Museum Queer

Adventures of a 28 year old queer museum professional. I mostly yell about museums on Twitter @/museumqueer. Professionally, I'm interested in museum visitor experience, exhibit design, and diversity & inclusion in the museum field.

[cornbread21actual]

https://iww.org/

[unreleasedsong-is-kredkadt]

#sundaysketch #clexa #clarkegriffin #lexawoods #commanderlexa #wlw #couplegoals #pencildrawing #graphitedrawing #myart #kredkadt https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu1hChEFT9Q/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1j6mlege76wv7

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

In my art history class we’re discussing museums and repatriation and I am so fucking angry

Just wait until I have some free time, I’ll post my favorite whiny bitch responses from European museums.

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

First, a fun fact: “It is noted in the report that some 90% of African cultural heritage currently exists outside of the continent and is displayed in major Western museums.” So keep that in mind when reading these.

Let’s get this party started, shall we?

“Contrary to the sanctified treatment of objects in these museums, there have been cases in Africa where artworks have temporarily left the museum to be used in rituals.”

Europeans, clutching their pearls: But it is Art, it cannot be soiled by the hands of the masses who created it!!

Then I read a big long paragraph from a French museum director that in summary reads: Hey everyone, let’s start from scratch and pretend colonialism never happened. That good? Does that work for everyone? Awesome. 

“…cultural objects from the area which is now Iraq are being used to promote BP [Oil], which supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.”

So y’all just gonna an oil company sponsor an exhibit of dubiously obtained Iraqi artifacts? Cool, cool, no colonialist undertones there.

“[D]irector of the British Museum Hartwig Fischer said that while the museum’s trustees were open to all forms of cooperation, “the collections have to be preserved as whole.””

You mean, all those collections donated from wealthy individuals who pillaged the entire world? If you really believe this I’ve got a simple solution for you: return the entire damn collection.

“Unlike Nazi-looted art, what was taken in the former colonies are not recognized as criminally obtained under international law.”

Hi yeah what the actual fuck

Then there’s the Parthenon Marbles, and if you don’t know, it’s a whole big Thing with a near comical backstory. But this post is long enough as is, and I don’t want to bore you. In short: Britain has bunch of the carvings and statues that were left in the Greek Parthenon, and Greece wants them back. Here are some choice bits from the British Museum’s current official stance on the marbles:

“Archaeologists worldwide are agreed that the surviving sculptures could never be re-attached to the structure.”

That is??? Not the issue??? No one is suggesting this???

“acting with the full knowledge and permission of the Ottoman authorities”

Really? You sure about that? Because it seems like no one else agrees with you on that. Also, even if there was clear permission, saying “The empire that conquered Greece told us we could take them” doesn’t exactly strengthen your case.

“the Greek authorities have now removed all the architectural sculptures from the Parthenon to the Acropolis Museum. They have thus completed a process begun by Lord Elgin 200 years ago”

Are… are you suggesting that Greece only wants to preserve its heritage because you wanted to first? Seriously? I’d be damn careful about touting yourself as paragons of historical preservation, Britain.

“The Museum is a unique resource for the world: the breadth and depth of its collection allows the world’s public to re-examine cultural identities and explore the connections between them.”

And how did your collection get so big, might I ask? Oh, you don’t know? Because you’re not willing to do the research on how most of these artifacts were acquired? Fascinating.

“This display does not alter the Trustees’ view that the sculptures are part of everyone’s shared heritage and transcend cultural boundaries.”

Guys I’m dying they sound like an entitled white boy in an intro to philosophy class

By the way, this document that is less than 1,000 words mentions that the public can view the them “free of charge” no less than 3 times.

Fun times.

Sources: (x) (x) (x) (x)

[thenerdyanthrohistorian]

I actually was given a C minus in this class in my undergrad for calling out museums for being whiney about repatriation. My professor HATED me and we would get into heated arguments about how stolen artifacts needed to be returned. God those were the days….lol FYI this professor Dr.Wilson got mad one day and told me to go back to Mexico and asked me if I was legal. I know this anger…lol 

[helliotthehellion]

Greece’s Acropolis museum is literally a huge fuck you to the British Museum. The New Acropolis Museum opened in 2007. It looks amazing

Since you can’t dig anywhere in Greece (especially right by the Acropolis) without hitting ruins or artifacts, they built a glass floor so that visitors can see the ruins below the building.

A huge part of the design for the new building was to emphasize that Greece is ready and capable of caring for the Elgin Marbles (a huge defense the British Museum will give is that colonized countries don’t have the resources to care for the artifacts properly). So they went out of their way to make this as clear as possible.

The top floor of the building is entirely devoted to the metopes and friezes around the Parthenon. Like, so devoted that they even oriented the top floor to align with the actual Parthenon

So if you walk around the floor, everything is oriented as if you were walking around the actual Parthenon.

So the two ends of the floor are dedicated to the two pediments. And they were very particular with how they’re displayed.

Wow there sure are a lot of things missing.

They left space for where the Elgin Marbles should be. All of the pieces are labelled. For all of the missing pieces, there is a sign saying that that piece is in the British Museum. It’s pretty hard to miss when entire sections are not there.

That entire floor is just to show that they all belong together. The pediments need to be back together. Get your shit together British Museum

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

You missed my favorite part of the museum:

They have separate room devoted to these statues, with a spotlight shining on the empty spot where the sixth one is supposed to be. It was the saltiest museum I have ever been to, and I was living. My favorite part was when the tour guide pleaded to us to write to the British Museum and ask them to return the artifacts, and an older man from India muttered under his breath, “Ha! Good luck with that.”

That aside, it’s also one of the most beautiful museums I have ever been in. The architecture is stunning. If you ever get a chance, absolutely go to it.

For those who don’t know the story behind why all these Greek statues are in Britain, buckle up for a wild ride.

The Parthenon has a storied history, obviously, as it is was an incredible temple in a major Mediterranean port. It had started to show wear and tear over the years, and different people had attempted at various points to “save” it, or at least save the carvings. Most of the time, these attempts did more harm than good.

Then along comes Thomas Bruce, a Scottish nobleman more commonly know as Lord Elgin. Between 1799-1803 he acts as British ambassador to the Ottoman empire, which controlled the entire region that is now Greece. He gets really interested in the old works of the classical civilizations and asks the Sultan of the Ottoman empire if he can undertake an extensive study and recording of the art at the Acropolis in Athens. Not only does the Sultan say yes, his agreement states that Elgin can “take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon.” It is agreed by all parties who are not the British Museum that the Sultan was referring only to the various pieces that were scattered across the ground, but not anything still standing.

Elgin interpreted this wording to mean, “Take anything you want. Go absolutely hog wild.” So he did. He sawed many of the marble carvings off the building to make them easier to transport, which did damage to both the carvings and structure of the building itself. Here’s my favorite part: one of the ships he was using to transport the marbles sank. When Elgin found out, he sent a letter to local authorities asking them to retrieve the cargo, which he referred to as “stones of no interest to anyone but myself.”

He took literal metric tons of artwork, which he wanted to use to decorate his home back in Britain. Except he poured so much money into this project that he went into debt and had to sell the marbles. Parliament bought them (which was not a popular decision at the time) and put them in a public museum. Then in 1832 Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire, and the marbles have been a point of contention in Greek-British relations ever since.

Here’s another quote from the British Museum displaying an astonishing degree of ethnocentrism!

“The public display of the sculptures from spring 1807 encouraged Hellenists in their love of ancient Greece while, at the same time, it inspired the Philhellene movement in its sympathy for the inhabitants of modern Greece and their struggle for independence.”

The most recent volley in this fight was Britain saying, “well, we can’t give you the marbles, your museum is too dinky to display them in their full splendor.” In response, Greece built the above museum.

As many people mentioned in the comments, Black Panther was fantastic in that it brought the issue of museums and repatriation into the public view. Now with more voices joining in, hopefully change can happen more quickly.

[tarvek-sturmvoraus]

You left out the part where the document giving Elgin permission to take them may or may not be a forgery, also!

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

This was a part of this I was not familiar with! And wow! I looked into it, and there is decent evidence that the agreement from the Sultan was faked! This story just keeps getting better and better!

[lupins-archive-deactivated20181]

one of the oldest and arguably the most important museum in Brazil is burning to the ground as we speak. home to the portuguese royal family from 1808 to 1821, the Museu Nacional stored fossils, meteorites, pre-historic human skeletons and a variety of artefacts related to natural history. it holds two centuries of latin & brazilian history and now it’s all gone.

some of the things that are now lost forever: the largest collection of egyptian artefacts in latin america; the skeleton of the largest flying reptile ever found in Brazil; the oldest human fossil ever found in the country, named “Luzia” (over 11.000 y.o) and other 20 million extremely important relics and researches just burned to the ground. never to be seen again.

thanks to our government, of course, who didn’t want to pay the museum the necessary funds to make the essencial maintenances since 2014 (which by the way, costed less than a supreme federal court judge’s sallary: R$520 in a year).

another sad instance where the state’s indifference towards culture and history becomes painfully obvious. this is a massive blow to our cultural legacy.

all that in our independe week. happy independe for us, brazilians, who just lost our history and culture in a fire caused by ignorance and indifference.

[lupins-archive-deactivated20181]

in case you’re wondering, this is what the museum used to look like:

this is what it looks like now:

thousands of years of culture lost. happy independence week.

[lupins-archive-deactivated20181]

“Authorities say the fire lasted for six hours, causing irreparable damage. To put it bluntly: it’s all gone. A meteorite, that can sustain incredibly high temperatures, was found intact. But other than that, there are apparently no other pieces left. It would not be an understatement to call the Museu Nacional the Brazilian equivalent of the Louvre or the British Museum.”

here is a thread of wonderful pictures taken before the fire started, so you can see details of the museum that now is lost forever.

here is some of the international news saying on this, because most articles and videos are all in portuguese, u can check some of the news in english: (here *new york times*) (here *bbc news*) (here *le monde* for french speaking readers) (here *shorouk news* for people who speak arabian) (here *azteca news* for spanish) (here *corriere della sera* for italian).

it was a natural science and historic museum, there were all sorts of important researches and relics. all burned. this was our culture. our history. the first human fossil found in brazil (mentioned above, Luzia) was so important for science, since it proved that way before indigenous tribes existed in Brazil, there were black people.

this is the place where our first constitution was made and the declaration of independence was signed. our independe day is this friday. heartbroken.

[granvarones]

willi ninja was a pioneer and architect of the vogue art form.

born & raised in middleton, NY, the self-taught dancer perfected his style of voguing & became a fixture in the NY ballroom scene in the 1980s. it was during this time he founded the legendary house of ninja. a house that provided a safe space for black & latinx LGBTQ youth.

in 1989, an ENTIRE year before madonna released “vogue”, willi was already introducing the art of vogue to the mainstream world when he was featured in malcolmmclaren’s 1989 music video “deep in vogue.”

willi ninja became one of the breakout stars of the 1990 documentary, “paris is burning.” willi’s perfection of voguing separated him and his house from the others. it was also his unapologetic audacity to dream during a time when the dreams of queer folks were thwarted.

willi leveraged his fame & notoriety from “paris is burning” to make his dream of becoming an internationally known dancer & performer come true. he went from teaching models in new york how to walk to posing with legendary model iman in russia.

willi made each and every one of his dreams come true. he toured the globe spreading the gospel of vogue. he walked at runway shows by mugler and jean-paul gaultier. he was also featured in the 2006 documentary “how do i look”, which many consider a follow-up to “paris is burning”

in 2004, willi was still informing the world about the art and culture of voguing when he was a special guest on jimmiekimmel live. willi gave late night america a taste of black queer excellence even when they weren’t sure what they were watching. THIS IS WHY HE IS AN PIONEER!

on september 2, 2006, willi ninja died at the age of 45 from heart failure due to complications of HIV. his loss continues to be felt through the entire world. his legacy continues to inspire a new generation of black & latinx queer and trans young people.

while vogueing had been around for years, it was willi, who through his brilliance and perfection, brought the art form to an international level of visibility. he will always and forever be synonymous with the art form and with the courage to dream fiercely. 

today we speak the name and honor the black queer pioneer and godfather of vogue, the iconic willi ninja!

[ramenuzumaki]

This happened yesterday in Brazil and I’m from Mexico, but this is a major tragedy and loss to science, culture and humanity.😢💔 (source)

[allthingslinguistic]

“Folks, there’s nothing left from the Linguistics division. We lost all the indigenous languages collection: the recordings since 1958, the chants in all the languages for which there are no native speakers alive anymore, the Curt Niemuendaju archives: papers, photos, negatives, the original ethnic-historic-linguistic map localizing all the ethnic groups in Brazil, the only record that we had from 1945. The ethnological and archeological references of all ethnic groups in Brazil since the 16th century… An irreparable loss of our historic memory. It just hurts so much to see all in ashes.”

— Cira Gonda, translated by Diogo Almeida, about the fire at Brazil’s National Museum.  

[brasilian-bs]

I’m translating this so any foreigners who have been to the national museum can help as well. Please reblog regardless of where you’re from.

“After tonight’s tragedy, museology students from UNIRIO(University of Rio de Janeiro) are trying to help preserve the memory of the brazilian national museum. We ask that those who have videos or pictures(and even selfies), of the collection share them through the e-mail [email protected]”

[dykestroyer]

I need you to understand that the fire that destroyed our National Museum isn’t a tragedy just for Brazil and Brazilians.

I need you to understand that the items in its collection weren’t important just for our national history. The museum contained the richest library on anthropology in our country. It contained the most ancient human remains found in our part of the world. It contained Egyptian mummies, Mesopotamian relics – and unlike many European museums, some of our items were not stolen as a result of colonization, but given (as the throne of Dahomey, for example).

This isn’t a Brazilian tragedy, it’s a global tragedy. Responsibility lies with Brazil and its incompetence, its ignorance, its complete lack of interest or respect for all that is intellectual, cultural, historical, scientific, yes; but the magnitude of this crime is much larger than our nation.

[darlingsterns]

i’m watching an art theft documentary and they’re interviewing this art history professor from new york who was asked to go with the fbi to authenticate a rubens that had been stolen but it was a sting operation so they had to pretend like they weren’t the fbi, that they were some private buyer about to pay $3.5 million for it, and the fbi was like “this is a VERY delicate operation because you never know how they will react to what you have to say so let the agent do all of the talking, don’t say a word to anyone just nod if it’s the rubens, the last operation we did the guy in your position got shot because things went wrong in a second” and then it cuts to the professor’s interview and he says “i wasn’t going to fly down to miami to be a part of an undercover fbi sting operation to handle what could be rubens’s aurora and just NOT say anything. i was gonna have to ad lib a little” and then he tells the interviewer that when he & the fbi agent got to the hotel while he was examining the painting he started lecturing the other people, first on how badly they had wrapped it, and then about like how it had been painted, the history of it, what the subject was and what she was doing, etc etc, and he was like “i hadn’t taught a class on rubens in 15 years, so for me it was like being back in the classroom except my students couldn’t leave” 

[darlingsterns]

at one point during the deal the professor turned to the woman selling it and he said “isn’t this just the most beautiful rubens you’ve ever seen outside of a museum?” (because the fbi had told him earlier that this piece had been stolen from a museum) and THEN he said “where on earth did you get it from?” and the group of people the woman had with her was like taxidermy-fox.png but the woman was like “inheritance” can you IMAGINE the fbi agent about to have a fucking aneurysm when this random guy you’ve brought in just to nod if it’s the right painting not only starts giving an impromptu lecture but then he asks how they got it

[vibafleischer]

I have no words to describe the sadness of this moment. The oldest Museum of Brazil is now on flames, there were more than 20million itens from all around the world on its collection. Not only that, but the building itself is part of Brazil’s history as the home for the Imperial family for almost 100 years, and in 2018 was the celebration of its 200years. Sad day for Brazil’s memory, culture and knowledge.  More about the collections and the museum here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Brazil  

[popprincesses]

this tweet is everything

[unicornsandbutane]

I used to work at the National Gallery in London. Old men came up to me fairly regularly to complain about the young girls (and sometimes the tourists of a particular ethnicity or nationality) taking selfies with the art. I’d smile and say, it’s an interesting diptych because so many of the most celebrated works in the Gallery are portraits– the ‘selfies’ of yesteryear– and indeed, Van Eyck’s /Portrait of a Man/ (1433) may be the earliest known panel self portrait, ant the very least in western art history, so framing oneself in that context, comparing the methods of portraiture over a span of a little under 600 years, is at its heart a commentary on the human desire to remember and be remembered, to catalog one’s existence and give it authenticity.

They did not like that let me tell you.

[tackedtothewall]

Thank you for fighting the good fight, unicornsandbutane.

[secretlesbians]

Gustave Courbet, Le Sommeil,1866.

Le Sommeil [The Sleepers], which depicts two women entwined in a post-coital embrace, caused a stir when it was first shown in the 1870s. The police were called in, and the painting was not shown again until the 1980s. But its brief showing had an influence on a number of contemporary artists, and helped challenge the taboos associated with lesbian relationships. For modern audiences it’s a good reminder that people in the 19th century were not ignorant of lesbian relationships, as we tend to believe. And it’s pretty damn sexy, don’t you think?

[daggers-drawn]

They called the police on this lesbian painting.

[brooklynmuseum]

Hi! I’m Ulyses, the summer Program Assistant for the Museum Apprentice Program at the Brooklyn Museum. As a former Apprentice myself, I know that the Apprentice Program is a fantastic way to meet other high school students, develop your own professional skills, and discover new things about yourself.

Throughout the school year, apprentices meet weekly to explore the artworks and artifacts in the Museum, learn about early childhood education, and develop their own lesson plans. For six weeks during the summer, they teach their own lessons to camp groups, visit different sites around the city, and have exchanges with teen programs from other institutions.

For the 2018 Museum Apprentices, “take up space” has become a rallying cry. As these black and brown faces travel through the Brooklyn Museum, the saying is twofold. Not only are they reminding themselves that they are indeed welcome in these galleries, they are also recognizing that the camp groups they teach are largely black and brown as well. For Mariatou, an Apprentice closing out her first year in the program, there was immense value in “having educators that look, talk, and act like me.” As she and her camp groups physically take up space in the Museum, she has now become one of the educators she had admired.

The way in which “take up space” is constantly repeated is a testament to how much the Apprentices have internalized the teachings of their leadership, Teen Programs Coordinator Ximena Izquierdo Ugaz, and how affirming those messages are. For many apprentices Jorge, a Senior Apprentice in his second year with the program, described the feeling of having a space in the Museum, and how it makes him “want to have that attitude everywhere, in every institution.” We in Teen Programs realize that museums in general can feel unwelcoming to youth of color, and that stance of taking up space is what makes this experience often feel so radical. I have personally been rewarded with seeing a shift in each of the apprentices, from wondering whether or not they belonged in this space, to going to whatever necessary lengths to make themselves, and others, feel welcome.

As the Apprentices taught, they took up space in unique ways, shining within the Museum each with their own vibrant presence. There is both professional and personal growth here- Apprentices have not only become Museum Educators, they’ve also learned to reflect on experiences, become increasingly secure in their identities, and inspire one another on a daily basis. For Emmanuel, what excites him about the Program is how everyone is “inspired by each other to gain personal growth,” and that he’s “always trying to just be better.”

For everyone involved, this has been a summer of discovery and growth. Through exchanges with the High Line Teen Arts & Culture Council, the Opportunity Network, and New Museum’s Teen Apprentice Program, and trips to visit the Black Gotham Experience, The Black School x Kameelah Janan Rasheed at the New Museum, and When We Fight We Win at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, we’ve discovered how marginalized people have fought for their right to take up space and live freely and with equity. Through consistently reflecting, we’ve discovered so much about each other and ourselves. We check-in as an entire group to begin and end every workday, and having that space to speak freely is something I’ve come to greatly appreciate about the program. It is one thing to feel welcome, and another for the Apprentices to know they are valued here in the Brooklyn Museum. For both the teens and myself, it is an amazing feeling to know that their voices matter.

Apply for this paid BkM Teens internship between now and Sep 23. 

Posted by Ulyses Small

[tiny-librarian]

A Pennsylvania museum has solved the mystery of a Renaissance portrait in an investigation that spans hundreds of years, layers of paint and the murdered daughter of an Italian duke.

Among the works featured in the Carnegie Museum’s exhibit Faked, Forgotten, Found is a portrait of Isabella de'Medici, the spirited favorite daughter of Cosimo de'Medici, the first Grand Duke of Florence, whose face hadn’t seen the light of day in almost 200 years.

Isabella Medici’s strong nose, steely stare and high forehead plucked of hair, as was the fashion in 1570, was hidden beneath layers of paint applied by a Victorian artist to render the work more saleable to a 19th century buyer.

The result was a pretty, bland face with rosy cheeks and gently smiling lips that Louise Lippincott, curator of fine arts at the museum, thought was a possible fake.

Before deciding to deaccession the work, Lippincott brought the painting, which was purportedly of Eleanor of Toledo, a famed beauty and the mother of Isabella de'Medici, to the Pittsburgh museum’s conservator Ellen Baxter to confirm her suspicions.

Baxter was immediately intrigued. The woman’s clothing was spot-on, with its high lace collar and richly patterned bodice, but her face was all wrong, ‘like a Victorian cookie tin box lid,’ Baxter told Carnegie Magazine.

After finding the stamp of Francis Needham on the back of the work, Baxter did some research and found that Needham worked in National Portrait Gallery in London in the mid-1800s transferring paintings from wood panels to canvas mounts.

Paintings on canvas usually have large cracks, but the ones on the Eleanor of Toledo portrait were much smaller than would be expected.

Baxter devised a theory that the work had been transferred from a wood panel onto canvas and then repainted so that the woman’s face was more pleasing to the Victorian art-buyer, some 300 years after it had been painted.

Source/Read More

[drst]

Christ men have been Photoshopping women to make us more “pleasing” since for-fucking-ever.

[explorerrowan]

Also, Isabella de’Medici is nice looking, but also has that look in her eye of all Medicis: “I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to kick your ass, buy you and everything you own, or have sex with you. Perhaps all three.”

[whatthefoucault]

It’s interesting the way the repaint has photoshop!Isabella affecting a slightly dreamy, docile gaze into the middle distance; she’s dewy-faced and unthreateningly soft.  But in the original, she’s looking you right in the eye.  She takes the male gaze and throws it right back at you.  That’s a face that says go on, tell me I’d be so pretty if only I had a little repaint, I dare you.  I’ll fuck you up.

[iunia-kallistrate]

They also made her hand smaller and I can’t tell if that’s an urn or scepter in her hand but considering it was painted out I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a symbol of power.

[explorerrowan]

Oh, it’s a symbol of power alright. She’s a Medici, daughter of Cosimo I de Medici, First Grand Duke of Tuscany. The Medicis were the most powerful political family in Florence for almost forever. In Florence, the lines between politics, crime, warfare, and the Church were very blurry. They even managed, on four separate occasions, to get one of their own family members elected Pope, usually by very underhanded dealing with the cardinals. They had their fingers in every pie in Italy from 13th through 17th century.

In the case of Isabella, in order to secure an alliance with the Orsini family of Rome, she was married to Paolo Giordano I Orsini when she was 16. Contrary to popular belief, people in Renaissance Europe weren’t all that into child brides, this was just about the politics, so she stayed at her father’s household in Florence until she was of appropriate age. And then she just sort of… never left. Her new husband had zero concept of money, and her dad actually kinda hated him even though he was the one who arranged the marriage in the first place. So Isabella and her 50,000 scudi dowry (at a time when the average Italian earned somewhere between 10 and 40 scudi a year) stayed in Florence. Because she never went to Rome to live with her husband, she enjoyed enormous freedom and power back in Florence. After her mother died, she basically stepped into the role of First Lady of Florence, and was considered one of the keenest political minds in Europe. She ruled what she wanted, bought what she wanted, and fucked who she wanted, with no one really able to tell her no.

She was eventually assassinated by her husband while she was on holiday at one of her family’s country villas, probably because she was fucking her husband’s cousin, Troilo Orsini. Well, she had an “accident” while bathing, and Paolo Orsini said she must have drowned, but the coroner said she was strangled, and several servants swore they saw him do it. He might also have done it on the orders of Isabella’s brother, Francesco Medici, since he was trying to consolidate his power as the next Grand Duke, and by all accounts she was definitely in his way because of her political savvy.

So yeah. She was a boss, and that’s what makes it even more offensive that this Victorian sap tried to make her into this passive, skinny, doe-eyed wimp.

[indi-dork]

[makingqueerhistory]

Wilfred Owen: Dating Your Heroes (And Writing Through Hard Times)

Hello, again! With Laura still on hiatus, I’m still hanging around, writing articles in between podcast episodes and crossing names off of my list of interesting, historical, and queer figures. This week keeps us in London (sort of) with a reader-requested and Grace-approved poet, Wilfred Owen. Ther

Never fear: Thank Home, and Poetry, and the Force behind both. – Wilfred Owen

BECOME A PATRON

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[thepuppyclub]

IT IS TEMPTING TO FORGET

2006. Twenty-five years of AIDS.

It is tempting to forget the morning rituals, when you inspected your body for lesions that might have appeared during the night and signal that it had started.

It is tempting to forget that when you asked, “Does this spot look purple to you?” you didn’t need to say anything else for everyone around you to know just what was on your mind, if not on your skin, and how fast your heart was racing as you uttered the words as casually as you could because sounding casual seemed to increase the chances of a reassuring response.

It is tempting to forget that there was a time when gay men were hoping not to lose weight, that plump meant healthy and healthy reassuring. And reassuring, in a turnabout so shocking for us then, meant sexy.

It is tempting to forget that people were dropping like flies, that many gay men in cities like New York or San Francisco were crossing out name after name from their address books, and it is tempting to forget that many gay men who had long left their families behind in favor of friendships were now left only with mere acquaintances, no one close still living.

It is tempting to forget how parents who had once expelled their faggot son now rushed to his bedside to keep te lovers and friends away, to contest the will, and to snatch the spoils of a life lived far from the tender bosom of the family.

It is tempting to forget that women never “got” AIDS but somehow died of it by the thousands.

It is tempting to forget that the truth could only be whispered or screamed but seldom simply told.

It is tempting to forget that kids were chased out of schools by their friends’ parents and by their friends and that their houses were burned to the ground.

It is tempting to forget that Ryan White was once described as a “homophiliac” in a newspaper.

It is tempting to forget the frightened medics and undertakers and the cop’s face masks and latex gloves, as they arrested dying young men and women fighting for their lives.

It is tempting to forget ACT UP’s unforgettable chant, “They’ll see you on the news; your gloves don’t match your shoes!”

It is tempting to forget angry queers screaming bloody murder and spitting out hosts in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

It is tempting to forget the pictures of Dorian Gray on TV and on the pages of magazines, the emaciated faces covered with lesions, the hollow stares, and the feeling that one might as well have been looking at a charred and contorted body hanging from a tree, like Billie Holiday’s strange fruit, as the crowd cheered.

It is tempting to forget gay-related immune deficiency and the gay cancer and the 4-H club — homosexual, heroin addict, hemophiliac, Haitian — and all the conspiracy theories and miracle cures that we knew were bullshit yet couldn’t help but consider just in case, because madness could make sense.

It is tempting to forget the promise of a vaccine in about five years and that it felt like such an eternity that researchers sounded almost apologetic when explaining that retroviruses are particularly treacherous foes.

It is tempting to forget the calls for quarantine camps and tattoos and mass expulsions, “solutions” whose pros and cons were discussed with the sort of equanimity now applied to the debate on torture.

It is tempting to forget that nobody gave a shit.

It is tempting to forget that all this is still happening far, far away from here.

It is tempting to forget and it is easy.

pp. 9-10, The Nearness of Others: Searching for Tact and Contact in the Age of HIV, David Caron.