I’m loving this new trend of people going to zoos and participating in animal enrichment. We use to observe large exotic animals for our entertainment, but the fact is that we are now trying to make ourselves equally as entertaining for them. It’s interactive, completely parpicipatory and I would argue that eventually someone’s gonna come up with something new enough that it expland ethologists understanding about how some animals think, problem solve, communicate and feel and I think its fantastic.
Human: play?
Aquatic creature from an entirely different branch of the animal tree: play!
Here’s another unusual print we found while perusing through the more than 500 free images by José Guadalupe Posada on JSTOR. It depicts a party in 1901 in which men in drag danced with men in suits. While this was surely not intended as a celebratory image originally, we’re making it one now because we love knowing that these parties were happening in Mexico more than 100 years ago!
For more context, this is an image depicting “El baile de los cuarenta y uno”. It happened when Porfirio Díaz was president. 21 men were in suits, 21 men were in dresses. All of them were part of the upper class and Ignacio de la Torre y Mier (son-in-law of the president) was there too. This dance was a scandal that they tried to cover up, for obvious reasons. Even when there were 42 men, only 41 were arrested (and abused by the police, as always) –hence the name “El baile de los 41”.
There’s a movie about it, which I highly recommed titled “El baile de los 41”. And here’s the Wikipedia article about it. This event is an important event in México history, both in terms of how queer and homosexual culture/community was/is in the country and how fucking damn awful the porfiriato was.
Thank you @kaanbaltlak! We had heard of the movie but hadn’t put the two together!
Keke Palmer’s boyfriend and the father of her baby publicly shamed her for her outfit and it’s the audacity of someone we only know as “Keke Palmer’s boyfriend” to target his hardworking significant other, the mother to his baby like this
Kronk: By whom, though? I might be your classic “hunk” body type, but I’m not exactly a top. I have a couple exes I could call that might be his type. Do you want someone who would take him out for dinner first, or just…
A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.
The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.
Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.
For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.
Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.
PRAISE
“A thorough delight … To Shape a Dragon’s Breath reveals a world that is complex and political through deft, thoughtfully drawn characters who, like their world, are complicated and believable. I love Anequs!”—K. Eason, author of How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
“Imagine a world full of dragons where a newborn chooses you to be its caregiver. Imagine you have to go to a special school to learn how to train it. Imagine that almost no one at the school wants you there. This is how the well-written, compelling tale of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath begins, and once underway it doesn’t let you go.”—New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks
Yooooooo, re-reblogging this from myself because I just finished this book about 10 minutes ago and y'all, it’s SO GOOD!
Are you nostalgic for the “teens in magic school” books of your childhood but wish they were explicitly queer and anti-colonial and, y'know, good? Really need an awesome queer Indigenous woman as a protagonist? (Like, a really, really awesome protagonist? She’s so cool??) Worldbuilding? Steampunk? You want DRAGONS???
Dude. Read this book. Run, don’t walk to your local library. Or, I mean, don’t because it’s like 9pm on a holiday and they’re probably closed, but go to their website. Click “place hold” (because if it’s anything like my library, you’re not gonna be first in line). Get the book. Read the book. Trust me.
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