Originally this was going to be about my rad 1970s New Orleans Playboys tee (a bowling team tee!) but really the jeans are the star of the show here.
Leviโs pls sponsor me.
(Another time Iโll tell you about the history of denim and the wild adventures of vintage hunters out west who go digging in old mines looking for antique workwear)
Iโm wearing a vintage nursesโ costume. The hats nurses used to wear originated somewhat with the nursing profession being associated with nuns who wore them as they cared for the sick, and were a part of typical nun modesty dress.
From there, it became a way to contain a womanโs hair.
As society learned more about germ theory, and nursing became a less-gender-biased role, the caps went to the wayside in favor of scrubs.
I was today years old when I learned that Helen of Troy WAS NOT A REAL PERSON!
When I got this gold bikini I had visions of Troy (a la Diane Kruger circa 2002) with laurels for my long, wavy hair and some sort of toga-like beach wrap to go with it.
Well, wouldnโt you know that as I sat in the pool brushing up on my Ancient Greek history knowledge, I learned that Helen of Troy was married to of King of Sparta (heโs also not real, but Sparta was), and, due to her beauty was taken by Paris of Troy (Paris wasnโt real, Troy was an ancient city in modern-day Turkey).
Okay, now Iโm roped in. So the entire Trojan War, the topic of many a Greek tragedy, the narrative voice behind Homerโs Iliad, and Odyssey, of numerous characters and plays and mythology is ALL COMPLETELY MADE UP.
Blew my mind. I was almost concerned Iโd simply consumed one too many cans of High Noon as I sat in the pool reading this but nope, itโs just mythology.
Sure, there are some historical events that informed these pieces of art and literature but by and large it is just simply legend. ๐ซ
A reproduction of a 1940s summer outfit with a luau-inspired print. If you didn't know, New Orleans is home to a world-renowned Tiki bar who literally wrote the book on modern day Tiki cocktails and houses a huge collection of ultra-rare tiki mugs!
So, I was just goofing around putting on this Medusa costume but boy did the internet hit me with an overwhelming amount of art, opinion pieces, photoshoots, movies, logos, and most intriguing: a mountain of scholarly articles about her sexuality and the impact her tale has had on women's history. I thought this was going to be a lighthearted "hey look at my costume" kind of post but woah.
We all know Medusa as the only mortal Gorgon, from Greek literature, who was a fair, beautiful priestess dedicated to temple of Athena. Poseidon, one of the 12 OG Olympians and god of the Sea, was enamored with her and pursued her relentlessly. Finally, without asking, he had his way with her IN Athena's temple. Not exactly thrilled, Athena blamed Medusa and curses her with snakes for hair and a gaze that turned people to stone.
Athena, enraged at having any competition for her beauty, helped Perseus, a son of Zeus also known as the golden shower (OK he's actually referred to as a shower OF gold but c'mon the joke was right there) gave Perseus the tools to defeat her. Perseus rolls up to Medusa while she's asleep and with Athena's divine intervention, takes her head.
Perseus becomes the hero who defeated the monster Medusa, Medusa goes down in history as a grotesque character known only for her curse, and Athena proudly TAKES THE HEAD AND ATTACHES IT TO HER SHIELD to use as a tool. Wild.
Anyway, this story has been retold by Greek poets, philosophers and academics over time as an ancient case study on the trials and tribulations of women's sexuality. Also, I have a fun Medusa costume (see above). Enjoy ๐๐
There are a gazillion accounts of men's sex lives throughout history. Women's experiences, told in their raw, unadulterated glory, are harder to cum (hah) by.
But Anaรฏs Nin is a bit of an anomaly and a good place to kick this off. Born in the early 1900s, she became famous for her raw, semi-autobiographical erotica novels and for being a bit of a femme fatal by one of her many lovers. Henry Miller, (you know, the playwright your English teacher in high school probably droned on about), referred to her as irresistible and erotic. They exchanged numerous explicit letters during the 1940s, with him sharing, about all of their experiences that gave him massive erections.
Nin had proclivities of her own, taking role-play to a level that I can't even discuss here but rest assured, she loved hard cocks and the platonic worship of beautiful women and the transcendental experience of really, really good sex.
In fact, she kept a diary of her entire womanhood and all of her sexual experiences that, by the 1960s, were published and heralded as feminist icon to show sex from a woman's perspective. While I haven't read her entire body of work, I do like that her writing is sensual and sexual and raw erotica of the human experience with its ups and downs, unlike some of the overly lowery romance novels of that time. She's not afraid to describe things as they are, and sex as it is, and the impact it plays on her psyche without making everything butterflies and rainbows. It's raw and hot and real.
Her works created a tornado (daresay a hurricane?) of inspiration for women everywhere to more freely talk about their sex lives.
I felt inspired to try out what my sex machine can really do - taking it slow, but showing you the raw footage of exploring turning up the speed on it using an 8"+ cock - you can even see it pushing on my stomach from inside me ๐ฑ๐ป
This is a legit hand-painted party apron (likely intended for a bachelor party). While the tradition of a bachelor party originates with the Spartans, the more modern version (think, The Hang over) is from the 1980s when a designation vacation and shenanigans made up the itinerary.
One more fun thing I learned: the term "bachelor" comes from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and was a term for unmarried men in training to become knights!
Paper Moons rose to popularity in the early 1900s, and were propelled by cultural fascination with the moon into the 1930s where songs like, "It's Only A Paper Moon," (popularized by Ella Fitzgerald's version) were heard on the radio.
There's not a singular origin story for why a paper moon rose to popularity as a particular shape or subject, but it was pervasive in backdrops and set design for professional photography as well as carnivals and postcard designs. Some of the paper moons have dainty faces while others are depicted as cartoony and grotesque-like.
It's been a minute since I've talked about Bunny Yeager, who turned cheesecake pinup into art.
Born in 1929 in Pennsylvania but spent much of her life in Miami, she adopted the name Bunny after Lana Turner's character in the 1945 movie Weekend At The Waldorf. As an adult she won numerous contests as a pinup, becoming the most famous pinup of Miami at the time.
Bunny was known for her capability in sewing many of the swimsuits she posed in, being known for never wearing the same swimsuit twice.
She took up photography to make a little money, but ended up enjoying it so much that she became fully invested as a photographer, credited with not only her technical skill for identifying best ways to photograph pinups in sunlight, but also for making swimsuits for her models which included two-piece bikinis!
She, along with photographer Irving Klaw, photographed Bettie Page, resulting in her stardom, and is recognized as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
American's Great Pastime: Baseball & The Curse of the Great Bambino
Before 1918, the Red Sox were one of the most highly regarded baseball teams in America, winning 5 of the first 15 baseball series, mostly credited to their star player Babe Ruth.
Babe Ruth was sold to the underperforming Yankees team in 1918 which resulted in a permanent rivalry between the teams, and the Red Sox losing the championships every single year for 86 years, colloquially becoming known as The Curse of the Great Bambino. The curse was "broken" in 2004 when the Red Sox won the World Series after decades of creative attempts to break Babe Ruth's curse.
On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the moon, and a few short hours later, Neil Armstrong became the first person to step foot on the moon.
It took NASA years to plan out 5 possible landing sites, none of which Apollo 11 landed on because it was going too fast upon descent. They landed just east of one of the intended sites, within the Sea of Tranquility, having only had about 25 seconds of fuel left to maneuver the craft onto the surface safely.
Each astronaut was permitted to bring a small bag of personal mementos with them aboard the spacecraft, which included tiny fragments from the original Wright brothers' plane.
I didn't have any good space-related sexy pics queued up for today's lesson (it's hurricane season here, so I'm not getting many good views of space) so I pulled on a 1960s dinner party dress, much like what an astronaut's wife might wear.
Well, it's not giving "pirate" enough for today's lesson but it is giving "mermaid" and maybe that's close enough?
Not long after the American Revolution, the British were still holding some control over the colonies who were now referring to themselves as The United States and taking their respective seamen to properly staff British warships which, as you can imagine hot off the revolution, had dwindled in number. The Americans were having none of it and declared war on the British, which became known as the War of 1812.
No strangers to the lands of the colonies, the war raged on and by 1815 the British attempted to seize control of the Mississippi River which (if you know your geography) connects to the Gulf. Specifically, New Orleans.
It looked like the British were likely going to take command of it and regain control of parts of the United States unless someone on the American's side came up with a plan.
Enter our hero of the story: Jean LaFitte, a well known French pirate and privateer of New Orleans, had recently had his fleet of ships taken from him by the US Navy for doing pirate things and incessantly causing mayhem down in the Gulf.
Andrew Jackson was a lot of things but dumb he was not. So, in true New Orleans pirate form, hired LaFitte and gave him back his fleet of ships in exchange for LaFitte helping command the Battle of New Orleans.
Unsurprisingly, LaFitte agreed, won the battle, and as promised his fleet was returned to him. So you wouldn't be wrong if you loosely characterized New Orleans as having been saved by pirates. ๐ดโโ ๏ธ
As your teacher for the last 6 months on the series of sex toys, I'd like to thank you to cumming to class so diligently.
I originally wanted to include a final lesson on kink and fetish but as I've started my research on the topic (as someone new to that world), it really should be it's own little series because there is much to cover.
So, I thought I'd whet your appetite once more and give you just a taste of what's to come later on with this set of photos wearing authentic Victorian/turn of the century clothes holding turn-of-the-century kink toys.
Please consult your syllabus and be sure you're set to renew because Tales of the Cock Tale series (a play on the international festival, Tales of the Cocktail, held here in New Orleans each summer) will be up next.
๐ If you'd like to own the entire collection of videos from this series go check your inboxes for a big bundle sale๐
TIL: kink is the umbrella term for sexual interests in behaviors (role play, power dynamics) whereas fetish is typically a sexually exciting fascination with tangible things (leather, latex, bondage, nylons, feet, etc). ๐