*opens a doc*

me: ok brain now let’s write

my brain:

So. Here’s the thing. Given a cursory glance and applying today’s worldview to the song, yes, you’re right, it absolutely *sounds* like a rape anthem. 

BUT! Let’s look closer! 

“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.

See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.

Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because the woman has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so. She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposed to, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.” And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.

It’s a period piece romance. That’s cool, that’s all well and good, except that on the sidelines there’s an undead warlock who’s trying so hard to kill the protagonist, but all in ways that the protagonist either doesn’t notice or doesn’t accept as supernatural

And it isn’t a twist! The audience knows about the warlock! The warlock has a villain song! The warlock is one of the principal characters! But the protagonist spends 95% of the movie completely unaware of the warlock, and just spends the entirety of the movie doing period piece romance things while being repeatedly inconvenienced by the warlock until the climax, when the protagonist has to very suddenly

Acknowledge the existence of the warlock

Acknowledge the existence of the supernatural

See some real-ass goddamn magic

Kill the warlock

I have never seen a movie with a plot structure like this before, and I don’t think I’ll see one like it ever again. It’s like an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that turns Lady Catherine into a vampire who’s just repeatedly trying to drink Lizzy’s blood, but Lizzy doesn’t even notice until the climax whereupon she stuffs Lady Catherine’s mouth with garlic and cuts off her head (an adaptation I would kill to see, by the way). There are two completely different genres playing out at the same time, and one of them is trying to kill the other

Hi there! I started learning latin three years ago, and I wanted to share some resources with you. Hopefully you’ll find this post helpful, whether you’re just beginning or you’re studying latin at AP/A-Level. header image: the roses of heliogabalus by lawrence alma-tadema

why learn latin?

over 60% of all english words originally come from latin! it can help you figure out the meaning of words you don’t know (yay etymology!!)

it’s the basis of the romance languages, so it can help you with spanish, italian, french, portugese, and romanian!

mythology!!!!!!!

everything sounds better in latin it has a bunch of wonderful phrases, many of which are still used today! some of my favorites are:

ars longa vita brevis // art is long, life is short

ex nihilo nihil fit // out of nothing comes nothing

scientia potentia est // knowledge is power

dum spiro, spero // while i breathe, i live

studying techniques

try flashcards! these are v cute and work nicely

if that doesn’t work for you, study foldables are a great way to remember vocabulary terms as well!

it’s really important to remember case endings and verb conjugations, so repeating them verbally helps you retain them 

online resources

william whitaker’s words aka the best latin/english translator ever

memrise!! lots of mini latin courses by subject

key literary/rhetorical devices 

comprehensive verb synopsis

latin grammar master list

summary of declensions

latin library!! 

resources by topic

cambridge latin

find mentions of people in latin texts!

textbooks: latin via ovid, ecce romani

latinteach resources

try google (or the library if you’re old fashioned like me) and see what else you can find!!

AP resources

the aeneid (english translation) / the perseus project

de bello gallico (english translation) / the perseus project

aeneid vocabulary organized by word frequency (2)

additional posts

classical language learning masterpost by @myth-boy

how to study latin by @antiquarians

latin resources by @antiquarians

my other posts

how to start a studyblr

guide to ap art history

french music

using canva.com

how to reach your goals

what’s in my pen case?

vale (that’s goodbye) and good luck learning latin!! i hope this was helpful