Pantomime of Merlan Grundy

details of

Venetian Ladies Listening to the Serenade, 1909, Frank Cadogan Cowper

Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman.

In the end, we’ll all become stories

- Dismissing his girlfriend’s hobbies and interests.

- Talking her out of buying fancy paper because HE doesn’t think it’s important. (Why does it matter if she spends her money on something she likes for her hobbies?)

- Destroying a thing his girlfriend made, repeatedly

- Disregarding when she asked him to stop, because he just couldn’t help himself.

- Ignoring that this thing he’s doing clearly upsets his girlfriend

- Lying to her repeatedly

- That whole mess of homophobic nonsense in the update, and acting like he’s the victim when he actually experiences consequences.

Classic DARVO response (Deny, Attack, Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender).

- First he says it wasn’t him, must have been her roommates destroying her things.

-It’s not a big deal, they’re just little paper stars, why are you making such a big deal about this? It doesn’t matter.

- Trying to guilt-trip her about how she could have seriously damaged his computer with that glitter!  Why is everyone being so MEAN telling him he’s the asshole? And how dare she date someone else! Can’t you see how unfair and TERRIBLE she’s being to him? And he’s ALL ALONE for Thanksgiving because she’s just being so UNREASONABLE. (Totally ignoring that these things are all consequences of his actions.)

Shooketh™

and we were fucking blown away by it, like audible gasping from everyone, it’s almost as tall as the room and incredibly expressive and impressive

and after having walked around looking at the work of 99% male artists and their endless studies dedicated to The Female Form for so goddamn long my very first thought upon seeing it was “this was painted by a woman”, so i walk closer and sure enough, i was right, her name is xenia hausner.

and then i look at it for a moment longer and my chest swells because these are intense characters with internal lives and that is what makes them attractive and my second thought is “this was not painted by a straight woman”

and i mean i can’t say anything for sure but i looked her up and

Transgender writer, historian, and prolific author Jan Morris passed away last night, on Trans Day of Remembrance, at age 94. She’s absolute legend. Her 1974 autobiography, Conundrum, was one of the first first-person narratives of transitioning. Her life was beyond incredible and deserves more recognition beyond her transition. Here are a few highlights:

- In the span of 46 years, she authored at least 45(!) books. These included Booker Prize-shortlisted novels, 8 memoirs, 6 history books, and over 20 travel volumes!

- In 1953, age 26, she assisted in the first expedition that summited Mount Everest. She invented secret code to communicate with the climbers, who didn’t want their messages to be intercepted. Morris waited at base camp and was the first reporter to hear the news Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit.

- She fought against Fascists in World War II as part of the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers cavalry regiment. She later reported on the famous trial of Adolf Eichmann next to Hannah Arendt.

- She was nominated for and won dozens of awards. She held honorary doctorates from the University of Wales and the University of Glamorgan. She also received a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 1999, making her one of the first openly transgender people to receive the honor. In 2005, she won the Golden PEN Award, the highest award given to British writers by the PEN writer’s association.