#Proto-feminist

[prolibytherium]

This little bit of the Iliad is so interesting like. Briseis mourning her own situation and describing her attachment to Patroclus for trying to ‘better’ her situation in attempting to give her the security of a marriage. Like it's horrible that being married to your family’s killer is the 'best' possible option (and likely that her feelings towards one of her captors would be much, MUCH more complicated than depicted), but also believable as being a relief to someone in her position in this uber-patriarchal cultural context where this sort of thing is a fact of life.

And describing these other unnamed women (who are also captured in war and enslaved as wives/sexual partners for the men who have sacked their cities and killed their husbands/fathers/brothers/etc) going about the display of mourning for Patroclus and using it as a way to vent their grief about their situations. The POV fully understands that their grief isn't really about this Greek guy who's been sacking their cities being dead.

Like most of the Iliad doesn’t really concern itself with the women that the story revolves around (and is of course completely and utterly of its time and context) but these very humanizing moments show an awareness of these people as full human beings who Do Not Like Their Situations (even as it effusively honors the people who have enslaved them). It’s small in the grand scheme of things but very compelling and frankly a lot more nuanced than a lot of Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings tend to be without even trying.

[marzipanandminutiae]

I think some of the accuracy critiques of 2019 LW are totally legitimate (the hair, my god), but Jo wearing men’s clothes has never flown for me as something “wrong” with the movie. She generally does so around her family and apart from what the actors said (actors are....actors) it would make sense that she had some access to men’s clothing through theater costumes and Laurie and would want to wear them. I think it’s a perfectly legitimate interpretation of how her character would dress and I’ve never understood critiques of it. (I know Abbie Cox has said this is well—in her “not like other girls” video (where she. wildly misunderstands that term) which makes me extremely uncomfortable in general. So that may bias me but.)

I don't think it's WRONG exactly; I do think it's lazy and belies their claims of historical authenticity. because she doesn't just wear those clothes in private- she wears them while working as a governess AND in her freaking publisher's office

would that have worked for an already-famous author? yes. look up George Sand; she pulled it off splendidly. for a young woman just starting out in the professional world, c. 1870? hell no. she'd have been hewing much closer to the line of respectibility- in an accurate setting, which again is a standard they set for themselves

it would have been more Authentic, in my view, to dig into how a woman like Jo would actually have incorporated masculine elements into her clothing to feel at ease while still maintaining baseline Respectable Female AttireTM. but, you know. that would have required effort and a respect for the lived reality of Victorian women's experiences, neither of which this movie's team had

also...I liked that Abby Cox video. I think a lot of viewers wildly misunderstood her meaning- she was talking about tropes used in historical fiction and a tendency going back centuries for writers to use androgynous or masculine presentation- or simple disinterest in clothing -as "proof" that a woman is more clever/innovative/generally interesting than her feminine peers. not whether GNC women existed in history- which is, of course, indisputable. so there's that

(don't even get me started on the How Dare You Criticize Perfect Infallible Saint Mary Wollstonecraft discourse that said video sparked. or the misogyny and professional invalidation leveled at Cox herself by many of those responses)

[frevandrest]

Cringe of the day that I've read:

"Olympe de Gouges was executed for her abolitionist beliefs".

😑

To be fair, the sentence said "feminist and abolitionist beliefs". It's incorrect to claim she was executed for her feminist beliefs, but you can at least make a case that she disagreed on some points with the Montagnards (or idk who is seen responsible for death; Robespierre singularly I presume).

But abolitionist. Abolitionist???? The Montagnards were abolitionists, too. In some ways more than de Gouges herself (who was kind of "slaves are taking it too far; violence is not a solution" - do you think they'd gain freedom just by asking nicely?)

I am begging people to do research. Please. It will make it better for everyone.

[sporkberries]

Femme fatale trope would be fun if it was ever about the women. I feel like often its just an excuse to objectify women, but they say she uses it her advantage so its fine.

But in truth the male readers and writers still only see her as that sexual object, so it doesnt matter if she can kick the ass of the male nobodies Or if she secretly has something more going on because its rarely focused on or given the proper depth(especially when compared to the male cast)

Its faux complexity to make up for the fact they wanna oogle at tits during their power fantasy, and thats not to mention the fact these women are forced to lose to the male heroes(and often villains) anyways

[larmegliamori]

Giambattista Pescatore: Hey bro can I copy your homework? Ludovico Ariosto: Sure thing, just change something so they won't notice. Giambattista Pescatore: *proceeds to un-yassify the Orlando Furioso*

[rhaenin-time]

Help I keep sitting down to write the middle of my fic only to end up writing more of the ending and a stupid sideplot that I can't even post until I write the middle.

Ugh, why must I post chapters in linear form.

If you follow my fic and don't like spoilers - don't look at the tags

[creatediana]

Ballade XXXV "The Gentlest Man" by Christine de Pizan (1364–1429) translated by James J. Wilhelm

[w-armansky-blog]

Arzner’s films were sharply distinctive from her peers because of how she portrayed her female characters, relationships between women, and heterosexual relationships. In Christopher Strong (1936), Katherine Hepburn plays “an independent female pilot, as a woman over twenty-one who has never had a love affair.” who falls in love with the married and high-class Sir Christopher Strong. Towards the end of the film, Strong's wife Elaine appears to both acknowledge and forgive Cynthia for the affair, turning conventional views of female relationships on their head. Rather than pitting the women against each other, Arzner interrogates typical views of women and their relationships to each other by showing a genuine moment of connection between Cynthia and Elaine. However, her love affair with Christopher Strong is ultimately her undoing and she dies in a suicide plane crash, pregnant with his child.

source: https://www.womeninblog.com/

[murderballadeer]

sometimes when i say stuff like “i’m too dumb for philosophy” people will say no you’re not you're overthinking it, most philosophies are not as complicated as you expect them to be and it’s like i appreciate the effort to make me feel better about myself but i assure you i am legitimately just a little bit stupid. i read philosophy texts and all i hear is radio static

[popsicle-stick]

the sparknotes chapter analyses of dracula are gonna be my villain origin story

[ednyfedfychan]

“Anne's story is a poignant one. She is not an easy figure to like (Hilary Mantel, like her hero, Thomas Cromwell, was clearly not charmed by her). Her vindictiveness towards Katherine of Aragon and her daughter, the future Queen Mary, is disagreeably prominent in many recollections; and the frequent and well-attested outbursts of uncontrollable and inappropriate laughter suggest a person in a state of constant nervous tension. The erotically charged climate of her court of aristocratic male admirers, alternately wooed and brutally snubbed, makes an unsettling picture.

But we also get a sense of a courageous and intelligent woman out of her depth in the maelstrom created by the collusion of Henry's chaotic and murderous ego and a greedy, servile elite. Guy and Fox do Anne the courtesy of taking her seriously as a political agent - even if a disastrously unsuccessful one. It is, however, straining things a bit to imply, as the authors do, that she is some sort of proto-feminist figure: if there is a feminist hero in this grim story, it is really Katherine, stubbornly refusing to accept her demotion in the name of masculine dynastic power games, and insisting on the right to her own narrative.”

— Rowan Williams, Anne Boleyn's blunders

[becomingidea]

been going crazy off this one lately. beyond the consequences for post-punk and gaze, you can clearly see the influence in indie pop artists like mica levi, aldous harding, early mitski. feminist proto-post-punk, so heartfelt, so saucy. even some zeuhly tendencies to the experimental orchestration, we got wonky clarinets up in here!

[burningvelvet]

black sails created an 18th century legendary pirate captain who is canonically queer, ginger, depressed, repressed, polyamorous, murderous, morally gray, downright insane, thoughtful, contradictive, manipulative, funny, strong, idealistic, proto-feminist, utopian, kind, proto-anarchist, anti-colonization, controlling, obsessive, stoic, strategic, intelligent, quiet, delusional, traumatized, filled with uncontrollable rage, consumed by grief and shame, a literary nerd obsessed with greek mythology and classics, a proto-romantic in the philosophical sense - whose whole story is the prequel story of a character from a classic novel who was dead from the very beginning of said novel - and they expected us to be normal about all this and to get over all this and move on from all this?????????

[headlinehustling]

Where/when did the idea come from that Christians are misogynists bc they blame Eve for the fall of humanity... so many saints only really mention Adam's choices when describing the fall 🤔🤔🤔

[genderkoolaid]

(one of) the reasons talking abt misandry in the "negative effects of patriarchy directed towards men/masculinity" sense is important is that there are positive and negative gender roles in patriarchy for men and women. and not like "they are Equally Bad in the Exact Same Way" but its not like stereotypes about women are all negative and stereotypes about men are all positive. there are times where patriarchy sees women as "better" in a sense where men are "worse," like the fact that women are called the "fairer sex" and being seen as having more concern with morality and justice than men. and if your understanding of anti-patriarchal action is just "women good men bad, this is the opposite of patriarchy" you are colorblinding yourself to only a part of the issues. its like weeding your garden of some things and not others and thinking you've gotten rid of everything. the patriarchy is living on inside you!!

specifically recently i watched a parody music video from two White southern women, that was like. supposed to be feminist and calling out the sexual objectification of women in southern music- which is an issue! but like they have a whole line about how "women were treated with respect back in the day!" and it made me realize how there's a lot of like casual/pop feminists who think "feminism" is just "being nice to women," and they actually think misogyny is good when its polite, like republicans whose only issue with trump is that he was embarrassing and crude. & then you have "proudly misandristic" feminists, either radfems or proto-radfems who just continue believing misogynistic beliefs about women/femininity and harmful beliefs about men/masculinity and so their mindset is still very much based in patriarchal ideas. and we can't stop being controlled by gender and sex and sexuality thinking like that.