Artemis: *lounging by a spring on piles of deerskin surrounded by three dozen naked girls with a dead pan expression* Virginity.
“Heracles, they’re lesbians”.
Note that the concept of “virginity” in Ancient times merely meant “unmarried”, and had nothing to do with sexual activity. Some priestesses were “virgins” because they chose (or were committed to) a life of worship, but it was merely a question of social status, not of personal choice or practice. Of course, one can suppose that this lifestyle would be rather attractive for lesbians.
So when Artemis is said to be the Goddess of Virgins, it is meant to be understood as “Goddess of Unmarried Women”, or, quite possibly literally, of lesbians.
(It’s only Christianity that reframed the concept of virginity to mean “never had sex”. Many ancient religions has “Virgin goddesses”, which symbolized feminine power, and in this case too it meant “untied to a man”, or “whole for herself”)
happy pride everyone im enlisting your help to convince my girlfriend to be the bee movie with me for halloween we have 5 months to change her mind let’s go… gay rights!!!
This post goes harder than any post has ever gone before.
I wish we had the backstory to each pic.
If you need some encouragement this weekend.
Also, @your-fave-ace-is-on-the-case…. in order from the top, with names, links, and whatever story I could chase down:
Santiago, Chile, 2016An unidentified girl at a protest honoring the victims of the Pinochet regime that killed thousands. She’s standing up to a soldier, which matters because the Pinochet regime was a military coup, and Pinochet was never punished for his crimes.
Birmingham, England, 2017Saffiyah Khan staring down an English Defence League protester during a demonstration by the far right group. EDL is a populist, nationalist, anti-islamic group that generally hates anyone that isn’t prototypically English looking and speaking.
Skopje, Macedonia, 2015 Jasmina Golubovska, who planted a kiss on a riot shield, says it is a civic duty to continue demonstrating against government. She was 30 at the time, demonstrating against the alleged cover-up of the killing of 22-year-old Martin Neskovski, who is said to have been beaten to death by an interior ministry policeman. More about Macedonia’s more recent politics here.
Cambridge, Maryland, US, 1963 Gloria Richardson and at the time of the photo she was a 41‐year‐old housewife‐turned‐activist fighting for civil rights in her town.
Tupelo, Mississippi, 2017 An unidentified woman standing up to klansmen. This wasn’t at some large protest as far as I can find. The Klan held a rally at the courthouse, and afterwards, this confrontation took place.
Little Rock, Arkansas, US, 1957Elizabeth Eckford on her first day of school, one of the LIttle Rock Nine, walking through a sea of screaming students that she’d see every day of class.
Borlänge, Sweden, 2016Tess Asplund stood up to the three leaders of the 200 person march by the Nordic Resistance Movement, who are neo nazis. She said that she did it because she was pissed off, and that, “Of course they shouldn’t be allowed to march in the first place. They are Nazis.”
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US, 2016Ieshia Evans was protesting with Black Lives Matter after the killing of Alton Sterling. She was arrested immediately after this photo, but became instantly iconic for the poise she maintained in the face of the excess of the riot police.
Brno, Czech Republic, 2017Sixteen year old girl scout Lucie Myslikova was there as a counter protester against an ultra right group that opposes diversity and the Czech Republic being in the EU. The Interior Ministry had to take steps to protect her after these pictures of her speaking calmly went viral.
Tel Aviv, Israel, 2015 This is an unidentified Ethiopian Jewish woman at a protest against Police Brutality.
West Bank, Israel, 2017 Ahed Tamimi, who was sixteen at the time, slapped two Israeli officers and was immediately arrested. She was protesting the occupation of abuse of the Palestinians by the Israeli military and government. Since it’s not unusual for palestinian protesters to be killed for showing any threat, or shot by snipers for throwing rocks, she is both lucky to be alive, and incredibly brave.
The last image, of a woman casually smoking, seems to be a photoshop job. It is still iconic of the attitude shown in many of the other pictures.