There is a serious article on this very subject…

Noah Shusterman, All of his Power Lies in the Distaff: Robespierre, Women, and the French Revolution. There were literally screaming fangirls in the Jacobin Club, stalkers, & c. But Shusterman is rather high-minded, as are most writers who talk about this. Perhaps it's because he's a man, but it ( Read more... )

Found out more about the rather splendid Elizabeth Addiman, 'Mrs Prince of Cobourg Street'. Interesting that she died in Mason Street, Hull (more or less on the site of the History Centre). I was amused that the Wellcome Images site (medical image, not work-safe) estimated her as about 40 from her portrait: she was 54.

The set of Leeds Gentlefolk ( Read more... )

I've commented on this article in the Guardian, "Why artists just don't get Kate Moss". I really don't get the idea that she's 'beautiful' either: she came to fame on the tide of 'heroin chic' in the '90s, the appeal of which I never understood.

I prefer what you might call 'heroine chic'. I love Rossetti's strapping Venus Verticordia (the study ( Read more... )

I'm posting this article on Michelangelo's Night, from the Medici Chapel and the painted version by Michele (Tosini) di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio here for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A very dear friend of mine is about to have an op, so here's looking at you, kid! The lovely Signora Notte, being 16C, has less optimistic prospects (hence she stands ( Read more... )

Turkish girl, 16, buried alive for talking to boys.

Today is the anniversary of the death of a tragic young woman in whose case I have become somewhat interested, after buying a small reliquary locket of her on eBay. She's an interesting case in terms of how mental and physical illnesses were handled (and mishandled) in religious communities in 17C.( The sad, strange case of Sister Marguerite… )