When someone says harem to people, these kind of paintings come up in people’s mind.
L.F. Comerre. (1850 – 1916)
But, people who drew these paintings, they are called orientalists, have never seen a harem because NO STRANGER WERE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE HAREM UNLESS THEY WANT TO LOSE THEIR HEAD. So they painted what they dreamt of, since they were grown up with Western beauty concepts, they painted Harem girls as what their culture accepted beautiful.
BUT, at 19th century Persia, the Western beauty standards were not dominant. So of course, they had their own beauty standards and their own concept of beauty.
The more masculine a woman was, more beautiful she was accepted. The opposite was also true for men. Women with heavy brows and faint mustaches considered so attractive that they were sometimes painted on or augmented with mascara and young beardless men with slim waists and delicate features. In 19th century portraits of lovers, the genders are barely distinguishable, identified only by their headgear.
Young men without beards were the idols of beauty that time. Sexual mores and erotic sensibilities of 19th century Iran permitted homosexuality between these young men and older men.
BUT, after Iran started to be more modern, aka more Westernized, this beauty standards were lost. West beauty standards started to be more dominant and homosexuality was no longer permitted. Today, it is a crime to be homosexual at Iran.
This book, women with mustaches and men without beards, is about the beauty standards of Persia at Qajar dynasty. If you are interested, you can buy it and read. HERE is an interview with the author, Afsaneh Najmabadi.
At that time, Qajar princess was considered beautiful. Today, uncultured internet memers are making fun of her. Shame @ all of you.
EDIT: That’s not Pricess Qajar ffs….. Qajar is the name of dynasty, not the princess….
Her name is Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh, she was the daughter of the King of Persia in the early 19th century. Not to forget that she had a university education.
What would happen if Black Widow and Elektra fought? Lauren Mary Kim (Elektra’s stunt double in “Daredevil”) created this fight with Amy Johnston (Scarlet Johansson’s “Avengers” stunt double) to find out. It’s an amazing fight. Lauren Mary Kim is quite the choreographer.
Best fight I’ve seen in a WHILE, and they didn’t have to cut on every hit!
A Swedish woman hitting a neo-Nazi protester with her handbag. The woman was reportedly a concentration camp survivor. [1985]
Volunteers learn how to fight fires at Pearl Harbor [c. 1941 – 1945]
Maud Wagner, the first well-known female tattoo artist in the U.S. [1907]
A 106-year old Armenian woman protecting her home with an AK-47. [1990]
Komako Kimura, a prominent Japanese suffragist at a march in New York. [October 23, 1917]
Margaret Hamilton, lead software engineer of the Apollo Project, standing next to the code she wrote by hand that was used to take humanity to the moon. [1969]
Erika, a 15-year-old Hungarian fighter who fought for freedom against the Soviet Union. [October 1956]
Sarla Thakral, 21 years old, the first Indian woman to earn a pilot license. [1936]
Voting activist Annie Lumpkins at the Little Rock city jail. [1961] (freakin’ immaculate)
Now with more awesomesauce!
Female pilots leaving their B-17, “Pistol Packin’ Mama” [c. 1941 – 1945]
The first basketball team from Smith college. [1902]
Filipino guerilla, Captain Nieves Fernandez, shows a US soldier how she killed Japanese soldiers during the occupation. [1944]
Afghani medical students. [1962] (man, screw fundamentalism.)
A British sergeant training members of the ‘mum’s army’ Women’s Home Defence Corps during the Battle of Britain. [1940]
and just to wrap up…
Nina Simone, one of the most talented vocalists of the 20th century.
Women have always been there. remember whenever a Serious Historical Movie is made showing Serious Historical Things that include only a parade of unbroken men, that is a deliberate filmmaking choice.
wayne enterprises almost certainly has clothing as one of their retail subsidiaries and i like to imagine it getting really profitable just because bruce spends so much time listening to models bitch at parties. all of their product lines have names like “It Has Real Pockets” and “Not See-Through” and “Full-Length Sleeves” and “Secret Elastic Waist”. the marketing department is like “okay obviously these are all working titles” and bruce is like “no. leave it. that is what it’s called.” and they try to talk him out of it but he owns a helicopter and you can’t argue with a man who owns a helicopter. they sell so fast. the women of gotham are well-dressed and comfortable and always have somewhere to keep their phones.
Witnesses say they asked Britney why she shaved her head and her response was, “I’m tired of plugging things into it. I’m tired of people touching me.”
i can never not reblog this
T-Pain: “That was the most beautiful thing in the world. Do you know why she was shaving her head? Because it was so important to other people. She is like, “Listen. Don’t touch my hair anymore. Stop touching my hair.” People were like, “We’ve got to make your hair before you go outside. You can’t leave.” She went … “Now I don’t have hair. What you going to do?”
The older I get the more her breakdown seems less ‘unbalanced’ and more ‘completely understandable’
i love Legally Blonde so much. all of the women are so supportive of each other im??
when Elle was supposed to get engaged, none of the girls were jealous, they were genuinely happy for her n helped her get ready for the big dinner
when her bf broke up with her they were supportive
when Elle says she wants to go to harvard the counselor lady is like but ur major is fashion, do u have any backup plan? n elle is like nope im going to harvard n the lady is like okay then here’s what u gotta do.
her friends didnt get why she wanted to go to law school but supported her anyway, and helped her study
when she got 179 on her exam (more than her goal), they treated her like a queen
and that’s only in the first 18 minutes of the movie
Legally Blonde is a “girl power” movie with killer inspirational and positive attitude disguised as a stereotypical blonde movie.
Back before it became apparent that movies could be big business and the industry was thusly taken over by men, there were a handful of women with quite a lot of power. Working primarily in the 1910s, Lois Weber is one director considered an equal in powerful and influence to D.W. Griffith, one of the other major directors of early American cinema. Sadly, Weber’s work seems to have been neglected by the canon in a way that Griffith’s hasn’t, and most of her filmography is lost to time. The four features and two shorts that are broadly available reveal a director of great technical skill and strong belief of film as a tool of social awareness.
myblog 