Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

[cahn]

Last post, along with the usual 18th-century suspects, included the Ottonians; changing ideas of conception and women's sexual pleasure; Isabella of Parma (the one who fell in love, and vice versa, with her husband's sister); Henry IV and Bertha (and Henry's second wife divorcing him for "unspeakable sexual acts"). (Okay, Isabella of Parma was 18th century.)

Comments

Pornocracy

[mildred_of_midgard]

My inner historical linguist has decided it wants to write a comment, so here we go.

The reason "pornocracy" is such a hilarious word in the twenty-first century is because the modern meaning of "porn" is a slang term for sexually explicit material.

But my inner historical linguist feels obliged to state that 19th century Protestant German theologians who knew their Greek at least well enough to read the New Testament knew that πόρνη meant "prostitute" in Greek, and they coined "pornocracy" to mean that Rome was being run by the popes' mistresses. "Or, to give them their proper name, whores," in the words of 18th century Protestant German "theologian" FW. (From the opening of his 1722 Political Testament.)

So it's a very misogynistic term as originally intended, though as a product of the late twentieth century, I can't help telling my inner historical linguist to be quiet, it obviously means the rule of sexually explicit material. :P

Re: Pornocracy

[luzula]

Your inner historical linguist will always have an audience. : )

Re: Pornocracy

[mildred_of_midgard]

Good to know! I resisted writing this one as long as I could, because I know I have a tendency to go on about the history of words, and this is the history salon, not the historical linguistics salon. ;)

Oh, man, now I'm imagining what would happen if the people I knew when I went to grad school got together for an online historical linguistics salon, and it would be SO GREAT. Why do we have a university model when the salon model works so much better?? :P

Re: Pornocracy

[luzula]

Well, I mean, I would not diverge from the subject of history salon too far. For example, I would not start writing here about how excited I am about the two new-to-me liverwort species Riccardia palmata and Tritomaria exsectiformis that I just determined under the microscope! Because that is just too far off topic. (Ha ha, sorry for doing so anyway.)

But I feel like historical linguistics is definitely related enough, especially when you're writing about a word that has come up a lot. : )

I know! The salon model is great. It's how I learned biology, really, though I haven't thought about it that way.

Re: Pornocracy

[mildred_of_midgard]

Heee! I mean, a separate biology salon would be cool, but yes, agree that this is perhaaaps not the place.

I mean, I *did* go on about relatedness coefficients once, but that was because we were trying to quantify how inbred the Habsburgs were! And then there's that tab I have open with an article on history of the spread of malaria that I've been toying with writing up, even though it's both outside our period and would involve explaining some biology (which may be why I haven't gotten around to it)...

But yes! I will limit my biology contributions and try to keep the linguistic ones under control. (Cahn encouraged me with "Catholic", it's not (entirely) my fault!) Congrats on your microscopic findings, though!

Where did you learn biology via "salon" and does this "salon" still exist? Asking for a friend who looks suspiciously like me. :P

Re: Pornocracy

[luzula]

Alas, my biology "salon" is not online and is physically located in Sweden...

ETA: It is basically a network of amateur biologists (and professional biologists), or rather overlapping networks of such people interested in different species groups, who physically meet up and are enthusiastically nerdy together.

Re: Pornocracy

[mildred_of_midgard]

Alas. But I'm happy for you!

Re: Pornocracy

[cahn]

For example, I would not start writing here about how excited I am about the two new-to-me liverwort species Riccardia palmata and Tritomaria exsectiformis that I just determined under the microscope!

Haha! I love seeing you geek out about plant species actually :D

(ETA: I also think it's absolutely hilarious that this is all under the heading "pornocracy"!)

Re: Pornocracy

[cahn]

I think the university model at its best is actually supposed to be kind of like an in-person salon? But agreed, in practice it often doesn't work that way, and I imagine it can depend a lot on the field and the professors involved, I think. (Parts of grad school, in particular, were a lot like salon for me, partially because my field was small and tight-knit, and partially because my advisor was in the process of building a salon-like institute at the time. It's the part about academia that I miss the most. Although admittedly it would have been hard for someone to come in and learn everything from scratch, the way you guys were so nice to do for me at the genesis of salon :) But I definitely knew other people whose grad school experiences were emphatically not salon-like!)

Re: Pornocracy

[cahn]

hahahaha okay whoreocracy is also misogynistic, but I'm glad they called it pornocracy just because I think it's so hilarious :D