the existence of Mr for men, Mrs / Ms for women and Mx for nonbinary implies the existence of at least 23 other genders: Ma, Mb, Mc, Md, Me, Mf, Mg, Mh, Mi, Mj, Mk, Ml, Mm, Mn, Mo, Mp, Mq, Mt, Mu, Mv, Mw, My, Mz

however, I think "Ma" can also be feminine (Ma Jenny is just short for Mother Jenny), and "Mq" is for a noble title (Marquess, like the Mq de Sade), and Mc is for Scots from Scotland and food from McDonald's. And My is just a possessive pronoun. So those probably aren't their own genders in the way that Mh clearly is.

So, we can conclude that roughly 22 total genders exist, but we can't be certain. For example, Mf clearly stands for Motherfucker, but that doesn't prove anything, since an estimated 16% of people would identify with and use the title Motherfucker. In addition, Mm can be a French title for Madame or Mademoiselle, but it is unclear whether this means Mm is just another female/feminine title or whether a French is a kind of gender. I will keep you all posted

My favorite dinosaur, the Diphthong

I don’t think adding nonbinary to Victorian’s gender system would’ve fixed their weird sexism. If anything I think it would’ve made them weirder and sexismier

Someone needs to write a satirical etiquette book in the style of a Victorian with rules for Ladies, Gentlemen, and Honorables in Polite Society.

Oh please someone do this

It would go something like

Of course, fashionable Honorables may be consternated by the proper open collar blouses as there is no way to tie a bow or cravat around it. In such cases a bow may be worn upon the top hat. Or a slim ribbon may be tied around the bare neck, however, given the salacious reputation some hold for such an accessory, that is best left to married Honorables.

YES. the way this hasn’t left my mind….Like okay they’re still Victorians. They’re still sexist and homophobic. My thought for this alternate history is third gender people are expected to only marry into already married couples. And they’d probably throw in a lot of Christian Holy Trinity and Mary Joseph God imagery to religiously validate triads.

Or three people (of all different genders of course bc again. They’re Victorian) could marry all at once but the courting situation would be a nightmare.

My question is,,, would Honorables have a dowry?

First thought: coverture. Coverture is the legal idea that a married couple is one entity, with the wife not having an actual legal identity of her own. This is why there's the old-fashioned convention of women taking on their husband's entire name (e.g. "Mrs. Robert Smith"), why men could control any inheritance or money their wives had, and also the origin of some now-obsolete laws (like making it impossible for a wife to sue her husband for damages, because it's as if she was suing herself).

This is why it was so important for women to marry well: even if you worked as a married woman (and many women did), your money wasn't actually yours. It's one thing to have to live with a drunk asshole; it's worse to have that drunk asshole be the sole person who decides if that paycheck goes towards rent or more booze.

So, having a trinity/three parts of one whole entity would totally fit Victorian ideas of coverture. I think you'd still have it be men > everyone else, because they'd expect some kind of hierarchy, and even within the Trinity, God is still the leader.

Second thought: separate spheres. The Victorian era was very heavily focused on men being involved in the "dirty" business of work/politics/etc., and women being more morally pure and better suited to the domestic sphere (the whole "angel of the house" thing). Obviously this wasn't actually or practically true a lot of the time, but it was the aspired-to standard, the thing you'd measure people against to say if they were acting appropriately as members of their gender or not.

So you'd need a third sphere for Honorables to inhabit that is completely separate from the work/domestic dichotomy, or create an entirely different three-way dichotomy. Basically, you'd need a thing to point to, like "X is very ladylike" or "Y is not manly," but for Honorables.

So, extrapolating:

Non-leadership admin, teaching, and academia as the third sphere.

The idea of who should be in charge of household accounting has always waffled between a man’s job and a woman’s job. Is teaching the realm of governesses and school mistresses or lecturers and professors. Academics are too weak and frail to be masculine but too logical and rigorous to be feminine.

Clerks and accountants and secretaries and teachers and scholars.

I can see it becoming a Mind (Honorable) Heart (Woman) Soul (Man) kind of separation, all three together making up the body. Women are suited for feelings, nurturing, caring. Honorables are suited for the pursue of pure knowledge, but lack the Will to put it to any practical use. Finally men are the one leading force that brings all the parts together and leads it into an action.

Thus, men, even if they're unqualified on whatever area of knowledge they're dealing with, and even if they have no understanding of their or other people's feelings whatsoever, still possess an inherent and intangible quality that makes them the only part truly suited for decision making.

Woman: Caretaker

Honorable: Assistant/Advisor

Men: Leader

Picrew chain game!

Been seeing a lot of these lately so I thought I’d start one!

please make yourself using this picrew and tag whoever you want!

@earlgrey24, @r0binphobic, @historicalshroe @personafried, @mandatorycommunistbrunchhour,

Oh this looks cute, thanks for the tag! (the lack of colour in my outfits is pretty accurate tbh)

tagging @theghostofbean @pleasecallmealsip @chaotic-history & anyone else who wants to participate (no pressure ofc!)

Thanks for the tag!! This one was fun

Tagging: @iron--and--blood, @my-deer-friend, @katrina20lh, @18th-century-mental-health, and anyone else who wants to add on!

Live footage of me breaking into the Bibliothèque de Genève's archives.

Tagging @ouiouixmonami @butoridesvirescens @moon932 @crys-sp and whoever wants to join in!

Based on what I look like when I drag my aching body out of bed at 6am to take care of those ungrateful half-ton quadrupeds that rule my life.

@tallmadgeandtea @littlewritingrabbit and whoever else enjoys these.

Oh you bet I'm clambering. Thanks for the tag!

@noodledoesntknow and @ptashenka and @22degreehalo if any of you guys want to do this go for it but no pressure :))

"Sailed yesterday & ran my boat against a post off South Bay_ the day employed to very little purpose besides reading Gibbons essays."

-Francis Kinloch, in a note dated June 24, 1795

"I am between 7 & 8 & have a little horse named Popet_ adieu my dear sister_ I bathe in the Sea_"

-Frederick Kinloch (son of Francis Kinloch) to his sister (presumably his half-sister Eliza Kinloch Nelson, who lived in Virginia), in a letter from 1797

"Ben going into the Sea like Polyphemus after Ulysses &c Fredericks escape the same day when he fell out of the Boat &c what a necessary part of education swimming is &c"

-Francis Kinloch, in a note from 1797

The first quote I enjoy simply because of Francis's lack of sailing ability. The last two quotes serve as an interesting follow-up to Francis saving Lord North's son from drowning in a river - the line "what a necessary part of education swimming is" is likely a reference to both that event and Frederick's falling out of the boat. Francis appears to have been a strong swimmer, and his note above suggests he enjoyed swimming in the sea (presumably the Atlantic Ocean). It's difficult to say whether Frederick was able to swim to safety after falling out of the boat or if Francis had to jump in after his son, but it's interesting that Francis dealt with multiple swimming-related emergencies in his life. It seems likely that Francis would have taught his son how to swim, especially if they both frequented the sea.

All quotations from the “Kinloch family history and genealogy research files” in the South Carolina Historical Society Archives

I must not mock Gen Alpha. Mocking Gen Alpha is the mind killer. Mocking Gen Alpha is the little-death that brings total generational solidarity obliteration. I will engage with Gen Alpha lovingly. I will permit them to be cringe. And when they grow up I will turn my eye to their accomplishments. Where mocking has gone there will be nothing. Only generational solidarity remains

Genuinely 90% of historical fiction would be so much better if more writers could get more comfortable with the fact that to create a good story set in a different time period you do actually have to give the characters beliefs & values which reflect that time period

#even if they share your values they would phrase things differently. ‘​I hate to see a man hanged for it’ vs ‘love is love’ (via @aurpiment)

You can research what people actually said in history!

In 1726, when William Brown was on trial for attempted sodomy in London, he didn't say "I was born this way", he said, "“I think there is no crime in making what use I please of my own body”.

In the 12th century, Hildegard of Bingen didn't say, "A woman can do anything a man can do!", she said, God created men and women with different humours and having too much of the male elements will throw society out of balance.

In the 1860s, Millicent Garrett Fawcett didn't say, "Women are just as smart as men", she said, Men get to vote no matter how dumb they are.

In the 1850s, William Craft didn't say, "Africans are just as smart as Europeans and it's bigoted to say otherwise", he said that Africans have thick skulls “to defend the brain from the tropical climate in which he lived. If God had not given them thick skulls their brains would probably have become very much like those of many scientific gentlemen of the present day”

being a fan of a friend's ocs is actually so humiliating....... like yes my favourite character rn is tragically doomed and a pillar of humanity who i think is relevant to the current world. you can find information about them on discord dot com and sometimes in late-night conversations with this guy i know. what the fuck

up late at night thinking about a guy who exists to three people. such a desire to talk about him until my lungs give out and read every scrap of fanfiction on the internet and yet there is NOTHING!!!! and i have to pretend to be NORMAL about this. "oh yes your character is cool. have you considered writing more" meanwhile the wolves in my brain are tearing and biting

Truth and truth and TRUTHandtruth and truth and thruth and truthandtruth and truth coming out of their well to shame mankind.

turn up that fucking hurdy gurdy

Escapril Day 7 - Portrait

-PJ

(Based on this one post about the speculative 2-for-1 POW portrait adventure).

I’ve just remembered that Peale’s portrait of Laurens was done in 1780 - the same year Hamilton got a portrait painted by Peale for his (soon-to-be) wife.

Do you think they went together and got their portraits done at the same time?

Escapril Day 1 - Change of State

United States of Matter

Solid: The rigidity of my plans (As I drop them on the sidewalk) (Ten minutes late for the train) Becomes apparent in the lump they leave behind in my chest, Patter of such a particular perfectionist's heart Against the hard glassy surface of a train schedule. I do not like to reschedule.

Liquid: Flowing light slips across the consolation-prize bus windows I drop from the staircase and into a backpack, Melting into her backseat with applesauce-crossed legs. We go out to the bar where everyone has admirable hair. The drink I order, For some reason, is called the Goblin King

Gas: My thoughts are far above my thoughts, My head is far above my head, They always said I was a lightweight. We float back to the birds nest of curtains that is the apartment, Well too aware of the aerosol-propelled rush to work Waiting at five. Adventure is the split second you fly After slipping off the rear end of the horse.

The thing about Timmy Chalamet is that he’s truly a great actor and he even has good taste in projects and he’s not even overexposed when you calibrate for how overexposed all that group of 25-30 year old big stars are……however something is still off. any time he gets cast in something it feels like that movie instantly turns into a parody of a movie. I cannot explain this