The Skellingcorner

[The Skellingcorner]

[zagreusavenger]

If y’all wanna know the true power of hate, just remember that Alan Turing, the breaker of the enigma code in WWII, was driven to suicide by being forced to undergo chemical castration as a punishment for his homosexuality.

Historians say he saved 14 to 21 million lives.

I’d also like to say in the time we studied WWII in school, the history textbooks never mentioned him. I had never heard of the guy until I watched “The Imitation Game” which I 110% recommend you watch if you haven’t.Alan Turing was a blessing to humanity who saved (once again) 14 to 21 million lives, and he is left out of history because he was gay.

And this is just one example?? So many brilliant and heroic people are left out of history because of their race, their gender, their sexuality, their religion, and it’s just because some bigots in positions of influence get to decide what parts of history are remembered.

[outlanderalien]

This man has had a profound effect on the world, it’s estimated he shortened the war by 2 years, saved countless lives and was the father of modern computing. Without him the world would be a very different, and very dark place.

[positively-lgbtq]

He wasn’t just chemically castrated. The injections they have him were intended to decrease his libido as part his sentence for “gross indecency”. About 2 years after his trial he was found dead in his apartment next to a half eaten apple that was filled with cyanide (which became the inspiration for the Apple logo).

Turing is one of the most amazing people in all of history. He developed our modern method of computing (see: the Turing Machine) and advanced computer science by immeasurable amounts. And he dies when he was 41. Just imagine if he lived in a world where he was accepted. Imagine the technology we would have today and how many more lives would have been saved. No person deserves what Turing got, especially not someone as brilliant as him.

[kerosene--angel]

TEACH. CHILDREN. ABOUT. ALAN. TURING! WHEN THEY LEARN ABOUT WWII, THEY DESERVE TO KNOW ABOUT THE MAN WHO ENDED IT!!!

[The Skellingcorner]

[ramirezbundydahmer]

When the Nazi concentration camps were liberated by the Allies, it was a time of great jubilation for the tens of thousands of people incarcerated in them. But an often forgotten fact of this time is that prisoners who happened to be wearing the pink triangle (the Nazis’ way of marking and identifying homosexuals) were forced to serve out the rest of their sentence. This was due to a part of German law simply known as “Paragraph 175” which criminalized homosexuality. The law wasn’t repealed until 1969.

[anti-clerical]

This should be required learning, internationally. 

[stripedsilverfeline]

You need to know this. You need to remember this. This is not something to swept under the carpet nor be forgotten. 

Never. Too many have died for the way they have loved. That needs stop now. 

Make it stop? 

[smootymormonhelldream]

I did a report on this in my World History class my sophomore year of high school. It was incredibly unsettling.

[pearlmito]

My teacher shown the class this. Mostly everyone in the class felt uncomfortable. 

[lightning-st0rm]

I have reblogged this in the past, but it is so ironic that it comes across my dash right now. I a currently working as a docent at my city’s Holocaust Education Center (( I say currently because I’ve also done research and translation for them )) and out current exhibit is one on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ((USHMM)). This is a little known historical fact that Paragraph 175 was not repealed after the war and those convicted under Nazi laws as a danger to society because they were gay were not released because they had be convicted in a court of law. There was no liberation or justice for them as they weren’t considered criminals, or even victims for that matter. They were criminals who remained persecuted and ostracized and kept on the fringes of society for decades after the war had been won. Paragraph175 wasn’t actually repealed until 1994. And it was only in May 2002, that the German parliament completed legislation to pardon all homosexuals convicted under Paragraph175 during the Nazi era. History has forgotten about these men and women — please educate yourselves so this does not happen again. Remember this history. Remember them.

[jehovahhthickness]

@mindlesshumor ok how the fuck did I miss this when I’ve studied The Holocaust like nobody’s business??? wtf

[thereadersmuse]

Because the history we have left regarding it is literally the contents of this first hand account.

It is a thin little book.

When I first opened it, I wondered why it was so thin.

Why there wasn’t other books like it.

Other first hand accounts.

By the time I finished it, I didn’t wonder anymore.

[lauralandons]

Further reading:

I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror by Pierre Seel

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant

Branded By The Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington

Bent by Martin Sherman (fiction; however, it’s often credited with bringing attention to gay Holocaust victims for the first time since the war ended)

[gemfyre]

This is one of the memorial sculptures in Dachau.  It was erected in the early 60s and is missing the pink triangles.  Because in the early 60s, homosexuality was still a crime in most of the world.
Our tour guide explained why the pink triangles have not been added later - if they were, then folks would assume that they had always been there.  This way people ask “why aren’t there pink triangles?” and somebody can explain why - because in some ways, the rest of the world was as bass-ackwards as Nazi Germany.

[ladylisa]

Apparently, this wasnt taught in schools in the 70s-80s, cuz when I mentioned it to my mom, she had no idea that gays were held in concentration camps. She thought it was just jewish people.

[meshkol]

it wasn’t just homosexuals, for the record. it was anyone the nazis considered to be sexually deviant, so the designation included trans individuals — and, to be brutally honest with the history here, they also lumped paedophiles into this pink designation as well, plus people who had sexual relations with animals or inanimate objects.

also, generally speaking, the pink triangle was solely for male homosexuals and trans women, whereas the black triangle was for female homosexuals and trans men (as well as sex workers). sure, the designation classification system was fluid in some ways, depending on the location of the camp and the year of the War, but those two colours were pretty universal throughout the entirety of those years.

in any case, multitudes of queer people — jews or otherwise — who were put into the camps were left there, or imprisoned in other places, by the allies just as much as the various nations they were left in. this is not a “oh well can’t change the nasty germans’ evil biases even after hitler offed himself”; the allies and occupied-then-liberated countries left queer men, women, and everyone in between in hell, and wrote them out of the history books for good measure.

never forget. never fucking forget.

[The Skellingcorner]

“Radium Girls” by Eleanor Swanson

[trailblazingfever]

We sat at long tables side by side in a big

dusty room where we laughed and carried

on until they told us to pipe down and paint.

The running joke was how we glowed,

the handkerchiefs we sneezed into lighting

up our purses when we opened them at night,

our lips and nails, painted for our boyfriends

as a lark, simmering white as ash in a dark room.

“Would you die for science?” the reporter asked us,

Edna and me, the main ones in the papers.

Science? We mixed up glue, water and radium

powder into a glowing greenish white paint

and painted watch dials with a little

brush, one number after another, taking

one dial after another, all day long,

from racks sitting next to our chairs.

After a few strokes, the brush lost its shape,

and our bosses told us to point it with

our lips. Was that science?

I quit the watch factory to work in a bank

and thought I’d gotten class, more money,

a better life, until I lost a tooth in back

and two in front and my jaw filled up with sores.

We sued: Edna, Katherine, Quinta, Larice and me,

but when we got to court, not one of us

could raise our arms to take the oath.

My teeth were gone by then. “Pretty Grace

Fryer,” they called me in the papers.

All of us were dying.

We heard the scientist in France, Marie

Curie, could not believe “the manner

in which we worked” and how we tasted

that pretty paint a hundred times a day.

Now, even our crumbling bones

will glow forever in the black earth.

[The Skellingcorner]

demilked.com

Ukrainian Women Bring Back Traditional Floral Crowns To Show National Pride

A Slavic workshop of stylists and photographers called Treti Pivni have decided to bring back one of the more amazing Ukranian traditions by giving it a new meaning. They've produced a portrait series of modern Ukranian women dressed in traditional Ukranian floral headdresses.

[sartorialadventure]

[The Skellingcorner]

[aleyma]

Posy ring with pictogram inscription, ‘Two hands, one heart, Till death us part.’ Made in England in the 17th century (source).

[The Skellingcorner]

[theinturnetexplorer]

Great Understatements in History

[distortion-princess]

For a minute i thought these were last words

[The Skellingcorner]

[allthingsgerman]

Why Donald Trump’s success isn’t funny.

[allthingsgerman]

Just bringing this back

[allthingsgerman]

allofmyfriendsaredead

“Though I do believe trump is a egotistical and bigoted prick, comparing him to Hitler is just wrong. Just call him a dickhead rather than comparing him to  Someone who tried to eradicate Jews, the disabled and the LBGTQ communities wholesale”

God, I hate it when people use that argument. You do realize Hitler wasn’t born as a dictator who killed millions of Jews and disabled people, right? People didn’t vote for him because he had already killed Jews. People voted for him because he used to be just the same kind of dickhead Trump is now. Somehow his rhetoric appealed to people because it made them feel like things would get better for them and he conveniently blamed it all on Jews. He didn’t go “LET’S KILL ALL JEWS”, nope. He just identified Jews as the source of the problem for everyone else. 

Now tell me Trump isn’t doing that with Mexicans and Muslims? Tell me he isn’t. How can you be so blind not to see that someone like Trump can turn into what Hitler was in the end? Hitler was a person who made his way to power by convincing people of his fucked up worldview. Stop trying to make Hitler this symbol of evil you can’t compare anyone to. Look at his development. Look at it and tell me you can’t see parallels between him and Trump. 

We’re not saying Trump is going to commit a genocide the minute he gets into office. But a) Hitler didn’t do that either and b) with that much support in society he is dangerous enough. His brilliant idea to register Muslims so you can recognize them easily and avoid them is already one of those things …. The danger is there. Do you wanna risk it? 

[janiedean]

and this is why people should study wwii history in depth in schools everywhere

[The Skellingcorner]

[allthingsgerman]

Why Donald Trump’s success isn’t funny.

[allthingsgerman]

Just bringing this back

[The Skellingcorner]

[unexplained-events]

Researchers have used Easter Island Moai replicas to show how they might have been “walked” to where they are displayed.

VIDEO

[smileforthehigh]

Finally. People need to realize aliens aren’t the answer for everything (when they use it to erase poc civilizations and how smart they were)

[desiremyblack]

(via TumbleOn)

[pearlsnapbutton]

What’s really wild is that the native people literally told the Europeans “they walked” when asked how the statues were moved. The Europeans were like “lol these backwards heathens and their fairy tales guess it’s gonna always be a mystery!”

[kiwianaroha]

Maori told Europeans that kiore were native rats and no one believed them until DNA tests proved it

And the Iroquois told Europeans that squirels showed them how to tap maple syrup and no one believed them until they caught it on video

[theopensea]

Oral history from various First Nations tribes in the Pacific Northwest contained stories about a massive earthquake/tsunami hitting the coast, but no one listened to them until scientists discovered physical evidence of quakes from the Cascadia fault line.

[thegirlthewolfate]

Roopkund Lake AKA “Skeleton Lake” in the Himalayas in India is eerie because it was discovered with hundreds of skeletal remains and for the life of them researchers couldn’t figure out what it was that killed them. For decades the “mystery” went unsolved.

Until they finally payed closer attention to local songs and legend that all essentially said “Yah the Goddess Nanda Devi got mad and sent huge heave stones down to kill them”. That was consistent with huge contusions found all on their neck and shoulders and the weather patterns of the area, which are prone to huge & inevitably deadly goddamn hailstones. https://www.facebook.com/atlasobscura/videos/10154065247212728/

Literally these legends were past down for over a thousand years and it still took researched 50 to “figure out” the “mystery”. 🙄

[The Skellingcorner]

[post--grad]

A BIG OLD LIST OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY & LITERATURE RESOURCES.

y’all knew this was coming. the resources I especially recommend are bolded, and I’ll probably update this periodically.

HISTORY, SOCIETY, & POLITICS.

• the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (modern English translation). begun in the late 9th century and added to until the 12th.
• clear map of the Norman Conquest.
• English medieval history from the BBC.
• Terry Jones’s “Medieval Lives” documentary series. yes, the one from Monty Python.

LANGUAGES.

• OLD ENGLISH
• Anglo-Saxon dictionary.
• Introduction to Old English. (with exercises; click on the “aerobics” link on the left; you may need to make an account.)
• massive compilation of O.E. resources. I mean it, it’s massive.  
  
• Middle English dictionary. note: when searching dictionaries, use the first few letters of the word followed by an asterisk - spelling wasn’t standardized! so if you’re looking up the word tonnen, search ton*.
• Anglo-Norman dictionary.
  
• READING & PRONUNCIATION
• Reading Middle English. a really thorough group of lessons on basic (Chaucerian) language, pronunciation, and analysis.
• basic/general Middle English pronunciation guide.
• scholars reading Chaucer aloud. 
• History of English podcast.

ART.

• MANUSCRIPT IMAGES
• Discarding Images (facebook). hilarious/beautiful manuscript marginalia.
• the Getty’s open content program. (they also have a tumblr). you’ll have to do some searching but they’ve got a ton of gorgeous manuscript pages.
• the Book of Kells online.
  
• all of Mallory Ortberg’s posts about the two monks.
  
• POC in medieval art history.
• medieval drama. includes resources for mystery cycles, art, and music.

LITERATURE & SCHOLARSHIP.

• TEAMS manuscript editions. scholarly editions of medieval texts with great footnotes, accompanied by extremely well-researched introductions.
  
• BLOGS
• In the Medieval Middle. this is one of my absolute favorite medievalist blogs - it’s run by a group of (well-known) scholars, but is based more on their personal interests than any single overarching theme. 
• the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog. a fabulously eclectic (and really active!) selection taken from the BL’s holdings.
• the Wellcome Library’s blog on early medicine. does what it says on the tin. 
• MedievalBooks.nl. Erik Kwakkel’s blog - provides some well-curated blog posts about books, binding, etc. 
• Andreas Capellanus’s De Amore. a guide to courtly love - important to know if you’re going to be reading anything medieval, especially romances.
• Chaucer resources.
• ARTHURIANA
• basic overview by Judy Shoaf.
• big list of Arthurian legend academic resources. includes some really good bibliographies.
• the Camelot Project. makes the above list look small.

MANUSCRIPTS & MANUSCRIPT RESOURCES.

• MS REPOSITORIES
• the Huntington Library.
• the British Library.
• the Digital Scriptorium.
  
• SPECIFIC MSS
• Electronic Beowulf / Beowulf with facing-page translations.
• the Ellesmere Chaucer.
• Making Parchment. a short animation by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
• Making Manuscripts. a really lovely series of videos (20 mins total) from the Getty that show the actual ms production process.
• Late Medieval English Scribes. a database of scribal hands with examples of letterforms.
• Sexy Codicology. collaborative blog dealing with paleography & codicology.