Joyeuse Noëlle

[joyeuse-noelle]

hello milhist goons, because I bet you don't believe me

[joyeuse-noelle]

also hi brunch libs, since it's getting shared around

[joyeuse-noelle]

hello milhist goons, because I bet you don't believe me

[joyeuse-noelle]

I don’t know how many mutuals we shared, but it is with a heavy heart that I fulfill my responsibility of letting Tumblr know that my beloved friend @venatus passed away last week. (I found out tonight, and most of my night has been notifying people.)

Take care of yourselves, and let the people you care about know that you love them.

[joyeuse-noelle]

Heck, I’ll add this here too. Have fun, get creative, enjoy the spookiest month of the year!

[matchingvnecks]

[teachingwithcoffee]

It’s time to bring an end to the Rape Anthem Masquerading As Christmas Carol

[bigbutterandeggman-deactivated2]

Hi there! Former English nerd/teacher here. Also a big fan of jazz of the 30s and 40s. 

So. Here’s the thing. Given a cursory glance and applying today’s worldview to the song, yes, you’re right, it absolutely *sounds* like a rape anthem. 

BUT! Let’s look closer! 

“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.

See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.

Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because the woman has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so. She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposed to, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.” And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.

So it’s not actually a song about rape - in fact it’s a song about a woman finding a way to exercise sexual agency in a patriarchal society designed to stop her from doing so. But it’s also, at the same time, one of the best illustrations of rape culture that pop culture has ever produced. It’s a song about a society where women aren’t allowed to say yes…which happens to mean it’s also a society where women don’t have a clear and unambiguous way to say no.

[joyeuse-noelle]

As is the case every year when someone tries to explain this:

a) you don’t get to insist that the original context is the only context. If the only context that matters is 1944, then leave the song in 1944. If the song is performed in 2017, you have to contextualize it in 2017.

b) this apologia falls apart entirely when you remember that “the answer is ‘no’” is literally a lyric in the song and the “wolf” keeps going anyway.

[relatablehetaceposts]

the word queer, outside of being a slur, is honestly just so … hard for me to look at anymore because i don’t think i can ever /not/ associate it with liberal buzzfeed loving creeps who will tear your throat out if you dare to speak of the word negatively

[joyeuse-noelle]

Nah, let’s talk about this. (Yes, you will call me a “liberal buzzfeed loving creep who is tearing your throat out”, but hopefully you will at least read what I have to say.)

It is difficult for me to imagine “queer” being a slur in the modern day. It certainly used to be, and nobody denies that. Maybe someone, somewhere has used it derogatorily in the last ten years. But “queer” has been adopted and reclaimed for longer than most of Tumblr has been alive. The well-known slogan “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” celebrates its 27th birthday this year.

So why did “queer is a slur” suddenly resurface on Tumblr, within the last two years? The answer is both simple and distressing: 

TERFs.

“Queer is a slur” is TERF rhetoric, period. It’s easily traced back to C*thy Br*nn*n and her ilk, and they’re deliberately, actively targeting young LGBTQ+ people in order to radicalize them against anyone who’s LGBTQ+ but not Lesbian or Gay. It works like this:

TERFs start the meme that “queer” is a slur. “It’s important to use the actual words instead of terms of abuse” is a common addition.

People who have actually been using “queer” as a community- and self-descriptor for literal decades say, “No, it’s not, cut that out.” People of every description say this, but trans and bi/pan/ace/aro/etc. people stand out, because…

TERFs (usually in disguise) are supportive. “We just don’t want you to get hurt! Now look, they’re attacking you for wanting to just be called a lesbian.”

Young lesbian and gay people see the rest of the umbrella “tearing their throat out” and decide maybe they’re more trouble than they’re worth, and their friends who are backing them up say, “you know, they’re probably just mentally ill…”

New TERFs are born.

It is bullshit, and the worst part is that it’s working.

“Queer” is not a slur. You’ve been lied to and manipulated by people who want to turn you against your community.

EDIT: Further evidence that this is deliberate manipulation: You know what people use as derogatory literally every day? “Gay”. Shitty homophobia is all over modern gaming. I have yet to see a single person on Tumblr say that we should ban the word “gay” because people use it as a slur.

[joyeuse-noelle]

This post has generated a genuinely shocking amount of anonymous abuse predicated on a) really, REALLY bad reading comprehension and b) assuming I’m not trans myself. Children of Tumblr: at least learn to read carefully and think critically before you fling anonymous abuse at people.

[transtendenz]

While I only saw your blog and this post very recently, I absolutely think it’s atrocious to throw TERF accusations into literally every discussion regarding LGBT issues. And it’s always done as a “guess what, I’m now going to brand you as the devil himself for not shutting the fuck up and agreeing with me”. I’ve never seen it used in a way where it didn’t quietly imply “if you don’t put all your efforts into placating me and convincing me that you don’t deserve to be labelled as a TERF, I’m going to loudly and angrily call you one until enough people agree with me and you get shunned and abused by those around you on this website”.

And it genuinely does not add anything of value to the discussion, beyond being an extremely cheap intimidation tactic.

Personally, I don’t mind the wird queer. I don’t use it for myself, but I don’t mind that many others do. But I do fucking mind you using people who are opposed to my right to exist as who I am, who are in favour of implementing and enforcing laws against my identity, and who will misgender and insult my at every step, using these people as an argument in a discusssion that I’m not a part of.

[joyeuse-noelle]

Hi. I only just saw this because I’m not on Tumblr much anymore, but it bears responding to.

1) I am a trans woman. Your post indicates that you think I’m not, so let’s clear that up.

2) The only people I called TERFs are TERFs. People who are being manipulated by TERFs are victims of TERFs, not TERFs themselves.

3) I’m not “throwing TERF accusations into literally every discussion regarding LGBT issues”. There’s a well-documented path of transmission between TERF bloggers and Tumblr opinion on the specific topic of “queer is a slur”. 

3a) Again, this does not make young Tumblr users TERFs. It makes them victims.

4) Since your bio says “Don't expect me to play Google for you.“ I’ll let you extend me the same courtesy and look #3 up your own damn self instead of assuming I’m just making it up to score points.

[joyeuse-noelle]

Just a heads-up: Tumblr’s saying they’re disabling access for anyone with an AT&T-associated email address. This appears to be legit (at least, you can get to it by clicking “Help” at the bottom of the Tumblr page). Here’s the link.

List of providers affected: att.net, ameritech.net, bellsouth.net, flash.net, nvbell.net, pacbell.net, prodigy.net, sbcglobal.net, snet.net, swbell.net, and wans.net.

You can change the email address associated with your account to get around this.

[relatablehetaceposts]

the word queer, outside of being a slur, is honestly just so … hard for me to look at anymore because i don’t think i can ever /not/ associate it with liberal buzzfeed loving creeps who will tear your throat out if you dare to speak of the word negatively

[joyeuse-noelle]

Nah, let’s talk about this. (Yes, you will call me a “liberal buzzfeed loving creep who is tearing your throat out”, but hopefully you will at least read what I have to say.)

It is difficult for me to imagine “queer” being a slur in the modern day. It certainly used to be, and nobody denies that. Maybe someone, somewhere has used it derogatorily in the last ten years. But “queer” has been adopted and reclaimed for longer than most of Tumblr has been alive. The well-known slogan “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” celebrates its 27th birthday this year.

So why did “queer is a slur” suddenly resurface on Tumblr, within the last two years? The answer is both simple and distressing: 

TERFs.

“Queer is a slur” is TERF rhetoric, period. It’s easily traced back to C*thy Br*nn*n and her ilk, and they’re deliberately, actively targeting young LGBTQ+ people in order to radicalize them against anyone who’s LGBTQ+ but not Lesbian or Gay. It works like this:

TERFs start the meme that “queer” is a slur. “It’s important to use the actual words instead of terms of abuse” is a common addition.

People who have actually been using “queer” as a community- and self-descriptor for literal decades say, “No, it’s not, cut that out.” People of every description say this, but trans and bi/pan/ace/aro/etc. people stand out, because…

TERFs (usually in disguise) are supportive. “We just don’t want you to get hurt! Now look, they’re attacking you for wanting to just be called a lesbian.”

Young lesbian and gay people see the rest of the umbrella “tearing their throat out” and decide maybe they’re more trouble than they’re worth, and their friends who are backing them up say, “you know, they’re probably just mentally ill…”

New TERFs are born.

It is bullshit, and the worst part is that it’s working.

“Queer” is not a slur. You’ve been lied to and manipulated by people who want to turn you against your community.

EDIT: Further evidence that this is deliberate manipulation: You know what people use as derogatory literally every day? “Gay”. Shitty homophobia is all over modern gaming. I have yet to see a single person on Tumblr say that we should ban the word “gay” because people use it as a slur.

[joyeuse-noelle]

This post has generated a genuinely shocking amount of anonymous abuse predicated on a) really, REALLY bad reading comprehension and b) assuming I'm not trans myself. Children of Tumblr: at least learn to read carefully and think critically before you fling anonymous abuse at people.

[tatterdemalionamberite]

this is one of the most magnificent stinkers I’ve read all year

[skygenders]

Why does Dick Spencer still have a job this sounds so fucking stupid

[joyeuse-noelle]

I feel like the only thing left is for Nick Spencer to take off his mask and reveal that he’s actually Richard Spencer using the laziest alias possible.

[joyeuse-noelle]

I was doing some digging today because of A Certain Other Post, in particular an assertion that “gay” didn’t start out with negative connotations, and discovered something interesting. A lot of us, I think, think of “gay” (”male homosexual”) as being related to “gay” (”joyful”), but nobody can ever quite elucidate what the connection is. 

But it turns out that there’s another meaning that appears (to my “I dug around for an hour” eye) to have been the link. In the 19th and early 20th century, “gay” also meant “promiscuous and debauched”; someone who was gay in this sense was not just joyful, but obsessed with their own happiness to the point of amoral hedonism.

Curiously, it fell out of use about the same time that “gay” came into use to mean “male homosexual” (the 1930s), and the original uses of “gay” in the modern sense do seem to have implied debauchery and hedonism rather than joyfulness.

Clearly this isn’t what we mean now when we use the word, and this is largely relegated to historical trivia. I just thought it was interesting.

[relatablehetaceposts]

the word queer, outside of being a slur, is honestly just so … hard for me to look at anymore because i don’t think i can ever /not/ associate it with liberal buzzfeed loving creeps who will tear your throat out if you dare to speak of the word negatively

[joyeuse-noelle]

Nah, let’s talk about this. (Yes, you will call me a “liberal buzzfeed loving creep who is tearing your throat out”, but hopefully you will at least read what I have to say.)

It is difficult for me to imagine “queer” being a slur in the modern day. It certainly used to be, and nobody denies that. Maybe someone, somewhere has used it derogatorily in the last ten years. But “queer” has been adopted and reclaimed for longer than most of Tumblr has been alive. The well-known slogan “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” celebrates its 27th birthday this year.

So why did “queer is a slur” suddenly resurface on Tumblr, within the last two years? The answer is both simple and distressing: 

TERFs.

“Queer is a slur” is TERF rhetoric, period. It’s easily traced back to C*thy Br*nn*n and her ilk, and they’re deliberately, actively targeting young LGBTQ+ people in order to radicalize them against anyone who’s LGBTQ+ but not Lesbian or Gay. It works like this:

TERFs start the meme that “queer” is a slur. “It’s important to use the actual words instead of terms of abuse” is a common addition.

People who have actually been using “queer” as a community- and self-descriptor for literal decades say, “No, it’s not, cut that out.” People of every description say this, but trans and bi/pan/ace/aro/etc. people stand out, because…

TERFs (usually in disguise) are supportive. “We just don’t want you to get hurt! Now look, they’re attacking you for wanting to just be called a lesbian.”

Young lesbian and gay people see the rest of the umbrella “tearing their throat out” and decide maybe they’re more trouble than they’re worth, and their friends who are backing them up say, “you know, they’re probably just mentally ill…”

New TERFs are born.

It is bullshit, and the worst part is that it’s working.

“Queer” is not a slur. You’ve been lied to and manipulated by people who want to turn you against your community.

EDIT: Further evidence that this is deliberate manipulation: You know what people use as derogatory literally every day? “Gay”. Shitty homophobia is all over modern gaming. I have yet to see a single person on Tumblr say that we should ban the word “gay” because people use it as a slur.

[fdeswqasdfgvrfedwsdfr3-deactiva]

queer is still a go-to slur in the south and other places omg please stop talking over gay and trans people who keep saying this and PLEASE dont call them “terfs in disguise”

also “gay” isnt a slur bc it wasnt A) meant to be offensive in the first place and B) doesnt literally mean “weird” and “unusual”, by that logic we can start calling people fags because “gay” is also thrown around like a bad thing. queer has NEVER been associated with anything but hatred for me and i would appreciate if people didnt call it “””””””“terf rhetoric“””””””“ as a way to literally force it on lgbt folk who may not be comfortable calling themself abusive language like if u wanna reclaim it for urself go ahead!! nobody is stopping u!! but dont feed people this

[joyeuse-noelle]

You’re right on one front: I shouldn’t have claimed that “queer” was only rarely used as a pejorative anymore. If you’re being attacked with “queer”, that sucks, and I’m sorry. (Maybe you shouldn’t name your blog after it, though? Just a suggestion.)

But I think you’ve missed my point. “Queer is a slur” is a meme - in the original sense, not the “image macro” sense. It has a definite origin - we can literally go back and find the blogs that started it, and yes, they’re TERFs - and a predictable epidemiological pattern of "infection” and adoption. It is not a mistake or a coincidence that “queer is a slur” spreads on Tumblr and among younger LGBTQ+ people. The specific meme started with TERFs and is intended to target you.

The young LGBTQ+ people now spreading the meme are its victims, not its perpetrators.

Understand what I’m saying:

It sucks that you have received abuse using “queer” as a pejorative. Nobody should have to go through that.

Despite that, “queer” was reclaimed by the community long ago. When you say “if u wanna reclaim it for urself” you are, unknowingly or not, ignoring and erasing decades of history and millions of lived experiences.

Not everybody who spreads the “queer is a slur” meme is a TERF, and I don’t think I ever said that, BUT

The meme was started by TERFs as a way to radicalize young gay and lesbian people against bi, pan, trans, etc. people.

That said, that “queer is a slur” is a poisonous meme does not excuse or erase the hurt you’ve suffered at the hands of people using “queer” as a term of abuse.

[tastefullyoffensive]

Jim Carrey is a treasure. (via JimCarrey)

[joyeuse-noelle]

Is he still an antivaxxer or has he apologized for that?

[relatablehetaceposts]

the word queer, outside of being a slur, is honestly just so … hard for me to look at anymore because i don’t think i can ever /not/ associate it with liberal buzzfeed loving creeps who will tear your throat out if you dare to speak of the word negatively

[joyeuse-noelle]

Nah, let’s talk about this. (Yes, you will call me a “liberal buzzfeed loving creep who is tearing your throat out”, but hopefully you will at least read what I have to say.)

It is difficult for me to imagine “queer” being a slur in the modern day. It certainly used to be, and nobody denies that. Maybe someone, somewhere has used it derogatorily in the last ten years. But “queer” has been adopted and reclaimed for longer than most of Tumblr has been alive. The well-known slogan “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” celebrates its 27th birthday this year.

So why did “queer is a slur” suddenly resurface on Tumblr, within the last two years? The answer is both simple and distressing: 

TERFs.

“Queer is a slur” is TERF rhetoric, period. It’s easily traced back to C*thy Br*nn*n and her ilk, and they’re deliberately, actively targeting young LGBTQ+ people in order to radicalize them against anyone who’s LGBTQ+ but not Lesbian or Gay. It works like this:

TERFs start the meme that “queer” is a slur. “It’s important to use the actual words instead of terms of abuse” is a common addition.

People who have actually been using “queer” as a community- and self-descriptor for literal decades say, “No, it’s not, cut that out.” People of every description say this, but trans and bi/pan/ace/aro/etc. people stand out, because...

TERFs (usually in disguise) are supportive. “We just don’t want you to get hurt! Now look, they’re attacking you for wanting to just be called a lesbian.”

Young lesbian and gay people see the rest of the umbrella “tearing their throat out” and decide maybe they’re more trouble than they’re worth, and their friends who are backing them up say, “you know, they’re probably just mentally ill...”

New TERFs are born.

It is bullshit, and the worst part is that it’s working.

“Queer” is not a slur. You’ve been lied to and manipulated by people who want to turn you against your community.

EDIT: Further evidence that this is deliberate manipulation: You know what people use as derogatory literally every day? “Gay”. Shitty homophobia is all over modern gaming. I have yet to see a single person on Tumblr say that we should ban the word “gay” because people use it as a slur.

[direhuman]

Executive dysfunction is like all of your abilities are on cooldown and you’re mashing buttons to try to do anything but your brain is just like “i can’t do that yet. that’s still recharging. i can’t do that yet. that spell isn’t ready yet. that’s still recharging.”

[direhuman]

#WTF I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WAS A THING#I THOUGHT I WAS JUST A PIECE OF SHIT OMG

And that’s why talking about mental illness is important.

[palenarutoboy]

Intellect is his blade

[joyeuse-noelle]

The tweet, if you’re curious:

Truly Rob Schneider knows no intellectual equal.

[likeavirgil]

On April 19th I made bread

Latin graffiti in Pompeii (CIL IV.8792)

life fast die young, Romans

(via likeavirgil)

#HAPPY ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIME THAT ROMAN GUY MADE BREAD

(via audible-smiles)

4/19 bake it

(via inquisitorpsyduck)

Is bread a euphemism for something in ancient Latin?

(via airyairyquitecontrary)

The origin of Roman Meal.

(via bububorg)

@joyeuse-noelle @fadeaccompli Is bread a euphemism in ancient Latin?

(via cythraul)

The best I can give you is “maybe”.

There’s some circumstantial evidence that it is, but I can’t find anyone saying it outright. The graffito in question is in a gladiators’ barracks (a lot of people online seem to think it’s in a bathroom stall, but I’m not sure that’s true), and nearby (on the wall of a house) is another inscription:

Gaius Sabinus says a fond hello to Statius.  Traveler, you eat bread in Pompeii but you go to Nuceria to drink.  At Nuceria, the drinking is better.

(Nuceria was a city upriver of Pompeii, and on which Pompeii and other local cities depended for trade.)

Further, the later historian Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon) writes about bakers setting up prostitution booths around their grist mills, and specifically about prostitutes being called “spelt-mill girls”.

Given all of that, it’s not hard to come to the (again, circumstantial) conclusion that “made bread” euphemistically meant “slept with a prostitute”. Gaius Sabinus was saying, perhaps, that Pompeii’s prostitutes were better, but Nucera had better wine. But - at least with the information I can find without JSTOR access - it’s anyone’s guess.