xankarn

xankarn, 12 days ago

@makkhorn

Barr has said he supports Trump’s policies, even if he objects to some of Trump’s behavior.

He has said that objectionable behavior is not always illegal.

He has said that Biden and progressives are more dangerous to freedom and democracy than Trump, who can be restrained by institutions and norms.

The dynamic, imo, is Barr’s embrace of inequality and his hope of maintaining/strengthening illiberal power hierarchies.

xankarn, 12 days ago

@jenzi @makkhorn

Not just in the room, but an active part of the effort to take a Trump off his leash. He wrote the summary of the Mueller Report specifically to exonerate him and minimize what irregularities had been uncovered.

But collusion with Russia isn’t the behavior that concerns Barr. In fact, aligning the country with Putin and authoritarianism is a key element in Barr’s defense of freedom against the forces of Woke.

xankarn, 15 days ago

Why is it that girls and women are so often reduced to accessories in the story of male rebelliousness?

Part of it reflects real structures: namely, the subordination of women and girls in the home and within the family prior to the 1960s.

Part of it is that early histories of subculture were written when the academy was still overtly patriarchal.

xankarn, 15 days ago

But even in the 1960s and in subsequent decades when women and girls begin to step out into public spaces in more assertive ways and when they gain access to spaces for experimentation (e.g., co-ed colleges), cultural history still reads them, too often, as arm candy or as muses rather than creative originals in their own right.

Kurt is a genius. Courtney is a ___.

That kind of nonsense.

xankarn, 15 days ago

Again, some of this simply reflects the deep patriarchal patterns of postwar youth culture.

In The Cry of Jazz (1959), an amazing short documentary on the meaning of bebop improvisation and the racial history that informed jazz, you can see what kind of role women had in the cultural discourse. Men are the teachers and the carriers of the torch. Women, at best, are there to learn from male interlocutors.

https://youtu.be/fE00fzXpI04?si=SzYOJoTEAagDC1oX

xankarn, 15 days ago

I showed the scandalous interview that Bill Grundy did with the Sex Pistols in December 1976, which killed the career of the former and vaulted the latter to new heights.

One of the things I point out there is Siouxsie Sioux, who stands in the background while Grundy engages the Pistols, and only becomes relevant when the host hits on her in an obviously creepy way.

She's taken to be a sex object on the periphery of punk, even though she was incredibly important to its gestation.

xankarn, 15 days ago

You can watch that interview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC16gG5Rtzs

xankarn, 15 days ago

After you do, you should probably also watch this parody, which is its own kind of genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQphQZXhFM

xankarn, 15 days ago

All of this is just to say what's obvious.

Looking at histories of subculture through the lens of sex and gender is essential for understanding how power shapes our understanding of the past.

Women and girls get short shrift in histories of sub-culture both because of the patriarchal hierarchies they encountered and because of the patriarchal structure through which they are still examined.

The history of girls/women in sub-culture is there, but you wouldn't know it at first pass.

xankarn, 18 days ago

@skinnylatte

I don’t disagree, but as someone who has had both purebred and rescues throughout my life, don’t underestimate what trauma and developmental disturbances the latter sometimes carry with them.

xankarn, 18 days ago

Worth noting that No Exit (1944) was written to encourage honest confrontation with the past and personal accountability, following France’s Vichy (fascist) period. 2/

xankarn, 18 days ago

So, yeah, to the extent that Trump is capable of absorbing reality, I hope the next two months are excruciating for him. 3/

xankarn, 28 days ago

A father complains that his daughters have become cross-dressers, thanks to bicycle mania.

"I lay this to the bicycle craze. Both girls insisted on having bicycles, and then got to bloomers. Finally they have adopted male attire entirely."

In Kabul, it was reported, the Amir had purchased bikes for the women in his harem.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, the Sultan had banned these new machines, which he designated as "the devil's chariot."

xankarn, 28 days ago

"The Awful Effects of Velocipeding" (1885)

xankarn, 28 days ago

From The Journal (New York, 1896):

"The world is bicycle mad. Man, woman, and child--the population of Christendom--is awheel. The church? It is forgotten. The Sabbath? A cycling day. The theatre? Old-fashioned fun. The horse? Token and companion of gentlemanhood, a hack, browsing on the highway. Jewels? Watches? Clothing? The men who carried on those industries have turned their machinery to the making of rubber tires and ball bearings."

xankarn, 28 days ago

On a more serious note, there is pronounced hostility toward cyclists and a widespread presumption that many riders give no regard to safety, either their own or that of others.

Chattanooga Daily Times (1898):

"The scorcher is a menace to every pedestrian and decent cyclist. He should be suppressed. The police should begin a vigorous campaign against him and he should be nabbed wherever found."

Toronto Saturday Night (1896):

"The bicycle maniac should be shot on sight."

xankarn, 28 days ago

But don't forget onanism!

American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children (1895):

"A very grave objection has been made to the use of the bicycle among women, which, if true, would induce us to be exceedingly cautious in ever suggesting this exercise. It has been said to beget or foster the habit of masturbation."

xankarn, 28 days ago

The Medical World (1895):

"Have we not sexual troubles enough on our hands without opening Pandora's box and hauling out a bike? It is dreadful to think that the first thing that should render a young and pure girl conscious of her sexual formation would be her first ride on a bicycle. God save our girls, and keep them pure and virtuous!"

🤢

xankarn, 28 days ago

@StephanieMoore @histodons

Yes. Both for the hysteria/panic aspect, but also for the utopian optimism.

Social leveler.

Unrivaled efficiency.

Democracy on wheels.

The end of polluted and fouled cities.

Etc.

xankarn, 28 days ago

@adamrice @histodons

For sure. It gave women unprecedented freedom and mobility and self-confidence.