this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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Memes

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[–] SmellyNinja@lemmy.world 87 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just like how growing up I had an aunt Carol who lived with her best friend for 30 years. In a one bed room apartment. And for some reason she never found a husband. Go figure.

[–] Jase@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Same with my aunt. Her roommate then moved out and a new one moved in later. Whole town and family calls her a roommate. Refuses to accept she's a lesbian.

When I came out as gay they disowned me. She also didn't do anything.

[–] Llewellyn@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You just had to find yourself a girl, like she did.

[–] narp@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago
[–] Cruxifux@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your aunt didn’t disown you though did she?

[–] Jase@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Cruxifux@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Your lesbian aunt disowned you for being gay? What a bitch.

[–] Ertebolle@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In fairness, for much of history it was perfectly normal for two people of the same gender to live together and eat together and sleep in the same bed and write affectionate letters to each other without that necessarily implying that they were lovers.

[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That, and the whole ritual pederasty. And that homosexuality was viewed really from a standpoint of power dynamics rather than uwu yaoi twinks. The greeks had several more nuanced words that would all be translated to English as just "love," and if Eros were used I don't think this would be a debate, yes?

It's always ~~aggravating~~ interesting to see this kind of contradictory interplay from the same people who are always talking about understanding other cultures properly instead of appropriating, and the need for absolutely any depiction of men behaving in a way that is consistent with normal human emotions like "being sad your friend died". No. Unquestionably gay behavior.

You guys are really gonna tell me to my face that you could lose your childhood companion in battle and you just...wouldn't do anything about it because it's not like y'all were banging.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago

I mean, there is an ocean between doing nothing that your childhood friend died, and asking to be cremated in the same urn as the person you shared your bed with.

I grant that you're right in that we shouldn't project modern western ideas of sexual identity onto other cultures, but typically I see this conversation come up as a reaction or rebuttal to the assertion that this kind of behavior has no historical precedent.

[–] BobbyBandwidth@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whatever you do, don’t say gay (especially in Florida)

[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Don't say gay, say Takei. Love you George.

[–] hakase@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago

The other historians have never had any friends so they can't relate to close platonic relationships.

[–] InfiniWheel@lemmy.one 8 points 1 year ago

Isnt it because they can never really be 100% sure about the feelings people who have been dead for centuries?

[–] BravoVictor@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Solid meme; but the better part of that post is the headline.

I’ll beach-off you and your friend.

[–] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't know what beached off means and at this point I'm afraid to ask.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Is that a challenge? Don't make me beach you off.

[–] Ertebolle@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Urban dictionary’s got it:

beach

a verb; meaning to do "EVERYTHING BUT" with someone. has developed from people carrying out this practice on holiday, on beaches. particularly with people whose names are unknown. the sand also makes it interesting.

girl one: so what did you do when you went to tenerife ?
girl two: i beached
girl one: niiiice

[–] TheGayTramp@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

It’s a reference from the Barbie movie actually

[–] spasm01@lemmywinks.com 2 points 1 year ago

It was such a fun little film!

[–] themakara@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They Werke obviously roommates.

[–] Ddhuud@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Also cousins

[–] Ashiette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Their logo looks like an anus

[–] yiliu@informis.land 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Certain strawman historians...

[–] spasm01@lemmywinks.com 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Grace Ledbetter in the Journal of Philology (1993) stated Patroclus could simply be Achilles' softer side. So at least one peer reviewed journal felt maybe they werent, ya know, lovers. I think thats hogwash, but hey

[–] yiliu@informis.land 7 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. I know Achilles' and Patroclus' affair has been discussed for more than a century.

I subbed to Reddit's community on this topic (SapphoAndHerRoommate?) out of curiosity, and it struck me at some point that none of the examples posted were historians denying the possibility of historical figures being gay. So at some point I actually went through like 3 pages of the top stories...like 50+% were tweets saying basically "Boy, those historians sure do like to pretend gay people don't exist! Imagine them pretending Achilles and Patroclus were just buds lol!" Seriously most of them were specifically about A&P.

Then another 30% or so were religious fundamentalists posting complaints about how people were trying to queer up history.

There were a handful of historians saying "hey guys, gender roles were different back then, it may not be accurate to label a history figure 'gay' even if they did have male lovers"

Then there were like 3-4 quotes from popular biographies from the 1800s that used funny language about "never married" and "lifelong friends".

And finally there was one article from the BBC about two dudes from the Roman period in Britain who were buried in an embrace, and it was like "What could their relationship have been? We can only speculate...maybe they were both apprentices?" or something. It was pretty egregious. Maybe a historian was involved in that.

Anyway, that was one example in the 60 or so top stories. It seems like a meme that just keeps on going even though it's been obsolete for a century.

[–] Peruvia@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

This reminds me of how unaware I was as well in general. And then I was like ohhhhhhh .

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