uncarnetmaisvirtuel:

uncarnetmaisvirtuel:

Hey guys ever heard of how Saint Sebastian came from “old martyr with tanned skin” to “young suffering white boy and gay icon”

#please tell us 

@epicene-street-light ALRIGHT SO

Sebastian was like, your regular christian martyr from late antiquity (he lived during the 3rd century AD aparrently but??? we don’t know for sure??).

He… was a christian who somehow managed to become a high-ranking soldier in Diocletian’s army. Problem : Diocletian is a pagan and persecuted christians lmao SO (after some troubles) Sebastian ended up tied up to a poteau/tree and he was sentenced to death by…….. getting shot by multiple arrows (nice)

Except that Sebastian didn’t even die immediately, he firmly held on to his faith and impressed the people who were watching (like who wouldn’t be impressed) and of course like in any good martyr story he either SURVIVED or CAME BACK TO LIFE (and died – again – shortly after) because God can allow that you know

Anyway here’s the story. But the scene of him getting shot became really popular in art history.

I can’t find any pic of him from the 6th-7th century AD but I assure you he’s depicted as an old man, fully dressed in a robe, and with a tanned skin (some sources say he was mediterranean but we’re not sure about that either)

So far so good right?

Then comes the 14th century and the FUCKING RAT PLAGUE in Europe

The arrows that wounded him started to represent the plague : they were an illustration of the punishment God sent on Earth. Which means… good christians (like Sebastian) would survive the plague like Sebastian survived his punishment

Bad christians would die ofc

SO

In order to show Sebastian was an epitome of purity, artists started to…….. undress him….. and make him look more and more younger, beautiful and white…… To show we must keep our hope in the Lord….. Sure, guys, sure…. Like you need to know nudes are fairly rare in christian iconography….. Sebastian literally became an excuse to draw nudes if you were a christian artist/an artist commissioned by the Church

And when I say he became more and more beautiful, I mean he became more and more… greek (like the kalos kagathos guy, which means good and sexy)… homoerotic vibes uh?

DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW IF I SAY, AS TIME PASSED, THE ARROWS BECAME THE ARROWS OF LOVE

With this new appearance and the new meaning tied to it, Sebastian is now a coded figure of male homosexuality

LISTEN HE CAME FROM MARTYR TO GAY ICON CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT

holy shit???? thanks for the explanation!

thats……. what i call a weird flex but ok!!! 

Lisez, et ne rêvez pas. Plongez-vous dans de longues études. Il n’y a de continuellement bon que l’habitude d’un travail entêté. Il s’en dégage un opium qui engourdit l’âme. – J’ai passé par des ennuis atroces, et j’ai tournoyé dans le vide, éperdu d’embêtement. On s’en sauve à force de constance et d’orgueil ; essayez.

Flaubert, lettre à Louise Colet du 26 juillet 1851

yo i just wanna say that this is really important in the general field of literature like… i cannot stress enough how capital those questions are. current literary theory scholars are working on it and debunking the myths of a perfect story that was meant to be just like that and is considered as a sacred text. when you’ve been raised with this mindset it’s really hard to let it go, so i’m really glad the younger generation gets to experience this new mindset!

literature is great! but centuries of stories confiscated by power made it look like theology. it’s more than time we reappropriate those stories as the material they are, while studying and commenting on how they are and make you feel as a reader!

ronweasley:

Is any of my followers a student at the Université du Québec à Montréal ? I am trying to find a paper called “L’Amérique, terre d’utopie” by Gérard Bouchard and I think it is on the UQAM website but I cannot access it and I am guessing it is because I am not a student there. Can anyone who studies there see if they can access it, and if they can, could they send it to me? I am writing a paper on the same topic and don’t want to be guilty of accidental plagiarism!

Here is the first link that pops into Google when I type that title: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/gricis/actes/utopie/bouchard.pdf

Thank you! I would appreciate it if you reblogged this even if you are not at UQAM, in case one of your followers is!

gxlddustwoman:

theglitterous:

No porn on tumblr we describe our nudes in detail instead

today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. A lot of preps stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.