Reblog this or you hate kittens!

[lizbee]

One for the researchers: is the ease of reblogging on Tumblr facilitating the spreading of unfounded stories in the name of slacktivism?

I wonder, as tree_and_leaf casts doubt on the heartwarming banned books locker library story, and last week saw the return of the old "Australian government makes transgendered people go on sex offenders register to get hormone treatment" story that was debunked two years ago. 

On the other hand, the ease of reblogging on Tumblr also lets one see at a glance which of one's friends secretly think less of you for being religious*, which is convenient.

* Or at least, such is the logical conclusion to be drawn from their reblogging of tired old anti-Catholic jokes, devoid of any meaningful content beyond, "Christians! SO STUPID!"

Comments

[lizzieladie]

That one goes back a lot further than 1832 even - I don't know how much potential there was for women to change their class via religion in the early middle ages, but there's a fair amount of evidence that running a convent provided noble women with access to political power that they could only otherwise get by being a regent for their son or something else in that vein. See Radegund, kicking ass around 500.

I'd have to do some research to get back to the exact details of how things typically worked for lower class women coming into convents (I think that part of the problem is that there isn't a lot of evidence), but that the general picture historians are running with is that often class roles were reinforced (ie you would come into the convent from a certain class and generally be assigned in a role in the convent that reflected that class) but that there were still education and quality of life opportunities (including not having to pop out babies in medieval Europe) that you usually couldn't get outside of the convent.

[marymac]

Oh definitely, it's just that ours were Catherine McCauley's lot.
Leaving a trail of stunned fathers and over-educated women in their wake for 179 years!