#doktrworm

[a-french-guardsman]

knock knock. I know you're there. post cat pictures

cat that can smell gay people

[a-french-guardsman]

🌻🌻🌻🌻

Apparently there's a YA novel that came out called "The Boy I Love" involving a gay relationship between a private and an officer in WWI. I'm a hater though and I think (unobjectively, without having read it) that it explores none of that social class/hierarchy dynamic, so life goes on

[a-french-guardsman]

trick or treat

hehe

[a-french-guardsman]

Trick or treat! 🎃

You get:

[a-french-guardsman]

track or treat

This is war.

[a-french-guardsman]

What were French male beauty standards like in WWI? I've noticed that a lot of the French postcards feature men with soft round faces

That's a good question, and quite frankly I'm not sure!

The strong, sharp-angled silhouette we expect from the ideal man nowadays existed, but was not so common back then. Men were in average smaller (5 ft 5) and lighter. Their food was not as rich and if they built muscle, it was rather lean muscle. These parameters play a lot in the way a man looks.

On what's considered desired beauty at this time, I draw a blank on. I can only guess a start. Of course, most of us already know that moustaches were fashionable, but not beards, except for older people.

British officers' uniforms were seen by Entente forces as the standard for masculine elegance to such an extent that they modified their uniforms to resemble them. This involved the emphasis on the waist, which in officers' jackets was particularly accented by the use of an internal belt & hooks. This served no real practical purpose, as far as I know, but to make the waist look tighter when the belt was not worn. In contrast, the skirt of the jacket was built long and large, and further enlarged by use of Jodhpur breeches. Therefore, I believe the hourglass shape was particularly desired.

An artist who participated in WW1, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, 'king of the Parisian dandies', was well-known for his drawings of good-looking men already before the war. Most of them illustrate British fashions, which already gives away an anglophile tendency in the high spheres before the war. When it comes to men, it seems that the main criteria that makes them good-looking is mostly what they are wearing rather than bodily features.

I would argue that many of these features can also be found in Leyendecker's art. The men are elegant and well-dressed, even athletic, but far from as muscular and masculine as we would imagine the ideal man today.

I hope that someone more knowledgeable will be able to pitch in!

[a-french-guardsman]

What guns are you hoping to collect now that you have your historical firearms license?

Honestly not much LOL. They're still very expensive items but my licence is for 15 years, so I've got time ahead.

I'd like a Berthier M16, and a nicer Lebel rifle but this one doesn't require a licence. However I'm now allowed to carry classified firearms at reenactment events legally, which wasn't the case before.

For those unfamiliar with French law; roughly, functional pre-1900 rifles can be owned by any adult but post-1900 models are classified and require a licence. It might also be required by some auction houses even for non-classified rifles.

Some rifles are exceptions, like the Gewehr 98 (German WWI rifle) that is pre-1900 but still classified.

(My full licence file isn't even finished yet, so I don't technically yet have the licence, but there's no reason it should be refused when I do send it).