#bluestocking

[bluestockingbarbie]

welcome to my digital diary (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ

☘︎ 24 + femme lesbian + she/her

☘︎ eng/中文 OK

☘︎ this is a digital archive of lesbian history, charming photographs, and thirst traps

☘︎ seeking queer poc mutuals (づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ♡

☘︎ minors, terfs, zionists DNI

#dear diary = personal

#testament = lesbian archival history

#dykette #dykespo #my femspo = resonates with my soul or aspirational

#ipod = music recommendations

#art #recommended reading #fashion = self-explanatory

#me = photos of myself

[maryrouille]

Bluestockings. The school girl phenomenon

Moi je m'appelle Lo-lita, Collégienne aux bas, Bleus de méthylène

This fragment of the lyrics comes from the song by Alizée Moi… Lolita released in 2000 and probably many people from Europe, where it topped the charts, hummed it in its glory days. Apart from the references to Nabokov's novel, the remaining two lines can be translated as Schoolgirl in stockings, Methylene blue. So what is the deal with these blue socks and what does it have to do with young seductresses?

Queen of the Blues

Contrary to appearances, the blue stockings do not concern only the students themselves, but also their guest. We need to go back to the 1750s when the Blue Stocking Society was founded. It was a loose organization of privileged women interested in education who gathered to discuss literature, inviting educated men to participate. European fashion of the mid-18th century, in which black stockings were worn with formal wear and blue stockings were worn during the day or more casually, emphasizing the informal nature of club meetings. The most common such reference is to a man, Benjamin Stillingfleet, who reportedly did not wear formal black stockings and yet belonged to the Blue Stockings Society [1].

Thanks to the strong personality of another famous salon owner and writer, Elizabeth Montagu, the so-called Queen of the Blues, the term bluestocking soon came to refer to all literary women. Until the 20th century, there was much criticism of girls acquiring knowledge because, according to the prevailing stereotype, it eliminated them from being a good wife and mother. The opposite of bluestocking and other popular-culture image was the sweet girl graduate who used her education to find and impress her future husband [L. Peril, College Girls. Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Then and Now, 2006 , pp. 28-31].

Collégienne look

Compared to the 18th century, today skirts have become much shorter, revealing the knees and with them the socks (but not particularly blue) . In the 20th century, along with clothing, the perception of female sexuality also changed. Back then, there was a double view of the image of a school girl: Bluestockings in class, and silk hose and silver slippers in the evening [E. Eldridge, Co-ediquette: Poise and Popularity for Every Girl, 1936, p. 136]. Although some believed that a student's appearance must correspond to her age: Moreover, the boy who invited Sally to the house party likes her as he remembered her at home and does not want a blase woman who looks thirty-five in her place [E. Post, Etiquette, 1942, p. 339].

Long-lasting erotic symbol

Over time in the 1950s, men's magazines discovered the cute and innocent college girl. And they began to show her as first in a school uniform, and later as a half-naked object of gazes. It wasn't until the late 1960s that they featured full nudity or even frontal views, and scantily clad female students seemed to be one of the delights of school life.

However, the 1950s are not the starting point for combining eroticism with young, studying girls. Almost from the very beginning, the student was surrounded by a rapidly commercialized aura of eroticism: At the turn of the twentieth century, the college girl was as much an object of public interest as Civil War battlefields or the natural wonders of Yosemite [L. Peril, College Girls..., p. 311].

Now I'm left to ask my favorite question when analyzing any cultural phenomenon, why does it work?

The school uniform, with blue or white stockings, is both a fetish and a symbol of childhood. A female student or even a college girl exudes innocence, but also youth. And as we know, youth itself (even more so when wearing a short skirt) can be an erotic incentive. And maybe that is why the sympathy for such an image is related to the pursuit of maintaining eternal youth, which is the best seller in the consumer world?

[tillystealeaves]

HEY FRIENDS!!!!

Bluestockings Cooperative Bookstore in NY is an amazing place! Queer and feminist books, events, and a community hub with resources. But their landlords are making things really hard for them right now. Could you please sign this petition urging landlords to keep this space accessible for all?

Sign the Petition

Keep Bluestockings Cooperative Bookstore Accessible to ALL!

[victoriadallonfan]

My personal head canon is that Bluestocking was upset that Victoria did not consider her a nemesis like Tattletale.

She was also very confused that Shortcut scoffed at her and called himself “Victoria’s true nemesis”.

[pollyssecretlibrary]

“When the Duke Loved Me”, by Lydia Lloyd

This is the first book of The Rake Chronicles by Lydia Lloyd

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve been following Lydia Lloyd’s instagram for quite a while and I loved her sharing her knowledge of the romance genre and specifically the historical subgenre, which is my favorite by far. So when she announced that she was to publish this book I had to preorder it. Without knowing anything about it, and what’s more, I didn’t want to know about the book, only the beautiful cover. And what a ride this book was, in the good sense. It’s so complex and so much fun that I cannot but recommend it highly. It has literally everything you might want in a historical romance, save for the surprise pregnancy. All of the other tropes are here. Enemies to lovers? Check, forced proximity? Check, there was only one bed? Check, an obscure past that keeps them apart? Check, a bluestocking heroine? Check… as I said it has every trope, but Lydia did not throw all those clichés randomly, on the contrary, every one of these elements are well thought and incredibly well written, the writing is so smooth that despite it being so long, it flows. The book has so many turns and surprises that it should have taken me longer to read it, but no, it kind of flew in my hands. Lydia Lloyd knows how to play with her readers because she is an avid reader herself and she has learnt from other writers’ mistakes and also their hits, and it shows.

The characters are not one dimensional, they can be contrary, adorable, vulnerable both of them, insecure and imperfect. I loved their internal dialogues and how these thoughts and their dialogues make them grow and evolve. Especially John, who was the one with the biggest trauma, despite Catherine being the most affected by what happened in the past.

I enjoyed reading this boom immensely. I didn’t want it to end. It was fun (sorry for insisting), moving, heartbreaking at times, ridiculously entertaining, lovely and so so steamy in a natural way, not forced or cringey, not out of place or unreasonable, just pure lust and angst and longing… John and Catherine met at a party that they both attended under false identities. They felt instant attraction and when they were about to have a tryst in the gardens they were caught by a friend of hers and a friend of his. And the both of them tell them who they really are. In the past, at a party in their estate, John caught his father having an affair with Catherine’s aunt and the scandal made his mother avenge herself by running away with a baron. Six months later she dies giving birth to a girl, Henrietta, who was recognized by John’s father as his own. Seventeen years later and a month after the duke’s death, they read the will and it says that there will be no dowry for Henrietta unless John finds Catherine’s aunt and gives her an annuity. Here starts an adventure that will take Catherine and John traveling in their search of the woman, but what they’re surely going to find is a happily ever after, together.

[martiwikiwi]

BLUESTOCKING DIGITAL COMIC FEST IS NOW

And here you have a couple of quick recaps of the comics I made and that will be available until 29th May! GET THEM NOW!

[elegance-of-woe]

Oh, to be a teenage bluestocking in 1706 secretly learning Latin in your father’s forbidden library so you can sail away to Turkey and never return

[guardadonaretina]