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adisquietfollows · 23 days

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The reporters interviewed Amit Soussana for eight hours and doctors she spoke with immediately after her release. They also reviewed medical records, videos, text messages and photographs.

Full text under the cut.

March 26, 2024

Amit Soussana, an Israeli lawyer, was abducted from her home on Oct. 7, beaten and dragged into Gaza by at least 10 men, some armed. Several days into her captivity, she said, her guard began asking about her sex life.

Ms. Soussana said she was held alone in a child’s bedroom, chained by her left ankle. Sometimes, the guard would enter, sit beside her on the bed, lift her shirt and touch her, she said.

He also repeatedly asked when her period was due. When her period ended, around Oct. 18, she tried to put him off by pretending that she was bleeding for nearly a week, she recalled.

Around Oct. 24, the guard, who called himself Muhammad, attacked her, she said.

Early that morning, she said, Muhammad unlocked her chain and left her in the bathroom. After she undressed and began washing herself in the bathtub, Muhammad returned and stood in the doorway, holding a pistol.

“He came towards me and shoved the gun at my forehead,” Ms. Soussana recalled during eight hours of interviews with The New York Times in mid-March. After hitting Ms. Soussana and forcing her to remove her towel, Muhammad groped her, sat her on the edge of the bathtub and hit her again, she said.

He dragged her at gunpoint back to the child’s bedroom, a room covered in images of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, she recalled.

“Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” Ms. Soussana said.

Ms. Soussana, 40, is the first Israeli to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted during captivity after the Hamas-led raid on southern Israel. In her interviews with The Times, conducted mostly in English, she provided extensive details of sexual and other violence she suffered during a 55-day ordeal.

Ms. Soussana’s personal account of her experience in captivity is consistent with what she told two doctors and a social worker less than 24 hours after she was freed on Nov. 30. Their reports about her account state the nature of the sexual act; The Times agreed not to disclose the specifics.

Ms. Soussana described being detained in roughly half a dozen sites, including private homes, an office and a subterranean tunnel. Later in her detention, she said, a group of captors suspended her across the gap between two couches and beat her.

For months, Hamas and its supporters have denied that its members sexually abused people in captivity or during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. This month, a United Nations report said that there was “clear and convincing information” that some hostages had suffered sexual violence and there were “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual violence occurred during the raid, while acknowledging the “challenges and limitations” of examining the issue.

After being released along with 105 other hostages during a cease-fire in late November, Ms. Soussana spoke only in vague terms publicly about her treatment in the Gaza Strip, wary of recounting such a traumatic experience. When filmed by Hamas minutes before being freed, she said, she pretended to have been treated well to avoid jeopardizing her release.

Ms. Soussana said she had decided to speak out now to raise awareness about the plight of the hostages still in Gaza, whose number has been put at more than 100, as negotiations for a cease-fire falter.

Hours after her release, Ms. Soussana spoke with a senior Israeli gynecologist, Dr. Julia Barda, and a social worker, Valeria Tsekhovsky, about the sexual assault, the two women said in separate interviews with The Times. A medical report filed jointly by them, and reviewed by The Times, briefly summarizes her account.

“Amit spoke immediately, fluently and in detail, not only about her sexual assault but also about the many other ordeals she experienced,” Dr. Barda said.

The following day, on Dec. 1, Ms. Soussana shared her experience with a doctor from Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, according to the center’s medical report, which was reviewed by The Times.

Siegal Sadetzki, a professor at Tel Aviv University medical school who is helping and advising Ms. Soussana’s family as a volunteer, said Ms. Soussana first told her about the sexual assault within days of her release. Professor Sadetzki, a former top Israeli health official, said Ms. Soussana’s accounts have remained consistent.

Ms. Soussana also spoke to the U.N. team that published the report on sexual violence, but The Times was unable to review her testimony.

A spokesman for Hamas, Basem Naim, said in a 1,300-word response to The Times that it was essential for the group to investigate Ms. Soussana’s allegations, but that such an inquiry was impossible in “the current circumstances.”

Mr. Naim cast doubt on Ms. Soussana’s account, questioning why she had not spoken publicly about the extent of her mistreatment. He said the level of detail in her account makes “it difficult to believe the story, unless it was designed by some security officers.”

“For us, the human body, and especially that of the woman, is sacred,” he said, adding that Hamas’s religious beliefs “forbade any mistreatment of any human being, regardless of his sex, religion or ethnicity.”

Mr. Naim criticized The Times for insufficient coverage of Palestinian suffering, including reports of sexual assault by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian women, which have been the subject of investigations by U.N. officials, rights groups and others. He also said “civilian hostages were not the target” of the raid and said “we have from the first moment declared our readiness to release them.”

A Hamas planning document found in one village shortly after the Oct. 7 raid, which was reviewed by The Times, said: “Take soldiers and civilians as prisoners and hostages to negotiate with.” Video from Oct. 7 shows uniformed Hamas militants abducting civilians.

The Abduction

Ms. Soussana lived alone in a cramped single-story home on the western side of Kibbutz Kfar Azza. After hearing sirens warning of rocket attacks on Oct. 7, she said, she sheltered in her bedroom, which was also a reinforced safe room. From her bedroom, Ms. Soussana listened as the attackers’ gunfire grew closer.

The small kibbutz stands roughly 1.5 miles from Gaza, and it was one of more than 20 Israeli villages, towns and army bases overrun that day by thousands who surged across the Gazan border shortly after dawn. Some 1,200 people were killed that day and about 250 abducted, Israeli officials say, setting off a war in Gaza that local health officials say has killed at least 31,000 Palestinians.

Ms. Soussana was at the kibbutz almost by chance. Sick with a fever, she had been recuperating the previous day in the nearby city of Sderot, with her mother, Mira, who pressed her to stay the night. But Ms. Soussana drove home to Kfar Azza to feed her three cats, she said.

The youngest of three sisters, Ms. Soussana had grown up in Sderot. She qualified as a lawyer at a local college and worked for a law firm specializing in intellectual property. Her colleagues considered her a diligent, quiet and private person who kept her distance, her supervisor, Oren Mendler, said in an interview. In Kfar Azza, Ms. Soussana said, she rarely involved herself in village life and was not part of the local WhatsApp groups, which left her unaware of the extent of the attack on the kibbutz.

At 9:46 a.m. that day, she heard gunmen outside, prompting her to hide inside her bedroom closet, according to messages on her family WhatsApp group reviewed by The Times. Twenty minutes later, her phone died.

Moments later, “I heard an explosion, a huge explosion,” she said. “And the second after that, someone opened the closet door.”

Dragged from the closet, she said, she saw roughly 10 men rifling through her belongings, armed with assault rifles, a grenade launcher and a machete.

Part of the house was on fire — a blaze that would ruin the building.

Over the next hour, the group dragged her through a nearby field toward Gaza. Security footage from a solar farm near the kibbutz, which was widely circulated on the internet, shows the group repeatedly tackling her to the ground as they struggled to restrain her. At one point, a kidnapper picked her up and slung her across his back. The video shows her flailing so hard, her legs thrashing in the air, that the man tumbled to the ground.

“I didn’t want to let them take me to Gaza like an object, without a fight,” said Ms. Soussana. “I still kept believing that someone will come and rescue me.”

The Abuser

The kidnappers attempted to restrain her by beating her and wrapping her in a white fabric, the video shows. Unable to subdue her, the attackers tried and failed to carry her by bicycle, she said. Finally, they bound her hands and feet and dragged her across the bumpy farmland into Gaza, she said.

She was badly wounded, bleeding heavily, with a split lip, she said. The hospital report prepared shortly after her release said that she returned to Israel with fractures in her right eye socket, cheek, knee and nose and severe bruising on her knee and back. The report stated that several injuries were related to her abduction on Oct. 7, including punches to her right eye.

After reaching the edge of Gaza, Ms. Soussana said, she was shoved into a waiting car and driven a few hundred yards into the outskirts of Gaza City. She was untied, dressed in a paramilitary uniform and transferred to another car filled with uniformed militants. A hood was placed over her head, though she could still catch glimpses of her surroundings from under it, she said. After a short drive, she was hurried up a staircase and onto a rooftop, she said.

After the hood was removed, Ms. Soussana said, she found herself in a small structure built on the roof of what she would later realize was an upscale private home. She remembered that militants were busy taking more guns from a box. Then the gunmen hurried downstairs, and she was left alone, facing a wall, with a man who said he was the owner of the house and called himself Mahmoud, she recalled.

“After a couple of minutes, he said I can turn around,” Ms. Soussana said. “And I was shocked,” she added. “I find myself sitting in a house in Gaza.”

She said Mahmoud was soon joined by a younger man, Muhammad. She remembered Muhammad as a chubby, balding man of average height with a wide nose.

Later that day, they dressed her in a thick brown garment that covered her body, she said. They gave her three pills, which they said were painkillers. It was the only time that she remembers receiving any kind of medicine in Gaza, let alone medical treatment.

Fitted with a fan and a television, the room appeared to have been prepared for her arrival, she said. There were three mattresses, she said, one for her and two for the guards.

Early in her captivity, her guards chained her ankle to the window frame, she said. Around Oct. 11, she said, she was led by the chain to a bedroom downstairs. She understood that it belonged to one of Mahmoud’s sons, and that his family had been moved to another place.

The chain was reattached to the door handle, she said, next to a mirror. For the first time since her capture, she could see what she looked like.

“I saw the chains and I saw that my face was all swollen and blue,” she said.

“And I just started to cry,” she said. “This was one of the lowest moments of my life.”

The Jail

For the next two and a half weeks in October, Ms. Soussana said, she was guarded exclusively by Muhammad.

She recalled that the room was almost permanently shrouded in darkness. The curtain was usually drawn shut and there were rolling power outages for most of the day, she said.

She said Muhammad slept outside the bedroom, in the adjacent living room, but frequently entered the bedroom in his underwear, asking about her sex life and offering to massage her body.

When he took her to the bathroom, Ms. Soussana said, he refused to let her shut the door. After giving her sanitary pads, Muhammad seemed particularly interested in the timing of her period, she said. She said she had spoken in a mix of basic English and Arabic; she had learned a little Arabic at school and her mother’s family — Jews from Iraq — had sometimes spoken it during her childhood.

“Every day, he would ask: ‘Did you get your period? Did you get your period? When you get your period, when it will be over, you will wash, you will take a shower and you will wash your clothes,’” Ms. Soussana recalled.

When it arrived, Ms. Soussana said, she was exhausted, afraid and undernourished; her period lasted just one day. She managed to convince him that her menstruation continued for nearly a week, she said.

She tried to humanize herself in his eyes by asking the meaning of Arabic words she heard on television. She also promised that her family would reward him financially if she was returned without further harm to Israel, she said.

In the afternoons, two associates of Muhammad would join him at the apartment, bringing him a cooked meal, she said. Some of this food was given to her as her one meal of the day.

The Israeli strikes on the neighborhood became more frequent and frightening, Ms. Soussana said, noting that some shattered the windows. As the bombing intensified, she said, she started feeling sorry for the civilians, wondering why Hamas had never built bomb shelters for its people.

“I felt for them,” Ms. Soussana said. “Just think about growing up like this — it’s scary.”

The Assault

Early on the morning of the assault, she said, Muhammad insisted she take a shower, but she refused, saying the water was cold. Undeterred, he unchained Ms. Soussana and brought her to the kitchen and showed her a pot of water boiling on the stove, she said.

Minutes later, he brought her to the bathroom and gave her the heated water to pour over herself, she said.

After washing for a few minutes, she heard his voice again from the door, she said.

“‘Quickly, Amit, quickly,’” she recalled him saying.

“I turned around and I saw him standing there,” she said. “With the gun.”

She remembered reaching for a hand towel to cover herself as he advanced and hit her.

“He said, ‘Amit, Amit, take it off,’” she recalled. “Finally, I took it off.”

“He sat me on the edge of the bath. And I closed my legs. And I resisted. And he kept punching me and put his gun in my face,” Ms. Soussana said. “Then he dragged me to the bedroom.”

At that point, Muhammad forced her to commit a sexual act on him, Ms. Soussana said. After the assault, Muhammad left the room to wash, leaving Ms. Soussana sitting naked in the dark, she said.

When he returned, she recalled him showing remorse, saying, “I’m bad, I’m bad, please don’t tell Israel.”

That day, Muhammad repeatedly returned to offer her food, Ms. Soussana said. Sobbing on the bed, she turned down the initial offerings, she said.

Knowing that Ms. Soussana craved sunlight, she said, he refused to open the curtains, leaving the room in darkness. Desperate for daylight, she accepted the food, believing that she had no other option but to placate her abuser.

“You can’t stand looking at him — but you have to: He’s the one who’s protecting you, he’s your guard,” she said. “You’re there with him and you know that every moment it can happen again. You’re completely dependent on him.”

The Israelis

Ms. Soussana said her captors moved her away from the border after a major, hourslong bombardment overnight. Based on the extent of the explosions and snippets she caught on television, she later concluded it was around the start of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza on Friday, Oct. 27.

On the following day, she was hurried into a small white car, she said. The driver headed southwest toward what she would later be told was the central city of Nuseirat.

“Muhammad is sitting in the back seat next to me, and with the gun pointed at me,” she said.

The car stopped outside what looked like a United Nations school and Ms. Soussana was ushered into a busy street, she recalled.

She said she was handed over to a man who called himself Amir. He marched her up the stairs of a nearby apartment block and into another private home, she said.

For the first time in weeks, she was free of Muhammad — but terrified to be entering yet another unknown. “‘Oh my God,’” she remembered wondering. “‘What’s going to happen to me?’”

The man ushered her into a bedroom and shut the door behind her, she recalled. Inside, she found two young women playing cards, next to an older man lying on a bed and an older woman sitting in a chair, she said. Ms. Soussana was wearing traditional clothes from Gaza, she recalled.

“They looked at me and I looked at them, for like half a minute,” she said. “Then I asked, ‘Are you Israelis?’”

“Are you Israeli?” Ms. Soussana remembered one of the women replying.

The Tunnels

Three weeks after her kidnapping, Ms. Soussana had been united with four other hostages. Hugging them, Ms. Soussana broke down in tears, she said.

The identities of the four others were shared with The Times on the condition that their names would not be used to protect those still in captivity.

A few days after her arrival, she was summoned to the apartment’s living room, Ms. Soussana recalled. Amir often played here with his children.

On that day, the guards wrapped her head in a pink shirt, forced her to sit on the floor, handcuffed her, and began beating her with the butt of a gun, she said.

After several minutes, they used duct tape to cover her mouth and nose, tied her feet, and placed the handcuffs on the base of her palms, she said. Then she was suspended, hanging “like a chicken” from a stick stretching between two couches, causing her such pain that she felt that her hands would soon be dislocated.

They carried on beating and kicking her, focusing on the soles of her feet, while simultaneously demanding information they believed she was hiding from them, Ms. Soussana said.

She still doesn’t understand what exactly they wanted or why they thought she was concealing something, she said. At one point, the head guard brought over a spike, and made as if to poke her eye with it, pulling away just in time, she said.

“It was like that for 45 minutes or so,” she said. “They were hitting me and laughing and kicking me, and called the other hostages to see me,” she said.

Ms. Soussana recalled that the kidnappers untied her and returned her to the bedroom, telling her she had 40 minutes to produce the information they wanted or else they would kill her. She said one of the young women was so frightened that she asked Ms. Soussana if she had any last messages for her family.

In mid-November, the hostages were separated: The two youngest women were taken to an unknown location, she said, while Ms. Soussana and the older couple were driven to a house surrounded by farmland.

They found the house full of gunmen, who ordered them to sit on the floor. Suddenly, the older woman began to scream, Ms. Soussana said.

The woman was looking into a shaft that descended into the ground, Ms. Soussana said. “I hear one of the drivers telling her: ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. It’s a city down there.’”

“Then I realized,” Ms. Soussana said. “We’re going into the tunnels.”

The Release

A ladder, several stairs and a series of narrow sloping passageways led the three hostages deep underground, she said.

By the time they reached the bottom, the guards said they were 40 meters deep, something they hoped would reassure the hostages, she said: The Israeli bombs could not reach them there.

Ms. Soussana said a big gunman in a mask was waiting for them at the bottom. Initially, he started shouting at them, telling them that Israel had killed his family, she said, but then quickly stopped, removed his mask and took a different tone.

She said the man introduced himself in English as Jihad and told them his father had worked in Israel and had even had his Israeli boss to dinner, in the years when Israeli civilians could still enter Gaza. He spoke in Hebrew at times. Jihad said he had learned some from watching Israeli television and sang them a famous song that he had heard on a children’s show, Ms. Soussana remembered.

“I was shocked,” Ms. Soussana said. “Suddenly, he was the most humane guy we met there.”

The ground shook every time a missile struck nearby, making her fear they might be buried alive, she said. The tunnels were dark, damp and too narrow for two people to pass each other. And their subterranean cell was so short of air that they were left dizzy and panting after taking a few steps, she said.

Israeli troops would later capture and photograph the tunnel. Ms. Soussana identified fabrics and mattresses in the pictures.

Their captors spent little more than an hour a day in the tunnel, ascending to higher levels overnight for fresh air, Ms. Soussana said. The hostages pleaded with the guards to bring them, too.

After several days, the kidnappers gave in, brought them back to the surface and drove them to another private house, Ms. Soussana said.

They were still there when Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage deal and a temporary truce, which went into force on Friday, Nov. 24. The following day, the three hostages were driven to an office in Gaza City — Ms. Soussana’s final detention site.

Every day brought hope and disappointment. It was never clear which hostages would be freed, or when.

On Thursday, Nov. 30, which turned out to be the last full day of the truce, the guards were making lunch when one of them finished a phone call and turned to Amit.

“He says: ‘Amit. Israel. You. One hour,’” Ms. Soussana recalled.

Within an hour, Ms. Soussana said, she was separated from the older hostage and driven through Gaza City. The car stopped, and a woman in a hijab climbed inside. It was another Israeli hostage: Mia Schem, who was also being released.

They were taken to a junkyard, Ms. Soussana recalled. Around them, she said, their guards changed from civilian clothes into uniforms.

Finally, the two women were driven to Palestine Square, a major plaza at the heart of Gaza City, where a raucous crowd waited to see them handed over to the Red Cross. Social media video showed that Hamas struggled to control the onlookers, who surrounded the car, pressed up against its windows and at one point began to rock the vehicle, Ms. Soussana said.

After a tense few minutes, the Red Cross officials managed to transfer the women to their jeep.

As they approached the Israeli border, a female Red Cross official handed Ms. Soussana a phone. A person who said he was a soldier greeted her in Hebrew.

“He said, ‘A couple more minutes and we’re going to meet you,’” Ms. Soussana said. “I remember, I started to cry.”

Aaron Boxerman and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.

Patrick Kingsley is the Jerusalem bureau chief, covering Israel and the occupied territories. He has reported from more than 40 countries, written two books and previously covered migration and the Middle East for The Guardian. More about Patrick Kingsley

Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House. More about Ronen Bergman

A version of this article appears in print on March 27, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Israeli Hostage Tells of Sexual Assault in Gaza. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

#jumblr #antisemitism #bring them home

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hopelesslyromanticshark · 2 days

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Dearest Covey.

Hello!! It’s me!! I’m here to make a request before it’s too late😞🙏🏻 as usual, Percy Jackson x Aphrodite!fem!reader, maybe a blurb on reader and Percy going shopping?😋 it’s okay if not possible don’t worry!! Take your time:) also tomorrow I’ll send in my usual yapping, im currently mid valorant game as I have died, but anyways as always stay safe, healthy, and hydrated!!

Love always

-🪷

✮⋆˙ c'mon, barbie, let's go shopping!; percy jackson x daughter of aphrodite! reader blurb

content: percy jackson x daughter of aphrodite! reader blurb warning: none! author's note: POOKIE I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK LITERAL DECADES LMAO THAT'S MY BAD FRFR also i had so many ideas for this but also none at the same time???? i live a very confusing life lmao- but the title was just too cute that i couldn't just let this ask slip away from me!! hope all ya percy fans enjoy frfr

"oh, cute!" you mused, gliding your fingers over the navy blue shirt. it felt soft and looked like it would give that perfect sinched look. you pulled it off the rack, taking a good look at the whole shirt. then you heard the squeak of sneakers, looking up just in time to see your darling boyfriend, bending at the hips as he desperately tried to get breath back into his lungs. partly because he saw you and partly because he ran the whole way there from the food court.

"hi...baby," percy managed to huff out after a few minutes, earning him a few giggles and a kiss pressed to the corner of his lips.

"hey! good news on the ice cream situation?" you asked, holding the shirt to your chest as you came to the conclusion you'd buy it, the thought that percy would be drooling over you in it being the deciding factor.

"no ice cream, which is a travesty. but, they got froyo!" percy explained with a shrug, easily draping his arm over your shoulder as he inspected the shirt in your arms.

"you know i love me some foryo. especially when its with yo!" you joked and it left both you and percy cringing.

"that was so bad-"

"im never saying that again," you winced, leaning into percy's hold easily as hie eyes darted down to the shirt in your hold. his lips curled upwards as his eyes returned to your own.

"you want it?" he asked and you rolled your eyes at the boy, shrugging his arm off your shoulders.

"yes. but, perce, im gonna buy it myself-"

"what? blasphemy! you're not supposed to pay for anything anymore. that's the point of having a boyfriend, duh!" percy cut in, making a dive for the shirt in your hold. you were quick to avoid his hands, taking rapid steps backwards and twisting to avoid his grabby fingers.

"back off, foul beast! i have my own money!" you hissed at the boy through your giggles, taking a small jump back as his fingers grazed the tag of the shirt.

"yes! that you, as my stunning, sweet, gorgeous girlfriend, do not have to spend! think of me as your own personal atm machine," argued percy, managing to wrap his arms around your waist and pull you slamming back into his chest. you laughed but leaned away from him the best you could, holding the shirt out as far as possible. but due to his longer arms, he easily snatched it from you and then held it straight into the air. and despite your jumping, you didn't even get close.

"percy," you whined, dragging out the last letter of his name but he just smirked and marched up to the register. and you watched him go, a small shake of your head but a smile nonetheless.

sometimes you wondered who the real child of Aphrodite in this relationship was.

#postcards from covey ౨ৎ #all my love ౨ৎ #pjo #hoo #pjo fandom #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #percy jackson x reader #percy jackson fanfiction #percy jackson fandom #perseus jackson #perseus jackson x reader #pjo hoo toa #toa #heroes of olympus #perseus jackson fanfic

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alphabetbracket · 3 months

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As the end of January and therefore our first month of the new year rapidly approaches, there is surely only one thought on everyone's mind

With 2024 in full swing, how are we supposed to know what letter is THE letter of the year???

In 2023, our champion, the letter X was crowned letter of the year, but it is 2023 no longer which means... 🥁🥁🥁

It's time for a BRAND NEW alphabet bracket!

This year I'll be seeding the brackets AND taking suggestions for the six additional characters to be thrown into the bracket rather than using a random generator to determine letter placement

In order to determine seeding, I need YOUR help to currently figure out what the general popularity of each letter is, so please fill out the form below! Additionally, there's a spot to suggest which six non letters are added to the bracket this year (as I'm sticking with the easy 32 bracket layout and there's only 26 letters so we need 6 more contestants)

The form will remain open until sometime in mid to late February when I remember this blog exists again and organize the results to give you the lineup!

The first round will begin March 1st and will last one week, so ready your propaganda, and prepare yourselves to determine the 2024 letter of the year!

#not a poll #alphabet bracket #letter fight #bracket #a #b #c #d #e #f #g #h #i #j #k #l #m #n #o #p #q #r #s #t #u #v #w #x #y #z

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thechanelmuse · 2 years

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Black American Music Month

• ELIZABETH “LIBBA” COTTEN - She was a maid at 9, wrote a hit song at 11 — and won a Grammy at 93. Not to mention she was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down. This position meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb.

• SISTER ROSETTA THARPE- The “Godmother of Rock & Roll.” She helped shape modern popular music, was one of the few Black female guitarists to ever find commercial success and the first artist to blend gospel with the secular.

• ODETTA HOLMES - Known as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” In 1963, she sang for the masses on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington. Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals.

• PEGGY JONES - Nicknamed “Lady Bo” played rhythm guitar in Bo Diddley's band in the late 1950s and early 1960s, becoming one of the first (perhaps the first) female rock guitarists in a highly visible rock band. Sometimes called the “Queen Mother of Guitar.”

• LIZZIE “MEMPHIS MINNIE” DOUGLAS - Known as the “Queen of the Blues,” was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Her title stems from her legacy of successfully recording music across four decades as well as being the lone female voice in a male dominated blues scene.

• NORMA JEAN WOFFORD - Nicknamed “The Duchess” by Bo Diddley, she was the second female guitarist in Diddley's backing band.

• ALGIA MAE HINTON - She was widely recognized as a master picker and buckdancer in the Piedmont styles. She would often play her guitar behind her head while buck dancing.

• ETTA BAKER - She was a Piedmont blues/folk guitarist and singer who began playing the guitar at age 3. Taught by her father, long-time Piedmont player Boone Reid, Etta played 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitar, and 5-string banjo. She was a master of the blues guitar style that became popular in the southern piedmont after the turn of the century.

• JESSIE MAE HEMPHILL - A legend of hill country blues guitar. She grew up in a lineage of familial fife-and-drums bands from northern Mississippi, rose to popularity in the mid-1980s and had a fruitful career during which she performed around the globe, traveling mostly on her own. She played in open tunings and, having started as a drummer, had a percussive guitar style that included slapping and banging the instrument. She would also tie a tambourine around her calf, which, together with her strumming-and-drumming guitar work, gave her performance the sound of a one-woman-band.

• BEVERLY “GUITAR” WATKINS - One part soul singer, one part rockin' roadhouse mama, and one part gifted songwriter. She's been chronically under-recorded for a woman with her résumé, performing with the likes of James Brown, Ray Charles and Otis Redding. She didn’t record her first album until she was 60. Her blistering licks on a 1962 red Fender Mustang earned her the well-deserved nickname “Guitar.” She gon’ put on a show:

One more for good measure:

• WILLIE MAE “BIG MAMA” THORNTON - Also referred to as “The Godmother of Rock & Roll.” She was a blues singer, songwriter, self-taught drummer, and harmonica player. She was the first to record "Hound Dog", in 1952, which became her biggest hit, staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953 and selling almost two million copies. She also helped to shape the sound and style of “Texas-blues,” an evolving blues sub-genre known to incorporate swing and big band elements.

#black american music month #elizabeth cotten #elizabeth libba cotten #sister rosetta tharpe #odetta holmes #peggy jones #memphis minnie #norma jean wofford #algia mae hinton #etta baker #jessie mae hemphill #beverly guitar watkins #big mama thornton #black american musicians

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marzipanandminutiae · 1 year

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Hello! My friends and I just watched The Secret of Moonacre, and we were wondering if these exposed bustles in the dress were ever a thing. I wasn't sure what to do other than a quick google search, but I've been following you for a while, and hoped you might have some insights!

Not that I'm aware of! In the era this is riffing on bustle-wise (mid-late 1880s, looks like), great pains were taken to hide the lines of the bustle beneath the skirt. In fact, earlier satirical cartoons mocked the way "ignorant" maids supposedly wore cage crinolines by showing Visible Hoop Line:

(The Way To Wear 'Em, March 1864. Cage crinolines/hoop skirts were cheap and universally popular, which made some upper-class people very nervous about a potential narrowing of the symbolic gap between Haves and Have Nots.This manifested in classist satire, often tinged with anti-Irish prejudice in the US since many Irish immigrants worked in domestic service here.)

The hooping-wire used to create such understructures was meant to be hidden by a petticoat between the hoops or bustle and the outer skirt.

You do sometimes see much earlier Spanish farthingales worn as overskirts with decorative, colorful "ribs":

(Salome from the St. John Retable, Pedro Garcia de Benabarre, c. 1470-80)

but I don't think that's what the movie has adapted for its costumes

of course, it's a fantasy not set in our world at all, so the inaccuracy doesn't bother me. but there's the history behind it, since you asked!

#ask #kardashevscale #history #dress history #the secret of moonacre #victorian #bustle

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asha-mage · 6 months

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Mat/Rand. Prince

[Send me a character or pairing, and a one word prompt, and I'll write you a drabble!]

There is a small grassy glade in the Waterwood, nestled between two oddly shaped boulders that at one point in history, might have been something more. The huge willows of the Waterwood, with their spreading branches and tangling winding roots flank it on all sides and make the place almost invisible, if you do not know the trick of finding the path.

Rand can no longer remember if he or Mat was the first to discover it- the first to wander into that hidden place, always a little shadowy and damp with dew, even at mid noon in summer. But he knows that it was just their place: for the two of them to lay back in the grass and reach up for the branches, to laugh and joke and share secrets together. To talk of the adventures they would have when they where big enough to no longer be told no but their families or the Wisdom, or the Women’s Circle.

It wasn’t like the pond where they would go sometimes, with Perrin and Egwene to swim in the boiling heat of summer. Or like the trips down to idle by the river with other village youths. Something unspoken held it just between them, as if sharing knowledge of it would shatter something fragile and brittle and shinning kept there, between their laughs and games of make-believe.

Once, when they where eight, Mat had made a crown. With his clumsy fingers he had woven starburst and morning glory with loose garlands from the willows, twinning them around broken branches and loose sticks until he had made a rough ring of white and gold and bright orange.

He had bowed elaborately when he was done and presented the crown to Rand with a flourish.

“My prince.” Mat had said with exaggerated deference spoiled only a little by the fox like grin on lips. Rand couldn’t help but laugh as he had taken it and placed it onto his head. He had known it would look foolish, but something had shinned in Mat’s eyes as Rand had fixed it in place, something for which Rand had no name at the time.

“And what am I prince of exactly?” Rand had teased when the crown was settled. “Where is my kingdom?”

“You are standing in it!” Mat had laughed and gestured at the glade. “Prince of the hidden grove! Lord of the Waterwood, etc etc.”

Rand had smirked back. “Master of all the castles in the air? And served by soldiers armored in gossamer steel?” He teased. “And who is my general then? A puppet made of glass?”

Mat had whooped but shaken his head, plucking up another stick to hold like a General’s rod. “No puppets for the Prince of the Morning. I am your general, leader of your loyal hawks, and dogs and foxes. All the carrion eaters, all the foul things can oppose you if they wish-“ He winked. “I will drive them all back with sword and shield and catapult. Let the beetles and the snakes, the rats and the ravens try. I will chase them all away from you, Highness.”

He had said it with such solemnity, such stiff lipped strength that Rand couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and Mat had followed suit soon after. They had ended up laying on their backs staring at the sky and joking about the campaigns they would wage, and the laws they would enact in their new realm (beginning with no bed times of course, and descending in importance from there).

At some point Mat’s hand had found it’s way into Rand’s, and stayed there, until it was to late for them to remain, and they had no choice but to head back to the village.

My general of the hawks and the dogs and the foxes. Rand thought as he watched Mat ride ahead of him. That was years ago no, more then a decade gone. All around them, the crowds of Cairhien citizens cheered and sang, trying to press in on Rand’s small party, held back by the Maidens and the Tearians alike.

And Mat rode ahead, not looking back. Afraid to even stare into Rand’s eyes for to long. Lieutenants and officers from the Band of the Red Hand surrounded him on all sides, and more soldiers marched, rank on rank ahead of them, basking in the accolades of their victory.

The Band of the Red Hand. Not the Band of the Dragon, or the Legion of Al’Thor. The Band of the Red Hand, named for a long dead army of mercenaries, and likely to be just the same.

Rand felt his eyes sweep up to the spires of the Sun Palace in the distance. He was more then any Prince now, more then any King, probably more even then long dead Artur Hawkwing. His name would be writ across history in fire, and their where thousands ready to march at his word, to die for him.

He felt the never healing wound in his side throb in dull agony.

His eyes sank back to Mat, to the sight of the nape of his neck, just visible above the collar of his coat.

And I would trade it all, to be in our grove again. I would give it all away for our castles in the air, for our army of hawks and dogs and foxes.

Better to be a prince with a flower crown, then the Dragon Reborn. Better by miles.

#WoT #Wheel of Time #WoT Book Spoilers #TFOH Spoilers #Rand al'thor #Mat Cauthon #Cauthor #Rat #WoT Fanfic #WoT On Prime #Wheel of Time on Prime #Rand x Mat #Drabble Challenge

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beybaldes · 9 months

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I could offer you a warm embrace

summer sleepover masterlist

will kitman x gn!reader

summary : “not that i think cuddling will fix everything, but i’m pretty sure it can’t make things worse.” requested by anon.

an : will kitman anons I love you all as though I birthed you Adele title because I love her music

“do you want a cuddle?” Was an expression you heard almost everyday around the dog track.

If it was cold on the pitch, Will was asking you, unzipping his jacket so that you could wrap your arms around him and up his back, keeping your hands warm as well as the rest of you. When you were too sleepy to keep yourself up right in the early mornings, he was asking, wrapping his arms around you, holding you tight and keeping you awake. On the coach to and from away games, his arm was over your shoulder, his hand pushing your head against his shoulder and encouraging you to sleep. Even in Amsterdam, after Higgins had convinced you to join the two of them, Will had his arm wrapped around you waist in the Jazz club, asking after his senses your discomfort with the unfamiliar setting. He kept it there even when you eased into the flow of the night.

On occasion, it was different. You’d seek Will out throughout the four walls of Nelson road, sheepishly requesting the warm embrace you’d come to need. Sometimes you’d find yourself slipping your arms around his waist in the changing room, not saying a word but just working your way into his hold while Ted addressed the room with a speech. Or you’d call him asking him to come to you, whispering bashfully that you needed a cuddle when he finally arrived. One time, you’d found yourself practically storming your way onto the pitch mid-training, ignoring concerned calls from Ted and marching your way right into Will’s arms.

Though no one questioned your actions, it had started a ripple of murmurs throughout the team about what could possibly be going on between the two of you.

Today had been weird. Since walking through the door at 7am, you’d yet to see Will, and right now, all you wanted to do was see him. Everything had been going wrong all day: first you’d woke up late leading you to miss an important meeting you were meant to sit in for, then you’d realised you’d forgotten your lunch, your shoelace kept coming undone, non of your email notifications were coming through right and now you couldn’t find your pen. It seemed stupid, to get so worked up over such little things, but seemed today that the world was out to get you and all you wanted to do now was cry.

At the thought alone, tears started flooding your eyes, prompting you to stand from your chair and walk briskly in the direction of the changing rooms, hoping you’d find Will before it was all too much. When you opened the changing room door Colin took one look at you and pointed in the direction of the boot room with a smile you didn’t have it in you to return quite yet, muttering a quiet “thank you.”

“Will.” You whimpered out as you closed the door behind you, his dark head of hair peaking out from the far side of the room behind the boot shelves. “Can I-“

“Do you want a cuddle?” He was quick to drop the pile of kits he’d been holding as you solemnly nodded your head, the frown on your face getting deeper and tears pouring down your cheeks. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything.” You murmured into the crook of his neck, sniffling between every stroke of his fingers through your hair.

“What can I do to make it better?”

“This is good.” You answered earnestly, trying to burrow yourself even further into your favourite kitman. “Not that i think cuddling will fix everything, but i’m pretty sure it can’t make things worse.”

“Very true.” Will mused, pulling you even tighter against him as your sniffling began to stop. “Besides, I quite like cuddling you.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

#beybaldes summer sleepover !!#will kitman x reader #will kitman imagine #will kitman oneshot #ted lasso x reader

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zarya-zaryanitsa · 1 year

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Stalinist attitudes towards homosexuality and the events surroudning criminalization of homosexuality in Soviet Union in 1934 - excerpts from professor Dan Healey’s book „Russian homophobia from Stalin to Sochi”

In the same chapter I analyze the Soviet return to a ban on “sodomy” in 1933-34. It was a Stalinist measure, proposed by the security police and backed with relish by Stalin and his Politburo. Stalin personally edited the new penal article. This was the moment when the Soviet state adopted a modern anti-homosexual politics, the birth of modern Russian political homophobia. (…)

On September 15, 1933, deputy chief of the OGPU (secret police) Genrikh Yagoda proposed to Stalin that a law against “pederasty” was needed urgently. Stalin and Yagoda used the crude term pederastiia to discuss male homosexuality; but government lawyers revived the tsarist term muzhelozhstvo (sodomy) for the published law that was eventually adopted in March 1934. Yagoda reported that in August-September 1933, OGPU raids had been conducted on circles of “pederasts” in Moscow and Leningrad, and other cities of the Soviet Union. Yagoda wrote that these men were guilty of spying; they had also “politically demoralized various social layers of young men, including young workers, and even attempted to penetrate the army and navy.” From a recent collection of FSB archive documents of political cases against young Communists, it is clear that during the early 1930s, the secret police were obsessed with detecting counterrevolutionary moods among young people. Stalin forwarded Yagoda’s letter to Politburo member Lazar Kaganovich, noting that “these scoundrels must receive exemplary punishment” and directing a law against “pederasty” should be adopted. In the months that followed, Yagoda the secret policeman steered its passage through the various legislative drafts. (…)

When in mid-September 1933 Yagoda wrote to Stalin, recommending the adoption of a formal law against sodomy, he apparently cited a figure of 130 arrests of “pederasts” for the operations in “Moscow and Leningrad.” According to Ivanov, the archives of the St. Petersburg FSB reveal that during August-September 1933, 175 men were arrested on grounds of homosexual relations in Leningrad alone. The raids on “pederasts” continued and probably expanded to the principal “regime” cities, including Kharkov and Kiev. It appears that somewhere inside the central secret police machinery, an order originated in late July or early August 1933 to begin arrests of “pederasts” known to the authorities on their card-indexes either as “anti-social” or “declassed” elements, or as a security threat with international dimensions. (…)

In the 1993 release of correspondence between Yagoda and Stalin leading to the sodomy ban, one other significant document was published from the same file in the Presidential Archive. It is a sixteen-page letter to Stalin, from a homosexual British Communist, Harry O. Whyte (1907-60), an ex patriate journalist living in Moscow who loved a man who was a Soviet citizen. His Soviet lover was arrested sometime during late 1933 or early 1934. The release of the Whyte letter said little about its provenance and the author. It was typical of the 1993 publication that this document also appeared without commentary, but was labeled “Humor from the Special Collections” by archivists or editors who failed to show any historical empathy or intellectual curiosity.

Whyte, who worked for the English-language Moscow Daily News, wrote to Stalin, in May 1934, asking him to justify the new law. The journalist boldly explained why it violated the principles of both Marxism and the Soviet revolution. He argued that persecution of the law-abiding homosexual was typical of capitalist regimes and fascist ones: Nazi Germany’s “racial purity” drive was just the most extreme example of the push in both systems for “labor reserves and cannon fodder.” “Constitutional homosexuals, as an insignificant portion of the population . . . cannot present a threat to the birth rate in a socialist state.” Their position was analogous to that of other unjustly persecuted groups: “women, colored races, national minorities” and the best traditions of socialism showed tolerance of the relatively insignificant number of naturally occurring homosexuals in the population. He asked Stalin, “Can a homosexual be considered a person fit to become a member of the Communist Party?” In a revealing reaction, Stalin scrawled across the letter, “An idiot and a degenerate. To the archives.” Whyte got a blunt answer to his question: he was expelled from the Communist Party; he hastily left the Soviet Union for England in 1935. (…)

The dictator turned to his cultural spokesman Maxim Gorky, to explain the law’s rationale for Soviet and European readers. Gorky wrote an article that appeared in Izvestiia and Pravda on May 23, 1934, and later in a German-language socialist newspaper in Switzerland, in which he compared healthy Soviet youth to the degenerate youth of Nazi Germany. “Destroy the homosexuals - and fascism will disappear” he concluded, propounding the genocide of a social group on the grounds of sexuality. Later in 1936, People’s Commissar of Justice Nikolai V. Krylenko gave a speech to the central Soviet legislature in which he explained that the law was necessary because homosexuals were not healthy workers but “a declassed rabble, or the scum of society, or remnants of the exploiting classes.”

#life in the stalinist utopia am i right #don't let tankies trick you into overlooking the crimes of stalinism #stalinism #ussr #soviet union #eastern europe #lgbt #lgbt history #communism

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veerbles · 1 month

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don't mind me, just trying to make a comprehensive timeline of soc/ck

seeing as grishverse is inspired by early 19th century russia, I'll be operating under the assumption that they use the julian calendrer. therefore:

beginning of soc: martius/march ("...the last gasp of winter before spring began in earnest.")

beginning of soc -> djerholm: 2 weeks ("When does[Hringkälla] take place?” / "On the spring equinox.” / “Two weeks from today.")

ice court heist: mid-martius

returning to ketterdam: early-aprillis/april ("It had been just under a week since they’d reached Ketterdam, almost a month since they’d left Djerholm.")

returning/inej's captivity -> rescuing inej: 1 week ("...Van Eck had said he would give them seven days [...] then he would begin torturing Inej. They were almost out of time.")

rescuing inej -> auction: ~1 week (failed sweet reef plan + "...fair auction [...] at the Church of Barter in four days’ time.")

auction: late aprillis-early maius/may

auction -> kaz/inej dock scene: 3 weeks ("In the three weeks since Kuwei’s auction...")

kaz/inej dock scene -> inej threatening pekka: ~1 week ("A month ago he’d been a rich man...")

end of soc: late maius-early lunius/june

overall: the entirety of the duology is around 9 weeks, plus one more week until pekka's epilogue, so 2.5 months total.

BONUS POINTS:

wylan arrived at the barrel three months before the start of soc, in the winter.

kaz and inej steal the dekappel six months before the start of soc.

inej joined the dregs "days after her fifteenth birthday", and since it's implied she'd been with the dregs almost 2 years by the start of soc, we can assume she was born sometime in the spring or summer. she turned 17 either during ck or right after. (EDIT: apparently she's a cancer according to leigh! so she was born in july or late june.)

EXTRA bonus points: using the fact that sailing time from ketterdam to djerholm is stated to be about 10-14 days, we can create a nifty (albeit roughly estimated, disregarding ocean conditions and like, the fact that earth is not actually flat) map of sailing time for all your captain ghafa uses:

ketterdam -> behz ju, shu han: 4-6 days

ketterdam -> os kervo, ravka: 6-7 days

ketterdam -> southern colonies: 6-8 days

ketterdam -> eames chin, novyi zem: 8-10 days

ketterdam -> djerholm, fjerda: 10-14 days

ketterdam -> weddle, novyi zem: 14-16 days

ketterdam -> leflin, wandering isle: 18-20 days

#six of crows #crooked kingdom #grishaverse #am I normal about researching books like a mfing academic paper? no. but it must be done #forever mad we don't know any of the crows' birthdays!!!#analysis

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official-linguistics-post · 2 months

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btw if this queue runs out sometime in late march/early-mid april, don't panic, i'll be back

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jackalproject · 2 months

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Hello everyone! Welcome to the first ever Jackal Project update post. These will be posted on the first of every month to report how development is coming along so you can follow along, as well as extra doodles and other stuff you may want to know.

If you are unfamiliar with the project, please feel free to consult the pinned post and account description!

To start, my name is Niko (@Niko.jpeg), and I’ll be running this show for the foreseeable future. There's a chance more people may end up helping out, but for now it’s just me and my art tablet. Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions, and I will do my best to give an answer.

I unfortunately don’t have much to share this update, as progress on the project has only really just begun to pick up speed. I have some silly concept doodles I can probably go ahead and drop here, but everything else is a little messy as of now. I will however give you the Part One designs for Finn and Hattie.

Daw. Aren’t they adorable? I sure hope nothing bad happens to them in the far future. There’s more to their little gaggle, don’t worry, but for now, that's all I’ll be giving you. I mean, you get to see Lucky at the top of this post. That only leaves 2 characters whose child designs are hidden! I have to have *some* new stuff to give you guys!!

Onto the actual progress check I guess.

TEST COMICS: Script complete, sketch in progress

PART ONE: Script complete, sketch in progress

PART TWO: Storyboard in progress

PART THREE: Storyboard in progress

SCHEDULED RELEASES: Test Comics, mid to late March

“Storyboard” really just refers to the basic detailed idea, the rough sketch before the script. We’re doing pretty well! The Test Comics are just some practice runs of making comics in this style. Both these and Part One are 2 issues long and will be released pretty soon. The test comics will be released before the story itself, but are 100% canon!

I originally had 3 issues planned, but I ended up cutting the original second one because it felt out of place. It was originally supposed to take place during Forces, but didn’t actually feature any of our 5 jackals. It was intended to be an action sequencing practice, but I have shelved it for later. It will be back, don’t worry. I will share a liiiiiitle piece of concept art I did for it though. As a treat.

Thanks for reading, see you sometime this month.

Here’s a frame from issue one of the test comics for the road.

Niko out <3

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an ask.

#The Jackal Project #Update Post #Bonus Content #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic Forces #The Jackal Squad #Lucky the Jackal #Finn the Jackal #Infinite the Jackal #Hattie the Jackal #Gadget the Wolf

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recentadultburnout · 9 months

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Info for writer in Thai series fandom: Mismatch bits and pieces.

All things too short to have their own ch.

A way to call a class

I noticed that when I read about a class of students in English, it was called by the year that class graduated, which is different from how it is in Thai. In Thailand, we count a class based on the school they are in. For example, Pat and Pran from Bad Buddy are in Class 36th. That means there are students who have already graduated from this school in total 35th generation, and they are the 36th.

Education system

อนุบาล-anuban-Nursery

3 years

about 3-5 years old

The class number is typically written as อ.year/room number or simply year/room number, with the assumption that anyone who will need to use the number is aware that they are for nusery.

อ. is the abbreviation of อนุบาล-anuban-Nursery (ป. for prathom and ม. for matyom. Read aloud as Or, Por, and Mor, respectively.)

If you're in the third year, the first room, it can be written as อ.3/1

ประถม-prathom-Elementary school

6 years

can be divided into 2 parts, 3 years each, prathom ton(ต้น-first) and prathom plai(ปลาย-last)

about 6-11 years old

มัธยม-matyom-Secondary school

6 years

can be divided into 2 parts, 3 years each, matyom ton and matyom plai

After matyom ton, one can choose to continue studies in matyom plai or switch to vocational classes. At present, the choice of vocational education is not very popular among families with wealth, and there is some negative bias.

about 12-17 years old

มหาลัยวิทยาลัย-mahawitthayalai-University

Usually 4, but this can vary depending on what you study.

*Most schools in Thailand have 2 semesters.

From nursery to secondary school, it usually like this:

Semester 1 starts around mid-May and ends in late September or early October.

Semester 2 starts around the beginning of November and ends in late February or early March.

At the university, it is usually like this:

Semester 1 starts around September and ends in December.

Semester 2 starts around February and ends in May.

But it may change if there is an announcement from the Ministry of Education.

*There are 9 years of compulsory education. From prathom to matyom ton.

Money

Thai Baht bank notes are divided into five denominations: 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 baht, which are sometimes referred to by their colors: 20-green, 50-blue, 100-red, 500-purple, and 1,000-gray(1,000 baht banknotes are actually more brown than gray, but maybe because brown 10 baht notes were used before, or the 1,000 baht notes might have used to be grayish, they are called this way.) As for coins, we have 1, 2, 5, 10 baht and 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 satang. One hundred satang is one baht. Satang is not used much, and if we do use it, we will mostly use only the 25 and 50 satang coins.

System of measurement

The metric system is the most popular. Other systems will be used if the topic requires it, such as using tea spoon and cup when baking or using Thai measurement for gold weight and land.

Meal

In Thai we have the word กับข้าว-kapkhao, which is things to eat with rice. When we eat it, it's commonly with many people, and we share it together, not somebody's in particular. At each meal, the kapkhao and the rice will be placed on the table for everyone to scoop up and put on their own plate. If you eat with someone you are not super close to, then you should have an extra utensil for scooping up kapkao and rice as to not make the other party uncomfortable. As for when you eat with friends, I would recommend using it also, but it is up to your group of friends' hygiene standards.

Grounded

Disclaimer:this is my perspective as a daughter of a family in Bangkok.

Getting grounded by one's own parents as a punishment is not a real concept here. I'm quite sure about that. Like, it's kind of redundant? Most of us already have to tell our parents all about where we go, when we will be back and with whom before we go out, and if they don't want us to go, then we don't. Plus, our public transportation wasn't that covered, so if a kid who still can't drive and lives far from it wants to go out, then having parents drop off and pick up after is kind of the only option. It's not like normally we are free to go out whenever.

Gap year

Taking a gap year wasn't the norm. It is often seen as a waste of time, and the people who did it might get gossip that they had to do it because they couldn't pass the exam.

Colors of the day

We have a color for each day, which came from a tale about Songkran, and it is common knowledge. Thus, when we want to color code something day-related, we use it and assume people will understand. A bakery company, Farmhouse, had been color-coding a bag sealer as a sign to tell what day their bread was put on shelves since 1987.

Sunday – Red

Monday –Yellow

Tuesday – Pink

Wednesday – Green

Thursday – Orange

Friday – Blue

Saturday – Purple

Year

We use both the Buddhist era (BE) and the Christian era. Sometimes we choose one to write down and sometimes we write them both side by side, Thai numerals for BE on one line and Arabic numerals for CE on another. But if it's an official document, it's more likely to be only BE.

This year(2022) is 2565 BE.

Tip

Tiping is not part of our culture. Nowadays, some people have begun to start tipping due to the influence of other cultures, and there are both positive and negative opinions about that. Some say extra money is definitely a good thing, but some say if we started tipping people, the employer might see it as an opportunity to reduce their employee payment.

Chinatown

There are no words that translate directly into "Chinatown" in Thailand. Each neighborhood is usually called by its street name or landmark near it, and those Chinatown are that way too. The most popular one in Bangkok was called Yaowarat.

Move out

Not moving out of one's own parent's house is normal. Moving out is normal too, but from what I know, nobody will expect their kids to move out for no reason. Some families even dislike that very idea. Like, if you want to move out for no other reason than you just want to, there must be something wrong.

One of my friends who has a big family and really wants to try to live alone for once, but can't say so because her mother will surely be upset, is now planning to apply for something that requires her to stay somewhere else, so she can use that as the reason she has to move out.

Insect as a snacks

While it is a thing we do have, it's not that popular. Many have never eaten it before. Many eat it once just to try it and never again. There's a good chance that there's no one at all in a room full of people who eats fried insects on a regular basis. It's not exactly rare, but also not something that sells everywhere.

Don’t touch the head

Is something I heard many foreigners talk about Thai people, and I guess, while it might be something they were told by a Thai, it got exaggerated. Sure! You shouldn't go around touching strangers' heads. But that's just common sense, right? Why would anyone think they could touch any part of a stranger at all? For a close person, it's a completely different thing, and don't forget, everybody has a different and will have different boundaries!

Touching monks

It's not that women can't touch monks, it's that monks can't touch women, and we cooperate with them to make it easier for them to stay in the precepts.

Religion

The religion in Thailand consists of about 94% Buddhists, about 4% Muslims, about 1% Christians, and the rest are others. It can be seen that there are more Muslims than Christians, but Christians are mentioned slightly more in the entertainment media in my opinion.

Month

The name of the month in Thai can tell which month has how many days. Months with 30 days end with "Yon(ยน)", months with 31 days end with "Kom(คม)", and February ends with "Phan(พันธ์)".

Christmast

Although Christians are not the majority in Thailand, we do have some Christmas celebrations. The mall will play some Christmas songs and sell decorations or other Christmas-themed items, for example. It might not be that big, but it's there.

My mother says that we Thais will take every chance to have a festival and a celebration. Lol

Dishwasher

Dishwashers aren't a popular household item. I don't know the reason.

Age

Age of majority

In Thailand, one will reach their majority at 20 years old, but you can become majority before 20 after your lawful marriage, which can occur with legal guardian permission at 17 or older, or, in a special case, when you are younger than 17 but older than 15, and there is a reasonable cause for marriage and the court grants the permission.

Age of consent

Doing something indecent to someone who is under the age of 15 is illegal, regarding that person's consent. As for someone who is more than 15 but still under 18, it will need both that person and their legal guardian's consent to be legal. If one of them gave consent, it is still illegal. If both parties are under age, then they are both in the wrong and can both be sued by each other's parents.

Driving license

The applicant for a temporary personal motorcycle license must be at least 18 years of age, but if it is for a motorcycle with a total cylinder of not more than 110 cubic centimeters, it must be at least 15 years of age.

A temporary car driver's licensee must be at least 18 years of age.

Public-car and public-tricycle licensees must be at least 22 years of age.

A public motorcycle licensee must be over the age of 20.

A road roller, a tractor, and other driving licensee under section 43 must be at least 18 years of age.

Floods

Floods are the most common natural disasters in Thailand.

Transportation

In Bangkok, there are a few choices for in-town transportation. such as Bts, Mrt, buses, mini buses, taxis, tuk tuks and motorcycles. As for travel between provinces, there are trains, tour buses, vans, and airplanes. Once arriving in other provinces, public transport options vary from area to area but are often more limited than in Bangkok.

Insect screens

Typically, windows are equipped with insect screens. They can be hinged, sliding rails, or something else, but they are usually there.

Apparently, in some places, they are not typically installed. I'm a bit culture shocked. Do you usually have it or not? If not, could you tell me what it is like?

Social media

Facebook currently has some reputation for being an old people's platform but is still popular.

Twitter is also quite popular.

Line is the most popular one for chat apps. It is something you will need to have if you need to communicate with a lot of Thais. Many people complain about how it's not a good way to send files for work or that it makes it hard to separate between private time and work time, but it still maintains its status as being the main means of communication in offices and universities.

Tiktok is gaining many new users during the quarantine.

COVID 19

I searched in English for a bit and think you could find information such as daily cases or any regulations easily enough. As for the Thai people's opinion in general, we can sum it up by saying that many of us have no confidence in our government.

and here are some details:

We have worn a mask for PM 2.5 since before COVID-19 broke out and many will likely still wear it until we are sure there is no COVID left.

Vacine distribution is not very consistent and thorough. So, at the same time, there is someone who gets their third vaccination and someone who hasn't gotten their first yet.

After COVID-19, no-contact deliveries have become extremely popular.

The first queer media that gained popularity in Thailand were Japanese manga and anime. So we adopt the Japanese term "yaoi" for BL and "yuri" for GL, and that is the reason why we usually call queer series "series Y" in Thai.

Index

#thai culture

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