(no subject)

[olivermoss]

Archive.org has been working with the materials newly entered into public domain. One person working with the archive has been looking for evidence of queer, African American and Native American culture that has been lost.

Remarkably, I found the very first openly lesbian book of poetry, On A Grey Thread by the Bay-area poet Elsa Gidlow, published in 1923. It had never been digitized, but a PDF from the author’s estate was sent to me for this project and is now online, as of a few days ago. .

I've always been fascinated by things like this, all the things lost or suppressed to try to paint our past as far more socially conservative than it is. I am researching a few specific things about the past for some reference posts for the Wodehouse comm I am running. It may take a while to put together because google only wants to give me click bait (tho that one ranked.com article is really in line with what I remember studying in college.) I may have to go to an actual library for some of what I am after. Tho, this time I must remember to have a good cover story if I talk to librarians. I've learned the hard way that if you tell a librarian you are doing research for a story they became very curious as to what sort of story and where they can read your work.

Comments

[evilinsanemonkey]

THAT'S SO COOL!!!

[olivermoss]

Archivists are awesome :)

[mistressofmuses]

YES! It kills me that there's so much "lost history". You really hit on it with the "painting our past as far more socially conservative than it is." There seems to be a general perception that there was just no point in history where women, POC, and/or lgbtq+ people ever did anything of significance or were allowed to do so (or even exist) openly... and that's just false. Not to discount the horrible effects of decades and centuries of discrimination and oppression... but there's so much history people are unaware of. (And I know that that's often a very deliberate choice by those who decide what and who gets to be included.) Those periods of cultural backlash are nasty, nasty things.

[olivermoss]

The efforts to make certain gender roles seem natural and overwhelmingly dominant through the history of humanity is scary. Also, erasing all POC contributions and in some cases even their existence.

Things like Germany having had an Institute for Sexuality Study before WWII that had trans people on staff is important. The footage of their archives being burned is commonly used in documentaries without noting what archives are being burned. People being trans ins't new, but a lot of people want to talk like it is.

[evilinsanemonkey]

I've been reading a lot about Michael Dillon of late and a lot of what he was able to do was possible because of that Institute.

[olivermoss]

Interesting. I was unaware of him!

[evilinsanemonkey]

I read one and a half biographies on him (the second one was frustrating and I couldn't finish it) - The First Man Made Man by Pagan Kennedy and Michael nee Laura by Liz Hodgkinson (this is the one I couldn't finish...may try again if I can borrow my friend's copy and have his margin notes xD) and I read his work Self: a Study in Ethics and Endocrinology which is basically a book on being trans before the terms existed. It's super interesting.

And I also have a copy of his memoir (which, speaking of destroying history, his brother wanted to destroy but luckily it got saved), Out of the Ordinary, that I'm hoping to start soon.

[mistressofmuses]

It's extremely scary. It scares me even more that it could happen again as it has so many times. (Part of why I am SO grateful to resources like Archive.org!)

Let me say how enraging/frustrating it is to hear shit about "damn millenials, making up these fake genders" when none of this is anything new. Having huge parts of history stolen does not mean it never happened.

(To say nothing of how the "norms" of this time and place are certainly not universal anyway.)

[olivermoss]

omg if some of the conversations I had in college and sexuality and gender were available online for any drama hungry redditor neckbeard to track down, holy heck. The millennials are fine with singular they, which already exists and makes sense as part of our language and a standard way to handle certain translation issues. I remember people trying to master Xie pronouns, but no one knew how to pronounce them. We had trouble having verbal conversations.

People trying to figure stuff out should not be under such freaking scrutiny. People making fun of 'tumblr genders' need to shut up.

And people need their actual history and their own culture, the poetry and art and all that.

[sperrywink]

Very interesting! And I remember Xie too!