Author: letitrainathousandflames

absynthe–minded:

marzipanandminutiae:

All the notes on that post about tuberculosis and Victorian beauty are like “ew they wanted women to look like they had consumption!” or even “omg they wanted women to GET consumption how did anyone survive???”

Which. No. Neither of those things are true

TB, as the actual damn article in the post says, caused traits in its victims that looked like those already considered beautiful. “Pale skin, pink cheeks, bright eyes” has been a fashionable look in the West since long before the 19th century. The problem was not people finding the disease a desirable state to be in; the problem was that, if a woman DID contract it, it was considered a romantic way to die and in some ways, a uniquely feminine and/or artistic illness to have. Saintly heroines in books were often dispatched with glowing cheeks and a delicate cough, while the very real suffering faced by women unlucky enough to actually catch TB was erased or minimized

So tuberculosis didn’t create Victorian beauty standards so much as Victorian beauty standards created a dangerously incorrect perception of tuberculosis

Thank you.

bananonbinary:

another great thing about artemis fowl is the purposeful deconstruction of the Antisocial Genius trope. in lesser media, the Hero is an absolute asshole to everyone around him, but he gets away with it because he’s smart and Gets Results™. Your Sherlocks, your Houses, etc. The clear message is intelligence is more important than humanity.

Artemis, on the other hand, clearly buys into this idea in the first book or two. He believes that his intellect will be able to get him out of every jam, and who cares who he hurts along the way. But every time, things go wrong. People get hurt. People die. Even when they don’t, Artemis starts to realize that living his life this way makes it harder to form genuine connections. He learns and grows, and starts letting himself apply his intellect to altruistic things. He apologizes for the monster he was at the beginning, and does everything in his power to make up for past transgressions. It’s one of my favorite redemption arcs.