Neverland

I’ve lived through many ages. I’ve seen suffering in the...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:15:22 -0700

I’ve lived through many ages. I’ve seen suffering in the darkness. Yet I have seen beauty thrive in the most fragile of places. I have seen the book. The book that turned darkness into light

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:13:05 -0700

yosb: Stoker | Costume Design → India Stoker’s b/w classic...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:12:17 -0700

yosb:

Stoker | Costume Design
→ India Stoker’s b/w classic school saddle shoes [x]

infatuated with the aesthetics and the costume/wardrobe of this film & managed to snag a pair of india’s oxfords/saddles; unfortunately, i’m not about those christian louboutin heels life (and neither is my wallet)

medievalpoc: Unknown (formerly att. Johann Zoffany) Dido...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:09:12 -0700

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]

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:04:20 -0700

hate-my-human: secretcallgirl: kokilax: randomizeyourmind: Ra...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:39:26 -0700

hate-my-human:

secretcallgirl:

kokilax:

randomizeyourmind:

Rape has become endemic in South Africa, so a medical technician named Sonette Ehlers developed a product that immediately gathered national attention there. Ehlers had never forgotten a rape victim telling her forlornly, “If only I had teeth down there.”

Some time afterward, a man came into the hospital where Ehlers works in excruciating pain because his penis was stuck in his pants zipper.

Ehlers merged those images and came up with a product she called Rapex. It resembles a tube, with barbs inside. The woman inserts it like a tampon, with an applicator, and any man who tries to rape the woman impales himself on the barbs and must go to an emergency room to have the Rapex removed.

When critics complained that it was a medieval punishment, Ehlers replied tersely, “A medieval device for a medieval deed.”

- Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof

REBLOGGING THIS. x1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

A medieval device for a medieval deed - yes.

This is perfect

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:29:22 -0700

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:18:07 -0700

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:17:49 -0700

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:17:28 -0700

apocalypticlove: “Wednesday is at that point in her life where...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:48:03 -0700

apocalypticlove:

“Wednesday is at that point in her life where there is only one thing on her mind…”

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:50:57 -0700

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:50:29 -0700

”I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:40:52 -0700

”I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long” - Marie Antoinette.

freakyandweird: Emilia Clarke

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:16:21 -0700

freakyandweird:

Emilia Clarke

Beautiful Cinema - Pan’s Labyrinth

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:15:40 -0700

Beautiful Cinema - Pan’s Labyrinth

"Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?"

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:08:51 -0700

““Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?””

- Louis XIV (last words)

the-disney-words: Love Disney? This blog is just for you!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:08:08 -0700

the-disney-words:

Love Disney? This blog is just for you!

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:07:58 -0700

I know I asked you this before but I'm asking you again. Does it bother you that in the Naurto world, they let an 12 year old orphan wander around casuing trouble and parents don't like him or pay attention to him and that people probably like the orphan Sasuke better because he's more attractive?

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:07:02 -0700

DAGNY LEAVE ME ALONE. STOP TRYING TO BURST MY ~~PERFECT~~ BUBBLE.