Wikipedia

I found this very amusing;

Chevalier D'Eon

Here's an entertaining passage from J. S. Goldstein's War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa;

Commonalities across cultures do not prevent individuals from breaking the mold, either. For example, the fluidity of male gender roles around war is illustrated by Chevalier D'Eon in the eighteenth century. He had a successful military and diplomatic career, and then - as a public personality, prominent in the press - hinted and finally confessed that he was a woman in male disguise. She then lived her last three decades in women's clothing - forbidden to cross-dress as a man, by order of the French king. Nonetheless, D'Eon's autopsy found "unquestionably male" genitalia. His decision... "[made] because he deeply admired the moral character of women and wanted to live as one of them"

Skip James

...well, I thought it was funny.

Simulacra

Last night I dreamt that someone had stolen all my belongings and replaced them with perfect replicas.

Next semester's subjects

I have enrolled in my two subjects for next semester. They are;

HST310 : Twentieth Century Europe

This unit deals with the main issues of European social, cultural, political, economic and military development predominantly in the period 1914 to 1945. Was the age, as suggested by some, an age of catastrophe, an increasingly barbaric age or an age when modernity went wrong? Was Europe the dark continent that some historians have suggested? Students will explore the violence of two world wars, civil wars in Russia and Spain, political polarisation and instability, ideological conflict, the Great Depression and the horrors of the Holocaust.

...and...

HST210 : Women in Australian History

This unit examines the unique history of women's experience in Australia. Students will examine continuities and changes for women. Beginning with the differences between convict women and the construction and realities of the lives of free women and girls. The unit then explores the agency of women in the twentieth century including their role in wartime and the subsequent explosion of second wave feminism. Throughout the unit, students will examine the diversities of Australian women and the ways in which class, sexuality, race and ethnicity impacted and interacted with gender.

Forester v1.3

My essay on nineteenth century Russian anarchist terrorism, or 'propaganda by the deed' to use the parlance of the time, is pretty much finished. I just have to tweak the introduction and conclusion tomorrow, then send it off. Then I begin reading for my next essay striaght away - on the impact of the war in the Pacific on Australian national identity. I've been heavily addicted to Leafcutter John's Forester software these last few days. If you have a Mac, enjoy making endless droning soundscapes, and have little musical talent, then check it out.