Thought this could fit in well here
Ok I donât mean to be doing this too often but I literally just wrote a paper about this so I thought I would comment! The English translation is The Cursed Woman but the original French is La Femme DamnĂŠe. âFemmes DamnĂŠesâ was the title of a Baudelaire poem from his acclaimed 1857 book Fleurs du mal, which was known, among other things, to be a collection that famously dealt with the subject of lesbians. The poem tells the story of the desires and passionate love between two lesbians: Delphine and Hippolyte. As a result of this poem and of the book as a whole, the terms âfleurs du malâ and âfemme damnĂŠeâ became lesbian monikers of the turn of the century. Though some have deemed the term âdamned womenâ to be accusatory of some moral dissonance, the poem it is derived from is actually quite sympathetic to the condition of lesbian love as it is a love which is unable to fully flourish in that time. Regardless, the translated title of Tassaertâs painting is misleading, as the original French is less accusatory and more identifying. The title is more accurately âthe lesbian.â
And sheâs doing fine
