look, I'm not a PoC Heathcliff Purist. I feel like the novel is actually open for interpretation on that score- he's Othered, and the description of him as having darker skin than the rest of the cast plays into that. but does it mean he's actually a person of color, or just a darker-skinned white guy (potentially from a group that was On Thin Ice re: whiteness at the time- Mediterranean or eastern European)? I don't think it's clear in the text.
h o w e v e r
if you make Heathcliff white, Edgar- who basically represents everything exclusionary about society that oppresses and mistreats Heathcliff -has to also be white. that axis of oppression either has to be present in Edgar's favor, or totally absent from the story
you just. you can't have Edgar of Color(TM) and white Heathcliff
it doesn't work with what the story is trying to say. Edgar can't be part of a group historically oppressed by a group Heathcliff belongs to, and still adequately represent Georgian-era white upper-class English hegemony
idioms or sayings that people say more often than they write, so when they write it it's usually wrong.
Once in a while, not 'once and a while.'
Per se, not 'per say.'
For all intents and purposes, not 'for all intensive purposes'
Irregardless is not a word, actually, it's either 'regardless' or 'in regards'. ir- as a prefix means 'without' but so does the suffix 'less'. So if you write 'irregardless' you are writing 'without a lack of regard' which means 'in regards to.' double negative, yeah?
By and large, not 'by in large'.
I could care less vs I couldn't care less. First one means 'yeah I don't mind it, it's whatever.' second one (correct) means "I fucking hate that thing my opinions are in the basement of hell."
"much to be desired" correctly is "lacking in appearance/utility", not "beautiful." What it means is, "that thing is so bad, it does not satisfy my aesthetic/utilitarian needs for it and I desire something better." not, "I desire that thing so much because it's gorgeous."
"Leaving little to the imagination" means you can see/understand all of it. it does not mean 'modest', idk which one of you fucks started that but no. wrong. A sweater leaves a lot to the imagination because you can't see any of the person. Lingerie leaves 'little to the imagination' because you can see everything, you don't have to imagine it. in terms of understanding, 'little to the imagination' would be a very thorough explanation rather than a vague outline.
if you have any others you want me to include, lmk!
SEXUAL AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE INVESTIGATION
After a rape complaint, an ice dancer faces the inaction of the authorities
In December 2023, French athlete SolĂšne Mazingue denounced a rape of which she was allegedly the victim at the hands of an American athlete. Neither her coaches nor the federations concerned reacted. Unable to get back on skates, she filed a complaint in April.
The atmosphere is apparently relaxed at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, on December 9, 2023. After several days of ordeals, professional skaters from all over the world are unwinding. Among them, SolĂšne Mazingue experiences this international competition as a comeback. Suffering a fractured skull and a brain hemorrhage after a serious fall in training two years ago, the 21-year-old French skater could have remained paraplegic. Miraculously, SolĂšne Mazingue resumed ice dancing after several operations at the Ice Academy of Montreal. One of the best private schools in the world, which she joined to pursue her dream of participating in the Olympic Games. Since 2022, she has been skating in a duet with her Estonian partner, Marko Jevgeni Gaidajenko, with whom she was Estonian champion and is participating in this competition in Croatia.
"We all had dinner together at the restaurant, then ended the evening between athletes in a hotel room," recalls SolĂšne Mazingue, who decided to go to bed around midnight. According to her account, she was accompanied home by Australian athlete Holly H., as well as another athlete, Russian, Ivan Desyatov. The skater feels confident. She maintains a cordial relationship with Holly H. and considers Ivan, who has been skating under the American banner for several years, "a friend". Once in her room, SolĂšne takes a powerful sleeping pill. A ritual that has remained unchanged since her accident, the young woman living with cognitive after-effects and suffering in particular from memory and sleep disorders. After taking her medication, SolĂšne remembers that Holly and Ivan leave the room before she falls asleep. The rest is contained in a rape complaint filed at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye police station.
"Around 3 a.m., I woke up because I felt that there was something inside me. By the time I came to my senses, I noticed that there were at least two fingers inside my vagina." She then immediately recognized Ivan, naked at her side, thanks to one of his tattoos. According to exchanges consulted by Mediapart, SolĂšne locked herself in the bathroom. At 3:31 a.m., Ivan asked her if she was okay. SolĂšne did not answer. When she came out of the room an hour later, the ice dancer had left the room. The next day, Ivan Desyatov, who did not answer Mediapart's questions - and SolĂšne exchanged on social networks. "Why were you in my bed?", SolĂšne asked. "Your door was closed, but not locked. And I couldn't be bothered to go back to my room," Ivan replied, who initially tried to minimize the facts. SolĂšne insisted. "I remember your hands coming down. Just tell me the truth." Ivan finally confessed: "I did it. And then you woke up [...]. I'm sorry." He then suggests, at 7 p.m., meeting SolĂšne to talk. Which she refuses.
A forgotten testimony
After that night, SolĂšne confided in Emili Arm, a former Estonian athlete who is now a judge, who said she had "passed the information on to the federation". Although she is still licensed with the French federation, SolĂšne has been competing for several years under the Estonian banner, the nationality of her sports partner Marko Jevgeni Gaidajenko. In the case of duet dancing, both athletes must represent the same nation. Following these confidences, SolĂšne was however surprised "to have no news". The Estonian ice sports federation now explains that since it was not contacted directly by SolĂšne regarding the assault, but "by a third party", it does not have a complete view of the case and has not contacted other sports organisations without her authorisation".
In addition to Emili Arm, SolĂšne confided in her mother Delphine, but also in her coach and in Marie-France Dubreuil, one of the head coaches of the Ice Academy of Montreal. In a message, SolĂšne's mother reminded Marie-France Dubreuil of the seriousness of the situation. "We will report it to Skate Safe and to the leaders of Team USA," replied the coach. On its web page, Skate Safe, a federal American program responsible for collecting testimonies and alerts concerning sexist and sexual violence, reminds that "all adult participants (coaches/instructors, athletes, officials, volunteers, club and program leaders, etc.) are required to report any suspicion of child abuse and/or sexual misconduct to the U.S. Center for SafeSport and local law enforcement."
Did Marie-France Dubreuil make this report? When asked about it, she did not answer our questions. "Our values ââcharter and our commitment to due process, fair play and creating a safe environment for all of our skaters and staff guide our actions. We ask all of our skaters and staff to respect the code of conduct they agree to when they join the school," explains Jamal Othman, Executive Director of the Ice Academy of Montreal.
According to our information, the only report sent to the U.S. Center for SafeSport regarding SolĂšne Mazingue is dated September 26 and was sent by SolĂšne Mazingue herself. "It's extremely disappointing," says Delphine, SolĂšne's mother, today. The Academy knew that she had already had a very serious accident, that she was taking medication, they should have been particularly vigilant.
A forced speech
In the absence of support, SolĂšne filed a complaint in April 2024 at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye police station for rape committed on a vulnerable person: "Ivan could not ignore the after-effects I suffer and he knew that I was taking medication to sleep."
Contacted, the Versailles prosecutor's office (Yvelines) indicates that the case is still ongoing. On September 16, 2024, she publicly mentioned this case for the first time via a video published on her Instagram account, where she is followed by 90,000 people. While messages of support poured in in the comments, no official reaction has been published since then either by the French federation - some members of which contacted SolĂšne privately - or by the Estonian federation, or by the international federation.
Ten days later, SolĂšne sent a report to SafeSport. "I have nightmares and when I go out in the street, I always have a sort of feeling that someone is following me."
Contacted, neither the federation American or SafeSport have not wished to comment. For several months, SolĂšne has put her career on hold.
"It was very difficult for her not to receive any support. In high-level sport, logic dictates that you leave your problems at home and be 100% physically and mentally," her boyfriend Mathieu analyses. "It's very complicated emotionally," confirms SolĂšne. "I have nightmares and when I go out in the street, I always have a sort of feeling that someone is following me." She did not respond to late messages of support from the Estonian federation and the Ice Academy of Montreal. "It was in January that I needed them."
end of article
omg. she reported to Emili Arm, who was the Estonian judge on the panel for ice dance at Golden Spin. Arm reported to the Estonian fed, who did nothing. they didn't approach SolĂšne, they didn't try to find out what support she needed or if she needed medical attention. they did nothing.
SolĂšne then tells Marie-France, who assured SolĂšne's mother that she would report to the US Fed and SafeSport. not only did Marie-France not answer the reporter for this article, Jamal Othman's non-answer is tremendous bullshit - these are the values in our charter, and we ask our skaters and staff to respect this code when they join?? - SolĂšne certainly didn't violate this code, the question is why aren't you living up to the code and protecting her?
in January when SolĂšne was seeking their support, IAM was in the middle of figuring out how to manage the situation around Nikolaj Sorensen and ended up supporting him. the hypocrisy.
any response from the feds or IAM just looks like PR damage control now. they all failed miserably
on a human level, the lack of care extended to SolĂšne is awful. so terribly sorry for what happened to her and how she was then left to navigate the aftermath alone
the perpetrator is despicable. justice for SolĂšne
Iâm having a difficult time caring much about Ice Dance this season. With all the new sexual assault allegations coming out plus the marriages, Iâm just struggling with enjoying it.
That said, I just watched the replay of the RD at NHK.
It was very predictable. I still hate C/B âs RD.
Overall much more conservative scoring than in skate Canada
The amount of teams scoring 70-73 in the past 3 GP events is staggering, those teams are not close to being equals or even similar and it really goes to show how broken the current scoring system is
L/LG are being dropped hard, itâs like skate Canada completely stopped politicking for them which is slightly weird considering other than L/L the Canadians dance future ainât that bright. Granted L/LG material also sucks, but a season ago it looked like they will also get the push
Mrazeks were under scored here IMO, they are way way better than P/B and also better than N/M
Speaking of N/M, even if I ignore the child marriage and overall concerning coaching situation, itâs yet another case where I donât get the hype. They are good but consistently over scored since moving to seniors
B/S looked better today but not getting that much love from the judges, itâs kind of insulting for them to be at the same range as a new senior team and P/B
R/A felt tentative and it reflected in the scores, their FD is better so weâll see how that goes, but they were never taking silver when competing against the French in France
L/B won me over, they are really committed to their weirdness and most of the credits goes to her for making it work. If theyâll take silver here the 6th GPF spot is almost certainly theirs
Sigh at the Italians. They are the oldest team competing and I feel like they could have chosen themes that really emphasized their maturity and gracefulness but instead they are out there pretending to be teenagers in the RD and robots in the FD. Huge face palm đ€Šââïž
L/B officially won me over last year. I AM surprised to find myself in a position where their RD might just turn out to be my favorite of the year.
I wish the Italians would pull it together from a packaging point. I want to like them. Every year they do something that makes it difficult.
Iâm not sure what any of the top 3 teams are doing this year tbh. None of them have two solidly good programs. But why bother when they get those scores? đ€·đ»ââïž
I really wish that people had a better grasp on what The Average Person's Life was like pre-industrialization. If you're living in the global North the odds are good that your life is, in fact, better than a medieval king- yes, even with the political stuff- and would make your ancestors cry wild tears of envy.
The things that suck about your life are things that suck about the baseline human condition (at least since the invention of agriculture, but that's 10,000 years of humanity). Yes, including all the political stuff.
The baseline human condition is "being terrified of losing the harvest and starving", compared to that, losing a job is no big deal. (It's bad, it can be life-upendingly bad, but it's still not "you are guaranteed to die if you screw this up" bad for most people.)
The baseline human condition is "getting kicked around by a tin pot dictator", whether that be a king, a baron, a warlord, or a chief; it's taken centuries of social technology to get the world to a point where that's Not Normal.
The baseline human condition is "losing multiple siblings and/or children at a young age to diseases that are entirely preventable". That's a shocking tragedy now. The baseline human condition is "being in the pathway of said tinpot dictator's wars of conquest" and having to deal with soldiers' pillage, looting, and worse (even if they're nominally on your side). That is, again, a shocking tragedy-- it still happens, and happens in way too much of the world, but no one is going to tell you that it's normal.
I'm not saying that we can sit back and rest on our laurels. We can't. I've been calling the pre-industrial world the "baseline human condition" for a reason- unless you're very, very careful, that's what your society eventually reverts to. It takes a lot of people working very hard to make sure you don't have to live at the baseline human condition, and if you start slacking on that, you start backsliding into it.
How we treat each other- and how we use the technology, material and social, that we've developed to make things easier- matters. We can make the world even better than it is now. We can also make it significantly worse. The choice is ours.
...But if you know that you can reliably have food regardless of the season, you don't live in fear of a random attack killing you tomorrow, and you can listen to music on command whenever you want? You do actually live a better life than a medieval king. Because even kings and emperors were much closer to the baseline human condition than a random farm worker in Bumfuck, Iowa is today.
Apparently I badly want to go on my âstop making fun of plague doctors, they were ahead of their time and doing the best they could with the primitive equipment they had availableâ rant.
They shoved herbs in their breathing hose because they knew the air was bad and hoped it would help, and *they were right* in theory. The plague itself was not an airborn virus, but they couldnât know that and it wasnât the only thing killing people at the time anyway, and they covered *all* their bases. If theyâd had the technological knowhow to make air tanks, or even better air filters, they wouldâve. They just made the best air filters they could.
What we think they wore isnât exactly what they wore, and what they actually wore would later be repurposed into scuba suits (and thus spacesuits too) and *actual hazmat suits*, because the theory was sound, the materials were just lacking, and honestly what they did with the materials they had was hardcore.
they wore full face protection which avoids the most obvious mucosal transmission routes
INCLUDING GLASS IN THE EYEHOLES. They invented safety goggles before most of the world had nailed down corrective eye glasses yet
they wore additional head protection to cover seams in their mask/hoods
they oiled and waxed all their clothes to make it fluid-resistant
they wore separate but tight fitting equally if not more fluid-resistant gloves and/or armcuffs so they could keep hand contamination to a minimum even when dressing/undressing AND they only wore the suit in areas they thought was contaminated and took it off before entering uncontaminated areas
they may have used herbed vinegar to clean, and if the stories are true this was clever because 1) itâs available and portable 2) pretty effective as far as medieval disinfectants go versus the damage it does the the user (as opposed to what they had for bleach at the time, and the actual percentage level in alcohols at the time which was mostly insufficient for task as well as being needed for more important things); vinegar is *still* a decent disinfectant even now
It honestly took doctors well into the twentieth century to get that level of obsessive attention to hygiene and cross-contamination back. A whole lot of babies and mothers wouldnâtâve died, for instance, if a plague doctor instead of an obstetrician supported the birth because A PLAGUE DOCTOR WOULD KNOW TO WASH THEIR GODDAMNED HANDS.
#i did not realize people made fun of plague doctors #ive mostly seen people freaked out by the aesthetic #they always seemed to me like a bittersweet example of humanity scared shitless #and still trying really really hard #iâd get very poetic about it #sometimes its a stare out the window and empathize with plague doctors kind of day and thatâs just how it is #thatâs just how growing up is #i feel like thanks victorians is a strong contender for thanks obamaâs throne (tags via @cicadianrhythm)
but you almost forgot one of the coolest things!!Â
supposedly some plague doctors would carry hollow canes in order to check the pulse without needing to use their hands or take off their gloves? it was sort of like a very early example of a stethescope
Yep. This is terrifying. Iâve caught nursing majors, engineering majors, architecture majors relying on ChatGPT to do their homework. These are people who need to know their field well to ensure people donât die and theyâre letting a glorified algorithm cheat them through school. Itâs so dangerous
hey. hi. I work in academia. and there are a lot of student-age folks on this site.
don't do this. don't use genAI. even if your professors give you permission. even if they ask for it or suggest it. if they do anything short of directly requiring it (and I weep, because I've already seen assignments that require it) don't touch that crap. if they do require it, stick it to them. be as maliciously compliant as possible. be a nightmare.
I know it might sound easier right now -- just plug in your assignment and get the answers. you don't care about this class anyway, it's not for your major, you don't see the value of the assignment.
but for your own sake, for the sake of your education and mind, and for the sake of the future world we want to have: learn the stuff. you are not as stupid as the corporate bizzaro kings who want to rule the world think you are, so don't give them reasons to believe it.
and odds are good genAI is gonna give you corrupted info anyway -- more and moreso as the machines cannibalize themselves.
just don't do it. not even "I just do it for XYZ--" no. stop. there is no valid use of generative AI, and even using it for memes or lolz feeds the system and directly feeds the pockets of the people who want to replace you anyway.
Rage reblogging this. Yesterday i got into an argument with one of my college friends who is using chatGPT to do all her work. We're psychology students. The whole group chat laughed my arguments off as if they didn't matter because "she's an artist, of course she's anti-AI" and i had to deal with it. This is a warning. If your therapist graduated in 2023/2024, ask about their opinions on chatGPT. They might lie to you if you ask "did you use it to graduate" directly, but try to make jokes about it and play it cool. If they're into it, DROP OFF. FIND A NEW ONE. Do not trust your brain to someone who didn't bother to use theirs.
Because people confuse âcritical as in critical thinkingâ with âcritical as in criticizing something,â so they think that âlook for something bad, no matter how far-fetchedâ is what âbeing criticalâ means.
They also donât realize that âliterary criticismâ meansâŠ
Okay. What literary criticism IS, is like taking a mechanical clock apart to see all the gears and learn how it fits together and approach your next clock with more knowledge of what makes it tick.
What they THINK literary criticism means is, you take the clock apart and beat all the pieces with a hammer, then scream at it because it doesnât tick for you the way it used to.
Yep, there it is: the scourge of workshopping all over the place. :/
Will never forget the first writersâ workshop I attended where a story was being âround-robinedâ (i.e., passed around a circle for critique) and the first person picked up the typed sheaf of paper and said, âWell, this was shit,â and just passed it on to the next person.
Speaking of shit, I kinda lost mine. âExcuse me, what?â I said. âYou donât get to do that!â
The person was astounded, as if Iâd somehow just disallowed the law of gravity. âWhat?â they said, incredulous. And then, âWhy not?â
âBecause this is critique, not abuse.â (The person in question was fortunately familiar with the Monty Python skit in which this theme comes up. See below.) âYou have to say why you think it was shitâmeaning, why and how it didnât work for you. And then you have to say how you would fix that.â
The personâs mouth was literally hanging open at the very idea. It had honestly never occurred to them that a workshop wasnât just someplace to vent about their own preferences. They started to try to argue with me, and I just took the manuscript away from them and began a critique the way we do it in workshops Iâm running. (The simplest form of this is the famous feedback sandwich, though there are many other potential ways to go.)
No work gets out of responsible workshopping/critiquing without having the hood carefully opened to see why the âengineââs making whatever weird noises itâs making, having them and the machinery examined and diagnosed, and then politely closed up again. For irresponsible criticismâwhich we refer to around here as the âRite of Springâ approach, in which abuse is somehow felt to make the writer or the work strongerâI have no damn time at all. Seriously, who made that shit up? Except somebody who doesnât really care about either the writer or the work, and enjoys othersâ suffering.
(mutter) (sigh) âŠAnyway, check this out. The abuse happens at 0:43. :)
TIL âYankee Doodleâ was written by the British to mock americans. âDoodleâ is thought to come from the German âdödelâ, meaning âfoolâ or âsimpletonâ and âmacaroni,â a flamboyantly stylish type of dress, painting the Yankees as morons who thought placing a feather in oneâs cap made them a âdandy.â
so youâre telling me that âstuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroniâ would be like saying âwrote a G on his belt and called it gucciâ
@emperorsfoot I know you'll have more than me. There are a lot of more modern ones, and you tend to read classics, so IDK if you'll be in the top category.
#the meet-cute to which all other meet-cuteâs aspire #danielle applies high-velocity apple to suspected horse-thief #sheâs furious! heâs cranky! heâs royal! sheâs âoh shitâ contrite! he bribes her and bounces!: ROMANCE
some clarification, since some people are confused: i mean, do you remember the first place you ever lived OUTSIDE of pictures and videos? like organic memory?
