there was a swedish guy in like the early 1900s that literally just traveled to Australia, attended a funeral of an indigenous person and then HE CAME BACK A FEW WEEKS LATER TO DIG UP THE BONES TO KEEP IN HIS COLLECTION!!!!
DO YOU HEAR ME??!!!
HE WENT ON A FUNERAL AND THEN CAME BACK TO DIG UP THE BONES!!!!!!!
Thankfully the aboriginal people there had heard he had dug up bones previously and they moved the grave.
AND WHEN HE DISCOVERED THIS HE GOT MAD AND SAID THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE COULDN'T BE TRUSTED
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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it's such a tragic irony that swifties, who rallied so hard for regulations on AI usage - because we all knew and experienced how dangerous it can be in the worst possible way, still continue to use AI to generate songs and alarm sounds and album/song covers using taylor's voice like it doesn't violate her artistry at all. and then defend it by saying this is different because they're doing it with positive intentions. there's literally nothing productive about using AI to generate any kind of content, especially not when that content is a blatant (and disgustingly shallow) impersonation of someone swifties claim to love and respect so much
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George Wickham isn't bad in that way (which is the best thing I can say about him)
A lot of online discussions label Wickham from Pride & Prejudice as a pedophile because both of his victims, Georgiana Darcy and Lydia Bennet, were 15/16 years old. However, I am very certain this was not Jane Austen's point, and it also papers over the big differences between Georgiana's and Lydia's cases.
(This post isn't graphic but I'll put the rest under the jump)
Firstly, Georgiana's age was about her vulnerability to manipulation, not attraction. If Georgiana was older and out, she probably would have not fallen for Wickham and agreed to run away because she would have had other competing choices and more information about the engagement and marriage process. The time is chosen because she is ignorant, under the care of someone who is willing to betray her, and Wickham wants her money. I'm pretty sure he would have gone for her fortune even if he was adverse to her appearance.
Secondly, Lydia runs away with Wickham because she is following her mother's misguided, "husband at any cost" philosophy, there is no evidence in the book that this was a premeditated plan of his. The plot to elope with Georgiana was premeditated, but from everything in the book, Wickham was running away from debt and brought Lydia along for funsies because she offered. The point of Lydia's elopement is that she was too young, too ignorant, and not well protected. Her parents made a huge error in judgment allowing her to go to a place where she might fall victim to something like this. If it wasn't Wickham, it could have easily have been someone else, like Willoughby, almost the same thing happens to Eliza Williams under nearly the same circumstances.
Thirdly, the age of consent was 14 at the time and Lydia at least was "out". So culturally, he's going for people who would be considered "women" though most people at the time also would have thought they were marrying too early. So many people in the novel say Lydia is too young. (The average age of first marriage was 23.4 (Women's History of Britian, 2005)). Also, I think Jane Austen, who rarely describes anyone in detail, going out of her way to make Lydia the tallest of the sisters and also describing Georgiana as very tall, and describing both of them as fully developed, was her making the point that this wasn't Wickham having an attraction to prepubescent girls. Not that liking barely legal girls is great, but it's more like a modern guy dating 18 year olds when he's 30 icky than illegal.
It was about how girls who are too young are far more vulnerable to mistakes, empty promises, and manipulation.
So yeah, Wickham is the worst, but he's not that bad. This is the most I will ever say in his defence. I hold out a fond hope that he died in battle and Lydia gets a second chance at life. Or ran like the coward he is and then was court marshalled.
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