Why do I check my referrers, I ask you?
http://www.google.com/search?s...q=%22virginia+postrel%22+naked
Why oh why oh why. . .
Not really worried that posting that will move me higher in the results, since I'm already the first fucking one. VASpider, I swear I'm gonna kick this mother fucker's ass next time I'm in Minneapolis.
I'll just need to borrow some phone books to stand on.
Anyway, anyone find any humor whatsoever in Republicans/right-wingers, who hijacked the language of the civil rights movement to pass anti-Affirmative Action ballot initiatives and in their ongoing Kaiju Big Battel for the rights of the unborm, condeming The Gay for hijacking the language of the civil rights movement?
Nah, me either. It's that Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize thang all over again; satire is just plain not possible.
Today's Women(andminorities)'s History Lesson: Homosexuals: Victims of the Nazi Era:
On May 6,1933, Nazis ransacked the "Institute for Sexual Science" in Berlin; four days later, as part of large public burnings of books viewed as "un-German," thousands of books plundered from the Institute's library were thrown into a huge bonfire. The institute was founded in 1919 by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868 -1935). It sponsored research and discussion on marital problems, sexually transmitted diseases, and laws relating to sexual offenses, abortion, and homosexuality. The author of many works, Hirschfeld, himself a homosexual, led efforts for three decades to reform laws criminalizing homosexuality (In 1933 Hirschfeld happened to be in France, where he remained until his death.)In 1934, a special Gestapo (Secret State Police) division on homosexuals was set up. One of its first acts was to order the police "pink lists" from all over Germany The police had been compiling these lists of suspected homosexual men since 1900. On September 1, 1935, a harsher, amended version of Paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code, originally framed in 1871, went into effect, punishing a broad range of "lewd and lascivious" behavior between men. In 1936 Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler created a Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion: Special Office (II S), a subdepartment of Executive Department II of the Gestapo. The linking of homosexuality and abortion reflected the Nazi regimes population policies to promote a higher birthrate of its "Aryan" population. On this subject Himmler spoke in Bad Tölz on February 18, 1937, before a group of high-ranking SS officers on the dangers both homosexuality and abortion posed to the German birthrate.
Several links in the original, which I left out because they were relative links in the source, and I didn't feel like copy&paste'ing the rest of the URI for 'em.
Which utterly irrelevant geekiness I mention to cushion the horror of what's actually in the original, which is much longer and only worth a look if, like me, pretty much all you know about the Nazis is that they were very evil, very racist, and killed six million Jews.
Because that's not quite the public face they presented to the German people. I'd like to think no one has such a low opinion of human nature generally, or the nature of post-WW I German nature specifically, to think they'd flock to the polls to vote for the folks with the stirring slogan, "We're Very Evil, Very Racist, and Plan to Kill Six Million Jews."
(Well, they planned to kill more, actually, but since writing about this makes me slightly sick to my stomach, let's just go with that, eh?)
Can't think of anything to say about that Central Office, either. The one I tossed an <em> tag around, just to get your attention.
Now, who else do we know who conflates homosexuality and abortion as threats to (Western/Aryan/American) civilization?
Yes, I used that title for this entry for a damn good reason.
I'm being kind.
All prisoners of the camps wore marks of various colors and shapes, which allowed guards and camp functionaries to identify them by category. The uniforms of those sentenced as homosexuals bore, various identifying marks, including a large black dot and a large "175" drawn on the back of the jacket. Later a pink triangular patch (rosa Winkel) appeared. Conditions in the camps were generally harsh for all inmates, many of whom died from hunger, disease, exhaustion, exposure to the cold, and brutal treatment. Many survivors have testified that men with pink triangles were often treated particularly severely by guards and inmates alike because of widespread biases against homosexuals. As was true with other prisoner categories, some homosexuals were also victims of cruel medical experiments, including castration. At Buchenwald concentration camp, SS physician Dr. Carl Vaernet performed operations designed to convert men to heterosexuals: the surgical insertion of a capsule which released the male hormone testosterone. Such procedures reflected the desire by Himmler and others to find a medical solution to homosexuality.
I'm leaving out the even more disgusting bits.
Update: Oh yeah, speaking of disgusting bits, Virginia? I'm gonna need some photos.
Just so people aren't disappointed when they hit that search result, you know?
Update 2: Put the links back in the (block)quoted material, since it's not like it was that difficult.
And was going to add something nasty about the Nazis destroying the Institute and how some folks favor abstinence-only sex ed, but I really am trying to be kinder these days.
it was well known what the plan for the jews were if on read Mein Kamph (My struggle). As for the homosexuals beware for many of the Nazi cabal were gay or bi.
English isn't your first language, is it?
ugh. For the girls' side, watch Aimee und Jaguar. What's most gut-wrenching is that, as a German film, they capture the disassociation of the times- & how ppl used that disassociation to protect themselves- even to the point of this self-conscious ignorance leading to the torture, rape, & deaths of those they loved.
Neo, think I've seen Aimee und Jaguar for rent at Women & Children First. Thanks, I'll give it a look.
And since I'm in a foul mood this morning: Robert, I don't think MK actually discussed extermination, but haven't read the whole thing. Care to give a citation on that? Translated versions are available on the 'net, so a link would be nice, too.
And did you mean "beware" or "be aware" in that last sentence? If the latter, um, thanks, knew that. If the former. . . why?
My understanding is that the "gay or bi" elements in the Nazi hierarchy are greatly exaggerated and in some cases just plain fabricated. It wouldn't be the first (and probably not the last) time Americans gay-ified an enemy for propaganda purposes.
Anyone's who's interested in the intense misogyny and the premium placed on intense (almost quasi-romantic, but totally non-sexual) male-to-male relationships in Nazi culture should really read Male Fantasies by Klaus Theweleit. It's actually about the Freicorps, sort of precursor to the Nazis, but the author makes a strong case for the Freicorps being a major source of Nazi ideology and ethos. Like I said, they were total misogynists, frowned on sex outside of marriage or even enjoying sex within marriage excessively. They idealized relationships between male friends in a way that seems, to a modern reader/viewer, awfully homoerotic, but they would have been horrified at such an idea; they thought the love between men was this supreme thing partly BECAUSE it wasn't tainted by the sin of sexuality.