voltaire-folklore

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October 3, 1992:  Sinead O’Connor appeared on Saturday Night Live singing an  acapella cover of Bob Marley’s song “War”, changing some of the lyrics to include references to child abuse, and ending the performance by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paull II and saying “fight the real enemy”.

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Al Pacino and Bruce Springsteen playing baseball can actually be something so personal

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I JUST FOUND A LATE ANTIQUE VERSION OF ‘LIVE LOVE LAUGH’ AND I WISH I WERE KIDDING

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Jane Austen, from Sense and Sensibility

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Paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

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DRACULA (1931) dir. Tod Browning THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940) dir. Christy Cabanne CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) dir. Jack Arnold

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"Be humble and charitable. Disregard human riches which by a stroke of adverse fortune can be lost from one moment to another. Love virtue and love study. They are the greatest aids in life. Learn to do good for good's sake, never for vain glory."

- Carlo Emanuele dal Pozzo to his daughter Maria Vittoria

"She has a face with pronounced and beautifully correct features, the sparkle in her eyes is special and her penetrating gaze, her voice is sweet and affectionate, and her conversation is instructive and entertaining, and her presence inspires, along with the deepest respect, the most affectionate sympathy. Although we have all heard about the great qualities that adorn her, reality exceeds our hopes and we all left captivated by what was to be the Queen of Spain."

(Tiene un rostro de rasgos pronunciados y bellamente correctos, el brillo de sus ojos es especial y su mirada penetrante, su voz es dulce y cariñosa, y la conversación instructiva y amena, e inspira su presencia, al par que el más profundo respeto, la más afectuosa simpatía. Aunque todos hemos oído hablar las grandes cualidades que la adornan, la realidad supera nuestras esperanzas y todos salimos prendados de la que había de ser la Reina de España.)

- Víctor Balaguer writes about Maria Vittoria

"In Spain I only wanted one thing: to do my duty, and I will always keep a good and sad memory of her. Good, because there are very esteemed people there whom I will never forget, and sad, because Spain did not find with us the tranquility and prosperity that we wanted to give her."

(En España no deseé más que una cosa: cumplir con mi deber, y de ella conservaré siempre un bueno y un triste recuerdo. Bueno, porque hay allí personas muy estimables a las que nunca olvidaré, y triste, porque España no encontró con nosotros la tranquilidad y la prosperidad que deseábamos darle.)

- María Vittoria dal Pozzo to Spanish friend

Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo committed herself for all her life (alas short, she died at only twenty-nine years old as a result of tuberculosis) in countless works of assistance in favor of the poor and the dispossessed so much to be remembered as "The Queen of Charity".

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Vintage magic lantern slides depict various scenes from around the world as imagined by the illustrator about the late 19th or early 20th centuries.

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Female Knights in Medieval History

While women have been fighting alongside men for all of history, they usually don't get the same recognition as their counterparts. Here are some cases where women did get accepted into chivalric orders, though they typically got a separate title. Some of the women were combatants, and some were not (but non-combatant men have been accepted in chivalric orders for just as long!)

Order of the Hatchet (12th century Spain) Orde de l'Atxa|Orden del Hacha was an entirely-female order created after women defended the Catalonian town of Tortosa from invaders. With most adult men off to war, the women fought with hatchets and other tools. Women of this order were given social and financial privileges, including tax exemptions.

Order of Saint-John (12th century Malta) A military religious order, the Order of Saint-John had female soeurs hospitalières and male frères prêtres who had essentially the same role in the order.

Teutonic Order (12th century Jerusalem) The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem accepted women primarily as consorores and hospitallers, in charge of supportive and medical services. However, these women did follow men to war to perform battlefield medicine.

Knights Templar (12th-14th century Jerusalem) The members of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon admitted women for a number of roles. We know that when the final got around to writing down their rules, it included continuing the already standard practice of admitting women. Most Knights Templar were noncombatant, especially financiers.

Order of the Garter (14th-15th century England) Dedicated to the patron saint of England, Saint George, the Most Noble Order of the Garter admitted women regularly, often due to blue blood. However, women without high birth were admitted as well.

Order of the Ermine (14th and 15th century France) The L'Ordre de l'Hermine was directly inspired by the Order of the Garter and dedicated to upholding one's personal honor. It openly admitted men and women of any social rank, including the only known instance in Medieval history of a woman serving as Officer of Arms. This woman, Katherine Potier, was titled "Espy Herault".

Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary (13th-16th century Italy) A unique order that took up arms to pacify cities in the fractured Italian states. It was centered in Bologna and would admit women as fighters called militissa (literally 'female knight').

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sun

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Ancient Greek Female Artists: The Feminine Aesthetic in Antiquity

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The quote "Well behaved women seldom make history" is usually misinterpreted

It is said that 'Well behaved women seldom make history'. This is commonly taken to mean that in order for a woman to make an impact she has to make noise, she has to rebel against the norm, she has to misbehave. Yet when Laurel Thatcher Ulrich first coined the phrase in 1976 this was not the meaning she had in mind. Well behaved women are important, but they are seldom remembered. Women have been ignored by historian for centuries, dismissed by many men as incapable of great achievement; forgotten.

from this article: https://womeninhistory.education/well-behaved-women-seldom-make-history/

So much of modern media celebrates the kind of woman that makes noise and rebels against the norm, but let's not forget the quiet women, the ones behind the scenes, the ones that might not be rocking the boat. They can also have an impact. They also matter.

Let's not belittle one kind of woman to uplift another.

I think this is one reason why 2022 Persuasion has angered so many people. The way they changed Anne's character communicates that only one kind of woman is admirable, only one kind of woman deserves to be the heroine of story. It does a disservice to the nuanced, complex, varied personalities and characters and stories of women.