eleonora

The Lady and the Unicorn - View 

The Lady and the Unicorn - Taste

Germany had a thriving LGBTQ community in the early 20th century, before the Nazis came around. Germans, specifically Magus Hirshfeld, literally coined the term “transsexual” and performed the first modern SRS in the 1920’s. Then the Nazis came and sent them all to camps and burned their books. One of the first major Nazi book burnings was the library of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. We were purposefully erased from history.

I feel like, in queer spaces especially sapphic love is so romanticized there’s this idea that it’s the most pure, ideal form of love and I think that’s something that ought to be addressed. 

This also manifests in bisexuals saying things like “I’m bisexual but have you seen men 🤮”, and in people implying that a man could never love a woman in the same way that another woman could.

Sentiments like these are incredibly harmful to queer men, and contribute to a lot of internalized homophobia and transphobia.

there was once a little boy.

he is born disabled. his body hurts, and he can’t walk properly the way the other children do. he doesn’t understand why. he’s a little boy. but he plays with wooden boats and pulls toys on a string.

somebody makes him a tunic. they sew ducks onto it in red and green and yellow and blue. the bright colours of a child.

the little boy is eight years old, and he’s going to be king now. there’s a big ceremony about it. he doesn’t really fully understand what’s going on, because he’s eight, but he wears the tunic with the brightly coloured ducks for the occasion because he loves it. look at his ducks! aren’t they great?

he is a child. the adults around him manipulate and coax him to gain more power for themselves. he still plays with toys.

as a teenager, not yet an adult, he fathers children. they do not survive. he’s not even old enough to have full agency in his job and is still being manipulated, but he had babies and they died.

he does not make it to his twenties. at eighteen or nineteen years old he dies, and is buried. his babies, so tiny, are buried with him.

and so is his tunic with the little ducks that he loved so much he kept it long after it no longer fit.

yeah i think that like. especially with historical figures in your mind people who were kings and queens or important nobles were adults. even if you know how old they were it doesn’t really click. it doesn’t seem real

but then you get something like a little tunic with brightly coloured ducks on it and it hits you like a fucking truck that this really was a little kid and no matter how far removed you are a little kid is still a little kid. their brains didn’t develop any quicker back then. he was just as developed/mature mentally as any 8 year old now. he had cartoonish animals on his clothes and he played with toy boats and probably terrorised the local cat population.

tutankhamun was a child and he didn’t make it to adulthood because he was unfortunate enough to be a very important child

his dad died when he was 8. he saw his own babies die when he was still just a boy himself.

tutankhamun had a little pair of sandals with ducks on them. he had earrings decorated with ducks. he kept those, and other items of childhood clothing. some toys. keepsakes. things he loved, and treasured. he kept them all in a little wooden chest. the chest… was carved with ducks.

and that little duck chest, filled with things he kept from his childhood, was buried with him. maybe he was keeping them for the little babies who did not make it. maybe they just reminded him of good days and fun times.

WITH PLEASURE

(greyscale makes it hard but the duck head is on the right above the toe strap. always takes me a while to find it too)

“Person going to work on a windy day"

“Woman who’s having her bang cut but the hairdresser is nowhere to be found"

"Zookeeper in charge of the pandas"

"Not pregnant lady when someone yield seat to her on subway"

And my favorite

"Person on thermal infrared camera"

Starbucks barista working her ass off on Halloween but gotta keep up that smile

Person who sits on wet paint

Person who's still loading

Boyfriend carrying girlfriend's shopping bags