French privateering in the Gulf of Mexico: ended circa 1830
Conclusion: an adventuring party consisting of a Victorian gentleman thief, an Old West gunslinger, a disgraced former samurai, and an elderly French pirate is actually 100% historically plausible.
Alfred J. Kwak is a cartoon about a duck that does not fuck around
Yep. This anime goes into all sorts of issues, from the sad themes of loss of family, adoption and growing up as an orphan, into far more real issues such as facism, abuse of power, apartheid and much much more. Also, the main antagonist character is literally a crow version of Adolf Hitler. Good show, gets real the more it goes on.
(and yes it is anime, it was co-produced between the Dutch and Japanese)
We’re just halfway through the series (all of it is on youtube in at least both Dutch and English) and it’s amazing how plainly it lays out these things. While newer cartoons might use vague metaphors (stuff like ”the blue aliens are mean to the green aliens, for being green!”) Alfred J. Kwak bluntly shows exactly how things like this work.
That first three-episode arc with Dolf (the crow) rising to power did a clearer and more comprehensible job explaining how fascism occurs than any history class I’ve ever taken. The monarchy is lazy, greedy and barely more than a figurehead and here comes this very wealthy, very clever public speaker obsessed with power and petty vengeance. The more people like him the more shit he can get away with, plain and simple.
I also appreciate how the HEROES in this show will resort to trickery, sabotage, espionage, theft and more when it’s truly necessary to save lives, and there’s never any “oh no, we can’t do this, we’ll be just like them” bullshit. Alfred is realistic and practical about what has to be done for the greater good. Without a thought he’ll break any rule, take advantage of anything possible to save innocent people. He defeats Dolf that first time by just straight-up robbing him blind of all his money so he can’t make good on any of his deals. That’s so contrary to the morals pushed by most American media that it’s no wonder it never aired here.
I’ve been trying to find this show and what it was called for years, I remember seeing a very few episodes when I was young on television and it was so compelling and brutally honest that it stuck in the corners of my tiny brain and has stayed there ever since, I’m so glad it’s popped up on my dash so I can rediscover it.
Since the trailer of the atrocious Stonewall movie was released, people are rightfully upset that it white-washes and erases the trans women and lesbian who started the Stonewall Riots. Posts are going around reminding us of these women, but usually only mentioned one or two, which I find a little a-historical. We should know who all these women are as they each played a significant role in what happened in June of 1969.
Stormé DeLarverie (December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014)
Stormé was a biracial butch lesbian, drag king and considered the “Rosa Parks of the Gay Community”. When the police raided the Stonewall Inn, she was one of the women arrested and clubbed on the head by the police. She is credited with yelling
“Why don’t you guys do something?” which sparked the bystanders into action. (x) In her own words:
”[The officer] then yelled, ‘I said, move along, faggot.’ I think he thought I was a boy. When I refused, he raised his nightstick and clubbed me in the face.” It was then that the crowd surged and started attacking the police with whatever they could find, she said.
I asked my last question hesitantly. “Have you heard of the Stonewall Lesbian? The woman who was clubbed outside the bar but was never identified?” DeLarverie nodded, rubbing her chin in the place where she received 14 stitches after the beating. “Yes,” she said quietly. “They were talking about me.”
And then, almost as an afterthought, I asked, “Why did you never come forward to take credit for what you did?”
She thought for a couple of seconds before she answered, “Because it was never anybody’s business.” Stormé DeLarverie(source)
Marsha P. Johnson (June 27, 1944 – July 6, 1992)
Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson was a black trans woman, drag queen and LGBT activist. She, along with Sylvia Rivera, co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and is credited as being the first to fight back at Stonewall Inn. (x) Happy Birthday, Marsha! is a film project in the works to honor life, please consider donating.
“This was started by the street queens of that era, which I was part of, Marsha P. Johnson, and many others that are not here" Sylvia Rivera (Source)
Sylvia Rae Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002)
Sylvia was a Latina trans woman, drag queen and LGBT activist. As mentioned above she co-founded STAR with Marsha P Johnson, as well as a founding member of the
Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. She is also credited with being one of the first women to throw a bottle at the police.
“You’ve been treating us like shit all these years? Uh-uh. Now it’s our turn!… It was one of the greatest moments in my life.
“ Sylvia Rivera (Source)
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (October 1940)
Also known as Miss Major, is a black trans woman and community leader for transgender rights with a focus on women of color. Miss Major was a leader in the riots who was struck by police and arrested. While in custody an officer broke her jaw. (x) A documentary called Major! is in the works to portray Miss Major’s role in the transgender activist community. (x) (I hope people watch this instead of Stonewall).
Many more people were involved in the riots, but one thing is clear, it was not started by cis white men, it was by these 4 women of color. Don’t let men take away our history.
dont let WHITE MEN specifically steal the history.
I read this quote, from an interview with Katherine Sui Fun Cheung, and the interviewer asked about why she was a pilot and all that, and she just said “I wanted to fly, so I did.” And I thought MAN! I can’t even figure out what to eat for breakfast, never mind sailing through a load of barriers just because I think I want to give something a shot. “Flying? Whatever, I’ll just Do It, it’s 1932 or something, I don’t care.”
Another quote? “What’s the point of flying a plane if you can’t have fun doing it?”
I love early aviatrices - Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Beryl Markham, etc - they were like “oh is there a brand new job on the face of the earth? Think I’ll invite myself to do it before anyone says I can’t.”
Not too much time goes by before Top Gun washes up once again on these shores and that is a fact.
Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman-Hughes, 1972 and 2014
Both by Dan Bagan
Wanna see my cry like a baby? Ask me who these women were.
Hughes’ father was beaten nearly to death by the KKK when she was a kid, and what does she do? Become an activist to try and stop that from happening to other people. She raised money to bail civil rights protesters out of jail. She helped women get out of abusive situations by providing shelter for them until they got on their feet. She founded an agency that helped women get to work without having to leave their children alone, because childcare in the 1970s? Not really a thing. In fact, a famous feminist line in the 70s was “every housewife is one man away from welfare.”
Then she teamed up with Steinman to found the Women’s Action Alliance, which created the first battered women’s shelters in history. They attacked women’s rights issues through boots on the ground activism, problem solving, and communication. They stomped over barriers of race and class to meet women where they were: mostly mothers who wanted better for themselves and their children.
No, no, you have no idea. It actually IS the beginning of the whole so-called “kawaii culture”. And it started because girls started using mechanical pencils, which provided fine handwriting. After being banished (more precisely, during the 80s), this kind of writing started being used in products like magazines and make-up. And, during this time, icons we usually associate with the whole kawaii industry (like the characters from Sanrio) came to life too.
And what many people don’t realize is that this subculture was born as a way for young girls to express themselves in their own way. And it was also used as something against the adult life and the traditional culture, often seen as dull and boring and oppressive. By embracing cuteness, these young girls (and adult women, after a while) were showing non-conformation with the current standards.
So yep. Kawaii is important, and it all started with cute, simple handwritting a few hearts and cat faces in some girls’ school notebooks <3
!!!!!
NO OK THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!
This is also how the kawaii fashions started! Girls began dressing in cute and off beat styles for themsleves, they were criticized by adult figures telling them “you’ll never find a husband if you dress that way!” to which they began to reply “Good!”
All the japanese subcultures and fashions that evolved out of this became a rebellion to tradition and the starch gender roles and expectations the adults were forcing on the younger generations. As early as the 70s and still to this day you’ll see an emphasis on child-like fashion and themes in more kawaii styles and the dismissal of the male gaze with styles like lolita (a lot of western people assume lolita is somehow sexual due to the name of the fashion, but ask any japanese lolita and they will tell you that men hate the style and find it unattractive which is sometimes a large reason they gravitate towards the style - they can express their femininity and individuality while remaining independent and without the pressure to appeal to men)
Its so so so important to understand the hyper cute and ‘odd’ fashions of Japanese girls carry such a huge message of feminism and reclaiming of their own lives.
