When I was young, I was taught that being Jewish meant:
you don’t cross picket lines,
you work for peace,
you fight for social justice,
you never forget the suffering of your people as a link to the suffering of others.
Sabrina Virgo, as quoted by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner in To Life!
(Thank you for the book recommendation, skywritingg!)
I mean the whole damn point of the Nativity story is that the supposed son of God (interpret Jesus how you fucking want, of course) was born to a couple of poor, exhausted peasants in the stable for the inn, and his first bed was a feeding trough for animals. That would nowadays be like a poor couple where the mother gives birth in a parking garage behind the motel because they couldn’t find a better place and nobody else would take them in. It’s a pretty gritty setting, and the idea is that God was reborn in some of the rock-bottom lowest circumstances. The only thing majestic was all the angels and shit, and of course motherly love
I get that a lot of the art portraying Madonna and Child as fabulously wealthy europeans in splendid robes and golden light was meant to glorify God + whichever nobility was sponsoring the artist, and while of course it’s genuinely beautiful art, it just always struck me as horribly missing the point, which is that the supposed son of God started in incredibly humble circumstances, among the kind of people that everyone else looks down on
‘Massacre des Innocents’ by Leon Cogniét, 1824. Although the Feast of the Holy Innocents is in a couple of days time, this painting is still really relevant in that it portrays Mary as how She really was: a scared refugee mum, so fearful that Her son was going to be one of the Innocents killed by King Herod.
This is the greatest progression of events I have ever read, where’s my historical gay romance novel about this
KING JAMES, CAN YOU CHILL?
Local King Cannot Stop Promoting His Boyfriend
where’s the lush period drama about this series of events?
fun thing about king James, this guy was fairly public about his bf (more public than what was acceptable). He threw lots of extravagant parties with his man on his arm. It pissed off the church obviously so to get them off his back, he’s the one that ordered the third translation of the Bible from Hebrew to English (the King James Version aka the Authorized Version) so the Bible every hot blooded all American Christian reads today was literally just written so a very gay king could fuck his boyfriend in peace.
oh my god this is hilarious
“guys, guys. I know this looks kinda gay, and i promise i have a good explanation for all this, but have you considered… that jesus… is also gay? checkmate, heteros.”
how come conservative students think they’re smarter than professors with doctorates and shit
conservative students swear that every university professor is some radical leftist with an agenda when usually it’s a professor that just uses critical thinking skills, context, and has empathy
if you swear all the professors you encounter are wrong, it might actually be that your opinions are outdated, bigoted, and incorrect lmao
This is actually the reason behind the popular notion within conservative circles that universities have a “liberal bias.”
Consistently, conservative students will leave higher ed because they perceive critical thinking, self-critique, and open discussion as attacks on their selfhood, rather than as a process of refining ideas and arguments. All of their accusations about how the people who disagree with them are just “too sensitive” are nothing more than projection, because they very idea that they should question their own assumptions is something they believe would only make them weak.
It’s become increasingly obvious to me that conservative people are just those who have never developed critical thinking skills
My father, who teaches drafting, CAD, and technical math at the local college, told me once that the reason he was a liberal was because “When you start learning about the world with an open mind, when you start meeting and talking to people with an open mind, when you look at the world as a whole and think about it critically, you come to realize that reality has a liberal ‘bias’, and that it’s less a bias than just the logical conclusions of intelligent, compassionate, and emphatic people who want to leave the world better than they found it. To be a conservative Republican, you have to be able to shut down and not acknowledge any of that, and get mad at anyone who tries to point it out.”
Elbe was a Danish artist and illustrator and one of the first trans
women to undergo gender confirmation surgery. […]
Her case became a sensation in both
Germany and Denmark and a Danish court invalidated her marriage to
Gottlieb. She was able to get her sex and name legally changed.
Elbe began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune, with
whom she wanted to marry and have children, and was looking forward to
her final surgery involving a uterus transplant, so that they could one
day have children.
With no medication to prevent organ rejection, she did not recover
from her final operation and died September 13, 1931 […] Elbe’s life is the
subject of the 2015 Oscar nominated film “The Danish Girl”.
Wendy Carlos
Wendy Carlos is an Americn Composer and keyboardist best known her
electronic music and film scores. Carlos help oversee the development of
the Moog synthesizer, and help to popularize the instrument by
recording an album of music by Johann Sebastian Bach called Switched-On Bach which won her three Grammy Awards. She also composed the scores for both, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining as well as Disney’s Tron.
Tracy Norman
Tracey “Africa” Norman was the first black trans fashion model,
though she hid the secret of her gender identity as she rose through the
industry in the 1970s. Norman was recruited for the Italian version of
Vogue and quickly became a model, appearing in magazines and
advertisements for such brands as Avon and Clairol. Norman said that she
only went into modeling to avoid sex work, which she thought of as the
only other outlet for a black trans woman from Newark, New Jersey, who
had just begun taking hormones.
Around 1980, an assistant on an Essence magazine photo shoot
who recognized her from Newark exposed her secret, and Norman stopped
getting modeling work after that. She worked abroad in Paris and Milan
before moving back to Newark, and only decided this year to tell her
true story.
Sally Mursi
In 1988, Egyptian Sally Mursi sent a shockwave through the Muslim
World when she changed her sex from male to female in Egypt. The case
led to such a crisis in the country that the Grand Mufti was asked to
decide on it. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, the Grand Mufti, released a fatwa,
making it spiritually legal for a transgendered individual to change to
his or her appropriate gender.
Martine Rothblatt
Martine Rothblatt is a lawyer, author and entrepreneur. She also
happens to be the highest paid female executive in the US, and for good
reason. She was a leading proponent of satellite communications, as well
as former CEO of the Geostar Corporation and founder of Sirius
Satellite Radio.
Fallon Fox is the only out trans mixed martial arts fighter and the
subject of the documentary Game Face. She has used her influence outside
of the ring to bring attention to issues affecting trans youth, like
ending conversion therapy.
Sadie Switchblade of G.L.O.S.S.
Sadie is the badass frontwoman of G.L.O.S.S. (Girls Living Outside
Society’s Shit), a hardcore punk band out of Olympia, Washington.
G.L.O.S.S. is crucial listening for punks who are hungry for music that
vocalizes queer and trans experiences with brutal honesty Check out
their bandcamp here: (https://girlslivingoutsidesocietysshit.bandcamp.com/releases)
Landa Lakes
Landa Lakes is a Native American two-spirit individual from the
Chicasaw Tribal Community in Oklahoma, and an activist and drag
performer. Regarding their self-chosen name, Landa said, “It’s a
tongue-in-cheek reference for the famous butter mascot because I like to
point out that even in today’s world we’re still using native people as
mascots.”
Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not fucking blue.
I have been waiting for this post all my life.
They are indeed purple, But one thing you’ve missed: The concept of “purple” Didn’t always exist.
Some cultures lack names For a color, you see. Hence good old Homer And his “wine-dark sea.”
A usage so quaint, A phrasing so old, For verses of romance Is sheer fucking gold.
So roses are red. Violets once were called blue. I’m hugely pedantic But what else is new?
My friend you’re not wrong
About Homer’s wine-ey sea!
Colours are a matter
Of cultural contingency;
Words are in flux
And meanings they drift
But the word purple
You’ve given short shrift.
The concept of purple,
My friends, is old
And refers to a pigment
once precious as gold.
By crushing up molluscs
From the wine-dark sea
You make a dye:
Imperial decree
Meant that in Rome,
to wear purpura
was a privilege reserved
For only the emperor!
The word ‘purple’,
for clothes so fancy,
Entered English
By the ninth century
.
Why then are voilets
Not purple in song?
The dye from this mollusc,
known for so long
Is almost magenta;
More red than blue.
The concept of purple
is old, and yet new.
The dye is red,
So this might be true:
Roses are purple
And violets are blue
.
While this song makes me merry, Tyrian purple dyes many a hue From magenta to berry And a true purple too.
But fun as it is to watch this poetic race The answer is staring you right in the face: Roses are red and violets are blue Because nothing fucking rhymes with purple.
things english speakers know, but don’t know we know.
WOAH WHAT?
That is profound. I noticed this by accident when asked about adjectives by a Japanese student. She translated something from Japanese like “Brown big cat” and I corrected her. When she asked me why, I bluescreened.
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