#she was just talking about how *her* experience of womanhood is tied with motherhood because she spent a decade being pregnant/nursing

[sochilll]

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[leneemusing]

50 DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS FOR FEMALE MUSES

note: please feel free to put in the tags if there are any of these you don’t want to be sent when you reblog.  1. does your muse like her name?  has she ever thought of changing it/goes by a nickname? 2. did she have a ‘not like other girls’ phase?  3. for trans muses, what was a defining moment in her coming to terms with her gender identity?  4. has your muse ever struggled with their relationship to womanhood and femininity?  5. if your muse is a woman of color, how does her cultural and racial heritage impact her?  are there gender based traditions she takes part in?  6. also for woc, are there aspects of how her gender intersects with her race that she struggles with?  what parts of it are special to her?  7. for any female muses with a connection to their cultural heritage,  what is something about that heritage and her gender that has always been important to her?  8. how is her relationship with her mother? 9. how is her relationship with her father? 10. if your muse is genderfluid,  what aspects of womanhood do they find joy in? what aspects of it do they have difficulty with or don’t find identity in?  11. how are her relationships with other women?  friendships/familial/romantic etc.  12. does she tend to surround herself with women or men more?  is there a particular reason for one or the other?  13. tell me about an aspect of internalized misogyny she had to tackle unlearning.  14. has she ever faced harassment?  15. is she outspoken about equal rights and feminism? is she intersectional in her feminism?  16. if your muse is queer in any way, talk about how that impacts their view on womanhood?  17. what makes your muse feel the most comfortable in their gender identity?  18. was she raised in a progressive or sexist household? was it more neutral? 19. do they prefer to present themselves more masculine or feminine?  20. for wlw muses, when did they first realize their attraction to other women? did they struggle with this or accept it easily?   21. for wlw muses, did their family accept them when they came out?  22. for wlw muses, how does this impact their relationship to womanhood? 23. for trans muses what is their favorite aspect of being a woman?  24. for trans muses how do they like to present themselves? what gives them the most gender euphoria?  25. for queer women of color, how does their identity intersect with their racial heritage? are there experiences and aspects of it specific to that intersection you want to share? 26. for queer women with specific cultural ties, has it been a point of contention or celebration within their cultural identity?  are there aspects of their queerness that intersect with their heritage?  27. is there a female role model in her life?  28. is there a female figure from history, or current times, she looks up to?  29. does she prefer to be perceived as cute or sexy? does she not want to be viewed on an attraction basis at all?  30. is there a hobby or interest that she was discouraged from pursuing because of her gender? did she continue anyway? 31. if she has a period, how does she tend to deal with it? 33. has the way she dressed ever been influenced by a male gaze, whether it’s trying to deflect OR appeal to it?  34. as a teenager,  did she struggle with feeling competitive with other girls?  were there ever instances of bullying she had to deal with?   35. how does your muse deal with sexism in the workplace?  36. does your muse tend to be confrontational? or do they try to appease and make peace. 37. how do they view motherhood? 38. do they ever overcompensate due to misogynistic stereotypes placed on them?  what does this look like if so?  39. are they particularly attached to their womanhood? or do they feel more indifferent to it.  have they ever struggled to relate to women around them? 40. if your muse is neurodivergent, how does this impact their relationship to gender and sexuality?  41. for neurodivergent muses, was their diagnosis delayed because of how they present?  42. for neurodivergent muses, are they self diagnosed or did they seek a medical opinion? if so, did they have to deal with misogyny from medical staff?  43. for neurodivergent muses, what aspects of womanhood do they identify with most? what aspects of traditional ideas of gender do they struggle to understand/relate to?  44. for neurodivergent muses, were they ever ridiculed for their behaviors because it wasn’t deemed “ladylike”? how did they respond?  45. for neurodivergent muses of color, how did these two aspects of their identity intersect?  any experiences you want to share? 46. are there any female fictional characters she idolizes?  47. did she ever do something just because she was told a girl couldn’t do it? 48. what does her relationship with men look like?  how does she view the current state of patriarchy in her time setting?  49. if your muse dates men, what is their process of vetting them?  do they have a checklist of things to look for to decide whether or not they’re safe?  any kind of tests or questions they use to make a judgement.  50. give me a headcanon that has to do with their identity, whether it’s gender, sexuality, race or a mix of it all! 

[where-theres-smoak-2]

My last post got me thinking about Alina's favorite flowers and their symbolism. One thing that blue irises represent is hope. Thus, they match Darklina's "Hope for the Future" theme, making them an appropriate love token for Aleksander to give Alina. Also, irises were sacred to Hera/Juno, the Greco-Roman Queen of the Gods that ruled over the heavens, womanhood, matrimony, and motherhood. Interestingly, there are also black irises that have dark blue and purple undertones. They are gorgeous!

(warning book spoilers)

The symbolism of irises is really interesting. You are right blue irises represent hope which really fits darklina and pairs well with their 'hope for the future' theme. I'll be honest I've never heard before that the irises were sacred to Hera/Juno as far as I am aware (if I am remembering my college and uni studies well, it has been a while so I might not be) Hera/Juno's sacred flower is the lily with her sacred animal being a peacock, which is irrelevant to the rest of this post but I love peacocks as they are so beautiful, so I felt compelled to add this in here, sorry. But that being said there is still a link between Hera and the iris flower as the flower is named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris. Iris was Hera's handmaiden and Hera and Zeus' messenger. Many saw Iris as a bridge between humans and the gods. Which fits Alina really well with the whole people seeing her as a Saint. Irises are also symbolic of faith and have alot of religious significance which again fits in with Alina becoming a religious figure. As I mentioned there is also that link between Iris and Hera and as you said Hera is the Queen of Olympus and goddess of womanhood, matrimony and motherhood. However weirdly Hera is also worshipped as a virgin goddess despite being a mother, it is believed that she would renew her virginity in a spring annually. Got to love how weird Greek mythology is. But I suppose that could tie into how the people see Alina as being this pure being whilst also being supportive of her marrying Nikolai and how she is still seen as an eligible wife despite the image of purity. Also into how whilst her worshippers see her as this pure being its a deception and she herself doesn't see herself that way and actually thinks she is tainted and sinful.

The other thing that I find interesting is that M*l specifically says that Alina likes the blue ones and not the white. This is interesting to me as the white ones, as you would expect, represent purity and innocence. It is interesting to me that Alina doesn't like the white ones and I kind of think it ties back into how she rejects the image that the people have of her being pure. Its not how she sees herself she doesn't think she is pure or innocent and is uncomfortable when others see her this way.

Another thing that is interesting about irises is that they also represent royalty and have been connected with both French and English monarchs in the past. Which can connect back to Hera being the Queen of Olympus. So it's really interesting that Aleks presents Alina with this flower as he does offer her a crown and throne in book 2 or 3 not sure which. His dream is for the two of them to rule side by side so once again the irises really fit into that.

Devotion is yet another thing Irises represent and again this can fit into Alina's position as a Saint and the devotion the people have to her. But I also like to think it represents Aleks' devotion to her. He worships her just as much as her followers do and always wants her to be her best self. He wants her to grow in power and become someone who is important and loved and he devotes himself to this cause and making sure that she doesn't become the next heretic like she fears. I think Aleks has two causes he is devoted to the protection of the grisha and Alina.

Yet another link that we can form is between Hera and another goddess that I think has some symbolism in darklina's story. Hera is often depicted holding a pomegranate, this is a link to Persephone who becomes trapped in the underworld when she eats pomegranate seeds. When she eat the pomegranate seeds she permanently tied herself to hades and the pomegranate is symbolic of marriage and also the indissolubility of marriage. Many in the fandom have made the connection between the myth of Persephone and the pomegranate seeds and Alina drinking whatever it was that Aleks offered her in the war room scene in ep 4. You can also find the symbolism of Persephone being tied to Hades by eating the seeds and the stag collar tying Alina to Aleks and the connection and tether that then exists between them. The part that I find really interesting about the tale of Hades, Persephone and the pomegranate seeds is that it has become warped over time to be this story of an evil god who kidnapped a young woman and tricked her into being his wife and prisoner for all eternity. But that's not the actual story. Yes Hades does kidnap Persephone but whilst in the underworld Persephone fell in love with Hades. But she also missed her mother. When Hades offers her the pomegranate she knows that if she eats the whole fruit she will be trapped in the underworld and unable to ever see her mother again but she also knows if she doesn't eat the fruit she will return to her mother but never see Hades again. When Persephone ate the six seeds she did it deliberately and willingly. Zeus says that as she ate six seeds for six months of the year she would have to return to the underworld. Persephone planned this because she wanted a reason to return to Hades. He had told her how lonely he was in the underworld and how he longed for her to be with him and she loved him and so wanted to return to him. Obviously I think there are alot of similarities between Hades and Aleks both experience isolation and crushing loneliness because of it. Both are feared and misunderstood because of the powers they wield. Both fall for a beautiful young woman and long to keep her at their sides even going so far as to try and deceive the woman they love in order to keep her. I also think like Persephone does with Hades, Alina did fall in love with Aleks and saw that loneliness and saw him for who he really was and not the intimidating persona that others see.

Anyway kind of got deeper into the symbolism than I intended to so thank you for attending my talk on greek mythology and flower symbolism and how it relates to darklina. I shall stop waffling on and go now.

[pilferingapples]

@oceannocturne replied to your post: @aflamethatneverdies replied to your post: ...

Wait, could you talk more about Valjean as mother? I haven’t heard much about that!

I can try! it’s gonna be veeerrry rambly but I’ll try!

This is a concept that Hugo mentions a few times, that Valjean loves Cosette like or as a mother would, as well as like a father: 

... (Valjean) felt inward yearnings, like a mother, and did not know what they were, since the strange and great motion of a heart beginning to love is incomprehensibly sweet. (2.4.3, FMA) 

When she was dozing at night, before going to sleep, since she had no very clear idea of her being Jean Valjean’s daughter, and that he was her father, she imagined that her mother’s soul had passed into this good man and come to live with her.  When he sat down, she would rest her cheek on his white hair and silently drop a tear, saying to herself “Perhaps this man is my mother!” (4.3.4, FMA)

Hugo says this, of course, because he thinks there’s a difference  in the love of a father and the love of a mother. 

Under a cut for length and discussions of  canon era and canon era relevant Gender Issues:

(please excuse the extremely Binary Only discussion of Gender in era framing, btw)

Some of this is just a matter of practical experience; when Hugo also mentions,as he does more than once, moments when Valjean can’t answer the immediate needs of Cosette’s upbringing because Valjean isn’t a mother, sometimes it’s things like fashion, where an old man in a very gender-role-divided society is just not going to know the hot trends in Women’s Youth Fashions or have the social background himself to understand how to coach Cosette on the fine points of etiquette that people expect of a young girl. 

That’s realistic and practical-- but it’s not really what Hugo’s thinking of when he’s thinking of Valjean acting as Mother as well as Father. Hugo is thinking in terms of Instinct: the instinct of a mother, in his opinion, and reflecting the opinion of his society at the time, is inherently different than that of a father. 

This is especially clear when he’s talking about Cosette’s blossoming romantic/sexual impulses; Jean Valjean can’t advise her usefully, says Hugo, not because Valjean is a traumatized isolated man who’s never been in a serious adult relationship himself, but because it takes a Mother’s Instinct to guide a Young Girl to Awareness of the Mysteries of Life. Not only does Valjean lack that instinct, but he even feels upset  when he sees Cosette beginning to grow up and grow beautiful, signifying that, of course, she may soon fall in love (and thus leave him)-- where, Hugo says, an actual mother would feel joy.

Digression: The Napoelonic Code!

The Law of the Land on this matter was the Napoleonic Code. While the Code had its good points (clarity,for example) it was, to simplify hugely, not  always a Great Deal for women or children in a family. 

Notably, it stated that fathers did not  owe their biological offspring any financial or personal support if they weren’t married to their mothers, and made it illegal for a mother to even seek  paternal support for children born out of wedlock. Women, on the other hand, were obligated to support their children regardless of circumstance.

( Again this is massively summarizing, not even attempting to cover every case; the details and work-arounds were the makings of legal careers.)

I’m picking this particular example because it speaks directly to the era’s conceptual divide re: fatherhood and motherhood.  A father might  love and protect his children; it was a choice. A mother, as part of her biological relationship , was assumed to have to.  A father who abandoned his out-of-wedlock offspring was maybe a jerk , but honestly even that level of social disapproval might not apply. A woman who abandoned her  children?  Obscene, unnatural, horrible. It was socially known that it happened , of course, but that didn’t stop people being Shocked And Appalled by it when they found out about a specific case. 

--and this ties into the idea in currency at the time that women were creatures of instinct rather than reason, that women were governed more by their bodies than their intellect, that a woman’s Natural Purpose was to be a mother, all of that.  Obviously people of the time were not oblivious to the fact that these gendered Ideal Spheres were not always born out in real life! But it WAS the commonly held Ideal Concept.

Hugo had, for his time, some divergent ideas on the concept of gender roles, but about this he was all in line with the mainstream: utterly devoted, selfless , instinctive love for a child, even to the point of physical sacrifice and personal physical self-destruction was a Basic Component of Womanhood.  This doesn’t just show up in Les Mis, with his various asides about how a woman without a baby is Unthinkable, etc,  but in his other writing, too-- notably Michelle  in Ninety Three becomes essentially a primal force of Maternal Caring, and the Sachette in Notre Dame is pretty much an awful person in all stages of her life except  that she truly loves her child, because Motherhood Beats Everything. 

So when Cosette recognizes Valjean as embodying her mother, and Valjean feels love for Cosette as if he were becoming a mother , rather than a father, the implication is that this is a more instinctual, inarguable devotion than a father would have. A father’s love  is framed as conditional; Hugo allows that there are fathers who hate their children! The aspect of Valjean’s love that’s more paternal is also more self-interested; a mother  would be glad that Cosette is beautiful, and will therefor have an easier time making a match; Valjean, being not really a mother, is distressed by the implication that Cosette might have an easier time making a match, and leaving him.  (again, Hugo frames this SPECIFICALLY as a consequence of his parenting not really quite being motherly.)

But Valjean is also symbolically linked into, yes, really taking over for Cosette’s mother. He first sees her nine months after Fantine dies, he “delivers” Marius, not merely from the barricade, but in a very grim Symbolic Labor through the sewers and back into the world, and he will, ultimately, cannibalize his own body and physical well-being to provide for Cosette’s future (however little that...actually needs to happen....). Motherhood and Martyrdom are very often linked in Hugo’s work, and Valjean doesn’t escape that here, either. 

There’s also a certain, well, Queerness in this-- childcare and prioritizing the parental role above all else  was very much seen as Woman’s Work, and a man taking that on was not unlikely to be...well, teased about it at the very least. How soft and womanly of them!  This also threads together with Valjean’s  Hugolian chasteness/virginity, which is with Hugo almost an agendered state, and oh gad, that’s an entirely different  bag of worms but 

TL: DR - Hugo symbolically casts Valjean as inheriting not just guardianship but motherhood  of Cosette from Fantine, in a social and textual context where “motherhood” is distinct from general parental love and very very gendered, and thus somewhat queers Valjean’s gender role, and, notably, this is not ever treated as bad or laughable but as an ennobling extra dimension to his spiritual growth, and possibly even what gives Valjean the power to make his ultimate sacrifices. 

This is IMO in keeping with other Romanticist and Romantic-era questioning and queering of gender roles and the entire concept of the Romantic Androgyne (which was also in dialogue with things like the Evadamistes etc) but that is again ANOTHER long Digression, and this is, uh. Enough of a Post >_<

Also, there used to be fans around who were much more eloquent about this than I am, but they have mostly moved on, though maybe some will appear to point out how I Get It WrongXD