Le Sommeil [The Sleepers], which depicts two women entwined in a post-coital embrace, caused a stir when it was first shown in the 1870s. The police were called in, and the painting was not shown again until the 1980s. But its brief showing had an influence on a number of contemporary artists, and helped challenge the taboos associated with lesbian relationships. For modern audiences it’s a good reminder that people in the 19th century were not ignorant of lesbian relationships, as we tend to believe. And it’s pretty damn sexy, don’t you think?
They called the police on this lesbian painting.
The best part is, the lesbian embrace isn’t even the biggest thing that made the painting so controversial, it was the art style. People in the artistic community at the time were wholly familiar with sapphic relationships being portrayed in art, but were used to these scenes being portrayed in the ‘academic art’ style, which consisted of smooth, simplistic, idealised versions of the nude female form. This often went hand in hand with the depiction of Roman & Greek allegories to illustrate certain ideals (think Cabanel’s Birth of Venus). Courbet’s journey into realism was met by heavy critique from the academic movement, as the women he painted were, well, more realistic. Leaving in details such as the rolls of fat around the ribs acted as a blunt reminder to the audience that these were not euphoric goddesses caressing in ecstasy, but ordinary women having a nap together after making love. Other realist paintings suffered the same controversy, Manet’s Olympia is a perfect example, where the problem was not that the painting depicted a nude woman in an erotic pose, but the fact that she was just an ordinary courtesan, given an identity & portrayed in a place of power & control. Realism humanized the female form in art, & removed it from its previous role as a representation of the ideal.
So what disgusted people about the painting wasn’t so much that Le Sommeil depicted two women, but rather that it depicted two ‘real’ women.
look i’m not saying that children shouldn’t be allowed to play video games or anything like that but the fact that kids as young as EIGHT are using misogynistic, homophobic and racial slurs in casual conversations because they heard their favorite streamer or opponent on a video game say it is something that urgently needs addressing
i love housesitting because it’s the opposite of rent…like ur gonna pay me to pet your cat and eat your perishables and shower in your fancy bathroom? ok?????
anyway with regards to the opioid addiction crisis y’all really need to learn the difference between reliance and addiction, because they’re not the same.
I am reliant on opiate painkillers the same way I am reliant on my epilepsy medication: I take a set amount twice a day in order to function normally. my condition is not curable. physio will not fix it. I do not experience any highs from my painkillers, but I do experience less pain.
this differs vastly to addiction, where the amount you take is not set, may be beyond the safe dose. It will likely cause withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly, as well as harming your body due to the large doses ingested.
this is why it’s terrifying to hear that restrictions are going to be tightened to the extent that it will be almost impossible to get.
that kind of “reform” will only push people -reliant and addicted alike – to get it from non – official sources, where you don’t know what the fuck is in there. it will make actual addicts less safe and reliant people forced to live in agony.
the way to treat this “epidemic” is to invest in addict help schemes, rehab centres, and offer a variety of pain management systems, not this stupid blanket ban style thing that politicians are saying for brownie points.
unlike a lot of angry folks, i have no real problem with people who have cultivated their assets over a few generations and have a million or two in property and investments. that’s something you can actually do with hard work, time, and enough luck that medical surprises or other misfortune doesn’t take it from you. i know actually quite a few families that could pool that much across three generations or a handful of siblings and cousins. that’s the kind of wealth that gave rise to the story of wealth being the result of hard work and intelligence – because if there are a couple doctors or lawyers in the family, or someone bought IBM stock in the 70′s, some attention and elbow grease can give you seven figure results.
which is NOT to say ‘everyone can do it, if you’re poor you’re just not trying’. there are a lot of factors that go into that, and a lucky start is the biggest one. in america, abled whites get that lucky start a lot more than everyone else, and yadda yadda you know the rest.
but the point is, people with like 1.5 million, or 4 million, can end up there by taking advantage of their luck and applying work to it over decades. if that’s what their priority is, of course. so i don’t look at someone with a lake house and an investment portfolio and instantly think EVIL BAD. i think: i don’t really agree with their priorities and we probably wouldn’t get along socially, but the instinct to grow your family’s prosperity is universal, and i’m not going to condemn them without evidence of wrongdoing.
ok, that said?
the ultra-rich?
the billionaires? the hundreds-of-billions-aires?
monstrous.
you cannot cultivate money like that. you cannot grow it as a family project. it starts with an absurd windfall, and then you grow it through crimes compounding upon crimes. crimes against humanity, if not crimes by the law. you acquire billions by making money your god, and flushing your soul down the toilet.
you know what? fuck it, man. the world is held in the fists of people who like to break things. at this point i’m saying who gives a shit. wear that victorian dress you don’t have an excuse for. dress up like a witch, pointed hat and all. who cares anymore. why worry about it when there’s bigger stuff to worry on. i’m saying. yeah, this lipstick is too dark, wanna share? i’m saying go talk to her, tell her that you like her hair. i’m saying she’s out of my league but i’m still swinging, i’m saying yeah i’m in a ballgown and it’s a pta meeting. what about it. eat the extra brownie, tell her your feelings. i’m saying if nothing matters than we might as well give nothing meaning.
hey yall dumb fucks reblogging this and yapping about how, ur life is actually super hard as a younger sibling…
the ‘eldest sisters are oppressed’ thing is based on the fact that the oldest girls in many families are, a lot of the time, drafted into watching her younger siblings to the point that shes more of a young third parent than a kid anymore. shes expected to be incredibly responsible while her younger siblings get to make mistakes. she get to do more housework than her father because apparently men shouldn’t have to watch laundry.
op is obviously referring to the ways in which older sisters ( nope not brothers) are forced into maternal roles by both society and their parents for a number of reasons, not limited to society’s insistence that they must learn to become mothers early. theres also the fact that many families both need and cant afford childcare. this idea that an oldest sister is free childcare is bullshit.
There’s a book called “The Eldest Daughter Effect” that goes into detail about this. And it applies to the oldest daughter so even if the oldest child is a boy and the second child is a daughter, she is the one who ends up getting all that extra pressure and responsibilities for younger siblings.
Very much this, as an eldest daughter I was the free childcare to my youngest brother. I remember working, and being at uni but still had an unemployed brother one year younger than me. I love my brothers and I love my mum to bits but I literally had one day a month where I was able to see friends.
When housework wasn’t fully completed id get chewed out even if my brothers were both home so it was really shitty.
I don’t hold any bad feeling towards my mum, we were a single parent household so ofc I had to step up but a little more balance would have been nice lol.
SlythKris (tumblr backup babey) 