careful fear @roysbatty - Tumblr Blog

The thing about gay sailors in the Victorian era is that England and America had totally different takes on it. In the british navy they could, and did, literally kill men for having consensual relationships with other men. But in the US navy, even tho John Adams literally copied England's naval regulations when making America's version, he chose to leave out every proscription against sodomy. And no one knows why!!! England was like hmm yes the death penalty and America was like i dont really see how thats my business. And like gay American sailors could still be charged with things like "uncleanliness" or "indecency" (charges that were vague enough to cover a lot of different things) but bc it wasnt specifically forbidden in the regulations "the commanding officers [were given] wide discretion to prosecute, punish, or ignore."*

And by and large US officers seem to have ignored it. We literally have the records of every flogging (the most extreme form of punishment allowed during these specific years) onboard a naval vessel for the years of 1846-1848 and almost all of the cases that involved homosexual activity "unambiguously refer to male/male homosexual activity involving attempted assaults on children, not consensual couplings between adults."* There are also multiple recorded instances throughout the Victorian Era of an American sailor coming forward with a charge of sexual assault and pulling in other sailors or even officers as witnesses who tell their captain yeah i totally saw them and didn't say anything until this sailor told me it was nonconsensual. There are even records recorded by naval recruitment officers of men with extremely explicit gay tattoos being allowed to join the navy. Why did the US navy not care enough to even include it in the regulations while the British navy literally hanged men for it??? Were we so hard up for sailors that John Adams was like bitch we need every gay sailor we can get????

And weirdly enough this was true on American Whaling ships too! In the recorded cases where homosexual activity led to sailors being disciplined (in some cases punishment so mild as just being dropped off their ship at the next port) it was usually in situations where rape was involved and/or there was a high degree of ship disruption related to it (guys getting into a public knife fight for example). Idk I just think thats so interesting especially when America and England were so similar to be so different in this particular area is fascinating

*quotes from Unruly Desires: American Sailors and Homosexualities in the Age of Sail by William Benemann

bigmickswingin

Adams is also the right to legal counsel and innocent until proven guilty guy.

being against arbitrary prosecution seems to have been a Thing for that guy

although its not unexpected that [tumblr] finds talking about gay sailors way more fun. anyway, here's an Adams quote taken way out of context as a little treat:

"The shortest road to men’s hearts is down their throats."

(which could mean nothing)

yandere-angela

i think lots of americans have a hard time conceptualizing china as a place where people exist in because they don’t really compare chinese things to american things, like

“the chinese government vanishes you for saying the wrong thing!” the chinese government does indeed do things in a v extreme way, but even in america, there are lots of things you can say that will get you put on a list, that will get you investigated, visited by the secret service, maybe even arrested, etc. etc.

“chinese internet users are rabid and will harass anyone who speaks out against their country” that literally applies to americans too

“how can chinese people let themselves suffer horrible working conditions for so little pay?” that can be asked of americans too, and the answer comes down to: because the government doesn’t want to increase wages and shit

“how are chinese people content to live under such a regime?” the same could be asked of americans, but we all know the answer to that, cause here in america, protests get violently suppressed and activists get assassinated

like, when you really start to looking at the similarities, it really becomes startlingly clear that even if things are different there, the reality is that the life of an average american has more similarities to the life of an average chinese than to the american elite

yandere-angela

its kind of insane how many people in the notes respond to a post that says “you should really be more sympathetic and consider chinese people humans instead of racist caricatures” with “no americans number one we have to get more racist” because the idea that people outside of the american borders are humans too is just too threatening to american exceptionalism

no wonder why americans struggle so hard with the whole stop asian hate thing; they barely see us as humans

fefeman

A bit outside the China vs Western countries context but I think her point still fits.

yandere-angela

chinese, american, iranian, etc., in the end we’re all just people living lives under the yoke of global imperialism and oppression

gaypeople

oh jacobdaya….

barcarole

Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn rehearsing Marguerite and Armand, ca 1965. Photo by Bert Stern.

universxall

two baddies

ryangravytrain

The hero we need

dynamitekansai

AEW: AEW! Say "WELCOME BACK" to your C-E-O, Mercedes Moné!

lottaloveydoveys

yes.

stevenrogered

im begging you to please read this excerpt from an interview of florence pugh and andrew garfield promoting we live in time you wont regret it lmao

lokinne

A list of creepy urban 1-3am things

- When you are the only one left in the subway and the timetable says it’s still 8 minutes. How long has it been marking 8 minutes? You just don’t know.

- Don’t look outside the subway windows is an unspoken rule. Abid to it.

- When the speakers announce the subway services have ended and the stairs start to stop one by one.

- When you take the bus and you sit on the back and there are always phones and bad drawn graffitis scratched in the windows and seats. Bonus: ominous messages or occult symbols.

- Don’t look outside the windows when you pass by dark alleys or highways or parks. Believe me, you might not see anything but you don’t want to risk it.

- When you pass by a construction site and it’s like 3 am and the wind howls inside. I know you want to look, but don’t. The first time you manage to not look, the second it becomes a little hard as if something called you, and the third time you rush your pace.

- When you hear whistling but there’s only you in the street. A long, illuminated, ample street with no one around.

- Cats at night might or not have only one head. Shadows can be tricky.

- Cars pass by you down the street but you are not sure if you saw one or five persons or none on it. It’s fine, keep waking.

rosenkranz-does-things

x files studies but this time I tired to achieve that VHS feeling. I very vaguely remember watching some episodes as a kid, and I think this is as close as I've ever got to recreating that memory of a small, grainy tv in a dark room