Smol but built like a brick wall ⚔️ 2 old 2 guard

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

PS: You can see some regularly-updated statistics about incoming data here, with lots of demography and graphs to peruse!

YES

First off, I have to say I am not an authority on the subject.

I rarely if ever get to choose the time period I design for (my current project is based in WWII). But I’ve had to take plenty of fashion history courses, done a lot of research for various reasons, and this period is a personal love. If I screw up anywhere, let me know!

FIRST AND FOREMOST:

What. Was. The. DEAL.

With all the long sleeves and pants?!

I noticed it most on Telemachus, but almost everyone was guilty.

I genuinely do not know what time period was trying to be replicated here. I get that Christopher Nolan was trying not to reinvent the wheel, but? Why??

This is a very basic overview of the clothing of the time. Now, Ancient Greece lasted a LONG TIME, so this is subjective, but anything in this vein would be closer to the mark than whatever Nolan had going on.

Most of the clothing in Homeric times was straight rectangles or squares of fabric. Textiles were an extremely hard and labor intensive craft. So you took that big square and folded, pinned, and draped it into the shape you wanted without cutting the finished length of cloth.

Young men like Telemachus would have worn their chiton or peplos shorter. Older men and royalty like Menelaus and Nestor (who was ABSENT) would have worn theirs longer and accompanied by a himation or cloak.

While traveling to Sparta, Telemachus would have worn a chlamys, or a travelers cloak.

NOT his armor. That was a great way to get robbed, killed, or robbed and killed.

SPEAKING OF ARMOR

I get it.

I really get it. It looks SO COOL, BUT-

That man’s neck is wide open.

Homer described Odysseus as wearing a boar tusk helmet, which is actually a really smart move. Odysseus got that scar on his leg for a reason.

This is a good recreation of what the Achaeans during the Trojan War would’ve hypothetically been wearing:

Which, I get it, it looks goofy. But compare the brightness of this to this:

I mean come on. Not to mention they’re STILL WEARING PANTS-

If you can’t make a chiton look manly that’s ON YOU

Do NOT get me started on the Lastrygonians either.

Plate armor. In Ancient Greece. Thousands of years before such technology was available. If I kept going down this thread we'd be here for twenty years, so moving on.

Penelope. The MVP. She whom none of us deserve.

I have no idea what style or period this is supposed to be.

Women in Homeric Greece draped and pinned their clothing the same as men, just normally floor length (Unless, according to some, you were Spartan). Her gowns, to put it simply, looked too structured.

Her jewelry was honestly pretty accurate, aside from whatever is going on with that chin height chain necklace pictured above. I have no idea what that's about.

Homeric women, especially Myceneans, wore this gorgeous sun spot blush as well:

Bring it back.

Overall, I liked the movie more than I thought I would. The cinematography was phenomenal, as was the music, and the cast couldn't have been better.

I understand that Nolan wasn't going for historical accuracy, and I can accept that. The Odyssey is a myth. None of these characters are real people, not that we can prove.

Historical fashion, mythology, and history in general are some of my great loves. Costuming is the only thing that I ever really get hung up on when consuming period media, and that is entirely my problem, not something the whole world needs to accommodate.

It is nice to bitch sometimes though.

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

When I taught second grade, one of the options for students who had finished their work was to write a letter to the president. I would send all of the letters in a big envelope at the end of every month.

Watching my students get more and more frustrated with him (and concerned about his wellbeing) was not the result I'd hoped for when I came up with the idea, but it was kind of hilarious.

See, Obama had a standard packet with information and activities about his dog he'd send in response to letters from very young citizens...and of course his office sent one back to our class every single time we sent mail.

So eventually all of the letters looked something like this: