Author: alicehoffmans

and discourse about historic monarchs always somehow seems to devolve into ‘who had the most blood on their hands?’ and it’s really a) pointless, b) almost impossible to determine; depending on how far back we’re going (executions & ‘collateral damage’ under the reign of queen victoria, for instance, is probably a lot easier to determine than 15th and 16th century monarchs), c) dependent on how long their reign was; and how much upheaval occured during it…

but mainly a) pointless, because, like i said earlier, it’s almost always done by people arguing that the monarch they’re most interested is ‘better’ than my fav; and not only that, but that they’re somehow a better person for being interested in their fav and not mine.

and you’re really not, because a) interest /= total/blind adoration, and/or acceptance of all a figure’s actions (that should be obvious, and yet) and b) literally every monarch from 15th-16th century had blood on their hands. 

alicehoffmans:

imagine thinking you can dictate what someone should/shouldn’t be interested in……….or that it’s literally any of your business at all? 

tbh; criticizing the way academia/research hones in on the study of monarchs and monarchies specifically, criticizing the way in which historic period dramas about royalty tend to be the most popular, get the highest ratings, get the highest budgets and critical acclaim…is totally valid. 

(i get it. i’ll argue that part of it’s circumstantial/based on what evidence we have– much as i would love to read the diary, for instance, of a 16th century launderess, the fact of the matter is that none exist because a person of that income during that time would likely not be literate)

but that’s not what i see. what i tend to see is a person criticizing others for wanting content of their personal favorite monarch, or having interest in that monarch, when that person just has a different favorite monarch. 

it’s irritating, it’s transparent, and it’s honestly not fooling anyone. 

tl;dr my friend can’t make a gifset about henry viii without getting a snarky ask about it? 

like….really?

kramergate:

kramergate:

kramergate:

rest assured if youre trying to play the cool guy and make like “jokingly” rude comments on strangers posts for Funney Aloof Joke Points theyre just showing your comment to their friends and being like hey whats this dudes problem lol

i really wanna hammer it home that friendly ribbing doesn’t really come across when you’re not that persons friend and you really just seem like an aggressive weirdo

just a quick aside to all the extremely cool people responding to this with “tough luck” “i don’t care” “sorry you got your feelings hurt” etc: to be clear, this is almost never hurtful or upsetting, it just makes you seem like a loser who doesnt understand social cues and rather than going to my friends for emotional support, we’re convening to make fun of you for 5 minutes before forgetting about you entirely. it just happens often enough that it warrants a PSA for all those who are mistaking their lack of people skills for tough guy humor