#my 40 year old woman era

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Angela Lansbury (The Harvey Girls, The Court Jester, The Manchurian Candidate)—The babe, the myth, the legend. In her own words her early hollywood roles were "a series of venal bitches" and they were all glorious. Half of them wanted to kill you and you probably would have thanked them. She even goes toe to toe with Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls! That said, she was chronically underused and misused during this era - she was just 36 when she was cast as Elvis Presley's mother in Blue Hawaii and a few years later commented that she'd played so many 'old hags' that most people thought she was in her 60s. She thought she was "all talent, no looks" but she was the full package! Post-1970 I hope we all know what an incredibly talented and compassionate badass she was, but I feel like not enough people know her early roles as a hot (often villainous) young thing.

Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo, Point Blank, Ocean's Eleven)—Though it could be argued that overall her career leans more to TV, during this time period she was splitting movie title credits with the very top names in the business.

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Propaganda for Angie Dickinson:

Propaganda for Angela Lansbury:

"Angela Lansbury might not be where your mind goes first when you think of hot leading women, because she had a later career revival. But she began acting in the early 1940s after leaving London due to the Blitz. In the first couple decades of her film career she has an openness about her. She said she never really fit in with the Hollywood crowd and to me she gives off a friendly, untarnished vibe."

"Most of us know Angela Lansbury as old lady sleuth Jessica Fletcher, but it's important to know that she was smoking hot in her younger days as well as a damned fine actress. Although she didn't get lead roles until her early 40s, at 17 she was a supporting actress in films such as Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), and The Picture of Dorian Grey, for which she won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress and was nominated for the Oscar. Even in her memorable performance as the manipulative mother in The Manchurian Candidate, she is listed as a supporting actress as she does not play the love interest. She was successful both on stage and screen, and won the Tony for her lead role in the musical Mame on Broadway in 1966. TL;DR While Angela Lansbury mostly played supporting roles in films before 1970, she had what it takes to be a leading actress, which we know from her success on stage and tv from the mid 60s onward"

"She looked like a princess but bit like a viper"

"Is there anything this woman couldn't do? Act in comedy and drama, sing, dance, be a wonderful human being - quite simply a true and wonderful lady."

"god she had such an incredible career all throughout her life really but as a young lady she was just as incredible as she was in her later years. enchanting voice, amazing personality, and absolutely GORGEOUS. she lamented not having the looks to play leads in romance but that idea is so batshit because look at her??? she's one of the most terrific women of all time. also she's my grandmother's favorite actress and i truly get it"

"she is the fairytale princess of my dreams in court jester"

[1863-project]

I just had an extremely surreal archiving moment.

When I was in undergrad, we were assigned soldiers who participated in the Battle of Gettysburg and were court-martialed for alleged cowardice and told to write papers on them for our senior theses. This was for my history major, American Civil War Era Studies minor.

I had a soldier named Albert L. Du Puget. He had issues with his knees ("rheumatism") that made him fall behind his unit - it turns out he wasn't being a coward, he was experiencing disability symptoms. I found photos of him in his pension file at the National Archives where he was discussing his knee issues 30-40 years later, even.

After the war, he ended up living in the city I now work in for some time before eventually dying in the Philadelphia area in the early 1900s. He married a much younger woman after his first wife died to ensure she got his pension, something not uncommon at the time to help protect people and give them financial security.

I'm scanning a book right now in the library's archives. And whose name pops up, but...

It's not a common name. I'm 99% sure it's him again, after so long. I wrote that paper in 2011. He was more or less Just Some Guy - born in the UK, immigrated to New Jersey, served in the American Civil War in his 30s, lived in this city after the war...

I'm half-tempted to reach out to the professor who oversaw my thesis. I'm almost crying seeing this - it's just so goddamned surreal. Albert feels like someone I know personally because of all the research I did on him over a decade ago, so it feels like finding an old friend again.

[empirearchives]

I want to learn more about Napoleon and Josephine’s relationship. Can you tell me about it?

Of course! I love talking about Napoleon and Josephine’s relationship 💕💕💕

Let’s see. Well, Josephine was Napoleon’s first wife, and Napoleon was Josephine’s second and final husband.

They were married in 1796 when Napoleon was 26 and Josephine was 32. Their marriage lasted until December 1809, when Napoleon was 40 and Josephine was 46. They separated for political reasons, and Napoleon said “She has graced fifteen years of my life, and the memory of this will remain for ever stamped on my heart.” (Sergeant, The Empress Josephine; Napoleon's Enchantress Volume 2, p. 517)

Long periods of their marriage were spent apart due to the war. Josephine wrote to Napoleon when he was far away in Warsaw in 1807: “I took a husband in order to be with him!” (Castelot, Napoleon, p. 320)

Other times were spent traveling and living together. They had no natural children together, but Napoleon adopted Josephine’s children from her first marriage.

It was not an arranged marriage set up by their parents. In fact, Napoleon did not even ask for his mother’s permission (or tell her until after), which was considered to be disrespectful as it broke traditional Corsican custom. Napoleon’s parents had an arranged marriage when they were teenagers. Josephine’s first marriage was arranged when she was a teenager. Napoleon set up many of his relatives marriages. But Josephine and Napoleon’s marriage was a love match, so in that way, it was unique.

Josephine was Napoleon’s “star” or memento of good luck. When they got together, he got her a medallion that said “To Destiny” which is really quite prescient considering that they had no idea then what an amazing and extraordinary destiny they would have together. Together they lived through wars, created and broke empires. They ushered in the modern era and played a key role in all its hopes and sorrows. The years in which they were at the forefront were ones of incredible social, cultural, economic and political transformation.

Many details of their relationship are murky. Unfortunately, not a lot of writing from Josephine has survived, though there is some. However, we are very lucky that Josephine saved so many of Napoleon’s letters to her and kept them safe, so they have survived when so many other letters have not.

One of the appealing aspects of their relationship and the reason why a lot of people find it fascinating is because it is considered to be a more “equal” relationship, relatively speaking when considering the standards of the age. In many ways (though not all), it was actually a reversal of norms. It was not a child marriage. It was not an arranged marriage. It was a rare case of a man marrying an older woman instead of a younger woman. At the beginning of their relationship, it was Josephine who had greater influence (though Napoleon would quickly become the more dominant one). In actuality, Josephine had a lot of issues, but she did come from the old French aristocracy and she was also part of the social circle of wealthy and politically powerful French elites. Napoleon did not come from either group. From his perspective, Josephine was a glamorous and alluring figure. She was part of an exclusive world that was out of reach for people like him and so many others. So what you see, Napoleon married up the social ladder.

What is interesting is that Josephine technically married down the social ladder and she managed to pick the one who would make her an empress. It is quite an ironic twist of fate. Who could have seen it coming?

But you know, she found him alluring too, and saw something fascinating in him. This is what Josephine said after meeting Napoleon for the first time: “His piercing look has something about it quite mysterious which impresses even the directors.” (Zamoyski, Napoleon: A Life, p. 106)

She described him as having “the strength of a passion of which he speaks with a force which does not permit any doubt as to its sincerity.” (Zamoyski, Napoleon: A Life, p. 106)

Her first impression of him was of someone who she found to be both unsettling and extraordinary.

There was infidelity in their marriage. First by Josephine, then mostly by Napoleon. They kind of mirrored each other. At first Napoleon was passionately devoted to Josephine, whereas she was unfaithful. Then Napoleon felt quite alienated and betrayed by that, so he became more guarded. Whereas Josephine fell increasingly more in love with Napoleon and was loyal to him, while he was the one being unfaithful and having affairs.

After their marriage ended, Napoleon continued to support and provide for Josephine for the rest of her life. He was no longer her husband, but he was her “protector”. They saw each other in person less and less. That’s not to say that they forgot about each other or ever stopped caring about each other.

This is from a letter to Josephine that Napoleon wrote when he abdicated and was headed to his first exile in 1814:

“Farewell my dear Joséphine, resign yourself just as I do and never lose the memory of the one who has never forgotten you and never will forget you.” (Lentz, Napoléon: “My Ambition Was Great”, p. 131)

I genuinely believe that Josephine died of a broken heart, even though it sounds cheesy. It’s impossible for me to believe that it was just a coincidence when considering the timing. She “caught a chill” a few weeks after Napoleon fell, and she never recovered. When Josephine learned about Napoleon’s exile to Elba, she said “If it were not for his wife I would go lock myself up with him!” (Erickson, Josephine: A Life of the Empress, p. 337)

She wrote to her son on 9 April 1814: “What a week I have spent, my dear Eugene! How I have suffered at the way they have treated the emperor! What attacks in the newspapers, what ingratitude on the part of those upon whom he showered his favors! But there is nothing more to hope for. All is finished.” (Erickson, Josephine: A Life of the Empress, p. 335)

She died on 29 May 1814, the month after Napoleon abdicated. Napoleon never saw her again. When he was younger, he wrote to her: “Have a good rest. Haste to get well. Come and join me, so that, at least, before dying, we could say—‘We were happy for so many days!!’” (Hall, Napoleon's letters to Josephine)

And I think they truly spent many happy days together. In 1814, Napoleon was speaking to Caulaincourt about Eugène (Josephine’s son), and he said “His mother made me very happy. Those are the sweetest recollections of my life.” (Knapton, Empress Josephine, p. 317)

Different people have different opinions, but I think they were soulmates or perhaps even toxic soulmates. They had a turbulent relationship, and of course they had flaws. Both of them were unfaithful, dishonest, toxic and possessive. But their strengths and weaknesses complemented each other a lot and they seemed to genuinely love being together. In the end, it was a rare and unique love.

[paganimagevault]

Miscellaneous Hungarian archaeological items from the migration era, from the Urals to the Carpathians 9th-10th C. CE. Sources can be found on my blog, link at bottom.

The Magyars, as a nation, seem to have originated in the region of the Urals and Volga and their original territory covered a large amount of what is European Russia today. This region was known as Magna Hungaria or Ancient Hungary in the Middle Ages. In the 13th century Christian monks tried unsuccessfully to convert the Pagan inhabitants of Ancient Hungary, who they noted spoke the same language as the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin (will post more on this later). Now genetics show they were related too. Some of the Hungarians in the Carpathian region were found to be direct family members of these Uralic-based Hungarians according to this genetic study below. I grabbed some highlights of genetics article here and included some archaeological image finds:

"Two recent articles have investigated the Y-haplogroup variability of Hungarian conquerors describing the conqueror’s elite population as heterogenous, with significant proportion of European, Finno-Permic, Caucasian and Siberian (or East Eurasian) paternal lineages. Fóthi et al. have claimed that the Hungarian conquerors originated from three distant sources: Inner Asia (Lake Baikal – Altai Mountains), Western Siberia – Southern Urals (Finno-Ugric peoples) and the Black Sea – Northern Caucasus (Northern Caucasian Turks, Alans, and Eastern Europeans). Both studies pointed out the presence of the Y-haplogroup N-Z1936 (also known as N3a4-Z1936 under N-Tat/M46), which is frequent among Finno-Ugric speaking peoples.

...The genetic connection of Uyelgi cemetery in the Trans-Ural and 10th century Hungarian conquerors in the Carpathian Basin is supposed by close maternal relationships of the following individuals: Uyelgi3 from Kurgan 28 of the youngest horizon and three Hungarian conquerors from Karos II cemetery have identical U4d2 mitogenome haplotype (Supplementary Fig. S4p). Furthermore, the mtDNA A12a lineage of Hconq3 (30-40 years old woman from Harta cemetery dated to the first half of 10th century AD) is an ancestor of the mtDNA lineage of Uyelgi7 (from Kurgan 30 of the youngest horizon of the cemetery) based on the A12a haplogroup tree (see Supplementary Fig. S4a).

The mentioned graves from Uylegi show the characteristic of the Srostki culture, where the gilt silver mounts with plant ornaments were typical, and which was disseminated from the Siberian Minusinsk Depression and the Altai region through the Baraba Steppe and North-Kazakhstan to the Trans-Ural region (Fig. 1).

The connection of Uyelgi cemetery and Hungarian conquerors is visible on the N1a1a1a1a branch of the tree of haplogroup N1a1 too, that was prevalent among the ancient Hungarians (Fig. 5). Here seven Hungarian conqueror samples from cemeteries Kenézlő-Fazekaszug, Orosháza-Görbicstanya and Karos-Eperjesszög clustered together on one branch, while the five Uyelgi samples from the earliest and latest horizons are located together next to this branch.

Majority of Uyelgi males belonged to Y chromosome haplogroup N, and according to combined STR, SNP and Network analyses they belong to the same subclade within N-M46 (also known as N-tat and N1a1-M46 in ISOGG 14.255). N-M46 nowadays is a geographically widely distributed paternal lineage from East of Siberia to Scandinavia. One of its subclades is N-Z1936 (also known as N3a4 and N1a1a1a1a2 in ISOGG 14.255), which is prominent among Uralic speaking populations, probably originated from the Ural region as well and mainly distributed from the West of Ural Mountains to Scandinavia (Finland). Seven samples of Uyelgi site most probably belong to N-Y24365 (also known as N-B545 and N1a1a1a1a2a1c2 in ISOGG 14.255) under N-Z1936, a specific subclade that can be found almost exclusively in todays’ Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Hungary (ISOGG, Yfull)."

-Early Medieval Genetic Data from Ural Region Evaluated in the Light of Archaeological Evidence of Ancient Hungarians

[olderthannetfic]

DWRP is more active than regular fandom DreamWidth, but it's full of people who are anti-queer in the weirdest ways. They're queer, but they use words like "transtrender" and "fujoshit" and "asexies". They hate how prominent slash is in DWRP but bash people who play female characters as playing self-inserts/playing Mary Sues and decry female characters who have sex as "cock-hops". Playing a lesbian or bi woman is equated to being a 40 year old guy who jerks it to lesbian porn and reveals "neckbeard qualities", even if you're an out lesbian yourself. NB people are regularly mocked on both Plurk and in anon communities as "thembys" and "genderspecials".

DWRP has also slowed down hugely in the last 5 years, with many major games closing and most new games not lasting half a year. I once accidentally started wank when I said I don't consider someone who only replies to 2 comments or less a month a roleplayer, and people rushed in to argue that we're all just too busy to reply to more than that many comments and the only way you have more time than that is if you're a NEET. Play non-white non-anime characters and you're a SJW trying too hard to be "woke". Autistic is used as an insult fairly often.

Which is another facet of DWRP to consider: the weird hatred of other DWRPers everyone in DWRP has. You're a NEET, a neckbeard, a basement dweller, a wage cuck, a fast food cuck, etc. The anon gossip communities get way, way more activity per day than any of the actual game communities do. Gossip about people regularly runs dry, so instead discussion is rehashed of people who were subjects of previous wank/gossip, sometimes including people who played during the LJ era and never played on DreamWidth because they left when the mass migration to DW happened. I have seen people get accused of being another player who was the subject of wank returning for having the same given name as someone who was the subject of wank circa 2006. People are that level of desperate to get some excitement going among their small circle of friends who want there to be A Big Deal (TM) of some kind going on.

Fandom DW is far from perfect but I would highly recommend, even if you're bored, sticking to it and not DWRP. RP on there is a much more conservative (but identifying as "centrist", for some reason) environment and if you're reading this blog, my guess is you don't think trans headcanons are the work of transtrenders woke-ifying fandom and it's not gross neckbeard behavior for a lesbian to write a lesbian character. If so, this is definitely not your scene.

Activity is not the same thing as a fandom place being good.

--

[flowerandblood]

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed and frustrated lately with what's going on because I feel like what people expect from my fanfic (The Impossible Choice) and what I want it to be are two different things.

People would like it to either be a sugared-up story where the use of words, descriptions of places, behaviors and characters is as medieval as possible, BUT everyone who fucks is of legal age in the United States. After all, a 16-year-old in the Middle Ages was a child just like today, right??? RIGHT??? (do I have to remind you that people who were then 40 years old were already looking and feeling super old, and 60-year-olds were considered old men over the grave???), apart from that, Aemond would be best cool angry and making you wet, but also to tell his wife that he loves her, not to make mistakes, so that she doesn't make mistakes, but if she has any suspicions about him, she can cheat on him. Let there be drama, but if a bit of her body burnt, she is no longer beautiful, so why do that??????

It wasn't supposed to be a nice story to read in bed. Maybe I will destroy someone's imagination, but the close-ups from chapters 4 and 5 today would be considered rape no matter what age the heroine was. But they are not for her or for him because of the historical context!!!

If you don't want to feel uncomfortable then why are you reading fanfic set in the Middle Ages where marital rape was commonplace, where the wife is the husband's property and has to fight for his favor and gentleness????

Aemond literally stole her from her house and took advantage of the fact that she knew nothing about these things. Of course, he didn't mean to hurt her, and he was hurt in that aspect when he was 13, but this story isn't meant to be comfortable. Aemond is fascinated by her at first, but on the eve of everything, he wants to break her and make her ease up because Aemond is NOT A GOOD PERSON. He's not in the books, he's not in the show, and he's certainly not in this fanfic.

The only thing that usually makes him make the right decisions is his feeling for her, his affection, the feeling that they belong together. His mother gave him the love he needed and he respects and reveres her so how must he feel about a woman who shows so much respect, love and understanding? I want this story to be logical, full of their feelings and the brutality of the world around them, because the medieval world is a cruel world.

I would like to remind you that undermining the logical decisions of the characters or the logical ideas of the author resulting from good research and knowledge of the era are not constructive criticism, but a dream that this fanfic would be something that it is not.

A sweet story about fucking two adults that you can stick yourself in.

It's not that kind of story. And it's not supposed to be comfortable.

I don't have the strength to post the next chapters yet, although before the next one I was very excited and wanted to show it to you very much. I just lost the sense of continuing this story since people don't understand the main assumptions of the world they read about.

[blueiight]

IWTV E4 “A Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child’s Demanding.” Claudia discussing how it feels to escape poverty to being adopted into wealth, struggling in her existence without peers even during her second childhood and how she does not even care to have the veneer of mortal manners around Louis’s family, what Charlie as her last peer meant to her, and her mortal upbringing prior to Lestat + Louis.

And I realized, what I thought was Heaven was just some nice room. And what I thought were angels were really hell demons.

Uncle Les and Daddy Louis were rich. They had nice clothes and a nice auto carriage and a funny way of being nice to each other.

I gotta go to bed when the rest of the world wakes up, so there's less kids to play with...

Daddy Lou said I had been away from people too long. I didn't know how to behave right anymore. But Uncle Les said, I behaved just fine.

Diary, his name is Charlie. He's got veins like rivers. They flow right down his arms. …Charlie's death ushered in one of the darkest eras in our lives. The oh-so-delicate balance of our oh-so-delicate household was shattered. For Claudia, all humans died with Charlie.

And, diary, you'd think a girl whose mama died in childbirth... whose daddy gave her away to a mean old auntie who beat her 'cause no one said she couldn't, who died in a fire but came back by the blood magic of two demons, well, you'd think that girl wouldn't know what funny was. But you'd be wrong, diary. And if I told you, dumb diary, that that same girl was being raised to kill like her demon parents did, to take two souls a day so she could stay in the same flat-chested, hairless-crotched 14-year-old baby doll body as her mind and spirit turn 19, 20, 25, 63, 358, you dumb, dumb diary, I bet you'd say to anyone who'd listen, "Fun? Fun? How does she even get up in the morning?" Well, let me tell you something, you stuck-up, flower-covered, three-dollar fancy fսcking paper diary, I'm doin' just fine. (diary pages read aloud as Claudia self harms at the end of e4)

IWTV E5 “A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart”. Claudia discussing her life/reckoning with the fate of her premature existence.

"Dear Diary, am I gonna be a virgin every single time I do it? Won't my skin down there grow back like my hair does when I cut it?"

Who am I supposed to love? You two have each other. Who's my Lestat? Who's my Louis? I’m not human. What human would want me? Perverts? Like the uncle at the roomin' house who used to watch me pee? Or little boys? And 40 years from now... still little boys? How are you gonna fix it, huh?… (turns to Louis) [Lestat] treats us like shit and you just take it! And you, [turns to Lestat] cruel as the devil ever made, to deny me one love when you’ve got two.

[Talking to Louis in her room after the confrontation at the dinner table] I remember the night I was made, the fire chokin' me, you carryin' me out through the flame and the smokes. But then why'd you take me home? Why not a hospital? …. But I was breathin'! Maybe I'd have a handsome husband by now. Or maybe he'd be plain but with a good disposition. That'd be fine, too. I'd be sweepin' floors, makin' dinners, nursin' babies. Maybe I'd go to church. You think on that some.

How does Claudia react after her rape? She exhibits textbook behaviors.

Co-dependency.

I spend time following Louis and Lestat now that I am my own woman... with no obvious sense of why I follow them, other than meaning slowly disintegrates without them...My companions in immortality.

but wait.. u might ask: doesn’t this contradict what she said years earlier in this same episode about wanting ‘her own Lestat and Louis’? is this Louis or Armand somehow forging Claudia’s diary? or is this a rape victim shortly after the actual experience struggling with her emotional+ mental state and in that frame of mind going back to the immortal family she finds to be a more familiar sort of ‘evil’ than the unknown vampire that raped her, especially after witnessing Louis weep over the grave Grace made of him? to Claudia here, being Louis’s ‘sister’ is balm put onto a bleeding wound.

Hypervigilance over her wider situation ad an Enmeshment with Louis, as they both have endured incredibly traumatizing events (with Claudia being raped + shortly after, witnessing Louis being beaten) and are without Lestat for six years following the end of E5 picking up the pieces. it is Claudia who tends to Louis in his most vulnerable here, and Louis struggles with that, wanting to be ‘her knight in vengeful black’ in return.

She's grown very protective of me. That's what this is. It's why it's hard. She came back altered when she left us. There's a darkness in her that wasn't there before. Give her a little time. [Louis is trying to appease Lestat here in their ‘compromise’, but there is a key bit of truth in his observations here.]

Claudia learned very early on, as early as E4 when Louis asked her mentally about Charlie, how to block her mind off from Louis. and with her traumatic experiences, its all but said that hypervigilance protects her mind further (as shown in the S2 trailer when Armand comments on it). When Lestat steals her from off the train, he also threatens her:

Because if you try this again, Claudia, I won't snap your leg, defile your pocket, and zoom off on a motorbike. I'll turn your bones to dust.

Is it any wonder Claudia draws the comparison to Bruce when she talks to Louis, especially when Louis in the season finale plays the role of a honey trap to the very same lover who almost ‘killed Louis’, as Claudia [and Daniel alike] frame the ending of E5 as abuse + attempted murder, as Claudia seethes , is ‘done enduring?’ and just before she creates her own murder plan:

Or did you kill him, like you did Antoinette, and how you tried to do with Louis?

I have to wonder why, over a year from airing, blogs and reviews claiming to be dedicated to the series rehash the most juvenile questions that the episodes themselves directly answer? How can S2 spec or complex discussion occur, if callout PSAs shutting down any sort of canon-compliant discussion is the way to go? If people constantly exhibit their refusal to meet the show where its at and engage the material for what it is, where can we go from here? AMC IWTV is very didactic. ‘The absence of metaphor is striking’. Yet for all the waxing about loving ‘fucked-up gothic romance’, there is a willful ignorance in understanding where & what makes the situation fucked up to begin with. Or even an interest in understanding the basics of the setting!

[wandaluvstacos]

I am so happy right now. That first line of stitches is literally the first thing I ever sewed with this machine, and they were just... perfect. Immediately. No adjusting of tension, timing, nothing. That's after I took the needle assembly out to clean and put it back in. Not sure if I'm lucky or if it's just hard to fuck up the timing on these machines.

Anyway, I'm so happy she RUNS cuz I rewired her ENTIRELY because all of her wiring was rotted through. I had no guarantee that I did it right until I could put it all together and plug it in. And everything works!!!! :D This is a 96-year-old machine that according to the woman I bought it off of Facebook Marketplace from for $40 said she didn't think it had been used in 30 years.

And it showed, of course, though she was in pretty good shape overall. I had to do a lot of cleaning of old varnish, but she didn't have much rust.

Before:

After:

She will do 30 STITCHES PER INCH, which if you're wondering what that looks like, it's the stitches on the right:

Even my 50s/60s era machines don't stitch that tiny.

Her motor sounds good too, not loud or laggy. Amazing that a 96-year-old motor can run so well. But that's how they made shit back then.

Anyway, next plan of action: redo the cabinet. I want to take off the veneer on the top of it and put new veneer on. This thing was not taken good care over the course of its life, which is sad, cuz this machine would have cost a shit ton of money in 1928.

I'll probably sand down the rest and restain it. And maybe do a French polish on both machine and cabinet, to protect them for another 100 years. :3

[lovermyme]

is called Aocorro because both Spider and Aounung are males, i explain it quickly

it was "decided" some years ago that in a ship name the first laters of the name where of the male

ex: Jeytiri and Spiri

meanwhile, for homo relationships, it was decided that the first name of the ship was going to be the first few later of the person who was usually more "masculine" and the second part of the person who was more "feminine"

what does that means?

Spider isn't a "feminine" guy, you are certainly thinking and you are right

but his ships with males always start with the na'vi name (like; Nocorro, Locoreo, Rocorro and Aocorro)

is because Spider is more tiny then them, so he is seen as more feminine.

and i don't really want to talk about this especially since they are minors, but as a more tiny and feminine he is also viewed as the bottom in a sexual reletionship.

this also goes for female x female ships like Kireya (Kiri x Tsireya) where Kiri is viewed more as the masculine of the couple.

is an sexist and possibly homophochi thing? yes especially sexist and it sounds like a 40 year old who is suportive of the community but still asks "who is the man and who is the woman in the couple?"

but is the only way to call ships (unless of nicknames ships)

so i hate saying but we are forced to use Aocorro

if i sounded im sorry, i swear that i think of it like you

GUYS NQUFHWKKFJAKD OMG I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE SEXISM BEHIND THE RULES OF SHIPPING NAME AKCJSKKCKSK

Daamn, you made me remeber my fujoshi era, where depending of who you wanna to be the top or bottom (seme or uke omggggg), the name of the ship could change too dudeeeejshdksk

Thank you for explaining, anon, i totally forget about these rules, i thought actually we aren't using it anymore ☠️

Yet, i think we can rebel against these rules!! We are no forced to use the name that looks like you typed socorro really fast and made a misspelled!

We should fight the sistem!!!

But seriously, I FUCKIN HATE THE NAME AOCORRO, the a and s are next to each other in the keyboard, its not like locorro or nocorro (the l/n are too far from s to be a misspell)!! Aocorro is juST A MISSPELL OF SOCORRO grrr it annoy me soo muchhksjfk

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

TRANSIENCE – With her failing eyesight, Patricia looks out of her bedroom window in her home of almost 70 years. While her days follow the same routine as they always have, her experience is becoming increasingly nebulous. To those around her, she appears here, yet not quite here. We are reminded of the transience of life.

FORGET ME NOT – Beautiful, elegant and engaged, Patricia defied the stereotype of a woman at 90. In western culture, we rarely turn our cameras on the elderly, rendering them invisible, especially as they decline. Patricia was surprised I considered her a worthy subject, and said she was ‘amused to be my muse’.

AGELESS – At 90 with dementia, Patricia became ageless. Although unable to remember moments in the short term, long-term memories remained clear. Having lost sense of time, she would move between eras, thinking she was 40 one day, 60 the next. It reminds us that we are only as old as we think we are, and our younger self is always a part of us.

ON REFLECTION – Forever beautiful, Patricia lies on her bed in what seems a moment of quiet reflection. I can only wonder what she is thinking and feeling. I know she is comforted by my presence and I feel privileged to be there to witness the moment.

THROUGH HER EYES – Patricia was active and alert until a major operation left her with increasing confusion, later diagnosed as dementia. As she began to lose words, photography became a way of connecting and affirming her.

ABOUT 34 – As dementia develops, Patricia no longer remembers her actual age. In her mind, she is “about 34?”. She simply cannot believe that she is 90. However, she is still as glamorous and beautiful in her old age as she was in that photo. It is sad that so often we only equate beauty with youth. Somehow the older we get the more invisible we become, even perhaps to ourselves.

TRANSPORTED – One thing that cut through the haze of Patricia’s dementia was music. She appeared transported to another realm as she played piano, or listened to a CD. Music offered connections with her family and her past, eliciting clear memories and strong feelings. Although recent memories fade, music remains.

PATRICIA’S RAINBOW – As consciousness of time and place dissolves, Patricia increasingly loses touch with the world. A global pandemic rages outside but she has little awareness of it. Isolated indoors, visits from family are her lifeline. Faced with impending loss, we try to catch each precious moment.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Madhabi Mukherjee (Charulata, The Big City, The Coward)—Madhabi Mukherjee is legendary for her nuanced and sensitive performances in some of the classics of Bengali cinema particularly her roles in Satyajit Ray's films

Angela Lansbury (The Harvey Girls, The Court Jester, The Manchurian Candidate)—The babe, the myth, the legend. In her own words her early hollywood roles were "a series of venal bitches" and they were all glorious. Half of them wanted to kill you and you probably would have thanked them. She even goes toe to toe with Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls! That said, she was chronically underused and misused during this era - she was just 36 when she was cast as Elvis Presley's mother in Blue Hawaii and a few years later commented that she'd played so many 'old hags' that most people thought she was in her 60s. She thought she was "all talent, no looks" but she was the full package! Post-1970 I hope we all know what an incredibly talented and compassionate badass she was, but I feel like not enough people know her early roles as a hot (often villainous) young thing.

This is round 3 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Madhabi Mukherjee:

She played in some of the most critically acclaimed films in bengali cinema and she is an incredibly talented actress. Everybody should watch 'The Big City' she's so good in it!

Linked clip

Gifset 1

Gifset 2

Angela Lansbury:

"Angela Lansbury might not be where your mind goes first when you think of hot leading women, because she had a later career revival. But she began acting in the early 1940s after leaving London due to the Blitz. In the first couple decades of her film career she has an openness about her. She said she never really fit in with the Hollywood crowd and to me she gives off a friendly, untarnished vibe."

"Most of us know Angela Lansbury as old lady sleuth Jessica Fletcher, but it's important to know that she was smoking hot in her younger days as well as a damned fine actress. Although she didn't get lead roles until her early 40s, at 17 she was a supporting actress in films such as Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), and The Picture of Dorian Grey, for which she won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress and was nominated for the Oscar. Even in her memorable performance as the manipulative mother in The Manchurian Candidate, she is listed as a supporting actress as she does not play the love interest. She was successful both on stage and screen, and won the Tony for her lead role in the musical Mame on Broadway in 1966. TL;DR While Angela Lansbury mostly played supporting roles in films before 1970, she had what it takes to be a leading actress, which we know from her success on stage and tv from the mid 60s onward"

"She looked like a princess but bit like a viper"

"Is there anything this woman couldn't do? Act in comedy and drama, sing, dance, be a wonderful human being - quite simply a true and wonderful lady."

"she is the fairytale princess of my dreams in court jester"

"god she had such an incredible career all throughout her life really but as a young lady she was just as incredible as she was in her later years. enchanting voice, amazing personality, and absolutely GORGEOUS. she lamented not having the looks to play leads in romance but that idea is so batshit because look at her??? she's one of the most terrific women of all time. also she's my grandmother's favorite actress and i truly get it"

[dootznbootz]

Do we have any idea how old Odysseus was when the trojan war started? Like I'm actually curious, Ive always imagined him to be sth around 20 but then I tried to find it online and the the range goes from 20 to mid 40s so like im so confused, do you know anythig??

My dear Anon, the timeline is a mess and I wouldn't bother trying to find the "real ages" as...it's just straight-up impossible. :'D I literally made a meme about it a LONG while back.

For example, The Apple of Discord happened during Thetis' and Peleus' wedding. They decided Paris would chose, he chose Aphrodite, so he got to kidnap Helen.

The War starts....How tf is Achilles old enough to go to war if his parents just got married? I have never seen anything that said they waited until Paris grew up.

Thing is, so many people throughout history have their own versions and if we were to try and make sense of all of them, these heroes would probably be around 200 years old.

If you're worried about this stuff for writing? MAKE IT UP!!! :D There's technically no "real age"

One of my favorite examples:

Left to right: Menelaus, Paris, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, Achilles, Agamemnon.

...WHY DOES MENELAUS AND DIOMEDES HAVE MORE WRINKLES THAN FUCKING NESTOR?!?!

Old man Nestor. Achy breaky back Nestor. "Back in my day" Nestor. Grandpa fucking Nestor!!!

(Paris, Odysseus, Achilles, and Agamemnon look pretty good imo but the others don't feel like their faces match their ages.)

It's because of the fact that there's not a distinct specific age, and therefore artists and muses could make it whatever!

BUT! Considering some things, Penelope, Helen, Menelaus, and Odysseus were all most likely around 20 when they got married.

I'm no expert. I am absolutely not. But from what I've read, Women in Sparta got married when they were around 20 years old. Part of the reason why exercise for women was a thing was because of the idea of "strong mothers have strong sons". Fully grown women are less likely to have health problems if they get pregnant compared to "girl who just got her first menstrual cycle". I don't know if this was the case during the Mycenaean/Minoan eras but it's what we're given.

Men were around the same age BUT with military stuff, they'd be in the barracks most of the time and had to "sneak away" in order to be with their wife for the night.

In many other places, men got married when they're around 30. But with all this happening in SPARTA, I think Tyndarius would probably hope to "keep to his own Spartan rules". I think a lot of young men saw this as an opportunity or even a "Mom, Dad, This is the chance of a lifetime!!! Even if I am technically too young to get married, this is the chance to marry the most beautiful woman in the world!"

The Iliad mentions Odysseus being older than Menelaus however!!! (personally, I have Odysseus older by a few months and him pulling the "I'm the older of the two of us!")

Hermione is said to be 9 years old when Helen is kidnapped. Most likely, making them around 29, give or take. (Personally I changed Hermione's age to 7, making them more around 27) Odysseus at around 28 and Penelope at around 27 about to turn 28 shortly when he has to leave.

[chicknparm]

I’m sorry and everyone’s struggles are hashtag valid blah blah blah you know the drill

But I just cannot have patience for people who are like, paralyzed by fear about aging, especially like. Anything shy of 40 lmao.

“Oh noooooo I’m turning 30 I’m so ancient and old and decrepit” okay then perish I guess? Maybe it’s that I genuinely never expected/wanted/prepared to live past 25 but like…the possibility of living to see my 30s rules, actually. With each passing year I relish being older and not being bothered by stupid fucking bullshit lmao. Like I discourse abt shit like this way less than I used to, and I’m sure that will continue to trend downward as I embrace one of God’s Greatest Gifts: privately bitching to my friends when something pisses me off.

Anyway to further kick the hornet’s nest (Mog talking about rent-lowering gunshots inspired me lol) I feel like The Millennials made some progress from like, the 2000s to the 2010s in like, the smallest fucking shred of “Body Positivity.” Mostly as a response to the “heroin-chic” era we grew up in where anyone who wasn’t literally dangerously thin was called Fat in the tabloids. At the very least we had *some* women who weren’t *completely* rail-thin who were allowed to be famous and successful.

I bring that up bc I feel like Gen Z really needs to have that come to Jesus moment but with aging. They all seem fucking petrified by it and seeking trend after trend to fight it the way that women my age grew up chasing diet after diet and pill after pill to avoid being fat. Like I want to be sympathetic bc I want all people to find peace and happiness and love wins and all that. But also maybe you shouldn’t stake so much of your identity on being Younger and Cooler than the people 5 years older than you? Just a thought? Oh and also while you were making fun of the jeans that 32 year old women wear you backslid into worshipping extremely thin bodies and made “body positivity” about how actually, it’s okay to be skinny! Good job, kids.

Anyway this has been Old Woman Yelling At Clouds. Maybe you won’t be as grumpy about Clouds as me, but you will (hopefully!) get old. Get over it.

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

I spent 40 minutes in therapy today talking about the role of narrative and self creation in Taylor’s interview, and how she acts in her life as the main character- she steps into her power. Which is of course a story I was telling about myself, too. And I’ve been thinking a lot about symbolism and fairy tales, and I just… love that Taylor is embracing her symbolic role as the people’s pop princess. I appreciate the scale of her cultural contributions, including introducing an entire generation of young women to a new vision of ourselves as subjects rather than objects in music (and yes, for many of us, our first taste of “modern” feminism that felt a whole lot better than the version my mom’s generation ascribes to which feels more like “you don’t need any help because you are independent”. By putting it so simply in 2014 during the cultural wave of legalizing queer marriage, Taylor made being a feminist cool. She gave me the basic language to seek out and begin exploring intersectional feminism on my own as a bright eyed 17 year old girl).

I think the part that bothers me most about the reductionist discourse - is she “good” or “bad”- is that it conflates Taylor’s real life with her symbolic place in pop culture. The discourse about her every move distills a full complete human woman down to her reputation as either the evil queen/witch/capitalist, or the slut, or the wife, or the crazy ex. And then, once the role is chosen, she mirrors how “good” the person discussing her imagines themself to be. I’d personally rather view her as the hero because that’s the kind of agency I am trying to empower myself with.

The confusing part is that lots of people have really wonderful sharp critiques of what Taylor’s real life symbolizes about our world, but those messages come out as personal attacks on a real human being, often by belittling her intelligence, accomplishments, impact, and character- as if none of us have ever been friends with a shitty person, or been a shitty person ourselves (sometimes even repeatedly). For example, I am fascinated by the white feminism phenomenon that emerged during the 1989 era, and by the monetizing of self care, the rise of influencer culture, and how it reflects on the political landscape over the last 10 years, and how my development from girl to woman was impacted by all of it- none of that discussion requires a decision on if Taylor herself is good or bad. We can’t keep reducing each other, including celebrities, down to binaries of “good” or “bad.” If we can’t even humanize the one stranger we all know intimately, what does that say about our capacity to grow from our own mistakes? To help each other grow?

One of the core things that builds people’s movements is working toward shared goals even if you disagree on some things- I’d rather have Taylor Swift as the symbolic person of the year, speaking about getting in touch with her emotions and rising from trauma stronger than before, working hard for her goals, being proud of her accomplishments, and loudly celebrating women, than another war criminal politician 🤷🏼‍♀️. There’s so much juicy stuff to digest from her crowning as Person Of The Year (including critiques of capitalism and white feminism!) and it just sucks that people are stuck on “is she good or bad,”preventing them from actually engaging with the interview as an enormous pop culture moment. And during the biggest labor movement in history! She’s up there talking about a patriarchal industry exploiting her and other musicians! She’s talking about recovering from an eating disorder and loving her past selves! She’s talking about staying true to herself even when the entire world is watching her every move. It is important, regardless of if she meets everybody’s personal standards of “good” or “bad.” Nobody is required to like her! We can all have different boundaries for different relationships- I might not be friends with Taylor swift in real life, but I have no problem appreciating her art and listening to her unique perspective. The haters are missing the point- she symbolizes unity, joy, fun, love, healing, family, trying to be better, forgiveness and women’s empowerment. She also symbolizes nuance and disagreement. She symbolizes gossip and cyber bullying and cancel culture. She symbolizes coming of age in a traumatizing world. She symbolizes perseverance and the value of owning your own work. She means something different to everyone because she is a mirrorball. What does she symbolize to you?

[olderthannetfic]

https://newrepublic.com/article/120689/babdook-what-it-says-about-you-if-you-enjoy-horror-movies

This is from years ago but I had to go dig it up for the "cozy horror" conversation.

The article claims that horror fans are more likely to lack empathy. But the study they mention didn't survey horror fans, it surveyed people who watch horror movies on dates. Maybe choosing a movie for a date without regard to your partner's tastes demonstrates a lack of empathy, and the genre or content of the movie itself doesn't have much to do with it?

It claims that horror fans are more like to "be aggressive and thrill-seeking". That one I'll give a pass. Horror movies themselves are a specific kind of thrill. Anecdotally I wouldn't say that I or any other horror fan is more aggressive than the general population, but if a study lumped aggression and thrills together as one metric it'd be impossible to sort out (horror authors and other creatives, in my experience, tend to be fluffy bundles of joy IRL. Jungi Ito is Tumblr's favourite example)

And horror fans are more likely to be men. The article straight up admits that its data there is outdated. Moving on.

And lastly, the one that ticked me off so much that I remembered this article for ten years. People who watch horror movies are more like to "be a man accompanied by a frightened woman". This one is based on a study from the 1980s (so outdated even ten years ago) and looked specifically at college kids watching horror movies in m/f pairs. This tells us absolutely nothing about people who enjoy horror, and a lot about college boys in the 1980s. I like to think that college boys in the 2010s and 2020s are a little different, since gendered expectations have shifted a little over the last 30-40 years. But even without that, I cannot stress hard enough that this study did not look at people who like horror movies, not to mention that adults of all genders are usually more mature than college kids in their interactions with fiction and with their movie-going partners.

And also, since this is Tumblr specifically and fandom in general, we have to mention that when gender comes up, the article is talking exclusively about studies that did not account for queerness.

If we want to talk about horror movies in a fannish context, we have to understand that a large portion of the audience will be queer in some way or another. It's simply not fair to say "college boys like it when their girlfriends are scared of horror movies, therefore horror fans are doing some sort of macho endurance posturing" when you've got an audience full 35 year old pensexuals without genders going "actually, I just think it's neat when monsters eat people".

--

When I was younger, I thought I didn't like horror...

And this was because I grew up in an era of particularly boring-to-me slasher movies that were usually also pretty misogynist.

Turns out I like gialli fine. It's just 1980s US horror of the most mainstream type that I hate.

I am singularly unsurprised that women on dates in the 1980s were unimpressed with this choice of movie.

I'll take articles about horror seriously only if they start by going to one of those Lovecraft conventions or something and actually dealing with the Horror Fandom as it exists today.

[crystallinearts]

so hey guys, I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year! if you want, come be writing buddies with me! https://nanowrimo.org/participants/aj-strong

and check out my latest project, which I'm hoping will be my first published novel (if I'm able to publish it for people to read for free somewhere uwu), The Lovely Disaster Sideshow! It's a mystery, horror, adventure, historical, weird mishmash that takes place in a Victorian Era circus!

Here's the cover, and below the cut are some bullet-point details about the main characters!! Let me know what you think so far, and... well, get ready for me to do very little else throughout November XD

ABIGAIL HUGHES AND EULALIA "LALI" HUGHES

Mother and daughter protagonists

Abigail (late 20s) is missing a hand and Lali (6 years old) is unable to speak due to trauma (Abigail’s missing hand and Lali’s trauma are both from the accident which killed Abigail’s husband)

They fill the jobs of whatever needs done within the circus after joining; cooking, mending, running errands

Abigail occasionally performs with Bharata after he teaches her tricks on how to live without one hand

Lali enjoys working with Estelle and Cedar particularly, but the entire circus is protective of her as their youngest member

Native English

RINGMASTER

The circus ringleader, the master of ceremonies who runs shows and hires new workers

A friendly fellow (late 30s-early 40s) who welcomes anyone into the circus, regardless of disabilities or age, as long as they can work in some way or another

Creative in describing the sideshows to attract the attention of the public

In reality a cold, calculating bigot who is bitter toward, resentful of, and disgusted by the ‘freaks’ he employs in the circus

Native English

GWYNN

“The Eyeless Albino” visual oddity (pure white hair, no eyes)

A young man (early 20s) who is completely albino and was born without any eyes

He is entirely blind and relies on other people (most often Bharata and Siobhan) to help him around, though he’s learned to navigate most of the circus by sound as long as he has landmarks to go by; new areas confuse him until he learns the layout

His skin burns incredibly easily, meaning he often carries a parasol to block sun rays even when it’s cloudy

(His parasol also double functions as a makeshift cane) Welsh and a little English

SIOBHAN

“A Marvelous Mouth” sword swallower and fire breather

A young woman (early 30s) who is a former prostitute, leading the Ringmaster to capitalize on her relaxed gag reflex to make her into a sword swallower (and, occasionally when the shows need that extra oomph, fire breather)

Quite heavily tattooed, at least for the time period, she sports many tattoos on her arms, legs, back, and hands, as well as one on her neck; this causes many people to view her as a degenerate and adds to her ‘freakishness’ for the circus

Irish

CAIN AND ABEL

“Two-For-One Twins” visual oddity (conjoined twins)

Two young men (mid 20s) joined at the hip, they’re unable to be separated and sometimes have issues with moving around; they have separate bodies (two arms each, two legs each, separate torsos, separate heads, etc.) but their bodies are fused at the hip and doctors have all told them separation is too risky

They get along fairly well, with the occasional sibling fights, though they feel isolated even from the rest of the circus, stemming from only having had each other for most of their lives, especially given that they were the most recent additions before Abigail and Lali

Native English

ESTELLE

“Silent Angel” trapeze artist

A young woman (early 20s) who is almost entirely deaf and can only hear (barely) if someone is shouting right next to her ear, she cannot speak very well and prefers to communicate in other ways

She can’t read or write, but she’s made up her own variety of gestures (basically an individual sign language) to speak with the other circus performers, and she can read lips quite well

Short, petite, and kind… and will simply walk away from anyone who treats her or her friends cruelly

Spends hours teaching Lali her individual sign language, so that Lali can communicate even though she’s too traumatized to speak verbally

French and English

BHARATA

“One-Armed Wonder” knife thrower

A young man (late 20s) who has only one arm, and is perceived by many others as very clumsy; every household he’s worked for has set him up to fail by assigning him tasks that simply can’t be done with just one arm, leading him to find a belonging in the circus

Wanting to prove everyone wrong, he trained to do something that others thought couldn’t be done with only one arm: knife throwing… and is very good at it

He’s sympathetic toward Abigail and tries to teach her every single tip he has about how to live without one arm/hand

Indian

CEDAR

“Crystal Ball” fortune teller/palm reader/astrologist

A young nonbinary person (mid 20s) who was ostracized from society when they refused to answer to ‘she’, who ran away from home after their parents tried to beat them into conforming

No physical disability aside from dysphoria (which is obviously helped when they’re around supportive people who respect what they want to be called), and very supportive themself of the people in the circus who do have disabilities

Rather easygoing in terms of interacting with other people, they tend to simply go with the flow, but they’re also incredibly perceptive which is what makes them such a good fortune teller; while they do study palmistry, astrology, and tarot, they also employ the use of cold reading techniques (“might as well take advantage of all the gifts I have, including observation, right?”)

Native English

SALEM

“The Lizard Man” visual oddity (has X-linked ichthyosis resulting in scale-like skin)

A man (late 30s) who was cast out from society because of his strange appearance, stemming from his medical condition; people have been ‘terrified’ of his looks before, not to mention fearing that whatever he has is ‘contagious’ (despite him knowing from experience that he’s not)

Soft-spoken and gentle in general, but if one hits the right buttons he’s very capable of getting violent, particularly in defense of his friends

He has anywhere from 1-3 animals (that he’s nursing back to health) in his tent at any one time, even though he’s allergic to anything with fur… he has a soft spot for reptiles, though he adores all animals

Native English