I ran across this remarkable painting, titled “The Irritating Gentleman,” on Sheltered and Safe From Sorrow, a blog devoted to Victorian mourning rituals and other creepiness from that period. The gentleman in question seems to be a Victorian era Pickup Artist in action. He’s even peacocking, Mystery style, with that bow tie and stupid hat and even a non-ironic handlebar moustache. Probably the only thing keeping him from wearing aviator goggles is the fact that airplanes haven’t yet been invented.
What makes it all the worse is that the PUA’s target is clearly in mourning. As the blogger behind rawr I’m a tumblr notes:
She’s wearing all black in 1874. Black gloves, hat, cloak, and dress. In public. The whole nine yards. That’s not a fashion choice or a gothic thing. Back then when people wore all black like that, they were in mourning for someone who died. No one did mourning like the Victorians, that shit was an art form to them.
Someone in her family has died—she could even be a young widow. No one’s accompanying her either. With the carpet bag? She’s traveling alone while still in deep mourning. Look at the closeup. She’s got tears in her eyes. She is upset, devastated in a way that one is only when someone has died. And the guy’s still bothering her, like her problems are flippant bullshit and she needs to just smile or pay attention to him because ladies are supposed to be pleasing for men no matter what shit they’re going through. That’s not a look of “what an ass.” That’s a look of devastation that even in her pain, she’s expected to give people like him focus. She’s not mad. She’s hurt. And to add insult to injury? Everyone would be able to tell. It was a clear sign and still is in ways that someone is mourning, to dress in black crepe like that. He would know why she’s wearing all black, and he’s still demanding her attention.
What an insufferable dick.
Yep.
Now now LBT, does your husband know you’re TMI’ing your relationship? XD
But um, where’s BDSM fall on this spectrum of acceptable? I need to know!
…and only seem to pull “I need to know” on Pell…
thebewilderness – yeah, I know the book, I might still have it around somewhere. Bit depressing, though, which is one reason I never went back to it.
RE: Argenti
Psh, please. My husband’s a horndog. He’d probably just be pleased I’m getting with the program.
Aw, is Merv pell? Then I completely lose interest in him.
Actually, I have read theories as to why two sexes is the most common* arrangement for sexually-reproducing species on earth. “Sexes” in general are just different types of gametes–when there are two, females produce the larger gametes and males produce the smaller gametes for species that don’t produce both. (Not joking, that is how scientists determine sex.) This isn’t strictly necessary–you could imagine a species where all gametes are capable of combining with each other to form a new individual, and that species would have sexual reproduction without sexes. I don’t know if any species like that exist, if they do, they aren’t that common.
One theory as to why there are sexes is that it prevents selfing–if all you produce are eggs or sperm, you cannot self-fertilize. (Some hermaphroditic species can self, but not all.) But if that was all, it would make more sense to have more than 2 sexes, since with two you can only reproduce with on average 50% of the population, where if there were three sexes, you could reproduce with 66%, etc (assuming you could combine gametes with any of the other two sexes). This is less important for species that have sex than those that release gametes into the wild to mix freely, but there are plenty of species that do the latter, and it might be the older strategy.
The theory I read as to why most species on earth only have 2 sexes is that only one parent can pass on their mitochondria (because having two different types of mitochondria is bad for some reason) and having two sexes is the easiest way to determine which mitochondria get passed on.
*There was one thing I read about that had more than two sexes, but it was some kind of weird eukaryote, and I can’t remember what it was. But they did have some way of determining which mitochondria got passed on despite having lots of different “sexes”.
Hmm, I wonder. He managed to put the apostrophe for feminists’ in the right place. That’s quite unpellish.
C’mon, Merv, share some more of your wisdom with us … c’mon, there’s a good little troll …
Maybe Pell took a grammar refresher course?
Wait, what am I saying, that would involve learning something from somewhere other than their rectum…
It would be unprecedented!
It’s amazing how much they manage to not learn. I mean, there’s so much to learn just on this site just from all the regulars’ interests and knowledge and lives in general. But these bitter losers won’t open themselves to any such thing.
I was wondering what this Left Hand of God was and then I thought “sounds a bit like Left Hand of Darkness OH WAIT.”
And to be honest I don’t consider “there exists an Ursula le Guin book in which [usual assumption of settings that demonstrates very human bias]” disproves the statement “mostly [said usual assumption] is assumed.” She’s cool like that.
One of the many things that annoyed me about the recentish TV adaptation of Earthsea was that they made all the very clearly non-white (if you bother to read the descriptions of all the characters) characters white, apart from Ogion.
Hi all, I feel like I’ve been gone for weeks! Went to Berkeley and hung out with old friends, saw Monarch butterflies overwintering at Ardenwood, saw all kinds of birds at Coyote Hills regional park (plus hiked a bunch), ate Indian food and home cooking, and bought some cool socks with artichokes on them. How’s everybody? How’s CassandraSays kittie?
Now I’ll see about catching up on all the posts and comments and the new Pierre, yay!
New troll Merv stole my apostrophe!
Yeah, I thought Left Hand of Darkness was a Hellboy thing.
And I just heard the Earthsea movie was plain BAD.
Yeah, I borked the title in my first post! 😀
They did Earthsea with white characters??? When everyone but the Kargs and places in the Northern Reach like Osskil are not?
Fuck that.
That was one of many horrible flaws in what might have been a quite enjoyable fantasy TV movie if it wasn’t claiming to be Earthsea.
Hi, cloudiah! Glad you had a good weekend.
“Hmm, I wonder. He managed to put the apostrophe for feminists’ in the right place. That’s quite unpellish.
C’mon, Merv, share some more of your wisdom with us … c’mon, there’s a good little troll …”
Hmm, apostrophes are hard, yes. I could well be wrong on the Pell guess. Always possible that more than one fool makes me just have to know!
LBT — glad you’re making progress then? I’d thought it was the other way around, whoops!
Earthsea was horrible. And I loved that book.
Also, I understand that Ursulas’ fiction generally can be assumed that the characters are not white, because that’s what actually matches the real world. Strange that that assumption can only be made in her fictional works and stranger yet that white people will just draw a mental picture of white person anyways.
RE: Argenti
HA! No, no, hubby’s the big sexually liberated one. I’m just the grump.
I use males and females because men and women would be an ill-fit to refer to adolescents no, especially since it’s your sode that usually tries to deny adult agency to them?
I’m curious then, is he laughing his ass off at this? And since I probably have his attention by now, say hello for me?
Good grief. I’ve been trawling around book covers for the Earthsea trilogy and I think I’ve found the dumbest. book. cover. ever.
This doesn’t look like shapeless black wool robes to me.
@pillowinhell – Le Guin makes the very point that white people are a minority now, so why wouldn’t they be in the future, in this article about her reaction to the whitewashing of her work in art and film.
Oh and I’m shocked that none of you have apparently heard of pity sex and grief sex, eh?
It could have been a typo. Cuz feminists do dislike confidence men. It is known.
Oh yeah, holding your skirt up to your waist is so helpful in running away! Now, is she barefoot to begin with, or at least took off her heels before running?
IIRC the only white peeps in the Earthsea were the reavers that showed up from time to time to harry the northern isles.