Exactly, thank you. I also enjoy Abby Cox’s videos on corsetry and living in period accurate 18th century clothes full time for many years. The “dream team” of Youtube dress historians got together to debunk common corsetry myths on this video which summarizes succinctly how these myths continue to propagate and where they came from. I jumped to a timestamp where they talk about where those images of deformed rib cages come from but the whole video is pretty entertaining

https://youtu.be/4XBLBfWNH7I?t=616

This blog perpetuates a lot of common myths about corsetry and I find that disappointing.

It’s a pretty widespread and common thing that children wear similar clothing to adults, and whatever the adult fashion is, kids often get a miniaturized version of it. The children’s corsets pictured in the ads there don’t minimize the waist or attempt to give them an hourglass, and would have been lightly boned or have no boning at all. If there was boning, it would have been made of flexible material like whale balleen (the material filter feeding whales have instead of teeth, which behaves like a soft thermoplastic) or ribbons, cording or even paper. These are not materials that can damage a body unless maybe you stab yourself with them or light them on fire.

Corsets were used to provide a smoothing layer under clothes, to give some structure and yes the fashionable silhouette. However, it was commonly understood that a body in clothing was very different from a body out of it. There was more body privacy and control over how your body was perceived. The combination of corsets, stays, “bodies” and strategic use of padding meant anyone could be the fashionable silhouette, no matter your natural body type. Far more women achieved those “tiny waists” by wearing bum pads, hip rolls, underskirts and crinolines, mutton sleeves and frilly blouses than tight lacing. It was all smoke and mirrors.

Now with skin tight knits and thin leggings and exposed skin the only way to have a fashionable silhouette is for your body to actually look like that, which fuels the fitness and weight loss industry. I find it interesting that these articles always talk about “unrealistic body standards” when ironically body standards have only gotten more aggressively unrealistic and unreasonable, not less.

Modern corsets have little to no resemblance to their historical counterparts, which were lightweight, flexible, practical support garments that provided some structure to the clothing of the time and bust support for women. Extreme outliers existed but were far from the norm. A lot of the period writing about the harm corsets were doing was written by men bloviating about how stupid they thought women were to wear the clothing they preferred, a time honored tradition which continues to this day.

There is nothing controversial here, children wore underwear too.

Excellent by American standards for most of Boston and Greater Boston, which is to say mediocre by European standards. It’s entirely possible to be independently mobile and car free there. Most places are walkable and there are pleasant old buildings and green spaces or plazas or spots overlooking water to stumble upon. It’s a lovely city.

I guess everyone has their own way of boiling an egg!

I’ve been very happy with the steamed egg method. I put a steamer basket in a pot with just enough water that it touches the bottom of the basket, bring it to boil and then put as many eggs as I want in to the basket using a pair of tongs with silicone grippies. I set a timer for 11min, put it on medium heat, cover the pot and set up an ice bath. After 11min the eggs go in the ice bath for a minute or two and I crack them and roll them on a cutting board to loosen the shells. They come out exactly how I like them with a golden yolk with a soft orange center and the shells are super easy to peel as long as I get my thumb under the membrane.

I’ve made them this way with fresh eggs, week old eggs, month old eggs, home chicken eggs, storebought eggs, and never had issues with peeling.

It’s because he’s actually smiling

Yes, believing that they will be discriminated against for things that they like and face negative consequences for expressing who they are will discourage many people from doing things, not just girls.

There are plenty of girls who fit into a more masculine standard of behavior and will integrate better into male dominated spaces. However, some girls will want to enjoy feminine coded things without judgement in those spaces and that is valid too.

I have a female friend in STEM who has dealt with an immense amount of misogyny in her field. She’s been the only woman in the room more times than she can keep track of. She has achieved a lot academically, but feels a pressure to conform to a standard of behavior set by men. She loves pink, collects dolls, paints her nails and is unabashedly feminine, and has suffered real social and professional consequences for her gender presentation. It’s literally an act of bravery for her to go to work in a soft fuzzy pink sweater.

I get that the question here is implying that either all little girls are so obsessed with pretty sparkly things that the lack of it would be a detractor, or that it’s reductive to assume that they would and that femininity can take many forms. However, it’s a valid desire to want to do a thing and be accepted for how you are. If a little girl does love pink and glitter and all classically coded feminine things, seeing someone like you in STEM blazing that trail and making a place for you, is just as validating as seeing other minorities in admirable positions. Representation matters.

An RNSC article links to a “Interactive Polls” tweet that mentions the info is from UNH. So I searched the UNH polling dept stuff and got the link which says it was released on the 23rd, so the times match up.

Seems to be another UNH one.

https://scholars.unh.edu/survey_center_polls/897/

I did have to follow some breadcrumbs to get there but it was the one linked by some Twitter accounts

No one is born a racist, and no one is born a Nazi. If it’s something someone chooses to be they can stop. There are a lot of stories of reformed white supremacists.

I genuinely don’t think he got there though, based on his posts on Reddit made from 2016-2021. He would have had plenty of opportunities to make toxic, racist or violent shit posts there but the worst they dredged up on him was antiquated homophobic bro-talk that is unfortunately common in the military. Won’t deny that that’s a bad look but it’s a far cry away from some of the things quoted from MAGAs currently in office.

Of the people in my life, some of the ones who have served in the military are the most disillusioned with the establishment. Listening to him, he sounds burnt out with American Imperialism. I was watching his town hall last night, it’s worth hearing him talk about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLEftvgSBJs

Considering this is a day and age where people who are overtly fascist, who have been pretty open about being Nazi-adjacent if not straight out Nazis, are winning elections on that platform then I would think if he held those views he would just run on them. Why be a secret authoritarian and masquerade as a progressive when the extreme right is the majority in US government and persecution of minorities and violent rhetoric is in vogue? It just makes a lot more sense to me that either he didn’t know, or was in some toxic male circles at the time. Either way I don’t think that’s who or what he is in this moment.

This right here. He’s had to work for his principles which means he’s more likely to stick by them. I believe he means well and wants to step up, not just get power and bribes or maintain the status quo. Nice to see how scared the billionaires are of him.

Interesting that the website you linked uses heavily biased language, cites a source that’s literally a guy who knew a guy who knew Platner, and consistently attacks the most prominent left-ish figures in American politics like Mamdani, Sanders and Cortes. Looks to me like a phony left website set up to trap leftists into thinking it’s on their side. Hmmm what does Common Dreams have to say?

https://www.commondreams.org/tag/graham-platner

Interesting.

I forgot politicians are always honest about their intents and goals on their platform websites, my bad.

Sometimes they are.

https://www.project2025.observer/en

Still waiting on the evidence of white nationalism and violent rhetoric in his platform. It’s clear the establishment is scared of him and is trying to use the common concerns of leftists to attack him, but it’s just kind of silly to call him a secret cryptofascist white supremacist when there are openly unapologetic ones already in government.

He said it was gotten in 2007 and has since gotten it covered up. Until I see evidence of him saying actual Nazi things like advocating for violence, holocaust denialism, admiration of authoritarianism/dictators, persecution of minorities or ethnicities, and other supremacist nationalist rhetoric I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

His website has some good policy positions.

He wants election finance reform, believes in environmental protections, medicare for all, protecting small businesses and is anti-billionaire. Seems like the right kind of anti-establishment populist and it’s refreshing to see someone so unapologetically progressive.

His website has some good policy positions.

He wants election finance reform, believes in environmental protections, medicare for all, protecting small businesses and is anti-billionaire. Seems like the right kind of anti-establishment populist and it’s refreshing to see someone so unapologetically progressive.

Yeah that’s the one, it didn’t recognize my TV 😖