Elderly Worm

my partner was a TA for an intro-to-subject course in grad school. finals week rolls around and the students are required to submit this big module assignment they've had like a month to do for a decent chunk of their grade. if you've submitted everything, you'll see a summary screen with a star beside each module name showing it's been completed.

an hour before the assignment deadline, he receives an email from a student claiming they completed the assignment, but the system is not allowing them to submit. there's an image attached to the email. partner goes to open what he assumes is a screenshot of that summary page.

instead, he sees that the student has taken a photo of their laptop from about 2 feet away, with that page open. strange, but it wouldn't be the first time a college freshman has lacked the tech literacy to take a screenshot. he almost doesn't look twice at it, but he realizes something about it just feels a little bit...off. so he zooms in.

the student had CUT STARS OUT OF CONSTRUCTION PAPER and TAPED THEM TO THEIR LAPTOP SCREEN BESIDE EACH MODULE NAME. you could see where they actually had completed the first couple of modules, but the stars for all the subsequent ones were like, double the size of the first two and exactly as uneven/irregular as you'd expect if you were freehanding them with scissors.

"omg, she's such a girl boss"

She kills babies like it's her job, if that's a girl boss?

"I'm a witch and my patron is Lilith"

She's a rape/SIDS demon. You actually do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to her."

Like, bluntly, it's not just that Lilith isn't a misunderstood girlboss goddess who was tarred with an association with rape and SIDS. It's that it's literally the opposite of that. Lilith was the mythological embodiment of rape and SIDS, and her association with feminism is entirely due to a misogynist in the Middle Ages claiming that feminism was bad and should therefore be associated with the rape and SIDS demon.

Claiming that Lilith is your feminist girlboss patron is like claiming that your biggest personal inspiration for the fight for trans rights was the totally 100% true story of the "down with cis" bus, which btw wasn't actually about people committing violence, it was instead the heartwarming story of how people wearing "down with cis" t-shirts drove a bus to Washington and convinced Congress to give trans people equal rights. Like 1) that's absolutely nothing to do with what the "down with cis bus" story was about, and 2) the "down with cis bus" story was an obvious lie which was created by someone who was trying to discredit the movement you claim to support.

It's not actually particularly feminist to claim that the an anti-feminist screed is true and real and important (they just got some little details wrong).

Like it's really really important to recognize that!

She was not subsumed into/incorporated into Christianity at all, and so she cannot be a subversion of "Judeochristian patriarchal mythology."

Judeochristian is a highly problematic term for a VARIETY of reasons, and people shouldn't use it (outside of, perhaps, the first three centuries CE, where Christianity was still defining itself as a unique religion) because they will inevitably say/imply some shit that just isn't true! Like suggesting that Lilith is a part of Christian mythology in any way. She isn't.

Like @penrosesun mentioned, the idea that she was Adam's first wife is from a deeply misogynistic text. She's not really a girl boss there. She actually leaves and is told if she doesn't return 100 of her demon children will die every day. And she agrees to that and declares she was basically made to bring pain and death and likes this. So. Not exactly a good thing.

Things associated with Lilith in various jewish texts:

Tragic death of infants / committing infanticide (particularly of disabled, unhealthy, or "strange" children)

Birthing demon babies that will die in the hundreds (possibly even killing her own children)

Miscarriage (especially with genetic defects)

Giving children epileptic fits

Causing death in childbirth

Having hundreds of agents of like...evil and badness

Being the partner/consort of a demon prince/king (Samael/asmodeus)

Nocturnal seminal emissions

Adultery

Possibly the first mention of Lilit is just referring to a screech owl/night bird. She does show up in the talmud (predating the alphabet of Ben Sira, aforementioned misogyny text) but all of those earlier mentions seem to be limited to her being a horrifying demon.

Ex: shabbat 151b:

Rabbi Ḥanina said: It is prohibited to sleep alone in a house, and anyone who sleeps alone in a house will be seized by the evil spirit Lilith

Niddah 24b discusses miscarried fetuses that resemble the form of "a Lilith", who appears as a woman who has wings. But this suggests it's a category of creature, not a singular woman.

(Jewish) pride month day 15 (im sorry): Simeon Solomon

Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) was a Jewish-British painter & prose poet associated with the pre-Raphaelites. Jewish culture and queer love are major themes in his work. Many of his paintings depict scenes from the Torah or of Jewish life. His older brother, Abraham, and sister, Rebecca, were both also artists and he began learning to paint from Abraham. Their mother was also an artist. Solomon studied at the Royal Academy, where his art was exhibited. Solomon was arrested and jailed on multiple occasions for engaging in sexual relationships with men. This would unfortunately have a large impact on his career and contributed to his alcoholism.

Simeon Solomon Research Archive - Home

Category:Paintings by Simeon Solomon - Wikimedia Commons

Painting above: Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, watercolor, 1864

Isaac and Rebekah, watercolor, 1863

Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, watercolor, 1963

Ruth and Boaz, 1862

Offering the First Fruits of the Harvest, watercolor, 1864

Carrying the Scrolls of Law, 1867

Love Dreaming by the Sea, watercolor, 1871

A Hebrew Girl, 1874

Allegorical Self Portrait, 1873

Man in a Turban holding Lulav and Etrog, 1886

A Youth Relating Tales to Ladies, 1870

A prelude by Bach, 1868

King Solomon, 1872-4

King Solomon sitting in Judgement, watercolor, 1881

David, no date

The Lemon Seller

Pastoral Lovers, 1869

the parade

Turns out you can roll a 7 on a d6

twelve episodes, twelve contestants - a mix of annoying middle aged sci fi authors, fan fic authors and random people off the street

a variety of against the clock writing tasks, big finish scripts, ability to interact with actors without shouting at them and challenges where you have no budget or doctor for an episode

judged by solely by christopher eccleston

So may I present my own casting choice for Odysseus:

Absolutely not

You know who would try that shit?

Is this the face of a man who would defy the very gods to get home to his wife?

You know who would defy the gods just to show he could get away with it?