Guy

@queenlua Happily! This is going to be long, so here's some set dressing first:

Eton College, for anyone unfamiliar, is a prestigious boys' school in England that has famously educated MANY MANY politicians, royals, nobility, and other assorted famous people. All you really need to know about it is that's it's incredibly posh and expensive and exclusive

The Eton Society (called “Pop” internally) is a self-selecting body of senior students at Eton that have historically held a decent amount of power at the school. If you’ve ever attended a school with a prefect system/house system etc you probably know a little bit about how obnoxious this kind of group can get. Now imagine they're all called Lord Godfrey Pickerington or something. Are you getting it? Is the set being dressed? Good.

Now that the scene is set, here’s our tale!!

I stumbled into Eton’s archives while doing research for a fanfiction and we’ll just leave that admission where it is!! It was in reading old issues of their student-run paper, The Chronicle, from 1883 that myself and @carebewear started becoming fixated on one guy in particular.

Cecil B. Gedge (from this point on known as Gedge) was a member of the Eton Society in 1883/84. He won a few Science awards during his time there (Biology!!) and seemed to like rowing during school sports events. He went on to become a barrister, which will make sense once you know more about him.

The best part of Gedge, though, is his appearances in the minutes for the Eton Society meetings. At least at Gedge’s time, the Eton Society seemed really fond of staging debates (more like loosely organised discussions) on a wide variety of topics.

Here are some of the riveting questions they discussed!

And my personal favourite: "Are Ghosts Real?"

(They were very divided)

Gedge first came to our attention in debate about the annexation of New Guinea, in which he apparently started an "abusive attack on the British army and missionaries":

Wow! Based Gedge!? He continues to spit period-typical truths about things like how we shouldn't tax bicycles actually because it would disproportionately affect poor people. YIMBY Gedge?? He would've loved light rail.

The final nail in our Gedge obsession was a debate on women's suffrage, in which Gedge vehemently advocates for women's right to vote and then gets no supporters at the end of the meeting. But I appreciate that he said it anyway and kept saying it. He is more persecuted that Christ, to me.

Here are some more, from anti-conscription sentiment to indirectly calling his classmates stupid to weirding everyone out by saying he wants to donate his body to science (his friend dissecting him for fun):

We started getting the feeling people might not have liked Gedge that much, mainly since one of the Society members wrote a poem about all his friends and Gedge isn't in it.

In 1884, there was some extended drama in the Chronicle where someone whom I groundlessly suspect was Gedge under a pseudonym ("A Socialist"), wrote to the editor complaining that the "debates" published by the Eton Society were "bad" (genuine quote) and that they should make a REAL debate society at the school that ALL boys, not just the self-selected seniors, could participate in:

To make a long story short most of the vocal members of the Eton Society threw up their hands at this and refused to do anything, basically boiling down to "Just because we're the prefects of the school doesn't mean we should have to actually DO anything!! Unfair!!" and also this quote which reads exactly like at least a thousand real tweets I've seen in my life

Liberal. Gedge, of course, was there giving practical suggestions, but the discussion was ultimately cut short because their principal died and they had to push a memorial issue of the paper. We have a working theory that the staff might've used that interruption as an opportunity to get the boys to cut it the fuck out.

Anyway it's a little unclear what happens to Gedge after that. He isn't credited as being in the 1884 Eton Society in the larger school register but it's unclear if that's because he wasn't re-elected or if he just graduated. Either way, he went on to become a barrister in London, which makes a lot of sense. Sadly though, he passed away in WW1, which we were really normal about

Thank you Lt. Gedge, for truly embodying the eternal spirit of an outspoken debate-kid, a friend to the lefties, a proto-yimby, a terminal back-talker, and the kid in a biology class that's a little too excited for the dissections. I hope your life, however short, was a rich and bright one. Thanks for the incredibly entertaining afternoon, brother 🫡

Do you know the weird thing about the sea people??

To start off, some facts:

-White wine is made from sweet pulp inside of the grape (minus the seeds).

-Red wine is made from both the skin and the grape (and the seeds and stems…sometimes? Can’t remember).

-Tannin is the substance found in red wines, coffee, dark chocolate. Tannins are responsible for the bitter taste in those foods.

-Tannins are found in the skin of the grape, as well as the seeds and the stems. Therefore, most red wines will have tannins, versus most whites will not have tannins.

-Red wines vary in level of tannins, depending on variety of grape, climate, and fermentation process. Pinot noir tends to be very low tannin. Shiraz/Syrah, choice of poison for our beloved brunette surgeon, is very heavy on the tannins.

-Some white wines (most commonly Chardonnay) are aged in oak barrels instead of metal containers. Oak barrels have tannins, which seeps into the wine during the fermentation process. That’s why Chardonnays tend to be “drier” aka it has tannins.

-White wines like Sauvingnon Blancs are usually fermented in steel barrels (aka no tannins. Aka usually very fruity and light and sweet).

Your ability to taste tannins is genetic.

There is a genetic marker determining whether your taste cells are sensitive to tannins.

Basically two people can drink the exact same wine and have wildly different reactions because: 1. Person A can’t taste tannins, so they taste the actual wine flavor. 2. Person B can taste tannins, and that tends to overpower ALL the other flavors in the wine. Basically all they taste is tannins and none of the wine.

I am super tannin sensitive, so if I drink a wine like Cabernet Sauvignon (very tannin heavy, aka “very dry”, it tastes like bitter ethanol alcohol to me, whereas my best friend can’t taste tannins so the same wine is maybe a little bitter but they can actually taste the grape and different flavors. To her, a wine like Sauv Blanc is too sweet, tastes like sugar water. But to me it tastes good.

So unless it’s the taste of the alcohol or all wines you hate, chances are you might hate the taste of red wine, especially the heavier red wines, because taste the tannin overpowers everything else. And all you taste is bitter bitter ethanol bitter more ethanol. 

More tannin info: -Tannins bind to fat.

-This is why tannin heavy wines are recommended with fatty foods (Shiraz and steak). Whenever you eat food with high fat content, the fat builds up on your tongue. A sip of red wine will bind with the fat on your tongue and clear it away. That’s why the sip of wine between bites of fat heavy foods is considered a palate cleanser.

-By that logic, this is why white wines are recommended with low fat foods, like fish. Salmon is fattier than most fish, which is why Chardonnay (tannin heavy white wine) or Pinot Noir (low tannin red wine) is recommended with salmon.

-People who are sensitive to tannins can drink tannin heavy red wines with fatty food and generally the wine won’t taste gross. The fat on your tongue (from that steak) will bind with the tannin and neutralize the tannin taste. Aka the only time I ever drink Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz is with a steak or heavy, creamy pasta. Aka never bc I don’t often eat either.

-The reason dairy helps coffee taste better is because the fat in milk/creams binds with the tannins in coffee and neutralizes the bitter taste. This is why people who can’t taste tannins can generally drink coffee black without milk (sugar is a different story). It’s also why almond milk in coffee is the worst idea (almond milk is already bitter and has no fat).

More wine facts: -90% of the “aromas” of wine are marketing BS

-You know the labels that say like “cherry with a hint of blackberry?” There’s no real way to infuse cherry or blackberry into grape wine without screwing with the fermentation process. It’s all created by the wine marketing industry to sell you win. Sometimes if you smell cherry before you drink the wine, you might taste it in the wine (because majority of flavor comes from smell). Or if you think there is cherry flavor in the wine, your brain can trick your taste buds into tasting it.

-The only true flavors found in real grape wine are grapes (obviously), oak/earthy flavor (the barrels), vanilla (barrels, oak sticks), tannins. (There are a few others but can’t remember. I think maybe cinnamon?).

-People’s perception of wine often affect how good it tastes to them. Social psychology studies show that people will rate the exact same wine differently if they’re told the wines are different in price. (They rated the more expensive wine as tastier).

because Robyn is really woven in narratively in opposition to Jacques running for the council seat before she shows up

and i think that juxtaposition is important in how they both serve as counters to Ironwood

because Jacques, as i've made posts on in the past, is there to be so obnoxiously selfish and vile that you don't want to agree with him even when he's right about Ironwood - his criticisms are easy to dismiss because they're coming from a place of selfishness and deceit, and he makes Ironwood look better by comparison. Jacques is there to obscure

Robyn by contrast, throws Ironwood's actions into sharp relief - Robyn, on a narrative level, is there to represent the common people, and Robyn is sincere in her goals and ideals. Robyn is there to remind the audience (and the protagonists) that there are lives on the line and that those lives have value - they can't just be sacrificed for some clandestine scheme to 'save the world' (as if they're not a part of the world to be saved). Ironwood doesn't care about the human cost of his ambitions - he dismisses the suffering of Mantle (suffering he is causing by rerouting the supplies the city needs to his Amity project) as the complaining of "a few city blocks", and he never backs down from that viewpoint (despite it screwing him over as Mantle running the old security system allows Watts to just walk right back in because Ironwood doesn't think Mantle is worth keeping up to date); much like every other time he's criticised, he gets pissy and just shuts down until the topic is changed. Ironwood believes he's the most important person in the world and the only one suffering, because he has it in head that he's Salem's greatest enemy, that she's out to get him personally, and because he is the Hero, only his plan is viable. only his plan is allowed to work. and if people suffer and die? if an entire city gets abandoned so he can heroically run the fuck away from the mean scary witch? well, 'we' all have to make sacrifices for the Greater Good, don't we? the most telling aspect of this is his ultimatum to Penny where he talks about how everything he's done has been for the good of Atlas and never once mentions the people, while we see the people he's threatening to annihilate huddle in dangerous underground tunnels scared for their lives

it also plays into the big themes of Trust throughout the volumes - Ironwood says he values trust but he only values obedience; he doesn't want peers in the room giving him feedback, he wants subordinates who do what he says without question. and he lies to his fellow Council members about what he's doing, is constantly making decisions behind their backs and taking actions he should be getting their approval on and citing obscure loopholes to get away with it (and getting pissy when he's called out on it). and he would clearly rather there not be anyone new elected to the Council so he can maintain his majority, but he seems to especially take exception to Robyn being on the Council

because his other option is Jacques, who he's familiar with. who he's threatened before. who he clearly thinks he can bully into compliance if it comes to it. who is a non-combatant Ironwood clearly doesn't take seriously

and then you have Robyn. Robyn who doesn't take his shit lying down. Robyn with her lie detector Semblance - that communicates immediately that truth is a very important aspect of her character; she basically has a way of immediately proving if you're trustworthy - he didn't want Robyn on the Council because she would challenge him on his crap and force his lies into the open.

and then when Robyn loses the election and goes, in Clover's words "full on vigilante" (read: stealing back the supplies Ironwood is stealing from Mantle) in response to Ironwood doing. essentially nothing following the deaths of citizens but say "nuh uh the footage was doctored and it wasn't Penny" and doing nothing to actually address what happened (except enforce stricter curfews and point more guns at civilians with more soldiers in the streets), he doesn't put a warrant out for her arrest, he tries to have her black-bagged off the street and silenced. the man cannot stand a challenge to his authority and doesn't want Robyn on the board at all

hell, beginning of volume 8, Robyn is in a jail cell despite her not being on the arrest list Ironwood put out to round up RWBYJNROQ, and not involved in Clover's death because she was knocked unconscious in the crash. Robyn was arrested because she was there, and Ironwood doesn't like her.

Ironwood is all vivid, high-saturation military uniform, whites and blues. he's a pale-skinned man from an affluent city and benefits from the most top tier medical treatment he can get with a brand new prosthesis in hours

Robyn is in muted browns and greens, she's a darker skinned woman representing a struggling, destitute city that has been abandoned by the state and is struggling for basic resources

Ironwood uses powerful, Dust based guns, and upgrades to a laser cannon based off Penny's tech. and he's not shown to be all that impressive in actual combat (the only showings he has prior to volume 7 are taking a minute to deal with a single Alpha Beowolf and gunning down his own crappy robots. the only major actual fights he has are against Watts, who is Salem's tech guy, a group of teenagers, and Winter Schnee who's spent the entirety of volume 8 walking around with a broken skeleton), and he always fights alone

It’s easy to say that cyber bullying doesn’t matter in the real world or whatever but targeted online bullying campaigns have the power to wreck entire communities and support networks.

It’s difficult to just turn off your computer when all the people who relate to this aspect of your life are in there.

I’ve definitely met other asexual and arospec people irl but it’s quite rare. And real life queer spaces are in fact often bars or kink spaces. And like bully for you if you like kink or alcohol or romance but when your entire identity is based around not feeling the feelings often associated with romance and/or sex that’s not always super fun.

And people got relentlessly mocked for bringing up this issue. Shut down. Called childish. Like okay. Fuck us for wanting a sober non sexual spot to meet other queers, right? So childish for wanting options.

I’ve been involved in the online asexual community and doing education about asexuality and aromanticism in both irl and online queer spaces for almost fourteen years now and that short period of time around 2016-2018 took a wrecking ball to my people that I feel like we’ve still barely recovered from and I’m still angry about it.

What purpose could this ever serve 😭😭😭

Okay?????

part of the charm of unit was this idea that it wasn't just the doctor on his own anymore. that he could go off and visit other worlds and other galaxies and frolick about through the universe to his heart's content and there would always be another line of defence on earth. unit is the representation of the people who volunteer to save the world, and the brig is the representation of unit.

and then here and now, in the present, the dead are rising against the living and there's this sense of terrible dread because the living are hopelessly outnumbered and of course they have to keep that suspense until the threat is over.

but then they bring out the brig and they say to the audience, they say look. look at this man. even at the darkest moment of this story, there was hope, and hope was this man. because even among that great and terrible army of the dead, there were ones like this man, who resisted the call, who made the other choice. who protected humanity.

the doctor looks at him and says earth's darkest hour, and mine. where else would you be? because all those times the earth didn't have the doctor, it had the brigadier.

Like I try to be nice about this but I have seen SO many fucking people being like "lol yeah ace/aro discourse was one thing" and that is deliberate erasure of real and important queer history in service of dodging blame on the parties that did this who, for the most part, never fucking apologized or owned up to it, or, in the case of a few blogs I still see going around, clearly still stand by all of it and just hope you don't point that out, and ofc, no one ever fucking does.

I can't offer forgiveness or absolution to everyone, but you don't need me to forgive you to forgive yourself and move on, and I do think most of the people who got caught up in it have more than earned moving on.

However, what I want is for everyone to stop downplaying it. Don't call it stupid infighting, don't go "ace stuff was one thing but this with trans men is too far" don't claim it didn't leave tumblr or the internet, own how bad it was. If you were there you know, and your history is valuable, so even when it sucks please be honest about what happened. This part of queer history should not be forgotten, and especially not for the people who never really changed and have an interest in making sure everyone thinks this was just some silly infighting.

That's what I ask, do right by us, don't let us be erased again.

Especially because when you forget, when you downplay it, you downplay what's happened with truscum shit, with biphobia, and now with trans masc exclusion. You downplay it and you disguise that it's the same people saying the same things about a new group. I found out about the rise in trans man/masc exclusion because I saw someone saying that trans men are collateral damage secondary to the real targets of transphobia, trans women, and I immediately knew the person saying it was a shithead I should NEVER trust because that is exactly what they said about bi and ace and aro people. Word for word.

You do those who were hurt a disservice when you downplay what happened, but you also make our spaces less safe because if we pretend what happened didn't we can't stop it when it starts again.