My thoughts on Frevblr discourse
First, hello! My credentials: I'm a professional historian, I'm published, & I've worked on the early modern period for the last six years. I primarily focused on the 15th and 16th centuries, so I approach the French Revolution as a new area of history I would like to learn a lot about.
In my coursework, we learned some theoretical approaches to LGBTQIA+ figures in history. The first thing: there are very, very few instances where you can prove two people were in a relationship. I'll use my own areas of interest as an example.
At 24 years of age, Leonardo Da Vinci was charged with sodomy. He was brought before a court to answer for his crimes and while, ultimately, there was no solid proof of this and the charges were not carried to a public trial, the accusation followed him wherever he went.
He never married. He traveled with close, male companions (most notably, Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, or more commonly known as Salai). Da Vinci taught young boys how to paint and draw. Some of these students made crude, almost pornographic, allusions to Salai in the pages of their notebooks, some of which survive here. Additionally, Da Vinci himself drew erotic sketches of Salai. Salai served as muse and model for an unknowable portion of Da Vinci's masterworks, other people speculated they had a sexual relationship, and it is very likely--given the evidence--that this was true.
There is one fundamental truth that I have to acknowledge: I cannot prove this.
I cannot reach back into the pages of history and pull solid proof for their relationship into the present. It is, and always will be, a theory. In court, this is called circumstantial evidence and usually does not hold up. It didn't even hold up at the time. Attempting to retroactively ascribe more to their relationship because it is interesting to me is poor form. To attempt this, I would start inching into historical RPF (much like the historian who wrote this biography on Jefferson). This is inherently ahistorical.
Now: I'm not an expert on Saint-Just and Robespierre's relationship. My comprehension of French is passable but not academic and these are my thoughts and opinions. The evidence for their relationship seems compelling. However, this is not justification for the behavior I have witnessed over the last several months.
The language we use to describe this 'problem' is very important. Words like "castrate" and "lobotomize" (as seen in the tags of this post) are extremely loaded. These words carry immense historical weight and I would like to be very, very sure that these are the ideas we want to associate with shipping discourse on Tumblr. Castration was a terror tactic on plantations in the American South and a form of genital mutilation for slaves throughout the Roman Empire, with far more examples in between. African American women were disproportionately targeted for lobotomization and whose medical torture often goes unremarked upon. Are these the words we want to use? What are the ethics of superimposing shipping discourse over the very real and very traumatic histories associated with these terms?
Opinions in a fandom are fundamentally not misinformation. This is inaccurate. Misinformation means that people are either willfully or unwittingly sharing false information posed as fact. Saying that these are one in the same is misleading and an exaggeration of the fandom ecosystem.
Historical research is a conversation between the present and the past. We are in concert with one another and disagreements fuel discovery. This is a community. People are bound to disagree. This is not a refutation of the historical record. This is how online communities function. Preferring Danton x Robespierre is not a crime and no one should be flamed for it. I can't believe we even have to have this conversation.
My final note on this is the following: none of this justifies threats of violence or death. I have seen some of the most horrific threats aimed at one another in this community and that is not ever justified. Don't wish harm on one another, please. If you cannot agree, leave each other alone.
I will not be posting more about this. I am not taking sides. This is just my opinion on this.
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