By Phil McAndrew [website | tumblr | twitter]
[h/t: tastefullyoffensive]
Does what it says on the tin.
Ask me stuff
June 19, 2013
June 19, 2013
(Source: preciousandfunny, via thefrogman)
June 19, 2013
“We went to Kineshma, that’s in Ivanovo region, to visit his parents. I went as a heroine and I never expected someone to welcome me, a front-line girl, like that. We’ve gone through so much, we’ve saved lives, lifes of mothers, wives. And then… I heard accusations, I was bad-mouthed. Before that I’ve only ever been “dear sister”… We had tea and my husband’s mother took him aside and started crying: “Who did you marry? A front-line girl… You have two younger sisters. Who’s going to marry them now?” When I think back to that moment I feel tears welling up. Imagine: I had a record, I loved it a lot. There was a song, it said: you have the right to wear the best shoes. That was about a front-line girl. I had it playing, and [his?] elder sister came up and broke it apart, saying: you have no rights. They destroyed all my photos from the war… We, front-line girls, went through so much during hte war… and then we had another war. Another terrible war. The men left us, they didn’t cover our backs. Not like at the front.” from С.Алексеевич “У войны не женское лицо”
In Soviet Union women participating in WWII were erased from history, remaining as the occasional anecdote of a female sniper or simply as medical staff or, at best, radio specialists. The word “front-line girl” (frontovichka) became a terrible insult, synonimous to “whore”. Hundreds thousand of girls who went to war to protect their homeland with their very lives, who came back injured or disabled, with medals for valor, had to hide it to protect themselves from public scorn.
This has always happened in history: Women do something important. Then they get shamed for it (so nobody will talk about it) and it gets erased from history.
And then certain men will say: “Women suck, they’ve never done anything important.”
Look into history and learn that women have played a far greater role then douches (present and past) wanted you to know.
People pretend that women didn’t do anything of interest until the 60s, and this is why.
(via beyondvictoriana)
June 19, 2013
![thefrogman:
[imgur | video] [h/t: dpaf]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/9010d7257bbd6c1c8b8b6cbcd960cd73/tumblr_mnpp3oxANs1r5c792o1_400.gif)
June 18, 2013
![medievalpoc:
Unknown (formerly att. Johann Zoffany)
Dido Elizabeth Belle
Scotland (1779)
oil on canvas
Scone Palace, Perth (private collection of the Earl of Mansfield)
Although this painting falls outside the usual scope of this blog, it is one of my favorite historical European paintings. Dido Elizabeth Belle was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and enslaved African woman named Belle.
This painting was most likely commissioned by her father, the nephew of the Earl of Mansfield, and depicts the beautiful and vivacious Belle alongside her cousin, Elizabeth Murray.
The first time I saw this painting was in an art history classroom, accompanied by a story regarding the dehumanization of Africans in the Unites States, and the scores of visiting Americans who were scandalized by this painting. In America and several places in Europe, contemporaneous paintings always depicted people considered Black in subservient positions in relation to people considered White, if they bothered to paint them at all. To raise a bastard daughter of color alongside legitimate heirs was antithetical to American thought.
Dido Belle was raised and educated alongside the other highborn daughters of the household, and remained a favorite of the Earl and her father well into her thirties, after which an advantageous marriage was arranged.
Her position in the Earl’s household supervising the poultry yards was typical for any lady of high birth at the time, but her job overseeing the lord’s correspondence was usually a task reserved for a highly educated male clerk or scribe and is evidence of her importance and elevated rank. She received an allowance of £30 per year, more than any except the heiress herself and a sum unheard of at the time for any illegitimate daughter.
Upon Lord Mansfield’s death in 1788, Belle was furnished with a £500 lump sum in addition to a £100 annuity, as well as a suitable marriage to John Davinier, with whom she had three children. In Mansfield’s will, her status as a free person was carefully confirmed, since many would have been all too happy to divest her of her fortune.
Belle died in 1804 and was interred in St. George’s Fields, the parish to which she and her husband belonged.
My interest in this story was renewed recently when I learned that an upcoming film, Belle (currently in production), will be a dramatized biopic of Dido Elizabeth Belle’s life. The titular role will be played by South African actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
[x] [x] [x] [x]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/d43ee6b11067ecdb0067a68065d0086a/tumblr_molg92ZgV91ssmm02o1_1280.jpg)
Unknown (formerly att. Johann Zoffany)
Dido Elizabeth Belle
Scotland (1779)
oil on canvas
Scone Palace, Perth (private collection of the Earl of Mansfield)
Although this painting falls outside the usual scope of this blog, it is one of my favorite historical European paintings. Dido Elizabeth Belle was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and enslaved African woman named Belle.
This painting was most likely commissioned by her father, the nephew of the Earl of Mansfield, and depicts the beautiful and vivacious Belle alongside her cousin, Elizabeth Murray.
The first time I saw this painting was in an art history classroom, accompanied by a story regarding the dehumanization of Africans in the Unites States, and the scores of visiting Americans who were scandalized by this painting. In America and several places in Europe, contemporaneous paintings always depicted people considered Black in subservient positions in relation to people considered White, if they bothered to paint them at all. To raise a bastard daughter of color alongside legitimate heirs was antithetical to American thought.
Dido Belle was raised and educated alongside the other highborn daughters of the household, and remained a favorite of the Earl and her father well into her thirties, after which an advantageous marriage was arranged.
Her position in the Earl’s household supervising the poultry yards was typical for any lady of high birth at the time, but her job overseeing the lord’s correspondence was usually a task reserved for a highly educated male clerk or scribe and is evidence of her importance and elevated rank. She received an allowance of £30 per year, more than any except the heiress herself and a sum unheard of at the time for any illegitimate daughter.
Upon Lord Mansfield’s death in 1788, Belle was furnished with a £500 lump sum in addition to a £100 annuity, as well as a suitable marriage to John Davinier, with whom she had three children. In Mansfield’s will, her status as a free person was carefully confirmed, since many would have been all too happy to divest her of her fortune.
Belle died in 1804 and was interred in St. George’s Fields, the parish to which she and her husband belonged.
My interest in this story was renewed recently when I learned that an upcoming film, Belle (currently in production), will be a dramatized biopic of Dido Elizabeth Belle’s life. The titular role will be played by South African actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
(via secrethistoriesproject)
June 18, 2013
Artificially Awake says: “Fanart painting of the wonderful goofball that is Otis!!!!! Made with COFFEE (cause Corgis need more of that)”
I love it. Thank you!
If you are interested in commissioning her for a coffee portrait of your pet, check out her Etsy.
June 18, 2013
June 18, 2013
DO BLACK PEOPLE REALLY DO THIS STUFF? Black Steampunks and Steamfunkateers
DO BLACK PEOPLE REALLY DO THIS STUFF? Black Steampunks and Steamfunkateers
For as long as I can…
(via beyondvictoriana)
June 18, 2013
...and then they came for the trans* people.
Transgender people in Greece are now being rounded up and detained in a continuation of the social cleansing of the “undesirables”.FUCK.
THIS.
Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention.
“Under the pretense that of checking that the person is not involved in the sex industry trans people are being rounding up and arrested. Their details are taken and they are detained for several hours. On release they are warned that if they did not “return to normal” they would be arrested for public indecency.”
Absolutely terrifying. Please spread this around and make it known that this is happening, and there’s also a petition you can sign!
(via beyondvictoriana)
June 18, 2013
South Africa:
The art of Mohau Modisakeng
William A Ewing :
The young Soweto-born Mohau Modisakeng is all for the coming together of the peoples of post-colonial Africa, but feels that this can’t be done at the expense of history. There are scores to settle, and better that they are settled in symbolic combat than blood.
For the most part Modisakeng works as a sculptor, with recourse to performance, video and photography as the concept requires. In the triptych Untitled, the artist himself embodies that need for confrontation to resolve differences.
His apron speaks for the hard, industrial labour that was the fate of his ancestors; the leopard print signifies high status among his fellow men (male members of Zulu royalty wore leopard skins to remind their enemies that this fierce animal hides, waits and attacks at the right moment); the bowler hat stands for the patriarchal white man, the ‘civilized’ oppressor.
The body language is clear: this is a fighter come to seek justice. He emerges from a dark past, striding forward into the light, clothed in history.
Outstanding.
Bolded that opening paragraph as it highly resonates with my feelings on the intersections between black consciousness and pan-africanism, and the integral progress that can blossom from powerful post-colonial narratives such as this.
(via beyondvictoriana)
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