Welcome to this mess

he looks SO shocked and taken aback and goes “what did you just say? how do you know my name?” so i sit there for a moment trying to figure out what the fuck he is talking about, and then go, “…. bitch?” and he looks so relieved and tells me his name is mitch.

men just love to run their fucking mouth about what women do or do not want without even once considering consulting any actual women on the matter

somehow being progressive and secular automatically means putting women's bodies on display (although of course these people would shame women showing that much skin because they chose to). gee, I wonder why...

One day, there was a wedding in King Charles VI's court

The bride was marrying for the second time, after the death of her first husband

Whenever a widow remarried, it was custom to organize "charivari", basically a sort of mock parade meant to ridicule/make fun of someone who acted in defiance of social norms (like a widow who refused to stay single)

Musicians were invited to the royal mansion of Saint-Pol, and everyone - including very high ranking members of French nobility - started dancing at the sound of trumpets and flutes (pretty normal so far)

Hugonin de Guisay, a friend of the King, convinced the King and five other companions to bring life to the party by dressing themselves as "savages"

Costumes of linen are directly sewned to their clothes (why)

The costumes are covered in pitch, feathers and pieces of rope, to make them appear "hairy and hirsute from head to toe" (classic savage look)

Masks are placed on their faces, also covered in pitch feathers and rope.

Here's a recreation of what the costume could have looked like ! Sexy 😎

The King forbids anyone from using torches in the room where everybody dances. Good call, considering what they're wearing is like, probably the most inflammable piece of clothing imaginable

The duke of Orléans, brother of King Charles VI, and the duke of Berry arrive with four knights, bearing six torches, not knowing about the royal order

All of them are already quite drunk, as they spent the first part of the night in a tavern

Suddenly, the six "savages" burst into the room

They start howling like wolves and hurling obscenities at the crowd

The duke of Orléans, intrigued and drunk, goes to inspect the dancing savages with a torch in hand

His torch accidentally lights the linen costumes on fire

The dancers have a lot of trouble avoiding the fire, because evereybody except the King had the amazing idea to all tie themselves with a metal chain (I have zero explanation for the chain)

When everybody realizes the King is among the savages, the Queen understandably faints

Jeanne de Boulogne, duchess of Berry, then 14 years-old, immediately envelops the King in her dress and skirt

The King narrowly escapes death thanks to Jeanne

One of the burning lord, Ogier de Natouillet, manages to break out of the metal chain and throw himself in a water tank used to wash drinking cups (where he belongs)

Yvain de Foix attempts to reach the door, where two servants wait for him with a wet cloth, but burns to death before that

One chronicler, a monk of Sait-Denis, writes that "four men are burned to death, while their genitals fall to the ground, creating a great outpouring of blood" (???)

Only two dancers survive: the King and Ogier de Nantouillet

Hugonin de Guisay, who convinced the King and his companions to dress up, died from his injuries three days later, "cursing and insulting his comrades, both dead ones and living ones, until his last breath"

The consequences of this were absolutely devasting.

The public image of the King's Court was severely impacted. It was seen as a place of extravagant entertainment and moral decline.

The King and his brother had to do penance in front of the people of Paris

The King's mental health significantly worsened. Charles VI was already said to have had an episode a few years before, in which he murdered a few of his companions thinking them to be enemies. The Ball of Burning Men seems to have shocked him deeply.

The episode was used to decry the "Armagnac", a political faction lead by the duke of Orléans and his family.

for a particularly strong version of this kind of replacement: the word "bear" comes from a proto-Germanic word meaning "brown one" because there was a taboo against saying the animal's actual name. the taboo is gone but it was so strong in the past that we have no record of what the proto-Germanic word for "bear" even was.

The overwhelming majority of antivaxxers I've met in real life have been nurses in hospitals. I make it a point not to associate with such people if I can possibly avoid it, so pretty much the only time I would have to hear about it directly is if I'm part of a trapped audience waiting for something else to happen. And so almost all the people I've met who felt moved to take me aside and "warn" me about the fictitious dangers of vaccines have been registered nurses despensing medical """advice""" inside of hospitals.