@londonmummy1966
Am sorry to be a spoil-sport, but the newspapers misreported the findings of the paper (Going south of the river: A multidisciplinary analysis of ancestry, mobility and diet in a population from Roman Southwark, London [Journal of Archaeological Science, October 2016]) regarding “Chinese” skeletons in the Roman cemetery.
There’s a really good breakdown of Why We Don’t Know That in this Forbes Article - FWIW I agree it’s highly probable Sino-Roman trade relations would have brought some Chinese people to what is now England & Wales; but the proof is yet to transpire. Just thinking about how much more we know about Ivory Bangle Lady than when I was a child rams home the insane amounts of progress that’ve been made in the field.
Speaking of African [diaspora] Romans I always think the posting to Hadrian’s Wall must have been utterly desperate for the Aurelian Moors - don’t you?

I suppose one plus of the Ancient World is people don’t have to queer nit-combs for their LGBTQIA[2S]+ representation. The down side is routine misinterpretations; & of course splashing about the word “queer”. It is not the lack of a Latin translation that means were one able to interview an Ancient Roman about their sexuality “queer” wouldn’t come into it; yet the ahistorical usage persists 🤦‍♀️

@MillicentTrilbyHiggins 😍😚😚

Sighs a happy sigh!

Life in 21st Century Britain though a fat person lens. Washing machine edition.

Fat people use washing machines to wash their clothes. Fat people need to wear clothes despite the fact that some people think they shouldn't be sold in shops. Or if they are sold they must certainly should not be modelled. They think Fat people should wear sacks and look like total crap. However, Fat people generally make the most of what they've got and try to dress in a way that suits their size. This means that they need the aforementioned washing machine.

I wonder if it could be argued that washing machines are less cost effective for fat people. This is because their larger clothes take up more space in washing machine so they can get less outfits per wash. This could also lead to more general wear and tear on the machine as it will be used more often. This is an unrecognised form of fatphobia and discrimination.

IIRC, the Tudors had that naval recruitment campaign with posters showing a pointing Henry VIII saying, 'Join the Navy and Feel a Man!' But when people started shouting suggestive comments at the monarch as he was rowed across the Thames, that's when he decided to have Thomas Cromwell dramatically cancelled.

when they can't find a mug for their coffee or say fuck this shit and book a cleaner.

Sometimes they will have a pet such as a cat, commonly known by a similarly mystical name, Thebastarding Cat, particularly when it is in the process of disembowelling a mouse or depositing a rather large furball onto the freshly vacuumed and only piece of carpeting in the entire bloody house.

seriously! Camera! Out! Now! You are not to be making your living off the back of my habits young woman!

Not come across Philip Hensher before this but his tweet and that comment say much of what I think of the Mary Rose blog post but with more eloquence!

'Juvenile satraps.' Nice one, filed for future use. As are some of the comments on here.

Philip Hensher on this nonsense on Unherd.

https://unherd.com/thepost/the-queering-of-the-mary-rose-insults-gay-history/

😂😂😂

Ah, terribly sorry about that. I'll see to it directly.

Life in 21st Century Britain Through the Fat Lens - Cleaning Edition.

Some people like cleaning their houses. Some people don't and will try to get the other adult in the house to do it, rage clean on a Saturday morning when they can't find a mug for their coffee or say fuck this shit and book a cleaner.

Fat people can also hate cleaning up after a fully sentient adult and make grumbling noises about a mystical being known as Thefuckingcleaning Fairy doing it. Sometimes they will have a pet such as a cat, commonly known by a similarly mystical name, Thebastarding Cat, particularly when it is in the process of disembowelling a mouse or depositing a rather large furball onto the freshly vacuumed and only piece of carpeting in the entire bloody house.

We do not know whether Thefuckingcleaning Fairy and Thebastarding Cat differ in presentation from the mythic beings of HealthyBMI Culture, but there do appear to be some commonalities in how Fat People get really pissed off with thoughtless spouses and vomitous felines just before they leave for work in the morning and those of the majority.

@NeverDropYourMooncup I'm sorry but I'm not going to open my museum or do my blog if other people also claim to know what life through a fat lens is like. Don't you know I'm super special

@Boiledbeetle snacks are a given.

a slimy washing up bowl full of dirty plates and the last cat food fork by Friday.

@NeverDropYourMooncup can you please remove the cctv you appear to have installed in my kitchen.

Thank you.

Mole has delivered again!I

@MillicentTrilbyHiggins Ooh a quiz! Is there snacks whilst we fill it in?

Life in Britain Through the Fat Lens. Shopping Edition.

People shop and buy things like coffee, cat food and washing up liquid. Some fat people also buy coffee, cat food and washing up liquid - incredibly, the fact that they are fat bears absolutely no relevance to their need for caffeine in the morning, the cat will kick off if left to go hungry and they share a wish to avoid a slimy washing up bowl full of dirty plates and the last cat food fork by Friday. Some fat people like shopping and for some, they can think of a hundred other things they'd rather be doing than trailing round the Co-op after work and therefore stick most of it on an Amazon or Ocado order.

Sorry, forgot to answer this. You absolutely get a discount. Subject to passing "the mumsnet quiz" at the door.

(honourable exceptions: programmes like 'A House Through Time', although iirc even that did it a bit).

AHTT was one of the worst! In the series I saw, David Olusoga featured a bit about a man who’d gone to America to fight in the Civil War (IIRC). It was presented that he was a shit who’d abandoned his wife and children who later died, I think in the workhouse, but there are any number of reasons why he might have gone and not come back or indeed why his remaining family ended up in poverty. It absolutely infuriates me when historians apply a backstory for which there is absolutely no supporting case.

Absolutely!

Absolutely.

We cannot overlook the fact that, until recently, to be gay was a crime of varying descriptions, whether it’s the Buggery Act, accusations of public indecency and so on. Homosexual activities were a crime punishable by death until the 19th century. Of course, it still happened particularly among those rich enough to afford privacy and there were pockets of toleration (cf: molly houses) but this was the exception not the norm. These accusations brought shame and misery not just on the accused but their families.

On top of that, it may well have been shameful and downright offensive to the people involved to have been “accused” (as they would have seen it) of being a homosexual, a sodomite or simply “being unnatural” or “deviant”.

To foist on real people an identity which they may well have been horrified by is just not acceptable, in my book. The example that comes to mind here is Ammonite, the film about Mary Anning, which was “queered”

Can you do washing machines next?

Oh so wonderful!

So brave!

So, what's the word I'm looking for? ...

Stunning

Life in 21st Britain through a fat person lens. Aldi edition.

I (a fat person) went to Aldi. Some fat people go to Aldi, some don't. There are many reasons fat people may choose to go to Aldi. It could be because it's their closest supermarket. Or they may nave popped in on their way home from somewhere else. Aldi is generally considered to be good value for money, so they may have gone there for that reason. Or maybe they just needed some milk!

Actually tempted to set up a threads account for this.

Oh no, I wasn't very clear what I was referring to!

I liked the tweet contrasting the grind required to actually uncover hidden LGBT stories in historical archives that are designed if anything to hide them, with this ahistorical nonsense.

Which reminds me of the endless efforts to ruin the statistical record now and to make it more difficult to track whether we are talking about male people, female people, gay or straight.

So for example I looked at some youth suicide statistics which said that being LGBTQ+ was an identifiable factor (not a single cause) in about 6% of suicides under 25. Without separating those elements out, it's frankly impossible to take any action about any of it.

And if an intern does work that's not publishable, it's their supervisor who should take responsibility for not publishing it, or if they do publish it, should put their own name out there.

Oh I'm sorry - my bad - must read the sources properly next time.......

Some reading on the Romans' attitude to male homosexuality would be enlightening. The practice was almost entirely exploitative.