I am endlessly fascinated with the work of Carl Jung. He has made profound contributions to our understanding of the human psyche, and many esteemed scholars have lauded his insights. However, I'm puzzled by the disregard for certain more contentious aspects of his work, including archetypes, cultural universality, gender stereotypes, the Anima/Animus, the shadow and the darker facets of the psyche, spirituality and mysticism, as well as synchronicity and paranormal phenomena. Personally, I'm deeply intrigued by these topics and feel they warrant further exploration. Jung's keen interest in symbolism and its impact on the subconscious suggests to me that these concepts could be approached symbolically or metaphorically, offering a means to delve into uncharted territories of the mind. I believe such an approach can be a potent tool for uncovering aspects of the psyche that have yet to surface into consciousness.
While some may seek to understand these concepts through a strictly logical, left-brained lens, I resonate more with a right-brained perspective that views the world symbolically, interpreting everything around us as representative of our subjective experiences. I tend to convey these symbolic ideas in a manner relevant to our lived reality. Jung's ability to bridge the divide between the left and right hemispheres of the brain is remarkable, but it troubles me to witness the hypocrisy of embracing one aspect of his work while disregarding others.
"The Red Book" by Carl Jung is a remarkable manuscript chronicling Jung's personal journey of self-exploration and encounter with the unconscious. Through handwritten text and intricate illustrations, Jung delves into his inner psyche using a method he termed active imagination, engaging with archetypal figures and symbols. Divided into sections such as Liber Primus and Liber Secundus, the book delves into themes of psychological duality, individuation, and spirituality. Published posthumously in 2009, "The Red Book" provides profound insights into Jung's inner world and continues to captivate scholars and seekers alike, offering a unique perspective on the depths of the human psyche and the quest for self-understanding.
Wtf wholesome boomer marriage
god gives his most autistic of queers his most oddest and strangest of genders
going here would fix me actually
by yasminemei
This is the most romantic shit I have ever seen I’m gonna throw up
men constitute 99.7% of strangulation attacks
men constitute 99.6% of acid attacks
men constitute 99.3% of child pornography
men constitute 99% mass shootings
men constitute 99% of rapist
men constitute 98% of homicide
men constitute 98% of forcible incest
men constitute 96% of child sex abuse
men constitute 95% of molesting cases
men constitute 99% of domestic abuse
men constitute 99% of drugging
men constitute 99% of stalking
men constitute 99% of human trafficking abuse
men constitute 99% of sex trafficking abuse
Men constitute 99% of animal abuse
Men constitute 98% of bestiality
86% of makeup companies are male 99% of advertising male 98% of modeling agencies 92% of fashion media is male 94% of the fashion industry is male
Women are 10x more likely to get raped, yet this is seriously underreported considering the dead bodies
1/3 of women internationally report being sexually assaulted. we know this number to be much higher due to autopsies reported in the census
Women are 400,000,000x more likely to DIE from RAPE
not one man has ever died from rape, accounts for no coroner report ever, whereas tens of thousands of women and children die a year.
50 million women are sex trafficking victims
women make up for 95% of labor trafficking
70% of child soldiers are FEMALE
25 million are forced into child marriages > 5
650 million are in arranged marriages/ marriages consummated below the age of consent
Men make up most 98% on average of every fetish community
99% for pedophilia.
in 70 countries - that comprise 26% of the world population, women need men's permission to learn, work, or travel.
There are 50 countries in which the law states you can sell and buy women into marriage. - These countries, including India and Pakistan, make up 38% of the entire world.
There are 178 countries that do not have the same legal rights for women, where written law specifically excludes women from freedom.
There are 2.4 billion women globally who are born in countries that have written law that restricts them completely, but even more so without a man.
It's been three months since I made this post about Saints Sergius and Bacchus, John Boswell, classical Western homoeroticism, and Christian homophobia.
Since then I have read both of Boswell's books on the history of gay/queer people in premodern Christianity (Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality and Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe), familiarized myself more fully with the spectrum of charges against Boswell and his scholarship, and realized that he's been the subject of ideologically-motivated smear campaigns by just about every political/religious/academic faction you can imagine. My conclusion: Professor Boswell is a saint, martyr, and important queer elder who does not get the respect that he deserves, and I'm in awe of the sheer volume of the massive genius brain that was somehow crammed into his little blond head.
ANYWAY. This is an official followup to my original post, now that I've read Boswell's work.
I take back my hunch that Boswell's work was not intersectional. He was, in fact, a pioneer in the field of medieval social history, and utilized a wide range of critical lenses in his work. He was inhibited by the lack of documented evidence about some groups (for example, he was frequently criticized for not writing more about lesbians, but he was open about the difficulties of researching lesbians in history and explained what he was doing as a scholar and as a teacher to mitigate this) but he constantly called attention to issues of class, gender, and other social factors wherever they were relevant.
I was RIGHT in noticing that the slight difference in rank between Sergius and Bacchus seems to be an erastes/eromenos indicator! Boswell spoke at greater length and with greater sensitivity about erastes/eromenos dynamics in history, so if you want a deeper look into that, you should read his books.
I was also probably right in noticing that the legend of Sergius and Bacchus is seeded with various forms of Byzantine propaganda! I really wish that I could talk to him about it. :(
Both secular queer theorists and religious queer theologians seem to be most uncomfortable with the fact that Boswell was reporting on historical facts and observable social forces, not idealized concepts of queer people as somehow being more ethical or spiritual than the straight majority. He included evidence of things like abuse, prostitution, and exploitation not because he thought they were cool, but because they were part of the material reality of queer people's existence in the past, just like they were part of the material reality of his own 70s-80s gay subculture.
That was his bottom line: gay/queer people are a normal human variation, and as a historian, he could provide hard proof of their existence and what their lives might have been like. If his work seems "shallow" or "dated" to some more modern queer researchers, it's only because so many people were willing to dismiss his scholarship, reject his work, and abandon his research leads after he died. But, he was actually super smart and his scholarship was actually meticulous, so even his most dedicated critics have been unable to "debunk" him. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality most recently had a 35th-anniversary reprinting, and he is still being cited as an authority by more recent scholars.
Even though the full strength of the Church and the Academy were leveled against him, his work has proven its own worth. He still deserves to be read and discussed by both professional scholars and enthusiastic hobbyists. And, the Open and Affirming movement in Christianity wouldn't be as strong as it is without his confirmation that "gays and lesbians are normal," as he put it, and not simply a construct of modern society.
Rest in power, Professor Boswell. We won't forget you.
Since I made that post, I have also opened a sticker shop with a bunch of queer Christian saint icons, including Boswell and some of the queer saints he discovered/wrote about. They're pretty cool. You should buy one.