, while Lord Karstark says: “You are the gentle sex (…) a man has a need for vengeance.” (Martin 2011, 770) Such a view, seeing the female sex as gentler/weaker than the male sex, seems much more in line with a “two-sex model” than the “one-sex model” that would’ve existed in Medieval Europe. I shall therefore proceed to explain the male body has been conceived in more modern times.

In general, one can say that the male subject is expected to embody strength, toughness, and have a capability to exercise power over a space (Whitehead 2002, 189). This expectation also carries through to expectations of men’s sexuality, which is why many aging men might start to lose confidence in their sexuality when they can’t live up to this expectation (ibid, 200). This connection between masculinity and strength, virility etc. also impacts the importance being put on having “normal” genitalia. As Fausto-Sterling writes about the male body, from a medical point of view, the existence of a “functional” penis is often considered crucial for manhood (1995, 130). This is taken to the extreme that children born with a penis that is considered too small (even though the size of the penis at birth doesn’t seem to be a good indicator of adult size) will have their genitalia surgically changed into a vagina (for more on surgery on intersex children see for example: Amnesty 2017). Presumably this is partly because the sexual act of penetration is so closely linked to masculinity, that having a penis that is considered “too small” for this is inconceivable (as someone who works with sex education, I just want to add SIZE DOESN’T MATTER THAT MUCH. Just communicate with your partner and figure out what works for you!) Other studies have also analysed the way testicles are perceived in modern society and found that those seem to be closely connected to masculinity as well (Karioris & Allan 2017). The most obvious example of this is of course the phrase “grow a pair”, said when wanting someone to toughen up. Kaioris and Allan also write that fear of castration is often linked with a fear of losing one’s masculinity. This is all to say, that in our society genitalia seems to be very important to manhood and being “a real man”. Now, is this also the case in ASOIAF?

Short answer, yes. One example is of course the quote with which I started this text, when Littlefinger seems to equate Varys’ lack of testicles with his lack of manhood. Another example comes from A Clash of Kings when Tyrion expresses a similar sentiment when comparing himself to Varys: “Yet I’m still a man.” (Martin 1999/2011, 120). But the linking of lack of genitals with lack of masculinity doesn’t stop with Varys, it is also something we see with Theon after his torture by Ramsey. He himself thinks that he is no man (Martin 2011/2012, 566). Later, when Ramsey forces him to be a part of raping Jeyne Poole, he jokes about Theon (not) getting an erection by seeing Jeyne, and then says that Theon is: “Not even a man, in truth.” (Martin 2011d, 582). This equating of (lack of) a penis and testicles with (a lack of) masculinity/manhood isn’t contained to Westeros, however. Daenerys thinks a similar thing when describing the unsullied in A Storm of Swords: “(…) they were no men at all. The Unsullied were eunuchs, every one of them.” (Martin 2000/2011, 314). Speaking of Daenerys, in A Game of Thrones we learn from her chapters that in Dothraki culture, the only ones who ride in carts are those with a disability, women giving birth, the very old and the very old. Oh, and eunuchs (Martin 1996/2011, 373). Here it becomes very clear that eunuchs are seen as weak and unmanly when they are grouped together with pregnant women, old people and those with disabilities. How disability is portrayed in ASOIAF is not something I will go into further here, but I recommend the text “Power and Punishment in Game of Thrones” by Mia Harrison that does explore that. However, it seems clear that those with disabilities are not seen as “real men” either.

So, based on this, we can see that the Westerosi (and Essosi) view of what a man is seems to presume that he is strong, active and virile. It is apparently also very important to have functioning genitalia (whatever that even means). Therefore, those who cannot live up to that, such as eunuchs, are not real men. This is a very narrow definition of masculinity and manhood, yet it unfortunately rings true in our world as well. Not only does it exclude trans folx completely, it also limits people of all genders. We see the consequences of that in ASOIAF when Brianne is excluded from knighthood based on her gender, and in the way people of Westeros treat all of its “imperfect” men. And we can most definitely see it in our own world.

  References

Amnesty International. (2017). “First, do no harm: ensuring the rights of children born intersex.” Accessed 1 December, 2019. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/05/intersex-rights/

Game of Thrones. (2019) Winterfell. [TV-show]

Harrison, Mia. (2018). “Power and Punishment in Game of Thrones”, pp. 28-43 in Schatz, J L & Amber E George (Eds.), The Image of Disability: Essays on Media Representations. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne (1995). “How to build a man”, pp. 127-134 in Berger, Maurice, Brian Wallis and Simon Watson (eds.) (1995). Constructing Masculinity, Routledge, New York

Martin, George RR. (1996/2011). A Game of Thrones. Harper Voyager: London

Martin, George RR. (1998/2011). A Clash of Kings. Harper Voyager: London

Martin, George RR. (2000/2011). A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow. Harper Voyager: London

Martin, George RR. (2011/2012). A Dance with Dragons. Harper Voyager: London

Mottier, Véronique. (2008). Sexuality: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Whitehead, Stephen M. (2002). Men and Masculinities, Cambridge and Malden: Polity, pp. 181-204

[a-room-of-my-own]

Four years ago, I wrote about my decision to live as a woman in The New York Times, writing that I had wanted to live “authentically as the woman that I have always been,” and had “effectively traded my white male privilege to become one of America’s most hated minorities.”

Three years ago, I decided that I was neither male nor female, but nonbinary—and made headlines after an Oregon judge agreed to let me identify as a third sex, not male or female.

Now, I want to live again as the man that I am.

I’m one of the lucky ones. Despite participating in medical transgenderism for six years, my body is still intact. Most people who desist from transgender identities after gender changes can’t say the same.

But that’s not to say I got off scot-free. My psyche is eternally scarred, and I’ve got a host of health issues from the grand medical experiment.

Here’s how things began.

After convincing myself that I was a woman during a severe mental health crisis, I visited a licensed nurse practitioner in early 2013 and asked for a hormone prescription. “If you don’t give me the drugs, I’ll buy them off the internet,” I threatened.

Although she’d never met me before, the nurse phoned in a prescription for 2 mg of oral estrogen and 200 mg of Spironolactone that very same day.

The nurse practitioner ignored that I have chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, having previously served in the military for almost 18 years. All of my doctors agree on that. Others believe that I have bipolar disorder and possibly borderline personality disorder.

I should have been stopped, but out-of-control, transgender activism had made the nurse practitioner too scared to say no.

I’d learned how to become a female from online medical documents at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital website.

After I began consuming the cross-sex hormones, I started therapy at a gender clinic in Pittsburgh so that I could get people to sign off on the transgender surgeries I planned to have.

All I needed to do was switch over my hormone operating fuel and get my penis turned into a vagina. Then I’d be the same as any other woman. That’s the fantasy the transgender community sold me. It’s the lie I bought into and believed.

Only one therapist tried to stop me from crawling into this smoking rabbit hole. When she did, I not only fired her, I filed a formal complaint against her. “She’s a gatekeeper,” the trans community said.

Professional stigmatisms against “conversion therapy” had made it impossible for the therapist to question my motives for wanting to change my sex.

The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (Fifth Edition) says one of the traits of gender dysphoria is believing that you possess the stereotypical feelings of the opposite sex. I felt that about myself, but yet no therapist discussed it with me.

Two weeks hadn’t passed before I found a replacement therapist. The new one quickly affirmed my identity as a woman. I was back on the road to getting vaginoplasty.

There’s abundant online literature informing transgender people that their sex change isn’t real. But when a licensed medical doctor writes you a letter essentially stating that you were born in the wrong body and a government agency or court of law validates that delusion, you become damaged and confused. I certainly did.

Painful Roots

My trauma history resembles a ride down the Highway of Death during the first Gulf War.

As a child, I was sexually abused by a male relative. My parents severely beat me. At this point, I’ve been exposed to so much violence and had so many close calls that I don’t know how to explain why I’m still alive. Nor do I know how to mentally process some of the things I’ve seen and experienced.

Dr. Ray Blanchard has an unpopular theory that explains why someone like me may have been drawn to transgenderism. He claims there are two types of transgender women: homosexuals that are attracted to men, and men who are attracted to the thought or image of themselves as females.

It’s a tough thing to admit, but I belong to the latter group. We are classified as having autogynephilia.

After having watched pornography for years while in the Army and being married to a woman who resisted my demands to become the ideal female, I became that female instead. At least in my head.

While autogynephilia was my motivation to become a woman, gender stereotypes were my means of implementation. I believed wearing a long wig, dresses, heels, and makeup would make me a woman.

Feminists begged to differ on that. They rejected me for conforming to female stereotypes. But as a new member of the transgender community, I beat up on them too. The women who become men don’t fight the transgender community’s wars. The men in dresses do.

Medical Malpractice

The best thing that could have happened would have been for someone to order intensive therapy. That would have protected me from my inclination to cross-dress and my risky sexual transgressions, of which there were many.

Instead, quacks in the medical community hid me in the women’s bathroom with people’s wives and daughters. “Your gender identity is female,” these alleged professionals said.

The medical community is so afraid of the trans community that they’re now afraid to give someone Blanchard’s diagnosis. Trans men are winning in medicine, and they’ve won the battle for language.

Think of the word “transvestite.” They’ve succeeded in making it a vulgar word, even though it just means men dressing like women. People are no longer allowed to tell the truth about men like me. Everyone now has to call us transgender instead.

The diagnostic code in my records at the VA should read Transvestic Disorder (302.3). Instead, the novel theories of Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling have been used to cover up the truths written about by Blanchard, J. Michael Bailey, and Alice Dreger.

I confess to having been motivated by autogynephilia during all of this. Blanchard was right.

Trauma, hypersexuality owing to childhood sexual abuse, and autogynephilia are all supposed to be red flags for those involved in the medical arts of psychology, psychiatry, and physical medicine—yet nobody except for the one therapist in Pittsburgh ever tried to stop me from changing my sex. They just kept helping me to harm myself.

Escaping to ‘Nonbinary’

Three years into my gender change from male to female, I looked hard into the mirror one day. When I did, the facade of femininity and womanhood crumbled.

Despite having taken or been injected with every hormone and antiandrogen concoction in the VA’s medical arsenal, I didn’t look anything like a female. People on the street agreed. Their harsh stares reflected the reality behind my fraudulent existence as a woman. Biological sex is immutable.

It took three years for that reality to set in with me.

When the fantasy of being a woman came to an end, I asked two of my doctors to allow me to become nonbinary instead of female to bail me out. Both readily agreed.

After pumping me full of hormones—the equivalent of 20 birth control pills per day—they each wrote a sex change letter. The two weren’t just bailing me out. They were getting themselves off the hook for my failed sex change. One worked at the VA. The other worked at Oregon Health & Science University.

To escape the delusion of having become a woman, I did something completely unprecedented in American history. In 2016, I convinced an Oregon judge to declare my sex to be nonbinary—neither male nor female.

In my psychotic mind, I had restored the mythical third sex to North America. And I became the first legally recognized nonbinary person in the country.

Celebrity Status

The landmark court decision catapulted me to instant fame within the LGBT community. For 10 nonstop days afterward, the media didn’t let me sleep. Reporters hung out in my Facebook feed, journalists clung to my every word, and a Portland television station beamed my wife and I into living rooms in the United Kingdom.

Becoming a woman had gotten me into The New York Times. Convincing a judge that my sex was nonbinary got my photos and story into publications around the world.

Then, before the judge’s ink had even dried on my Oregon sex change court order, a Washington, D.C.-based LGBT legal aid organization contacted me. “We want to help you change your birth certificate,” they offered.

Within months, I scored another historic win after the Department of Vital Records issued me a brand new birth certificate from Washington, D.C., where I was born. A local group called Whitman-Walker Health had gotten my sex designation on my birth certificate switched to “unknown.” It was the first time in D.C. history a birth certificate had been printed with a sex marker other than male or female.

Another transgender legal aid organization jumped on the Jamie Shupe bandwagon, too. Lambda Legal used my nonbinary court order to help convince a Colorado federal judge to order the State Department to issue a passport with an X marker (meaning nonbinary) to a separate plaintiff named Dana Zzyym.

LGBT organizations helping me to screw up my life had become a common theme. During my prior sex change to female, the New York-based Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund had gotten my name legally changed. I didn’t like being named after the uncle who’d molested me. Instead of getting me therapy for that, they got me a new name.

A Pennsylvania judge didn’t question the name change, either. Wanting to help a transgender person, she had not only changed my name, but at my request she also sealed the court order, allowing me to skip out on a ton of debt I owed because of a failed home purchase and begin my new life as a woman. Instead of merging my file, two of the three credit bureaus issued me a brand new line of credit.

Walking Away From Fiction

It wasn’t until I came out against the sterilization and mutilation of gender-confused children and transgender military service members in 2017 that LGBT organizations stopped helping me. Most of the media retreated with them.

Overnight, I went from being a liberal media darling to a conservative pariah.

Both groups quickly began to realize that the transgender community had a runaway on their hands. Their solution was to completely ignore me and what my story had become. They also stopped acknowledging that I was behind the nonbinary option that now exists in 11 states.

The truth is that my sex change to nonbinary was a medical and scientific fraud.

Consider the fact that before the historic court hearing occurred, my lawyer informed me that the judge had a transgender child.

Sure enough, the morning of my brief court hearing, the judge didn’t ask me a single question. Nor did this officer of the court demand to see any medical evidence alleging that I was born something magical. Within minutes, the judge just signed off on the court order.

I do not have any disorders of sexual development. All of my sexual confusion was in my head. I should have been treated. Instead, at every step, doctors, judges, and advocacy groups indulged my fiction.

The carnage that came from my court victory is just as precedent-setting as the decision itself. The judge’s order led to millions of taxpayer dollars being spent to put an X marker on driver’s licenses in 11 states so far. You can now become male, female, or nonbinary in all of them.

In my opinion, the judge in my case should have recused herself. In doing so, she would have spared me the ordeal still yet to come. She also would have saved me from having to bear the weight of the big secret behind my win.

I now believe that she wasn’t just validating my transgender identity. She was advancing her child’s transgender identity, too.

A sensible magistrate would have politely told me no and refused to sign such an outlandish legal request. “Gender is just a concept. Biological sex defines all of us,” that person would have said.

In January 2019, unable to advance the fraud for another single day, I reclaimed my male birth sex. The weight of the lie on my conscience was heavier than the value of the fame I’d gained from participating in this elaborate swindle.

Two fake gender identities couldn’t hide the truth of my biological reality. There is no third gender or third sex. Like me, intersex people are either male or female. Their condition is the result of a disorder of sexual development, and they need help and compassion.

I played my part in pushing forward this grand illusion. I’m not the victim here. My wife, daughter, and the American taxpayers are—they are the real victims.

[lulousims]

The beginning of the Tottenburg family

So, this is my first post on this Tumblr account and I’m feeling once again like an awkward newbie - this is nostalgic.

The Tottenburg family name came to me almost immediately when I went into CAS. Traditionally, as a child, I liked creating one Sim and making them master all skillsets, reach the top of their career and pretty much find out all the possible game features through them. Of course it got old, so I eventually developed an interest for huge family trees, since I really liked to explore the premade Sims’ ones on TS2, and creating storylines for each of them (writing is pretty much my favorite hobby). Anyway, now you know the backstory; into the CAS page.

Ironically, I created one Sim initially and launched him into the world. His name was Lucien and he was supposed to be me - or at least a version of me -, I made our initials the same for that reason. He aspired to be a great writer,  but since writing on his own wasn't profitable enough, I made him get a job as a politician. I completely ignored the writing career and I'm not sure if it's because I'm just dumb or if I did it on purpose. No problem though, because even though I myself have no political aspirations, the thought of making the world a better place really appeals to me.

He was an activist as a politician, advocating for his cause No Sim Left Behind. He got to sell some books, but his fixed job came first, sadly. Focusing on the two was very hard, especially because he was trying to save money to move and to find a wife. He eventually found a woman he liked very much, her name was Izumi. They made friends really quickly. As he was preparing to propose to her, though, she asked him if he'd like to come to her birthday party (she was already an adult and Lucien was a young adult). They got married after she grew old and it proved to not be a problem, since Lucien could get pregnant and Izumi could impregnate others. 

The picture above is the only one I have of Lucien, in which he is kissing his first wife.

They had their first child, Ian, who was a very active baby. His square jaw was one of my most loved features on him when he grew up to be a teenager. He loved exercising and dancing. His mother died when he was still a child. So Lucien married his old friend Uriel Fausto, and they had a beautiful baby girl called Ursula. Ursula was trans and I was pissed to see the game misgender her consistently throughout her childhood. I don't agree with the fact that you can't change a child's gender until they're teens; that has nothing to do with their bodies.

Anyway, at least Ursula was free to wear whatever she liked, with her parents full support, since they were both trans. She was bold, confident and had very strong opinions and behavior. She was also very jealous of the people she loved.

Unfortunately, Lucien was very unlucky when it came to his marriages. For some reason, he would always date much older women, and that's why Uriel died of old age just like his first wife. Damn, Lucien. You lost two wives already. Time to stop marrying and focus on your books.

Well, he managed to resurrect Uriel the first time by pleading to the reaper. Uriel was very thankful and used all that emotion as fuel to paint much more. She was a painter, I forgot to mention. But then she died again and he couldn't save her this time. It's okay. It's life. My game progressed really fast back then, I guess it's because I had less people living in the household.

Lucien grew into an elder and Ursula became a child. Without his wives, Lucien decided he wanted to make his dreams come true and he'd waste no time working on something that didn't really make him happy. So he quit the politician career, got a job as a writer and kept writing books at home. I made quite some progress, but he died before he could fulfill his lifetime aspiration.

Ursula and Ian were devastated, but they managed. The family had quite the amount of money (I used cheats to make them move into a big house and I didn't know how to make them lose some), so they survived even with no one working. Lucien, Izumi and Uriel were missed.

[keywestlou]

ANTONIA TRIFECTA

Spent yesterday writing. Rewrote 2 chapters of Growing Up Italian. Will I ever be satisfied and complete the book?

My house is being painted. Got a look following the second coat after I left the house on my way downtown. Cleans up good!

My first stop was Aqua for Dueling Bartenders.

Usually crowded with locals. Not last night. Total patrons 3, including me.

The best bargain in town! Rick Dery and a guest singing. The entertainment free. Goes with the price of the drinks.

Rick was especially good last night.

Dinner time. I made my way to Antonia’s.

Nicole bartending. Almost did not recognize her. She has lost 30 pounds in 3 months. KETO diet. A different appearing woman.

Another 30 to go. She will make it. She was gushing with enthusiasm.

The title of today’s blog is Antonia Trifecta. So named because 3 good things occurred while I was at Antonia’s last night. The first seeing the “new” Nicole and sharing her joy.

The second happy occurrence mine.

You recall I lost 62 pounds last year. Not an easy task. As with Nicole last night, I was excited!

The diet was Atkins. I was loyal. It worked.

Five months ago, I got sick. Pancreatitis. Not cancer of the pancreas. Merely a “mad” pancreas as my doctor described it.

Painful! Two months of suffering.

Causes of pancreatitis in order are alcohol, smoking and fatty foods.

Doctor said no more drinking or smoking. I was a 4-6 gin man a night. Smoking bad, too.

I immediately ceased drinking and smoking. The smoking desire has passed. Still miss a drink when out.

The fatty food. The Atkins diet is high protein low carb. High protein means to me fatty foods. Steaks, lamb chops, etc.

My doctor said the Atkins diet probably contributed to the pancreatitis also. He said go on a high carb low fat diet.

I did immediately. As a result, have gained 30 pounds in 5 months. So much for having busted my ass for a year losing 62 pounds.

I cannot keep to the high carb diet. I will be the fattest ever! Ergo, I decided yesterday that I had to add more “fat” to my diet and see what happens.

Last night, I had my first meat meal in 5 months. Lamb chops. To die for! I went to Heaven!

Two down on the trifecta. Nicole’s 30 pounds and my enjoying lamb chops.

The third was meeting the Scarpas. Glenn and Ashley Scarpa. We sat next to each other at the bar. A most enjoyable conversation ensued.

Glenn and Ashley are into 2 businesses. Restaurant and needlepoint design.

Needlepoint is Ashley’s baby. She is an expert in textile arts: needlepoint and quilt making. She and Glenn are in Key West to close on their second needlepoint store. They purchased a needle point design store on Fleming, across from Fausto’s.

The new acquisition has been an established business in Key West for 42 years. Named Needle Point Designs. The recent owner Julie Pischke. Julie will remain as operator of the store. Ashley will oversee from her Boca Grande home.

The Scarpas are also in the restaurant business. Big time! Own 2 Italian restaurants in Florida. Lakeland and Boca Grande. Lakeland is called Scarpa Italian, Boca Grande Scarpa Coastal.

Both restaurants top shelf.

Glenn’s Dad was born in Italy. The family originates from the Salerno area. Cooking first began from his grandmother’s basement in her New York City home. Glenn and Ashley introduced the Italian cooking to Lakeland and Boca Grande.

Both restaurants retain some of the grandmother’s dishes from New York City.

Interesting, enjoyable people.

A great Antonia evening! What more can I say!

My diet problem not sufficiently corrected when I left Antonia’s. One meal fine. Needed some more “fats.” Stopped at Publix on the way home.

What a thrill. Just buying things I have not eaten in several months. Cheeses, cold cuts, rib eye steak, etc. I was like a kid in a candy store!

I hope I can handle the protein. Time will tell. I don’t want to get heavy again. Nor do I want another attack of pancreatitis.

Tonight, Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Another crazy week. I will have a lot to rant and rave about. Especially, Trump.

Join me at 9 for a quick moving and interesting half hour. Guaranteed you will enjoy. www.blog talkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Trump will be on the air tonight, also. TV and radio. He is speaking at a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The House Judiciary committee is scheduled to vote 2 articles of impeachment this morning.

Pennsylvania is critical in the 2020 election. Trump won the State by a small margin in 2016.

Have to give Trump credit! He will be charged with 2 articles of impeachment this morning and come out swinging tonight in Hershey. Guaranteed to be a wild man!

On this day in 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed formally ending the Spanish-American War. The U.S. acquired the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam as a result.

There is a significant Key West connection to the War. The Battleship Maine was initially docked in Key West when sent to Havana. The trial to determine the cause of the explosion was held in the Custom House in Key West. Many of the U.S. sailors killed in the explosion are buried in the Key West Cemetery.

The Key West Lighted Boat Parade saturday night beginning at 7. An outstanding event each year!

Boats small and large are decorated like the outside of people’s homes. Partying on each boat, of course.

The high today is 80. The weather will be on the warm side saturday night. A light jacket or sweater will be required on the boats.

I have done several Christmas Boat Parades. Not planning on it this year.

I recall one parade when it was sooooo cold! I had pajama bottoms, long pants, shirt, sweatshirt, a heavy winter jacket, gloves and a hat. I was still cold!

Harry Truman loved Key West and Key West loves Harry Truman.

Truman left Key West on this day in 1951 after a one month vacation. His last as President. However, he promised to return the following March when he was no longer President. He actually returned many times.

China is closely monitoring U.S. Air Force activity in the South China Sea.

What does Trump expect. He has defecated on China, embarrassed China, and caused them financial problems. Just as he is responsible for midwest farmers hurting economically and certain manufacturing businesses closing. All because Trump was going to show Xi who was the tougher guy.

I am concerned Trump is pushing too far. Asians are not accustomed to capitulating. It is a “face” thing. And they do not forget. They have memories like elephants.

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor because Roosevelt imposed an embargo which deprived Japan of 90 percent of its oil supply. Is Trump doing any different with China? Only the product(s) sanctioned are different.

Two days ago, a Houston police sergeant was shot and killed. A young lady had called in to say her boyfriend was abusing her and he had 2 guns. One of the guns killed the sergeant.

Texas’ 2 U.S. Senators were saying to the Houston Police Chief how terrible it was, something should be done, etc. Senators Cruz and Cronyn. Condolences apparently were also received from Senator McConnell.

The Police Chief expressed himself in no uncertain terms when speaking to Cronyn. Following his comments.

“I’m burying a sergeant…..because they don’t want to piss off the NRA.”

“I don’t want to hear about how much they support law enforcement…..”

“Do something…..you’re either here for women and children and our daughters and our sisters and our aunts or you’re here for the NRA.”

“Whose side are you on? The gun lobby or children getting gunned down every day? Who are you coming to work for?”

Cronyn responded, “Unfortunately, legislation like this falls casualty to impeachment mania. The Chief, “Don’t tell me…..it’s all about impeachment. Because you brag every day, you and McConnell, about getting judges confirmed.”

Cornyn did not respond. The NRA has not commented.

Enjoy your day!

    ANTONIA TRIFECTA was originally published on Key West Lou

[philipgolubowski]

Reflection #2: “Weeks 3 and 4″

     The New York Time’s piece entitled, “The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes,” written by Ruth Padawer, documents gender discrimination in professional athletics, specifically how intersex individuals are excluded from their respective sports. From this article, I feel that the practice of gender discrimination through gender verification tests is unfair and exclusionary because gender identity is a complex social construct that lies on a widespread spectrum including biological and hormonal components, and to judge others based on a binary system does not consider the spectrum. Although, it is important to denote that gender cannot be equated with biological and physiological differences between human females and males according to Judith Lorber. The first individual that the article writes about is Dutee Chand, an Indian female athlete who competes in the Olympics. This athlete was discriminated against because the athlete was forced to undergo a gender verification test. Chand was found with elevated testosterone levels, an androgen steroid that is associated with the growth and enhancement of secondary male reproductive organs, muscle development, and aggression in mammalian males. The International Association of Athletics Federation (I.A.A.F) ultimately disqualified Chand from competing in the Olympics, which alienated the athlete. I never considered that gender binaries can be further segregated by testing one’s hormonal levels, which is absolutely shocking. Additionally, I feel that this practice is disgusting because the athlete identifies as a female athlete, yet a committee is calling her a hermaphrodite or male, a non-identifying sex and gender to her. In fact, Chand in her confusion is quoted as saying, ““I said, ‘What have I done that is wrong…. ‘What is a gender test?’ This is just saddening to read because a professional is being punished for having heighten physiological androgen levels, which can be a part of her biology, but goes against a social standard predetermined for the female gender at a low concentration. This one case is enough for me to understand that gender discrimination and gender verification tests for athletic competitors are ethically wrong and ignorant. There are other cases of intersexuality and hermaphroditism listed in this article, such as the Madrid female athlete, Maria José Martínez Patiño, with the XY chromosomes, ultimately condemn and scrutinize gender verification tests.

     In Judith Butler’s piece entitled, “Doing Justice to Some: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transsexuality,” the author discusses the contemporary societal orders and norms that influences how individuals, as intellectual beings, express their “personhood,” in the attempt to answer a theoretical dilemma of who you are as a person. I thought that Butler wrote very well, and conveyed many poignant points about gender as a social construct. In this piece, the author discusses the tragic story of David Reimer based on her analyses of the work of Dr. Milton Diamond, John Colapinto, Anne Fausto-Sterling and Suzanne Kessler to demonstrate and support her claims about a discriminatory gender binary system. This excerpt allowed me to experience some cognitive dissonance since I am so used to societal norms that I do not consider the plight of intersex or transgender peoples. The author uses David’s story to demonstrate a perspective that traumatized an individual beyond repair. The author effectively uses the story to convey the hurt and loss of a poor individual who was not given an option, and therefore stripped of his ability to identify as who he felt most conformable. The horrifying story of David Reimer, formerly known as Brenda from a gender reassignment, is best summarized with the following line, “He (David) is, in his view, a man born a man, castrated by the medical establishment, feminized by the psychiatric world, and then enabled to return to who he is.” (Pg 65) This line summarized this individual’s suffering. The underlying factors that caused David’s suffering is absolutely abhorrent, and ultimately drove his motive to commit suicide. The medical establish, consistent of psychologists and psychiatrists, and his parents, modeled by social norms about gender dimorphism failed this individual. The two pillars of society that are the most trusted by the members of our society were not able to help David, and there may be many more like him. This notion is especially perturbing to me, as an individual who aspires to go into the field of medicine.

     David never felt “natural,” as prescribed by the societal norms, in this case a binary gender system, because he was subjected to hormones and surgery of which he had no choice. David also never felt like a male or female, which are completely understandable considering his complicated experiences and sufferings. I know that gender and sexual orientation exist as a spectrum, but David’s experiences with gender identity has truly shown me a part of the spectrum that I did not know. His confusion and pain have made me further understand the plight that intersex peoples face despite my presumption of gender roles and identities. I also had the opportunity to learn about gender dimorphism, and how prevalent this dichotomy is in gender systems, even in the transgender movement. 

     Ultimately, what I learned from the past two weeks is to appreciate the complexity of gender identities and sexual orientations as social constructs that can be fluid and change over time. By reading the experiences and difficulties associated with trans-gender identifying and intersex peoples, I begin to understand a portion of the gender spectrum. 

[andiedoyon97]

Unit 2: 2.10.19

This unit was interesting, but it got a whole lot more interesting when I went home for the weekend. I made an unusual decision to go to my parent’s favorite brewery in my hometown. I thought it might be a casual night with just the two of them while I would quietly appreciate the free beer...until I quickly found myself surrounded by 10 plus of my parent’s friends. Most of them were middle aged white men who like to ask me what my majors are and what I plan to do with them. Kyle in particular asks me this question EVERY time I see him, which is often. Normally when I mention GWS as my second major he nods and turns to start a conversation with someone else. This time he asked, “Okay, so what are you learning? Am I a boy? Is your father a boy? Are you a girl? What about your mom?” I think Judith Butler explained what I was hoping to articulate well when writing, "Gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.” I started explaining to Kyle how gender can function along a spectrum and can be fluid based on factors like gender expression and identity for example. There are times where an individual may feel more masculine presenting that day or feminine presenting the next. Gender is determined by the gender roles we choose to adhere to or rebel against. 

Kyle went on to say, “So, biology and hormones mean nothing now?” I responded with the idea that sex (what I think he was meaning by biology and hormones) is also thought to be a social construct and dependent upon context. I immediately thought about the Anne Fausto-Sterling article we read this past week. The author wrote, “The sex-gender or nature-nurture accounts of difference fail to appreciate the degree to which culture is a partner in producing body systems commonly referred to as biology—something apart from the social.” Fausto-Sterling was trying to explain that our experiences become a part of our flesh. The society and its norms often decide this for us. 

In the article we read by Dean Spade they wrote, “First, the medical approach to gender variance, and the creation of transsexuality, has resulted in a governance of trans bodies that restricts our ability to make gender transitions which do not yield membership in a normative gender role.” The author brought up an interesting point about women getting breast augmentations, but the trouble trans people have in their journeys of transitioning. Why this surgery aimed at body and confidence enhancement has been deemed acceptable, but trans surgeries have not is interesting? Is it because breast augmentations bring women with smaller breasts closer to the sexualized and preferred norm of a voluptuous woman? Or is our medical system obsessed with governing bodies in terms of what and how the people inhabiting them can live their lives? 

I wanted to tell Kyle was is it really any of our damn business how someone may be wanting to express themselves or how they identify? Why are we so consumed with knowing what they “really are?” Maybe we should consume ourselves more with the type of person they are and what they can offer in terms of making the world a slightly better place. 

Sources: 

Anne Fausto-Sterling. 2005. “The Bare Bones of Sex: Part 1 – Sex and Gender.” Signs 30 (2): 1491-1527.

Dean Spade, “Mutilating Gender.” In The Transgender Studies Reader.

Butler, J. (1988). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theatre Journal,40(4), 519-531. doi:10.2307/3207893

[houseofmind]

2 Year Anniversary PD Update

A lot has happened since I last brought you up to speed with my life and academic endeavors. Given that my last update post was over 2 years ago, I wasn’t sure where to start. With that said, this post has been opened and worked on (and opened and worked on, and so forth) so it’s a long one :X If you’re new, welcome! Also, please be sure to check out the list of things I learned during my PhD. 

Spring/Summer 2016

Briefly, I moved to Pittsburgh about a week after that update post. I crammed as much of my stuff as I could along with Fausto (my cat) into a rental car and drove to my new place amidst a snowstorm. I made it there safely (although I had to make an overnight stop that I swear gave my cat anxiety). My new home exceeded my expectations (2 bedroom, living room, kitchen, basement, washer/dryer, short commute < $1,000), but leaving NYC and most of my friends was bittersweet. 

I went into lab the next day after arriving in Pittsburgh. THAT felt really weird because it was when reality hit. New job, new role, new boss (and new style), new techniques, new approaches, new life basically. My first challenge in the lab was learning the “bread and butter” technique: in vivo extracellular recordings of VTA dopamine neurons. Initially, this scared the shit out of me because I had 0 electrophysiology experience so I was worried about how long it would take for me to be decent and start collecting good data. I was trained by the RAP in the lab; I shadowed her for a week and copied down as much as I could. Then, I did an animal every day for a month. That’s about how long it took for me to get comfortable. (Side note: if you move to a lab and need to learn a new technique, my advice is to attack it aggressively until you learn it!). At the beginning I encountered problems such as having my animal bleed too much, giving too much anesthetic, taking too long (a whole day for just one surgery), making bad electrodes, not being able to find dopamine neurons, etc. The really cool part was seeing myself get better: not making the same mistakes, being able to correct mistakes when they happened, becoming faster and more efficient, optimizing my procedure. It was a great reminder of why I love doing science and that I am capable of learning new things :]

Then came the part where my advisor asked me to think of projects related to his prior work and funding. Call this my second challenge in the lab. He suggested a “safe” project and a “pie in the sky” project. I really appreciated his flexibility and willingness to have me choose projects and questions that I cared about, while also offering his guidance and steering me in better directions. After I pored over his grants and (then still in press papers), I came up with 2 ideas and presented my experimental design to the lab. Next, I got to work! During this time I received funding from a T32 program within the Psychiatry at Pitt, which would cover my stipend until I was able to secure my own funding (more on this in Fall 2015). 

Work was interrupted for a couple of days in May that I took off to attend my graduation in NYC. My parents and one of my brothers were able to fly in from Puerto Rico and I was really pleased. I am the only (and first!) PhD in either side of the family so I could tell that this was a big deal to them and that they were really proud of me. Obviously, this made me feel proud of myself :D

Here is a pic of me on graduation day:

After I came back, it was time to get down to business. My first cohort of “real animals” was ready for all the single unit dopamine (DA) neuron recordings I had to do. Even though I had only been doing this technique for ~2 months, I managed to get some interesting preliminary data that my PI was enthusiastic about, he suggested I write an F32 (NIH postdoctoral fellowship grant). For the August deadline, meep! Most of June and July was spent working around the clock to not only gather and analyze the data, but also write the proposal. IT WAS INSANE. During this time, I also traveled to San Sebastián in the Basque Country (within Spain) for the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) meeting. It was my first time out of the country since 2013 and it was quite exciting because I was awarded their dissertation prize! I was only there for 4-5 days but I managed to hang out with my PhD advisor and conference buddies, gave a talk on my dissertation research, meet some pretty cool people from all over,  take in some breathtaking views, eat pintxos, and go to the beach. I guess you could call this my “vacation” over the summer. Finally, the last exciting thing to happen over the summer was that I received an invitation from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) to attend their annual meeting in December (more on this below). 

Fall/Winter 2015

After submitting my grant, I continued to perform experiments related to my F32 proposal project. I also started generating animals for another project in which I would look at the effects of chronic mild stress (i.e. depression model) in a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia-like deficits. I also got the grant score for my initial submission, which I knew was not within funding range so that meant resubmission in the spring. What can you do? During this semester I participated in the weekly career and research development (CARD) seminar, which is oriented towards helping postdocs gain the skills necessary for transitioning into an independent research position. This was required for me to get the T32 $$$, but I would strongly advise anyone who has access to these types of programs to attend! Topics covered included but were not limited to: how to negotiate, conflict management, how to prepare a job talk, authorship, mock K review process, etc... There is also a writing block portion of the seminar in which participants are divided into topic specific mini groups and get feedback from at least 2 other faculty on a weekly basis before grant submission. Besides being able to cultivate a positive and professional relationship with my T32 director, I’d say that the CARD seminar was the best thing about participating in this T32 program. 

In terms of travel and meetings, I attended the SfN 2015 conference in Chicago and I’ve got to say that my experience there was so positive it even made me change my mind about Chicago!!! It was the first time I was attending this meeting without having a poster so I focused on trying to meet the dopamine/electrophysiology folks and attending all the socials I could fit in :D Right after SfN, I went to NYC to visit some friends still in grad school over Thanksgiving. I cannot stress how important it is to keep in touch with your friends and make time for them. Anyhow, I got back and then it was time to fly down to Florida for the ACNP meeting. This was my first official presentation as a PD so I was really nervous (also presenting a new technique, new project, new everything!) but my boss was really supportive and the people that came by my poster were kind, insightful and encouraging. The location is also superb and the science top notch, I think this has dethroned Gordon Amygdala as my favorite meeting (most of those people were here anyway!) and I will definitely keep applying for that travel award for as long as I have to. After ACNP I flew home for Christmas and got an invitation from my advisor to co-author a review paper w/ another PD in the lab. This paper has been published already and can be found here. 

Spring 2016

I basically spent the spring working on additional experiments for my main project that I thought were necessary after presenting at ACNP and getting feedback (i.e. extra controls, increasing n, diff stats, etc...). This was a good thing because I also used some of that data for my F32 resubmission, which was due in April. As I wrote that sentence I remembered that this time was particularly busy for me in the lab as the cohort of animals for my other project (MAM-CMS) was born and I was running 2 behaviors + recording all of these animals (8 group total). It was so crazy busy (yet productive) that I swore to myself never to schedule that many experiments for the same couple of months ever again. 

Summer 2016

I presented a new and improved version of my main project poster at the Society for Biological Psychiatry in Atlanta. This was very cool because I had never been there (omg the aquarium!) and I got to reconnect with a lot of people I had met during my PhD but had not seen since the start of my PD. Apparently they really like this meeting and it is one of their go-tos. One of these people was my PhD advisor, whom I worked with on trying to wrap up and expedite my remaining PhD papers. Another person was another female minority graduate student that I knew during my PhD at NYU. It was great catching up with her and hearing about all the great science she will be doing in her PD lab and how the transition was for her. I remembered thinking that there are many paths that can lead to the same outcome, and feeling at peace. 2 interpersonal crises later, I received the score for my F32 resubmission and it was so good I A) almost fell off my chair and B) started crying (like, really). If you’re anything like me, you probably already know that you cannot have it all. It always feels like either I’m great in my personal life and so so at work or I’m killing it at work and everything else has gone to shit. To me, the score meant funding was pretty much a given, so it tipped the scales back to the killing it at work scenario and I settled for being happy with that and harnessing what was left of my happiness into that new positive direction. You can read about my F32 project here. I spent the rest of the summer celebrating my birthday, good fortune and prepping my first PD paper for submission. Also, I GOT A CAR! For the first time in nearly 7 years since I did my PhD in Manhattan and lol cars in NYC. 

Fall 2016

Remember that slump I mentioned I was in at the beginning of the summer? I decided to get over it by taking a solo trip to Thailand :] That is a post in itself (which will likely not end up here) but it was truly a once in a lifetime trip. I liked that it was hard (+16 hours to get there), new (first time ever in Asia) and was something totally out of my comfort zone. I met people from all over the US, rode elephants, visited UNESCO world heritage sites, learned about Buddhism, bar-hopped in Khao San Road and the red light district, shipped in a professional masseuse from the temples for a full body massage, ate weird food, etc. etc. Some of these pics can be found my scrolling down in my IG.  I feel like everyone should do something like that for themselves, at least every once in a while. I also learned that culture shock is funny because it can happen once you get back from your trip. I had a soft meltdown upon arriving at JFK and spent my first night back talking to a friend/processing everything I had witnessed. Can’t wait to go back and this time make it to Krabi or Phuket! 

During this semester, I also submitted my initial paper for my main project and added experiments to my secondary project. In more exciting news, I published a first author PhD paper on the effects of early life stress on social behavior and neural activity in cortical and limbic areas. You can read it here. I also got a travel award to present this work at the Society for Social Neuroscience in San Diego jus prior to SfN 2016, where I presented my first SfN poster as a PD. I was overwhelmed by the positive response and I got to do a podcast w/ Deb Budding from Neurocurious. Even though I was dead tired and delirious from my poster session being immediately before, it was SO MUCH FUN <3 I just checked and its still not up but will link it here when its available! SfN 2016 was followed by ACNP 2016 (first time presenting my MAM/CMS data, now DEFINITELY my favorite meeting), although I flew down to Florida early so I could make it to Art Basel (basically a conference, but for art!). I had such a great time that I almost forgot that my paper was rejected :( When I got back to Pitt, I focused on collecting data for the last experiments in yet another (small) project (that I have not mentioned previously yet). Then I went off to Puerto Rico to spend NYE w/ my family and friends :D

Winter 2016-2017 (aka where am I now)

I published another PhD paper. This one is a co-first paper and I’m really proud of it because it represents an effort by our group to incorporate techniques used in humans to facilitate translation of findings between animal models and humans. 

I revised and resubmitted my previously rejected paper. System says it’s still under review so we’ll see what happens... 

I submitted a grant based on an idea I had last fall that ties in nicely with my current work (pitched the idea to advisor at SfN 2016, luckily he agrees it is interesting/worth the shot).

Collected prelim data for above-mentioned grant.

Organizing the outline for a review I want to write that’s related to my grant. A colleague/mentor gave me the idea to do this since it’s a good chance to get a publication of all that lit search you did anyway! 

Put in 2 travel award applications (1 no, 1 still waiting) to present my work 

Nearly done collecting data for that random project 3 that slipped my mind for most of this post. I think this is because it’s not my main project and its a follow-up of someone else’s project. Presented this data at lab meeting and got some feedback about graphing/analyzing data. Working on this and aiming to submit by early summer. 

Traveling to Boston in 2 weeks to present in the Poverty and the Brain symposium at the Eastern Psychological Association meeting

Accepted a position as an ad hoc member of ACNP’s minority task force in order to help increase the participation of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in the college and to help retain them

Accepted a position as Review Editor in the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 

WHEW. I finally got it all out. There you have it, what I’ve been up to since starting my postdoc and why I haven’t been more active on Twitter/here. Hopefully it goes someways in attenuating my I-should-be-posting-more-guilt :P 

Also, please feel free to write if you have any questions about PD life, the grad to PD transition or anything else you have read about here : ) In case you didn’t know, I started this blog as a grad student who DID NOT think they were going to make it in academia so the fact that this blog is still alive and so many of you still follow it/engage motivates me to keep it going for as long as I can. Maybe one day I’ll have a job and can look back at everything that led to that there. That’s the dream. Until next time! 

xoxo

Dr. M

[nothingman]

The following is a guest post by Jeff Lockhart. 

Two weeks ago, the LA Times ran an Op-Ed by Debra W. Soh on “The Futility of Gender-Neutral Parenting.” The central claim is old and fundamentally conservative: differences between men and women are biological truth, not to be meddled with by free will or society. Sex differences are facts to be accepted, not questioned or altered (two things feminists have always done). The op-ed circulated widely and was picked up by other outlets, including a New York Magazine piece titled “Yes, Biology Helps Explain Why Boys and Girls Play Differently.” Throw out your oatmeal baby room paint and desegregated toy isles.

Soh provides a number of common scientific claims to back this point. She mentions that babies exhibit gender-typical toy preferences at 18 months, before they exhibit awareness of their gender. This sounds like perfect proof: differences before babies are socialized into gender must be biological. Except babies are socialized into gender from birth, as shown in the famous 1975 “Baby X” study, which found adults offered different toys and described babies’ responses to the toys differently depending on whether they were told the child was a boy or girl (regardless of the child’s genitalia).

Soh also mentions the ‘masculine’ behavior of girls with a condition known as CAH. There are many problems with CAH research design as well. Biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling addresses many of them in an endnote that sprawls a stunning five pages in her 2000 book. Soh then cites findings that vervet monkeys, without human socialization, preferred toys appropriate to their sex. With some digging, we can find the original study. When the researchers found that female monkeys spent more time with the cooking pot toy than males, they took it as evidence of a biologically female attraction to toys humans code as feminine—never mind that the monkeys don’t understand cooking or its gendered implications. This choice left multiple scientific readers bewildered. The authors briefly mention a more compelling explanation—female monkeys are known to be more attracted to reddish colors, so perhaps they played more with the two girl toys (the pot and a doll) because they were also the only two red toys. But they do not control for this obvious confounding variable. Discussing the study in her later work, one of the initial authors mentions only the doll, omitting the confounding color variable and the meaningless cooking pot. Few people citing the study mention that the male moneys spent equal time with masculine and feminine toys, either.

In another example, Soh points to a study that correctly identifies 73% of participants’ sex based on brain scans. 73% can sound like a lot, but with two choices, randomly guessing would give us 50% accuracy. While their method is somewhat (23 points) better than guessing, it’s 27 points worse than perfect. That is, a lot of people’s brains do not conform to the model that sexes are binary and different. Perhaps that is why surveys of this literature find “no consistent evidence of brain based sexual dimorphism exists.” Moreover, observing biological difference doesn’t mean biology causes social differences. Gendered social behavior has been shown to change the structure of one’s brain. The same has been shown for hormone levels, even back in 1979. Social factors, then, sometimes cause biological ones.

A Large and Longstanding Body of Research Literature

The LA Times Op-Ed matter-of-factly informs readers that a “large and long-standing body of research literature shows that toy preferences, for example, are innate, not socially constructed or shaped by parental feedback.” This is technically accurate: research to this effect has been prolific and dates back at least several hundred years. But that research has also been heavily critiqued and frequently debunked by scientists over the last 40+ years. Research to the contrary is itself a “large and long-standing body of research literature.” Some prominent authors within STEM fields include Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist who has written 5 books and numerous articles on the subject; Ruth Hubbard, the first tenured woman in Harvard’s biology department; Evelyn Fox Keller, a physicist; and Rebecca M. Jordan-Young, a sociomedical scientist. There is even a pop-science summary of this research field by a neuroscientist, Cordelia Fine. By ignoring this entire body of work, which responds at length and with scientific rigor to her specific examples, Soh gives readers the false impression that all research unambiguously shows social resistance to current gender patterns is “futile.”

Then, of course, there is the social science. This is where we get studies like Baby X, Emily Martin’s demonstration of sexist assumptions clouding biological research, Nelly Oudshoorn’s research on the historical construction of “sex hormones,” and Beth B. Hess’ incisive quip that “for two millennia, ‘impartial experts’ have given us such trenchant insights as the fact that women lack sufficient heat to boil the blood and purify the soul, that their heads are too small, their wombs too big, their hormones too debilitating, that they think with their hearts or the wrong side of the brain. The list is never-ending.”

Sociology is also where we find evidence of how sex-stereotyped behaviors are learned, planned, and enforced—none of which would be necessary (or possible) if they were “predetermined characteristics” like Soh suggests. This is a huge area of sociology. Erving Goffman’s 1977 “The Arrangement between the Sexes” is an early classic, but much more empirical work has demonstrated gender socialization since then by Raewyn Connell, Lorena Garcia, Karin Martin, Tay Meadow, CJ Pascoe, Barrie Thorne, and countless others. And then there are the cross-cultural studies showing gendered behavior varies widely across places and historical periods. Margaret Mead’s classic 1949 Male and Female is among the most influential. Personally, I love this post on the pink costumes marketed for boys in the 1955 Sears catalog.

Agendas

What purpose does an Op-Ed like this one serve? Soh insists gender-neutral parenting is futile, and her disdain for it is palpable throughout the article. Soh is so invested in telling readers how (not) to parent (neutrally) that she ignores decades of scientific research showing that there are fatal methodological flaws in the studies of biological causes for gendered behavior. None of these critics say biology is entirely irrelevant—many are themselves career biologists. Even more to the point, she ignores decades of social scientific research demonstrating clearly that social factors do influence gendered behaviors like toy preference and STEM achievement. The data is in: gender socialization is not futile (but looking for evidence of biological sex determinism probably is).

Prescriptive claims based on innate biology present us with a telling paradox. If one really believes, as Soh professes to, that outcomes are biologically determined and socialization is irrelevant, why write an Op-Ed telling us we ought to socialize children into traditional gender roles? Why give any recommendations at all, if our actions have no effect? When the Borg tell us resistance is futile, they are trying to demoralize us into surrendering a fight we may otherwise win, into assimilating with their views even when it is painful or costs us our identities.

When sex difference research is used to make prescriptive claims (such as how to parent), a logical fallacy also takes place. Researchers look for differences between (cisgender) men and women, then build a model of what is masculine and feminine to describe what they see. This is a reasonable step (unless, of course, you consider the long history of research on intersex, transgender, and nonbinary people that complicates “men and women”). However, when someone turns around and says “this girl likes boy toys” or “boys’ rooms should be blue not oatmeal,” they mistake the model’s description of reality for reality itself. If she is playing with a different toy than the model of sex difference predicts, that is an error in the model, not in the girl.

Jeff Lockhart is a PhD student at the University of Michigan.

via scatterplot