The Dark Modern Anachronist.

An Account of The Strange and Cringey Adventures of one C. Marve Young (They/She, 40+). Containing All Divers Mannere of Dumbassery Regarding The Historie, Musick, Fashion, and Cookery of The Modern Era, As Well As The Author's Numerous Complaints About Life in Vermont. NB: Occasional NSFW Content.

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

I'm seriously considering making a pinned post for this blog that just says "if you somehow ended up here due to a Google search and you're not familiar with Tumblr subculture, TURN BACK NOW. DO NOT READ".

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

I am absolutely not giving TIME Magazine's channel the benefit of a click because I assume it's gen-AI like so much of their other stuff but it is SO TEMPTING TO GAWK. What the actual fuck possessed them to turn Thomas Jefferson into a twunkified anime boxer. How did we get here. Who do we need to stage an intervention for.

[dkettchen]

I made a new flyer for my research project 📋

LINK TO THE SURVEY

The survey will be open until at least the end of 2026 if not beyond. Only these 14 measurements are required, all the others are optional:

If you have been on HRT for at least 3 years, have half an hour and a measuring tape, consider taking the survey!

If you don't qualify or don't feel up to participating feel free to share it :)

I will also be at various UK pride events this summer either walking around with a sign handing out flyers or having a stall where people can come get measured in person! Come say hi :)

[dkettchen]

PSA to read our documentation and FAQ if you have questions as they tend to already be covered in there :)

[dkettchen]

"best tags to wake up to" award goes to this person today:

*tucks hair behind ear* complimenting my methodology, shucks! why thank you, I ran trans support groups for 3 years and work as a data professional lmao (also again I have to stress, I am not officially affiliated with any of the groups they're referring to, any support is informal and the uni funding we received is seed funding from an incubator programme, not actual research funding)

[mylordshesacactus]

For all that the 1800s etiquette guides are--obviously--derangedly sexist from a modern perspective? They're also mindblowing in how casually they will assert things that MODERN DAY CONSERVATIVES would scream and cry and shit their pants about.

"People back then always married young it's natural!!!" Every single 1800s guide I've ever met casually mentions that, of course, you really shouldn't get married before you're at least 20, and waiting until 25 is usually better.

Or, like. Okay here's a long segment:

Just firmly going "it is crazy sexist to blame The Wife for overspending when thirty seconds of asking questions will immediately establish that her husband was outright lying to her about how much money they had. Talk to your wife like a normal person."

Or--okay, here. A section on being honest and not writing love letters in secret, because that's usually a good sign that there's something untoward going on....

....except that he then immediately acknowledges that sometimes, the reason you're hiding this from your parents is that your parents suck. That there are parents who frankly have not earned the right to approve or disapprove of your partner.

(I realize the phrasing there sounds a lot less strong than my summary, but--trust me on this. When you're familiar with the narrative voice of these kinds of books, this passage is downright radical. The mere acknowledgement that if you treat your kids badly, it's your own damn fault when they don't talk to you? I've genuinely never seen that before in this genre. Don't freak out over "properly trained", either. It's just a linguistic shift--at the time, "training" was used the way we would say "raising" a child today. )

[mylordshesacactus]

"Delete all the nudes and sexts after a breakup or you're a piece of shit" has been the standard expectation since EIGHT. TEEN. EIGHTY. FIVE.

[mylordshesacactus]

"Men and women being friends with each other is literally normal. Don't be a controlling freak."

Anyway I was wrong the publishing date is actually 1882 so like.

[mylordshesacactus]

"If you have to abuse a child to keep order in your classroom then you're a bad teacher."

So like @ the modern Republican party, are the "traditional family values" in the fucking room with us right now--

[yukinojou]

Look at this again: If you deprive your child of love, or abuse them, they'll fall for the first person to be kind to them and try to get shacked up way too young.

Cycles of abuse: noted.

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

I'm still sad that the medievalist who was rp-ing Geoffrey Chaucer on Twitter migrated to bsky instead of over here. I actually first followed him on Friendster; he's been committed to that bit for nearly twenty years now and continues to be very entertaining, I just don't get to see it because I log into bsky once in an absolutely never. Really need to get myself some kind of RSS feed thingie again...

[kdinjenzen]

As of TODAY Twitch has quietly added the Generative Ai Training model into your account without your permission.

For the time being it is TOGGLEABLE and you can TURN IT OFF!

However, we do not know if Twitch will force this to be on at all times like some other platforms, like X/Twitter, have previously done.

Regardless of IF YOU STREAM OR NOT you should TURN THIS "TRAINING FOR GENERATIVE AI" SETTING OFF IMMEDIATELY!

To do so you must go to: https://www.twitch.tv/settings/security

And then scroll all the way down near the bottom.

There you'll find the "Training for Generative Ai" setting, toggle it to OFF!

Be sure to keep sending messages to Twitch that you do NOT want this to exist.

And another reminder that if you do stream on Twitch, like I do, you should start preparing you and your audiences to migrate elsewhere ASAP.

[kedreeva]

I think that part of what irks me about AI being used even for "small" stuff like meme graphics (aside from all the larger problems obviously) is like.... the time spent on it was part of the humor. "this is a silly inconsequential joke but I had to stop everything and spend 5 minutes making it" was, at least for me, part of the joke. Someone really took time out of their day to make me look at something silly they took time out of their day to make. Now it's like someone took time out of my day to make me look at something no one even made. Stop wasting my time if you aren't wasting yours too.

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

[memories-of-ancients]

Silver penannular Brooch, The Netherlands, 600-850 AD

from The Rijksmuseum

[qin-shi-huang-di]

Bixia, what about this humble subject who has transformed from a boy into a girl?

DRAFT DODGING???

NOT ON MY WATCH, TRAITOR!

[qin-shi-huang-di]

oh, and i suppose we'll just MARRY our way to victory???

[emperor-gaozu-of-han]

why hello there 😏😎

[qin-shi-huang-di]

DELETE YOUR BLOG TRAITOR NO ONE IS TALKING TO YOU

[qin-shi-huang-di]

MARRIAGE ALLIANCES ARE FOR COWARDS 10/10 LEGALISTS AGREE #xiongudni #moduchanyudni

[emperor-gaozu-of-han]

guy who’s salty he didn’t establish a wildly successful dynasty through this method of diplomacy say what

[qin-shi-huang-di]

EVEN YOUR HORRID SHEW WIFE HAD ENOUGH COURAGE IN HER FRAIL, WOMAN'S BODY NOT TO CAPITULATE TO A DISHONOURABLE MARRIAGE WITH MODU CHANGYU! #moduchangyudni #xiongnudni BUT THE MIGHTY HAN GAOZU GOES CRYING TO THE CHANGYU'S WIFE AT THE FIRST SIGN OF ENCIRCLEMENT, AND BEGS FOR #heqin LIKE THE COWARD HE IS! I'D CALL YOU A WEAK, PATHETIC GIRL, BUT THAT WOULD GENUINELY BE SELLING YOU SHORT!

[emperor-gaozu-of-han]

for all you’re trying to insult me by saying I’m worse than my wife, her regency lasted longer than your entire dynasty.

so let’s all have a think about that….hmm….

[swordsman-jing-ke]

LOL! not a difficult feat, seeing as Emperor One-Hit Wonder's dynasty only lasted for 14 years.

[qin-shi-huang-di]

I AM NOT OWNED!!! I AM NOT OWNED!!!!!!!!! I AM A GLORIOUS EMPEROR. I CAN ESTABLISH A STABLE DYNASTY!!! I AM A GLORIOUS EMPEROR. I CAN SELECT AN ABLE HEIR!!!!!! I AM A GLORIOUS EMPEROR. MY CITIZENS LOVE MY REGIME!!!!!!!!!

[wu-zetian-of-zhou]

Wow, mine lasted longer than that.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

[Image description: bathroom sign featuring the standard, easily recognizable men and women symbols plus a slightly more ambiguous graphic featuring a person cradling a large cylindrical form. Caption on image reads, "Finally a bathroom for me AND MY ENORMOUS PENIS". End image description.]

And since prev and I both caught this earworm from the sign it's time to inflict it on everyone else:

[preserving-tiktok]

[transgenderer]

When I say "godspeed" (I say it a lot) I like to imagine I'm a member of a futurism religion that worships velocity above all else. Like its the standard well-wishing in my culture. Speedliness is next to godliness. Someday we'll catch him! And the closer we get the more he loves us

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I like to imagine that I'm referring to a drug that induces apotheosis.

[womanaction]

one of the best sentences I've read on Wikipedia

[blumineck]

How can I do this as a MAN?

Honestly, platform heels are absolutely not my favourite thing to wear for pole, but they are deeply connected to the history and modern context of pole. And if by wearing them I can show some people that it’s OK to not fit the “standard” template of masculinity or femininity, then that’s worth a bit of extra effort!

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

I can't fucking wait to go down to Hudson next month and just spend a goddamn entire week by myself doing nothing but baking experiments and reading in cafes and pubs and haunting the local historic cemetery. AND THEN BLORBOS.

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

Why am I only learning NOW that Visual Snow Syndrome has some kind of correlation with autism???

Incidentally, I also have had tinnitus for as long as I can remember. My hearing was fine when I was young, it just also came with a constant multi-frequency ringing in the background. I've always seen these as being related, somehow.