trouble

At the Night Meeting (December 1946, at Rangpur, North Bengal).

Part of a set of sketches and wood engravings by Somnath Hore which documented the Tebhaga Peasant Movement.

The Tebhaga movement was a movement of the sharecroppers of Bengal demanding two-thirds instead of half as their produce. The small peasants also joined hand with the sharecroppers as the gambit of the demands increased. Gradually with the intensification of the movement, the charter of demands even touched the revolutionary idea of ‘land to tiller’ concept.

The movement reflected the development of the political consciousness of the poor peasants and tribal sharecroppers, and it may safely be opined that it marked a turning point in the history of agrarian movements in India.

Autumn Nights | Camille Chew

A cozy, spooky, fall inspired pattern. Available on Society6.

Internet is back at it, again…..

When someone says harem to people, these kind of paintings come up in people’s mind.

L.F. Comerre. (1850 - 1916)

But, people who drew these paintings, they are called orientalists, have never seen a harem because NO STRANGER WERE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE HAREM UNLESS THEY WANT TO LOSE THEIR HEAD. So they painted what they dreamt of, since they were grown up with Western beauty concepts, they painted Harem girls as what their culture accepted beautiful.

BUT, at 19th century Persia, the Western beauty standards were not dominant. So of course, they had their own beauty standards and their own concept of beauty.

The more masculine a woman was, more beautiful she was accepted. The opposite was also true for men. Women with heavy brows and faint mustaches considered so attractive that they were sometimes painted on or augmented with mascara and young beardless men with slim waists and delicate features. In 19th century portraits of lovers, the genders are barely distinguishable, identified only by their headgear.

Young men without beards were the idols of beauty that time. Sexual mores and erotic sensibilities of 19th century Iran permitted homosexuality between these young men and older men.

BUT, after Iran started to be more modern, aka more Westernized, this beauty standards were lost. West beauty standards started to be more dominant and homosexuality was no longer permitted. Today, it is a crime to be homosexual at Iran.

This book, women with mustaches and men without beards, is about the beauty standards of Persia at Qajar dynasty. If you are interested, you can buy it and read. HERE is an interview with the author, Afsaneh Najmabadi.

At that time, Qajar princess was considered beautiful. Today, uncultured internet memers are making fun of her.  Shame @ all of you.

Hi there! I’m Priya, a senior studying Psychology and Sociology at the University of Michigan. This research project started off as a simple survey for a class (you can email me for the results on that study!) based on my personal observations as a LGBT+ South Asian navigating both communities and has expanded to my honors thesis project. If you are eligible and have the time to take it, please consider participating! The link to the survey is below. Thank you!