ok today im going to make a post about one of my history faves: Gladys Bently
She was a musician during The Harlem Renaissance and very very very VERY openly a lesbian. She was known to flirt with women in the audience during her performances. She even claimed to have had a wife (although i cant find any details on that) and was quoted as saying “It
seems I was born different. At least, I always thought so….From the
time I can remember anything, even as I was toddling, I never wanted a
man to touch me.”
Unfortunately as far as I can tell none of her explicitly gay music was ever recorded
Sadly, She eventually had to claim she was no longer attracted to women for her own personal safety, although to quote this article“These desperate attempts to survive do not diminish her previous accomplishments.“
In a world where it feels like the only gay people in media are thin, flat chested, white people, I think we should all take a sec to remember this wonderful lesbian
hey guys! here’s some fun things i learned from this article about Dion Diamond:
he did these sit-ins by himself. like idk about you, but i always thought of sit-ins as organized by groups, what kind of bravery does it take, man
he didn’t tell anyone about it, like he was no glory-seeker about this. his parents didn’t even know until reporters started calling them up like “hey, did you know your son is in jail?
when someone called the cops he’d skedaddle out the back door although he was sent to prison multiple times
the last time he got arrested was in Baton Rouge, and the cops were so sick of him that they told inmates they’d put in a good word for anyone who gave Diamond a hard time. (the inmates didn’t take the bait.)
he’s still alive!
hark, a hero of our times!
It’s important to remember that this happened a mere fifty-eight years ago, just two years older than my father. I can’t imagine going to a restaurant and not being permitted to sit down. Regardless of your politics, it’s vital to recognize the events that shaped our culture.
Oh geez, this isn’t half the story. Buckle up kids. This is wild.
The inventor is Paul Winchell, who started off doing Dummy shows on the radio. His star rises, TV happens, and he enters a dancing contest where he WON AGAINST RICARDO MONTALBALN.
Mr. Montalbaln was SO IMPRESSED that he invited Paul Winchell to dinner. At dinner he was seated next to A PRE FAME DR HEIMLICH.
YES. OF THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER.
They hit it off and somehow Paul Winchell is invited to watch Heimlich and others do operations.
AGAIN, HE’S A VENTRILOQUIST AND A HOST OF THINGS. I DON’T KNOW HOW HE WON THE DANCE CONTEST THAT STARTED THIS THING.
Which leads to the following conversation.
Winchell: Hey, what if someone invented an artificial heart so someone can get blood pumped during surgery.
Heimlich: That would be a swell idea.
W: So, uh, as I make my own dummies, a heart can’t be too different.
H: I guess? It’s worth a shot.
W: And as I don’t know anything about, well, how hearts work. Can you answer any questions and help out to make sure it’s all correct?
H: I’d be delighted!
Cue a LONG time working on this. And while Winchell EVENTUALLY gets it patent-worthy (at Hemlich’s suggestion) it can’t actually, well, work. The battery it takes to run it was too large and burnt out easily.
But all modern artifical hearts are based on that design.
Again, this started when a VENTRILOQUIST BEAT AN ACCOMPLISHED DANCER IN A DANCE CONTEST.
(Paul Winchell has several other patents including: a disposable razor, a plasma defroster, and did a lot of work for the Leukemia Foundation and the red cross. He also did attempt to get a medical degree later and did some medical hypnosis)
“When I was a freshman, my sister was in eighth grade. There was a boy in two of her periods who would ask her out every single day. (Third and seventh period, if I remember correctly.) All day during third and seventh she would repeatedly tell him no. She didn’t beat around the bush, she didn’t lie and say she was taken—she just said no. One day, in third period, after being rejected several times, he said; “I have a gun in my locker. If you don’t say yes, I am going to shoot you in seventh.” She refused again, but right after class she went to the principal’s office and told them what happened. They searched his locker and there was a gun in his backpack. When he was arrested, some of my sister’s friends (some female, even) told her that she was selfish for saying no so many times. That because of her, the entire school was in jeopardy. That it wouldn’t have killed her to say yes and give it a try, but because she was so mean to him, he lost his temper. Many of her male friends said it was “girls like her” that made all women seem like cockteases. Wouldn’t have killed her to say yes? If a man is willing to shoot someone for saying no, what happens to the poor soul who says yes? What happens the first time they disagree? What happens the first time she says she doesn’t want to have sex? That she isn’t in the mood? When they break up? Years later, when I was a senior, I was the only girl in my Criminal Justice class. The teacher, who used to be a sergeant in the police force, told us a story of something that had happened to a girl he knew when she was in high school. There was a guy who obviously had a crush on her and he made her uncomfortable. One day he finally gathered up the courage to ask her out, and she said no. The next day, during an assembly, he pulled a gun on her in front of everyone and threatened to kill her if she didn’t date him. He was tackled to the ground and the gun was taken from him. When my teacher asked the class who was at fault for the crime, I was the only person who said the boy was. All the other kids in the class (who were all boys) said that the girl was, that if she had said yes he would’ve never lost it and brought a gun and tried to kill her. When my teacher said that they were wrong and that this is what is wrong with society, that whenever a white boy commits a crime it’s someone else’s fault (music, television, video games, the victim) one boy raised his hand and literally said; “But if someone were to punch me and I punched him back, who is at fault for the fight? He is, not me. It’s self-defence. She started it, so anything that happens to her is in reaction to her actions .It’s simple cause and effect.” Even though he spent the rest of the class period ripping into the boys and saying that you are always responsible for your own actions, and that women are allowed to say no and do not have to date them, they left class laughing about how idiotic he was and that he clearly had no idea how much it hurt to be rejected. So now we have a new school shooting, based solely on the fact some guy couldn’t get laid, and I see men, boys, applauding him, or if they’re not applauding him, they’re laying blame on women as a whole. Just like my sister’s friends did. Just like the boys in my Criminal Justice class did. This isn’t something that’s rare. This isn’t something that never happens, or that a select group of men feel as if they are so entitled to women that saying no is not only the worst possible thing a woman can do, but is considered a form of “defence” when they commit a crime upon them (whether it be rape or murder-as-a-reaction-towards-rejection). Girls are being killed for saying no to prom invites. Girls are being killed for saying no to men. They are creating an atmosphere where women are too scared to say no, and the worst part is? They are doing it intentionally. They want society to be that way, they want women to say yes entirely out of fear. Even the boys and men who aren’t showing up to schools with guns are saying; “Well, you know, I wouldn’t do that, but you have to admit that if she had just said yes …” If you are a man and you defend this guys’ actions or try to find an excuse for it, or you denounce what really happened, or in any way lay blame on women, every girl you know, every woman you love, has just now thought to themselves that you might lose your shit and kill them someday for saying no. You have just lost their trust. And you know what? You deserve to lose it.”
“Many places I have been Many sorrows I have seen But I don’t regret nor will i forget All who took that road with me.” (The Last Goodbye, Billy Boyd).
“The Company of Thorin & the Fellowship od the Ring, after Rivendell”, watercolours and golden ink.
funeral-biscuit 