It’s like, when people say “don’t meet your heroes” because they’ll turn out to just be flawed humans, but honestly, I think it should be “always meet your heroes” because then you learn to view the world more realistically, and have realistic expectations, and that’s always been helpful in my life.
Too bad Jim Henson passed before I was born, but that man was incredible I would meet him in a heartbeat. If heaven exists I hope I go there so I can have just one conversation with him.
i would be really interested to see you talk about dark ages and medieval queer history, especially in regards to modern misconceptions about it. this was a great video, it's something I've been thinking about more are more lately and it's super important to teach ourselves not to lionise figures of the past or present, but to view them as real people.
I agree so much with you on this. Personally, it was a blow to learn about Wilde's visits to brothels that "employed" children. It was heartbreaking because of how much I idolized him. I tend not to idolize people, but I was blinded towards Oscar because I've loved his works since I was six. It sure is hard learning the ugly truth but it's necessary.
same, I idolized him until I heard about this, and about his antisemitism also. It's really heartbreaking because I felt like he was the only historical figure who I could relate to since there was no lgbt history told in my school. So it felt like I had lost a part of me almost. But now I'm learning to accept him as a nuanced individual who made some good some bad things. Not deify him, but make him a human being again. It's hard, but I think it's the best thing we can do
I think Sappho is another great example of this concept! She was about at a time where sexuality on the whole was understood and treated very differently, and as far as we know, she was also very interested in men and not hugely defined by her feelings towards women. Yet the word sapphic came about anyway, and she’s forever known as that one historic gay woman. Also, amazing video! I’m so glad I found this channel!!
Sappho is a great example. We know very little about her as she lived 2600 years ago, wrote in an extinct dialect and most of her work is known only from degraded fragments. This has led to a great deal of ambiguity. Notably, people citing the exact same poems evidence that she's gay, straight and bi. We can't really claim to know her preferences.
@@MadameCorgi it gets even more blurry when some translator's have intentionally translated works that were gender neutral into a work about men or women mainly as a way to favor one side of the argument.
Oh. Personally I am a Lovecraft fan myself, And I went into those stories aware of all the Scientific Racism and Eugenics and Bigotry. I met all of those things and kept reading for the Monsters and Mysteries.
Listening to your lecture, I am reminded of George Washington. Too often people try to down his participation in the inexcusable institution of slavery with myths such as the one about setting his slaves free in his will (never mind that even if it were true, it still wouldn’t excuse him owning slaves up to that point). We should stop trying to downplay his inexcusable participation in slavery - but we also shouldn’t forget the great service that he did for this country by voluntarily stepping down from the Presidency after two terms.
@@oh.hey.2045 Life isn’t a fallout game where you can nuke a town and then neutralise your karma by donating money to charity and killing criminals. A person can do both good things and evil things and they don’t cancel each other out
@@RedAngelSophia agreed, all the untold stories and lost tales of people's struggles through history is hard for us who love history to not give them proper respect. I love learning about LGBTQ+ and minorities through out history being both myself, but its really frustrating that history is hidden, erased, changed and defiled especially in schools. Unfortunately I've found through growing up never have heroes cause no one's perfect and the bigger their pedestal is built up the harder people try to keep it from falling. I prefer to like fictional characters cause they can't let you down. 😉
I'm glad that Jessie Gender linked to this. History without nuance sets us up to fail in our own lives. Even though striving towards perfection can be a great individual pursuit, as a group it makes us so much more judgmental and unable to address why we fail or why we make concessions. Sometimes living people make trade offs because one aspect of their identity becomes more important than another in that moment and although in hindsight it ends up being the wrong choice it was often the only choice that appeared right in that moment with that living knowledge. It's often hard to convey that in the historical approach. And, frankly it sucks that we rely on that so heavily that it can often paralyze us as we try to think of how future people will assess our actions. Compassion and nuance are so critical and underrated.
there's an interesting podcast called Bad Gays, where two historians talk about complicated LGBT people. also, I just discovered your channel, and I like everything I see so far, and I really hope you keep up the good work.
Phenomenally researched?✅ Sources in the description?✅ Adding contemporary opinions and references?✅ AND STUNNING TO LOOK AT FOR MY POOR GAY EYES???✅ Subscribed.
oh i LOVE this. as someone who is extremely interested in lgbtq history and has done a fair amount of research, it makes me so sad that these resources are so inaccessible for much of the community. thank u for this !!!
Hey, don't know if you'll ever see this comment but I wanted to share my gratitude. Got here through your video about women with short hair though history as I've been researching about long hair symbolism overall and specially on men for a while now and thought would be interesting when I saw the title. This lead me to some of your other videos (the ones that got my attention the most) and I even watched crimson peak in order to watch that specific one. We're from completly different worlds seen as I'm a straight (as far as I know till now) mixed race man from south america who seem to have studied pretty different things and seeing your perspectives has got me meditating on them and thinking about them quite a bit, this overall I think will help shape me and others into better people so thank you for putting your thoughts out there. I won't expect you to be perfect or to agree and follow everything you say but you sharing your POV has some magic to it. Don't know how much this means coming from a total stranger (You'll have some degree of control over how these comments affect you over time I imagine, good and bad ones), but all the best wishes, and may all the love you send to the world be sent back to you doubled. G'luck on life!
Fun fact! I became heavily involved in union activism, especially queer/LGBTQ+ areas, from when I was about 19, and became the national youth delegate for my country's govt-depts union when I was 23 (under 35 = youth in this union). What I didn't find out until I was 26, is that my great great grandfather (my paternal grandmother's grandfather was a founding member of the NZ labour party and the NZ socialist party, and the actual reason he moved from Australia to New Zealand is because he kept being arrested for protesting stuff. What stuff, you ask? Well that took a bit to find, but when I did... wow. His main aim was to "democratise access to education, by way of making libraries open to all, freely accessed, and open every day of the week, including Sundays, so that those of birth so humble they would previously be denied the human right of reaching their innate potential might read and educate themselves, and exercise their desire for learning and self-betterment... as men cannot be judged for their ignorance whilst being kept from actively working so as to improve their lot [in life], and to... continue in this shameful hoarding of information to the higher stratas[sic] of the wealthy, and those fortunate few with the luck of being born into privileges afforded to such class is unacceptable, un-civil and the anti-thesis of egalitarians and humanists who know all men must be offered the same in life as another... as [this is] rightness, fair and just, and to deny is the evil of our current laws and governance to-day." (A. T. Eagle, October 1908, quote extracted from a speech he gave that was then published in The Wellington Gazette). He was a carpenter and sheep farmer by trade, but when he moved to Wellington, NZ, he continued his campaign for free education, and once these things were enshrined in law, he lobbied until his death for patient privacy, and to decriminalise homosexuality (amongst other non-violent things).
Thank you for this video!! You made so many good points about nuance and why it's important to speak of both the good and the bad, and I really enjoyed you speaking about this topic. (Also unfortunately as a British person I am sad to say that the girlbossification of Queen Victoria is both common and government-sanctioned...) And CONGRATULATIONS on 500 subscribers!!!!
Do you have a patreon? I'd like to support your work. This is a great video, I love how kind you are towards people who get the history wrong because yes, as people we want easy-to-digest stories, and as LGBTQ people, we are desperate to know our own stories. So eager and so without the resources to learn that history properly, with the nuance it deserves. I also just feel like, because we have so little, we have a very hard time taking criticism about our scraps lol. Like "No, this is my emotional support LGBTQ icon what are you talking about?"
I do have a Patreon, but the content is focused on my illustration/comic work! So unfortunately not really anything to do with this channel. i might make a RUclips-related one in the future though. Thank you so much
I've long struggled with that same issue of heroes from history who fall short. I've had to learn how to idolise individual achievements, while accepting that the people who did them are human. Maybe we need to idolise our descendants instead of our ancestors; The future never arrives, until we invite it in!
Found your channel today and binged all of your videos in the course of one lazy sunday - they are incredibly well researched, entertaining and thoughtprovoking and also happen to feature my exact interests very prominentely. Thank you so much for all of your work and care that goes into these.
As a bi cis male, I am also an admirer of Bowie's music, but mainly, the albums spanning from "The Man Who Sold the World" to "Aladdin Sane," and not just because of David Bowie himself, but also, his incredible lead guitarist/string arranger (that's right - classically trained), Mick Ronson, who was a heterosexual working-class young man from Hull who helped to make those Bowie albums the unmistakeable gems they are. Thanks for being honest about him.
"Queer people much less visible" *laugh in Phillipe d'Orléans* The brother of king Louis the XIV, the dude was so gay. I also find it criminal that I know of absolutely no drag queen that dressed as him
i love watching this video because of the amazing way you talk about history. I have a history degree and share a lot of your same opinions regarding historical bias, education, reframing history, etc. but you just put it all so eloquently and easy to understand! my thoughts are always all over the place and you definitely provided me with some of the words to share my thoughts so thank you!! also nuance i think is always the best way to approach any historical subject tbh
OMG THANK YOU! And this is also why I hate the "historians have tried to keep this from you" narrative. Did past historians ignore this history? HELL yes, are current historians still ignoring it? MOSTLY no! It's not historians you're annoyed at, its the school system and media!
I was on the same page as you with bowie until late last year when it did a deep dive on all the accusations and it looks like chances art Bowie didn't do that stuff. Maybe I should make a video of my own about that
Thank you, I never thought about this, this video was very eye-opening. I will from now on work on seeing the heros of my history as people more than gods. Thank you.
This is a subject I have never heard anyone mention! It adds some amazing points about the history and just how much of it we are suppose to consider. I'm glad I subscribed to ya!
Great video. Made me think how the opposite problem happens with celebrities who are still alive and 'cancel culture'. We are so quick to jump on everyone's screw ups and judge them before they have ever fully lived, grown and had times to make amends for their missteps. We idolize past celebrities and ignore their negative traits or wrongdoings. There is something about human nature in here. Idolize the dead and tear down the living? Of course, there are exceptions where shitty people are just shitty, but overall we need to be better about how we talk about a person and their lives. It is okay to love something or someone while still be critical about their faults. No human is perfect.
I live in Serbia ( ex Yugoslavia ( Tito's Yugoslavia), Balkan peninsula, Europe). In the 20th century in Serbia, 3 types of government changed: monarchy, communism, democracy ( Slobodan's fascism ). Each of these authorities has its own version of history before its rule.
I discovered (and subscribed to) your channel 2 days ago. I love history and I'm fascinated by your videos. I'm slowly binge watching them all and learning SO MUCH. Also, I absolutely love your hair and outfits.
The almighty algorithm sent me your short hair video and I subbed so fast. I love the voice you lend to this corner of *gestures wildly* where- ever of the internet. You alluded to sewing something Victorian and I am interested in seeing what that will be. Anyway, great video and from a point of view I hadn't seen yet so thank you! (also bonus, you cite your sources). Edit: Went to instagram and saw your Edwardian walking suit and it is fantastic!)
So, I started one of your videos about film costumes and appear to have fallen down a rabbit hole. What a glorious chanel you have, it has been a genuine pleasure to watch and learn.
I came across your channel the other day and it's mind blowing that you don't have 10 times the amount of followers you already have. Your videos and research are👌🏻
I found you through your very lovely prince Phillip video on tiktok and BOY am I so glad to have discovered your RUclips channel too!!!!! I love all of your videos I’ve seen so far :D !!!!
This is a good take on cancel culture as well. Everyone is going to flub something at some point. Because we're human. The part that matters is what you do once you realize you've made a mistake. If you're going to argue & ignore and not make amends & corrections, that is where the deepest character flaw lies.
One of the defining characteristics of being human is imperfection. People say it all the time, “nobody’s perfect,” “everyone has flaws,” etc. Therefore, to pretend a person doesn’t have flaws or to refuse to acknowledge their flaws, is, in a sense, to say they are something other than human. For marginalized people who are so often treated as “other” and less than human, it is important that we acknowledge and affirm their humanity by not treating them as one dimensional superheroes or caricatures but rather as complex, multifaceted people who have flaws alongside their strengths and virtues. BUT an educator also either needs to point out that ALL historical figures are complicated and sometimes flawed people (ie they needed to directly address things like George Washington owning slaves) or they should not discuss it at all.
1. this ist like the third video of yours I'm watching and I'm super hooked! You're so articulate and easy to understand at the same time. Also, the way you're talking is very much soothing :) 2. you are beautiful af 3. is that the cat from the ghibli movie Kiki??
I really like the way you frame how history is told and taught. I’m studying and hoping to go into history education and I’ll be sure to bring that framing with me in the future since it so perfectly describes what I’ve been struggling to describe
A good overview and point of view. As a history student of fifty years I have come to pretty much the same. Now at seventy two I know human nature is and nuance is essential to assess. I have my limits as a feminist, a woman and a civil rights activist. I have limits based on basic humanity. I do avoid subjects that I know my anger makes my judgement suspect. Bowie, Jagger, Jackson, etc. so many of my contemporaries were child molesters and animal abusers. They were virtually all misogynistic. I allow for regret and evolving. But we are erasing women again, especially white women. There is room for all of us We must be aware of everyone's damage and pain. I also understand the number of black people who still idolize Michael Jackson. They too have limited heros but I don't give them Bill Cosby and he was a dominant hero to me too. I too was saddened by Virginia Wolfe but I no longer expect any different from aristocracy.
I just discovered your channel and, honestly I‘m binge-watching all your videos because they are all so interesting! I wanted to comment on this one especially because, as you said with your first biography video, I admire female sculptors such as Camille Claudel, etc. I also thought I came with a neutral position when I talked about her to people, my family, friends, etc, but she was clearly antisemitic and this is something people tend to not know about her. Suprinsingly, in most podcasts about her, they will either accent her relationship and her mental health (which is why I tend myself, on the other hand, talk about her art instead of only and constantly talking about her private life) but never talk about her antisemitic side because « this could ruin her chance to get visible ». I try as much as I can to not hide that because it’s simply facts and we clearly have proofs of that as well but I also feel guilty to still admire her work.
it's important to remember that people are a product of their time. i think that when speaking on a historical figure's bad behavior as perceived in 2021, it's a good idea to also acknowledge what society was like during that person's lifetime. sometimes extreme wokeness comes across as performative and "too much" when it comes to this kind of thing. like, shakespeare called women shrews, but does he deserve to be canceled? no, he lived in the elizabethan era where this was a widespread belief about women. so yes, tell us about so-and-so's negative attitudes toward X people, but please also remember that was a commonly held viewpoint and the person in question likely did not even consider an alternative.
I think the biggest Piece of amazing LGBTQ+ history more specifically lesbian history comes from the oldest and most wealthy gang in British history who were even more famous than the now iconic peaky blinders. This gang was known as THE 40 ELEPHANTS who were an all female gang and had alot of female members who married one another.....WHY the history and story of this incredible gang hasn't been made into a TV show or more widely explored blows my mind to this day. As for the lifespan of this gang they existed from the mid-late 1800's until the 1950's and were absolutely flourishing until their disbanding.
Great video! I discovered your short hair on women video (fellow short hair girl here even if I have it longer now than before) and now RUclips just keeps recommending your content to me! 🥰 Re. nuances I loved finding out about Anne Lister after Gentleman Jack came out - she definitely was an impressive woman - but some things she did according to her diaries I find very questionable. At the same time, I am looking at it from a very 21st-century lens and the men in business in England were definitely no better. While it's important to raise some of the negative things historical figures did I think we should be careful not to sit on our high horses and think we would never do that if we lived in the 19th century like Anne Lister (for example).
i think we deify people because we package things as emotion, that’s why our stories work how they do. for fear of sounding like jordan peterson i don’t want to oversimplify, but we live in a very new era where video and audio documentation of actual behavior, not memory, or limited writings or tellings, are available. with this new exhaustive information, we are able to make more nuanced judgements and to recall with absolute certainty that certain things happened because of video. history was never like this before. we don’t have video of a lot of people we idolize. and people whom we have the majority of their acts on video, we seem to idolize less and less because total accounts humanize and realize a situation unlike any incomplete memory or recounting ever could. i don’t think it’s a bad thing to idolize people, not when it’s in the name of hope. one drawback to the perpetually online left these days seems to be that we obsess over every detail as they’re all recorded and we don’t value hope and dreams of someone despite their flaws. all humans are terrible. some can be distilled into some really awesome feats though, even if unintended. i’m hoping we don’t lose that.
What an interesting video - necessary, but also given the subject matter I feel like no ones going to get out of it unscathed haha To your point of "there is no true neutrality" - I agree, though I feel like I lean more on the sentimentalist's side on what to do with our idols. There certainly needs to be room for realistic, human portrayals for those exact reasons that it's a problem if we all internalize that we need to be Perfect Models. But I don't think looking up to flawed people from the past is something to shame anyone over. It risks being like that "man gets a little rush every time he gets to tell someone john lennon beat his wife" onion article in my experience. I think the healthiest way to have a role model is just... understand it's a model, not a person. If the idea of a person inspires you to be better, that shouldn't be discouraged. Maybe I've grown tired of having to give a thousand disclaimers every time I mention someone who shaped who I am, but I think it would do everyone - including our influences - a lot more justice if we sought out to be more like who we wish that person was like, not making everything they are a ground for personal attack.
Thank you! As a bisexual woman, lately I've been very curious about queer history, and I just want the truth, the nitty gritty, unpolished and unbiased historical accuracy (as accurate, as possible). I really want people (especially the young people) to learn about, the raw, ugly, sad, and sometimes inspirational history, regardless of gender, nationality and race! In my opinion, it's a human right to know!! And yes, I two was disappointed, and heart broken, when I heard about the shit that came out about, David Bowie.... I love Labyrinth, and was in love with Jerreth And Sarah, the same way I was in love the two main leads, from the Mummy, with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz! I had them on the same level of love, and celebrity crush! Admittedly and embarrassingly to say, it took awhile for me to except, David Bowie's wrong doings...
I have been accused of "not loving my country" because while I teach laudable American values, I also teach our nation's failures to live up to them, and our struggle to sustain/extend them. I reject the accusation and suggest to those critics that I would have my students love their country like an adult loves his parents rather than a four-year-old loves their mother. I love your presentations, and while I appreciate your heightened critical sense, I urge you not to be so hard on yourself.
The job of the historian is not an easy one. I recently did a series of 100 miniature portraits of "Rebel Women of the 19th Century." In it I had to decide if I would include Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman who became an icon to 70's feminists because of her literary accomplishments and unorthodox lifestyle related to her feminism, but who was a racist and eugenicist. Or Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, despite years of abolitionist work, used racist arguments in favor of the right for women to vote to take precedence over the rights of Black men. In the end, I included all three. In the end, I included all three, but told of these massive failings in the commentary and put their portraits kind of in the back of the rooms rather than in the prominent places of women like Lucy Parsons and Sojourner Truth. (SJ also has a mixed history, having been the member of a rather rabid and unethical Christian cult early in her freedom years. But I still love her.)
We where talking about Van Gogh in my eng class last school year and when the teacher asked the class for facts we found out about him I raised my hand (which I never do) so that I could say that I found out Van Gogh was bi
I'm so heartbroken, no one ever mentioned to me the horrific things david bowie has done. I didnt know I was admiring or mourning a monster. its so difficult to have heroes, yea? best not to have them i guess.
I reall love your channel i can't understand why you have so little followers. I liked this piece a lot. No human is perfect and that's something the internet forgot
Her family was so inbred that the Tsars child who was related to her had Haemophilia. This led to Rasputin's close ties to the royal family, causing massive political instability. Leading to the many conditions that led to the abdication of the tsar, leading to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. So yeah Queen Victoria somehow caused the USSR.
David Bowie was also extremely racist and no one talks about it. I kinda want to just forget and ignore it because some of his music I enjoy, but you can't listen to his music for long without coming across something horrifically racist. I really wish people would just talk about it.
Thank you RUclips for suggesting this very lovely, genuine, knowledgeable, beautiful fresh face to me. Count me subscribed & if anyone needs me I'll be on some extremely important binge watching business. 😘
You should do a video about one of the first trans people to write their own book. Antonio de Erauso. And all the problematic and beautiful things about the book
It’s like, when people say “don’t meet your heroes” because they’ll turn out to just be flawed humans, but honestly, I think it should be “always meet your heroes” because then you learn to view the world more realistically, and have realistic expectations, and that’s always been helpful in my life.
I don't believe in heroes. Lol.
Too bad Jim Henson passed before I was born, but that man was incredible I would meet him in a heartbeat. If heaven exists I hope I go there so I can have just one conversation with him.
We can't all be Fred Rogers.
Love that!
Your channel is so underrated it’s criminal
Yes. It is level headed and well researched. And this is coming from the other other side.
not for much longer I bet
@@pankakotakismegalomavropou3355 lmao what do you mean the other side ☠️
So true
i would be really interested to see you talk about dark ages and medieval queer history, especially in regards to modern misconceptions about it. this was a great video, it's something I've been thinking about more are more lately and it's super important to teach ourselves not to lionise figures of the past or present, but to view them as real people.
It's been on my video ideas list for a while! I'll def talk about it in the future
I absolutely hate when people treat Anne Frank like a “bi icon” with no respect for her suffering
Yeah that does seem.
What suffering
@@donjuanmckenzie4897 Auschwitz, maybe you've heard of it?
Anne Frank reincarnated and was reborn to a Swedish family. ❤
She was bi?
I agree so much with you on this. Personally, it was a blow to learn about Wilde's visits to brothels that "employed" children. It was heartbreaking because of how much I idolized him. I tend not to idolize people, but I was blinded towards Oscar because I've loved his works since I was six. It sure is hard learning the ugly truth but it's necessary.
Ewww I did not know this fact
same, I idolized him until I heard about this, and about his antisemitism also. It's really heartbreaking because I felt like he was the only historical figure who I could relate to since there was no lgbt history told in my school. So it felt like I had lost a part of me almost. But now I'm learning to accept him as a nuanced individual who made some good some bad things. Not deify him, but make him a human being again. It's hard, but I think it's the best thing we can do
This is an excellent video! You did a wonderful job, and also, your aesthetic is AMAZING.
Glad to see my 2 favs loving each other content 🏳️⚧️💕
@@wondrousworkshopofxenucede4859 fake account
I think Sappho is another great example of this concept! She was about at a time where sexuality on the whole was understood and treated very differently, and as far as we know, she was also very interested in men and not hugely defined by her feelings towards women. Yet the word sapphic came about anyway, and she’s forever known as that one historic gay woman.
Also, amazing video! I’m so glad I found this channel!!
Sappho is a great example. We know very little about her as she lived 2600 years ago, wrote in an extinct dialect and most of her work is known only from degraded fragments. This has led to a great deal of ambiguity. Notably, people citing the exact same poems evidence that she's gay, straight and bi. We can't really claim to know her preferences.
@@MadameCorgi it gets even more blurry when some translator's have intentionally translated works that were gender neutral into a work about men or women mainly as a way to favor one side of the argument.
@@randomdude36547 In all fairness, it can't be assumed that her prose were self referential.
Would it be better to call Sappho a historical bisexual woman instead of lesbian woman?
@@Squiddyyy Maybe just an AMORIST(politely speaking).
A perfect example of this is the Olympic level mental gymnastics some fans use to eliminate/ignore Lovecraft's racism.
Oh.
Personally I am a Lovecraft fan myself, And I went into those stories aware of all the Scientific Racism and Eugenics and Bigotry.
I met all of those things and kept reading for the Monsters and Mysteries.
You can't appreciate Lovecraft unless you are racist
@@rimfire8217Do you realize that the monsters in the stories are the other races? Lol
Listening to your lecture, I am reminded of George Washington. Too often people try to down his participation in the inexcusable institution of slavery with myths such as the one about setting his slaves free in his will (never mind that even if it were true, it still wouldn’t excuse him owning slaves up to that point). We should stop trying to downplay his inexcusable participation in slavery - but we also shouldn’t forget the great service that he did for this country by voluntarily stepping down from the Presidency after two terms.
So stepping down from Presidency makes up for owning slaves??
@@oh.hey.2045 -- No - and I don't see what in what I said _implies_ that it _does_. Are. you deliberately TRYING to put words in my mouth?
@@oh.hey.2045 Life isn’t a fallout game where you can nuke a town and then neutralise your karma by donating money to charity and killing criminals. A person can do both good things and evil things and they don’t cancel each other out
@@RedAngelSophia agreed, all the untold stories and lost tales of people's struggles through history is hard for us who love history to not give them proper respect. I love learning about LGBTQ+ and minorities through out history being both myself, but its really frustrating that history is hidden, erased, changed and defiled especially in schools. Unfortunately I've found through growing up never have heroes cause no one's perfect and the bigger their pedestal is built up the harder people try to keep it from falling.
I prefer to like fictional characters cause they can't let you down. 😉
I can't believe people care about American slavery
I'm glad that Jessie Gender linked to this.
History without nuance sets us up to fail in our own lives. Even though striving towards perfection can be a great individual pursuit, as a group it makes us so much more judgmental and unable to address why we fail or why we make concessions. Sometimes living people make trade offs because one aspect of their identity becomes more important than another in that moment and although in hindsight it ends up being the wrong choice it was often the only choice that appeared right in that moment with that living knowledge. It's often hard to convey that in the historical approach. And, frankly it sucks that we rely on that so heavily that it can often paralyze us as we try to think of how future people will assess our actions. Compassion and nuance are so critical and underrated.
there's an interesting podcast called Bad Gays, where two historians talk about complicated LGBT people.
also, I just discovered your channel, and I like everything I see so far, and I really hope you keep up the good work.
Phenomenally researched?✅ Sources in the description?✅ Adding contemporary opinions and references?✅ AND STUNNING TO LOOK AT FOR MY POOR GAY EYES???✅ Subscribed.
oh i LOVE this. as someone who is extremely interested in lgbtq history and has done a fair amount of research, it makes me so sad that these resources are so inaccessible for much of the community. thank u for this !!!
I would love to know more about LGBT history
You should subscribe then :)
Thats gay
Hey, don't know if you'll ever see this comment but I wanted to share my gratitude. Got here through your video about women with short hair though history as I've been researching about long hair symbolism overall and specially on men for a while now and thought would be interesting when I saw the title. This lead me to some of your other videos (the ones that got my attention the most) and I even watched crimson peak in order to watch that specific one. We're from completly different worlds seen as I'm a straight (as far as I know till now) mixed race man from south america who seem to have studied pretty different things and seeing your perspectives has got me meditating on them and thinking about them quite a bit, this overall I think will help shape me and others into better people so thank you for putting your thoughts out there. I won't expect you to be perfect or to agree and follow everything you say but you sharing your POV has some magic to it. Don't know how much this means coming from a total stranger (You'll have some degree of control over how these comments affect you over time I imagine, good and bad ones), but all the best wishes, and may all the love you send to the world be sent back to you doubled. G'luck on life!
You're so kind, thank you very much!
I also got here because of the video about women with short hair and so far I love the channel.
Fun fact! I became heavily involved in union activism, especially queer/LGBTQ+ areas, from when I was about 19, and became the national youth delegate for my country's govt-depts union when I was 23 (under 35 = youth in this union). What I didn't find out until I was 26, is that my great great grandfather (my paternal grandmother's grandfather was a founding member of the NZ labour party and the NZ socialist party, and the actual reason he moved from Australia to New Zealand is because he kept being arrested for protesting stuff. What stuff, you ask? Well that took a bit to find, but when I did... wow. His main aim was to "democratise access to education, by way of making libraries open to all, freely accessed, and open every day of the week, including Sundays, so that those of birth so humble they would previously be denied the human right of reaching their innate potential might read and educate themselves, and exercise their desire for learning and self-betterment... as men cannot be judged for their ignorance whilst being kept from actively working so as to improve their lot [in life], and to... continue in this shameful hoarding of information to the higher stratas[sic] of the wealthy, and those fortunate few with the luck of being born into privileges afforded to such class is unacceptable, un-civil and the anti-thesis of egalitarians and humanists who know all men must be offered the same in life as another... as [this is] rightness, fair and just, and to deny is the evil of our current laws and governance to-day." (A. T. Eagle, October 1908, quote extracted from a speech he gave that was then published in The Wellington Gazette). He was a carpenter and sheep farmer by trade, but when he moved to Wellington, NZ, he continued his campaign for free education, and once these things were enshrined in law, he lobbied until his death for patient privacy, and to decriminalise homosexuality (amongst other non-violent things).
Thank you for this video!! You made so many good points about nuance and why it's important to speak of both the good and the bad, and I really enjoyed you speaking about this topic. (Also unfortunately as a British person I am sad to say that the girlbossification of Queen Victoria is both common and government-sanctioned...)
And CONGRATULATIONS on 500 subscribers!!!!
This was a truly incredible!!! You earned yourself a new subscriber!!!
Do you have a patreon? I'd like to support your work. This is a great video, I love how kind you are towards people who get the history wrong because yes, as people we want easy-to-digest stories, and as LGBTQ people, we are desperate to know our own stories. So eager and so without the resources to learn that history properly, with the nuance it deserves.
I also just feel like, because we have so little, we have a very hard time taking criticism about our scraps lol. Like "No, this is my emotional support LGBTQ icon what are you talking about?"
I do have a Patreon, but the content is focused on my illustration/comic work! So unfortunately not really anything to do with this channel. i might make a RUclips-related one in the future though. Thank you so much
I've long struggled with that same issue of heroes from history who fall short. I've had to learn how to idolise individual achievements, while accepting that the people who did them are human. Maybe we need to idolise our descendants instead of our ancestors; The future never arrives, until we invite it in!
You're so well spoken and listening to you talk is so so interesting and engaging!! You're so incredibley underrated. 💕💕
Had your History of Women With Short Hair video recommend to me yesterday and oh my goodness, I adore your videos! Absolutely smitten right now ngl
Wait, the Civil War _wasn’t_ mostly about states’ rights? Are you telling me my history teachers _lied_ to me?
It sure wasn't about slavery til halfway through, I tell you hwat, Bobby
@@pankakotakismegalomavropou3355 Jefferson didn't release the proclamation until halfway through, but it was always about slavery and its economics.
states’ rights to WHAT???
@@k80_ to operate on their own (not being subject to too much federal jurisdiction, as in each having different laws, etc)
Yes. You can look at two RUclips channels that go into this the cynical historian and Atun-Shei Films:
This channel is sooo underrated i love these focuses on information rarely discussed in history
Found your channel today and binged all of your videos in the course of one lazy sunday - they are incredibly well researched, entertaining and thoughtprovoking and also happen to feature my exact interests very prominentely. Thank you so much for all of your work and care that goes into these.
As a bi cis male, I am also an admirer of Bowie's music, but mainly, the albums spanning from "The Man Who Sold the World" to "Aladdin Sane," and not just because of David Bowie himself, but also, his incredible lead guitarist/string arranger (that's right - classically trained), Mick Ronson, who was a heterosexual working-class young man from Hull who helped to make those Bowie albums the unmistakeable gems they are. Thanks for being honest about him.
"Queer people much less visible"
*laugh in Phillipe d'Orléans*
The brother of king Louis the XIV, the dude was so gay. I also find it criminal that I know of absolutely no drag queen that dressed as him
i love watching this video because of the amazing way you talk about history. I have a history degree and share a lot of your same opinions regarding historical bias, education, reframing history, etc. but you just put it all so eloquently and easy to understand! my thoughts are always all over the place and you definitely provided me with some of the words to share my thoughts so thank you!! also nuance i think is always the best way to approach any historical subject tbh
You're so underrated, so glad to have stumbled across you
OMG THANK YOU! And this is also why I hate the "historians have tried to keep this from you" narrative. Did past historians ignore this history? HELL yes, are current historians still ignoring it? MOSTLY no! It's not historians you're annoyed at, its the school system and media!
I was on the same page as you with bowie until late last year when it did a deep dive on all the accusations and it looks like chances art Bowie didn't do that stuff. Maybe I should make a video of my own about that
hey, i'm very interested in the topic, please do!!
Hey, I'd love to see this, if you end up making it I'd like to see it.
Thank you, I never thought about this, this video was very eye-opening. I will from now on work on seeing the heros of my history as people more than gods. Thank you.
This is a subject I have never heard anyone mention! It adds some amazing points about the history and just how much of it we are suppose to consider. I'm glad I subscribed to ya!
Great video. Made me think how the opposite problem happens with celebrities who are still alive and 'cancel culture'. We are so quick to jump on everyone's screw ups and judge them before they have ever fully lived, grown and had times to make amends for their missteps. We idolize past celebrities and ignore their negative traits or wrongdoings. There is something about human nature in here. Idolize the dead and tear down the living? Of course, there are exceptions where shitty people are just shitty, but overall we need to be better about how we talk about a person and their lives. It is okay to love something or someone while still be critical about their faults. No human is perfect.
I live in Serbia ( ex Yugoslavia ( Tito's Yugoslavia), Balkan peninsula, Europe). In the 20th century in Serbia, 3 types of government changed: monarchy, communism, democracy ( Slobodan's fascism ). Each of these authorities has its own version of history before its rule.
I discovered (and subscribed to) your channel 2 days ago. I love history and I'm fascinated by your videos. I'm slowly binge watching them all and learning SO MUCH.
Also, I absolutely love your hair and outfits.
I wish more people would hear this ! Rlly good vid!!
Easiest subscription of the year, keep up the good work!
This was a greater video and eye opening, thank you for this!
The almighty algorithm sent me your short hair video and I subbed so fast. I love the voice you lend to this corner of *gestures wildly* where- ever of the internet. You alluded to sewing something Victorian and I am interested in seeing what that will be. Anyway, great video and from a point of view I hadn't seen yet so thank you! (also bonus, you cite your sources). Edit: Went to instagram and saw your Edwardian walking suit and it is fantastic!)
could you do a video about the faults of queen victoria?
Yes! I am currently studying the picture of dorian grey, and the wilde worship I've witnessed has been... *checks notes* FUCKING INSANE WTF-
This video was a real eye-opener
So, I started one of your videos about film costumes and appear to have fallen down a rabbit hole.
What a glorious chanel you have, it has been a genuine pleasure to watch and learn.
I came across your channel the other day and it's mind blowing that you don't have 10 times the amount of followers you already have. Your videos and research are👌🏻
I found you through your very lovely prince Phillip video on tiktok and BOY am I so glad to have discovered your RUclips channel too!!!!! I love all of your videos I’ve seen so far :D !!!!
This is a good take on cancel culture as well. Everyone is going to flub something at some point. Because we're human. The part that matters is what you do once you realize you've made a mistake. If you're going to argue & ignore and not make amends & corrections, that is where the deepest character flaw lies.
I got a dang pragerU ad lmao wtf
Love your channel ❤️ glad I found it
your "my history professor who kills me to sleep with a melodic voice" is easily countered by amazing content and research - thank you for all you do!
im so glad i found you through your crimson peak's video!!! happy pride 💜
One of the defining characteristics of being human is imperfection. People say it all the time, “nobody’s perfect,” “everyone has flaws,” etc. Therefore, to pretend a person doesn’t have flaws or to refuse to acknowledge their flaws, is, in a sense, to say they are something other than human. For marginalized people who are so often treated as “other” and less than human, it is important that we acknowledge and affirm their humanity by not treating them as one dimensional superheroes or caricatures but rather as complex, multifaceted people who have flaws alongside their strengths and virtues. BUT an educator also either needs to point out that ALL historical figures are complicated and sometimes flawed people (ie they needed to directly address things like George Washington owning slaves) or they should not discuss it at all.
1. this ist like the third video of yours I'm watching and I'm super hooked! You're so articulate and easy to understand at the same time. Also, the way you're talking is very much soothing :)
2. you are beautiful af
3. is that the cat from the ghibli movie Kiki??
you put this perfectly 👏
I really like the way you frame how history is told and taught. I’m studying and hoping to go into history education and I’ll be sure to bring that framing with me in the future since it so perfectly describes what I’ve been struggling to describe
i am absolutely in love with ur channel omg
just found your channel a few days ago and i’m hooked!
A good overview and point of view. As a history student of fifty years I have come to pretty much the same. Now at seventy two I know human nature is and nuance is essential to assess. I have my limits as a feminist, a woman and a civil rights activist. I have limits based on basic humanity. I do avoid subjects that I know my anger makes my judgement suspect. Bowie, Jagger, Jackson, etc. so many of my contemporaries were child molesters and animal abusers. They were virtually all misogynistic. I allow for regret and evolving. But we are erasing women again, especially white women. There is room for all of us We must be aware of everyone's damage and pain. I also understand the number of black people who still idolize Michael Jackson. They too have limited heros but I don't give them Bill Cosby and he was a dominant hero to me too. I too was saddened by Virginia Wolfe but I no longer expect any different from aristocracy.
every topic you chose is amazing! i have never watched so many videos from one channel back to back
I just discovered your channel and, honestly I‘m binge-watching all your videos because they are all so interesting! I wanted to comment on this one especially because, as you said with your first biography video, I admire female sculptors such as Camille Claudel, etc. I also thought I came with a neutral position when I talked about her to people, my family, friends, etc, but she was clearly antisemitic and this is something people tend to not know about her. Suprinsingly, in most podcasts about her, they will either accent her relationship and her mental health (which is why I tend myself, on the other hand, talk about her art instead of only and constantly talking about her private life) but never talk about her antisemitic side because « this could ruin her chance to get visible ». I try as much as I can to not hide that because it’s simply facts and we clearly have proofs of that as well but I also feel guilty to still admire her work.
it's important to remember that people are a product of their time. i think that when speaking on a historical figure's bad behavior as perceived in 2021, it's a good idea to also acknowledge what society was like during that person's lifetime. sometimes extreme wokeness comes across as performative and "too much" when it comes to this kind of thing. like, shakespeare called women shrews, but does he deserve to be canceled? no, he lived in the elizabethan era where this was a widespread belief about women. so yes, tell us about so-and-so's negative attitudes toward X people, but please also remember that was a commonly held viewpoint and the person in question likely did not even consider an alternative.
Another very well thought out video. Wonderful, Kaz, you're so dear! I will most certainly be watching this again. I enjoyed it that much :)
I think the biggest Piece of amazing LGBTQ+ history more specifically lesbian history comes from the oldest and most wealthy gang in British history who were even more famous than the now iconic peaky blinders. This gang was known as THE 40 ELEPHANTS who were an all female gang and had alot of female members who married one another.....WHY the history and story of this incredible gang hasn't been made into a TV show or more widely explored blows my mind to this day. As for the lifespan of this gang they existed from the mid-late 1800's until the 1950's and were absolutely flourishing until their disbanding.
Great video! I discovered your short hair on women video (fellow short hair girl here even if I have it longer now than before) and now RUclips just keeps recommending your content to me! 🥰
Re. nuances I loved finding out about Anne Lister after Gentleman Jack came out - she definitely was an impressive woman - but some things she did according to her diaries I find very questionable. At the same time, I am looking at it from a very 21st-century lens and the men in business in England were definitely no better. While it's important to raise some of the negative things historical figures did I think we should be careful not to sit on our high horses and think we would never do that if we lived in the 19th century like Anne Lister (for example).
Kaz, your work here is exceptional.
Keep it up!❤
Damn every time one of your videos end I’m just here like, more? More!?! Please more more!
True neutrality does not exist, but you must try regardless.
i think we deify people because we package things as emotion, that’s why our stories work how they do. for fear of sounding like jordan peterson i don’t want to oversimplify, but we live in a very new era where video and audio documentation of actual behavior, not memory, or limited writings or tellings, are available.
with this new exhaustive information, we are able to make more nuanced judgements and to recall with absolute certainty that certain things happened because of video. history was never like this before. we don’t have video of a lot of people we idolize. and people whom we have the majority of their acts on video, we seem to idolize less and less because total accounts humanize and realize a situation unlike any incomplete memory or recounting ever could.
i don’t think it’s a bad thing to idolize people, not when it’s in the name of hope. one drawback to the perpetually online left these days seems to be that we obsess over every detail as they’re all recorded and we don’t value hope and dreams of someone despite their flaws. all humans are terrible. some can be distilled into some really awesome feats though, even if unintended. i’m hoping we don’t lose that.
Love this! Never thought of it ❤️❤️❤️
What an interesting video - necessary, but also given the subject matter I feel like no ones going to get out of it unscathed haha
To your point of "there is no true neutrality" - I agree, though I feel like I lean more on the sentimentalist's side on what to do with our idols. There certainly needs to be room for realistic, human portrayals for those exact reasons that it's a problem if we all internalize that we need to be Perfect Models. But I don't think looking up to flawed people from the past is something to shame anyone over. It risks being like that "man gets a little rush every time he gets to tell someone john lennon beat his wife" onion article in my experience.
I think the healthiest way to have a role model is just... understand it's a model, not a person. If the idea of a person inspires you to be better, that shouldn't be discouraged. Maybe I've grown tired of having to give a thousand disclaimers every time I mention someone who shaped who I am, but I think it would do everyone - including our influences - a lot more justice if we sought out to be more like who we wish that person was like, not making everything they are a ground for personal attack.
Great video! Compelling argument for bringing nuance and complexity to your understanding of history! Subscribed!
Anti-CRT is literally a "Are we the baddies!?" moment 🤣
Harvey Milk won his seat via gerrymandering & spoke highly of Jim Jones since his cult helped out his campaigns
Thank you! As a bisexual woman, lately I've been very curious about queer history, and I just want the truth, the nitty gritty, unpolished and unbiased historical accuracy (as accurate, as possible). I really want people (especially the young people) to learn about, the raw, ugly, sad, and sometimes inspirational history, regardless of gender, nationality and race! In my opinion, it's a human right to know!!
And yes, I two was disappointed, and heart broken, when I heard about the shit that came out about, David Bowie.... I love Labyrinth, and was in love with Jerreth And Sarah, the same way I was in love the two main leads, from the Mummy, with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz! I had them on the same level of love, and celebrity crush! Admittedly and embarrassingly to say, it took awhile for me to except, David Bowie's wrong doings...
Spent most of my evening watching your videos, this is the one that got me to smack that subscribe button. This is fantastic shit, mate!
I have been accused of "not loving my country" because while I teach laudable American values, I also teach our nation's failures to live up to them, and our struggle to sustain/extend them. I reject the accusation and suggest to those critics that I would have my students love their country like an adult loves his parents rather than a four-year-old loves their mother. I love your presentations, and while I appreciate your heightened critical sense, I urge you not to be so hard on yourself.
The job of the historian is not an easy one. I recently did a series of 100 miniature portraits of "Rebel Women of the 19th Century." In it I had to decide if I would include Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman who became an icon to 70's feminists because of her literary accomplishments and unorthodox lifestyle related to her feminism, but who was a racist and eugenicist. Or Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, despite years of abolitionist work, used racist arguments in favor of the right for women to vote to take precedence over the rights of Black men. In the end, I included all three. In the end, I included all three, but told of these massive failings in the commentary and put their portraits kind of in the back of the rooms rather than in the prominent places of women like Lucy Parsons and Sojourner Truth. (SJ also has a mixed history, having been the member of a rather rabid and unethical Christian cult early in her freedom years. But I still love her.)
We where talking about Van Gogh in my eng class last school year and when the teacher asked the class for facts we found out about him I raised my hand (which I never do) so that I could say that I found out Van Gogh was bi
This video is great! I recently discovered your channel and I have ti say that I resonate a lot with your ideas.
I just happened on your channel and I’m so glad I did! Your content is pristine and and you’re a really cool human. Definitely subbed!
I'm so heartbroken, no one ever mentioned to me the horrific things david bowie has done. I didnt know I was admiring or mourning a monster. its so difficult to have heroes, yea? best not to have them i guess.
Great video, leaving a comment for the algorithm 🌈
Never enough access to education and critical thinking.
just found your channel and im so glad i did!
I reall love your channel i can't understand why you have so little followers. I liked this piece a lot.
No human is perfect and that's something the internet forgot
You have such good content. I hope you gain many more subs
THANK YOU for drawing attention to Bowie! This refusal to hold people accountable always broke my heart.
the thing is that those allegations have been discradited plenty of times! there are plenty of predatory rockstars but bowie is a terrible example
people are people, no matter how historically relevant. that's hard to accept.
Very sharp on the whole, though a little too insistent on a collective.
Almost everyone oversimplifies Mrs Woolf one way or another.
Thanks you, Thank you, Thank you, Kaz!
this is so good i wish you so much success !!
Wait people admire Victoria????? Wtf? She was literally an Empress lol, that's among the worst things that someone can do
i literally have her on my ppt of "historical figures i'd like to push off a cliff" aka figures i have a personal hatred towards
Her family was so inbred that the Tsars child who was related to her had Haemophilia. This led to Rasputin's close ties to the royal family, causing massive political instability. Leading to the many conditions that led to the abdication of the tsar, leading to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. So yeah Queen Victoria somehow caused the USSR.
@@xuanathan critical support for comrade Victoria
@@SaszaDerRoyt
All power to the girlboss inbred empress
Just wanted to let you know that I love your videos.
I love you’re channel sm ! You’re so coooool!!!
David Bowie was also extremely racist and no one talks about it. I kinda want to just forget and ignore it because some of his music I enjoy, but you can't listen to his music for long without coming across something horrifically racist. I really wish people would just talk about it.
Love this video and love your channel!
Thank you RUclips for suggesting this very lovely, genuine, knowledgeable, beautiful fresh face to me. Count me subscribed & if anyone needs me I'll be on some extremely important binge watching business. 😘
To the lovely person who did the subtitles on this video: Thank you so much! But… what’s with the paragraphs of texts? 🤔
"fruitless search" I'd say there were PLENTY of fruits at that uprising 😂
Have some ✨🏳️🌈✨e n g a g e m e n t✨🏳️🌈✨
You should do a video about one of the first trans people to write their own book. Antonio de Erauso. And all the problematic and beautiful things about the book