#OUR GIRLS

[uwmspeccoll]

Romantic Reverie

Our Girls: Poems in Praise of the American Girl by American artist and illustrator Howard Chandler Christy (1872-1952), with black and white and color illustrations by Christy and poems by a variety of authors, expressing turn-of-the-century attitudes towards the American Woman, was published in 1907 by Moffat, Yard & Company in New York.

Christy, who initially garnered notice as a combat artist of the Spanish-American War of 1898, was famed for his “Christy Girl,” confident, independent, elegant, and witty, a figure that significantly influenced the societal perception of women. His depiction of the American feminine ideal is often viewed as the “colorful and illustrious successor” to the well-known “Gibson Girl” that embodied the ideal of a romantic, attractive society woman.  

Christy's continued reputation and fame led to commissions for the war effort during WWI and portraits of notable American and world figures, leading Time magazine in 1938 to proclaim him as "the most commercially successful U. S. artist."

View our posts on The Gibson Girl.

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[rom-e-o]

Before the Wolves are a thing, Connie finding Bess bawling in her room because Wolf is going on an overseas business trip for a couple weeks and--and I quote: "He's probably gonna meet some beautiful, rich, boss babe, business-type woman who he can actually have an intelligent conversation with and has her crap together. And they'll start hanging out at all the conferences and events. And then they'll go sight-seeing. And then they'll go out to dinner. And then they'll start dating. And then they'll fall madly in love and have a romantic courtship and a really hot, fulfilling sex life. And then they'll get married and have this amazing wedding and honeymoon. And she'll be young enough that they'll get pregnant on the honeymoon, and I'll have to deliver their baby. And he'll forget all about me because I'm just some idiot, middle-class American girl who will never accomplish anything amazing and only met him because he happened to work with my father. And he'll go on to be happy with his amazing family and I'll die old and alone surrounded by a legion of cats because no one will ever want me and there's no other man in the world for me but him!"

"... Bess, honey, have you been drinking?"

"... Yes. But that doesn't change what's gonna happen with Wolf!"

Oh deaaar. Yes, poor woman does sound like the alcohol is talking a bit.

Connie just shimmying in and ever-so-gently taking the bottle she has if it’s close, and sitting beside her.

“First of all,” she gives her a gentle knock on the forehead. “You’re not an idiot. Not even close. You literally tend to people and help bring babies into this world. That’s insanely important work. Nobody cares if a pencil-pushing CEO doesn’t send enough emails a day. You, on the other hand, work in a world of real-life consequences and weight. That’s not nothing.”

“Sweetheart, you know Wolf isn’t that kind of guy,” she reassures. “He’s a handsome, billionaire bachelor. People throw themselves at him, but he’s never reciprocated. If he was that kind of guy to just settle for the first attractive woman that ever looked his way, I doubt he’d still be single. Heck, he could hop from marriage to marriage if he really wanted to. But he doesn’t. He’s a man looking for a relationship, not a fling.”

She gives her knee a squeeze.

“He connects with you way more than he connects with the people in these business meetings. Even if some woman tried to move in…could you see him being at all interested?”

“And if I’m wrong about EVERYTHING, well, we can be surrounded by each other and a legion of cats. Worse fates, yeah?”

[pernillecfcw]

This CB pairing 😮‍💨

[noordinarymermaid]

I found some good stuff on the internet today

[sydneyadmu]

felicity jones and havana rose liu in the same movie??? they did it for me

[elizabethgoudge]

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[headstrongblake]

“would it help if i stayed?” -foxtavia zombie / @myhiraeth​

      cautiously, octavia stokes the low burning fire because by now it seems sleep won’t come. which is fine by her. the scatter of stars illuminating the sky above mean that at least she’s had a few hours. despite the fact that before this world any nightmares that attacked octavia in her sleep, allowed her to wake quietly. silently with whimpers and nails dug into skin. now however, as the violence of their every day survival seep into her core, she wakes with a fright. unable to shake the paranoid terror that something is wrong. will go wrong at any second.

     emerald hues flicker towards nicklas and fox’s movement, but she just as quickly adverts her gaze, focusing on the glowing embers in the fire. with their tent accommodations, octavia knows they’ve heard her. the whole group has over the past few weeks as fall lingers closer. would it help if i stayed?

    brows furrow, attention lifting from the fire to fox’s gentle offer to stay with octavia for now despite the fact that both fox and nicklas are on watch. the two hardly stray from each other but nicklas doesn’t object, just gives fox’s arm a squeeze before turning back to their perimeter. “ thanks...you didn’t have to, you know, unless you wanted out of watch, ” octavia winked, trying to lighten the air between the girls. it doesn’t work however, as her eyes lower again. “ that stuff... ” octavia nudged her head towards her tent, referring to the way she no longer slept through the night these days. “ it doesn’t bother me, i’m fine. ”

[weathrs]

        despite  having  no  clue  where  the  fuck  she  was  going  to  go,    gale  has  been  counting  down  the  seconds  until  she  could  leave.    hospitals  have  never  been  a  place  she  enjoyed,    and  it  only  got  worse  after  the  legacy  killings  the  year  prior.    after  what  feels  like  an  hour  of  contemplating  what  address  to  give  her  assistant  as  her  drop  off  location,    she  finally  lifts  her  eyes  from her phone and  is  greeted  with  an  unexpected,    but  familiar  face.    "    sidney?    what  are  you  doing  here?    "    she's  up  in  an  instant,    nose  scrunching  at  the  tug  of  her  stitches.    arms  wrap  around  the  other  in  a  hug,    grateful  sidney  had  been  safe  this  time    . . .    for  once,    no  one  had  harmed  her.    as  she  pulls  away,    smile  creeps  up  on  her  lips  as  she  sighs.    "  like  i  said,    they  didn't  get  me.    poked  a  couple  holes,    sure    -    but  i'm  fine.    "

@killedbilly

[genderqueerdykes]

listen to me: you can love and support trans men and trans women at the same time. you can love and support transmasc and transfemmes at the same time. you do not have to make things into this-or-that decisions. you do not have to turn everything into us-vs-them, friend-vs-enemy, sports team ass dynamics. transfems and transmascs are not at opposite ends of ANYTHING, and we will never, ever be enemies or polar sides that cannot intersect or co-exist peacefully. you can support more than one type of trans person and distribute that support equally. i promise you fucking can.

[icanbeyourgenie]

'cause you lured me, and you hurt me, and you taught me you caged me and then you called me crazy I am what I am 'cause you trained me So who's afraid of me?

[callmeurrbunny]

i'm just a kid

i never use my brain

i only use my heart

and my imagination

[valtsv]

humanising a machinegirl by treating her like a person: based

"humanising" a machinegirl by turning her into a generically pretty waify anime girl: killing you with a hammer until you are dead

[fluent-in-lesbianism]

She probably helped that girl solve her teen sexuality dilemma anyway, because if that were me and I asked an adult for advice only to find out the adult’s not only worse off than me but also the dumbest person alive, I’d accept the lesbianism just to get out of the awkward situation...

[kurts-girlblog]

[nedlittle]

it drives me bonkers the way people don't know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said "it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative." and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we've become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it's the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century "uranianism" and misogyny. second of all, i'm sorry that oscar wilde didn't include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess...

[mr-orange505]