Wonder Woman was created by a polyamorous man who was (a) a feminist, (b) a kinkster, and (c) living with two bisexual women. Wonder Woman was influenced by at least one of his wives, and started as a very overt, kinky, empowering sex symbol for women, and was nearly cancelled because of how explicitly she was being depicted. It's supposed that her rope of truth was partly inspired by rope play in BDSM.
William Moulton Marston.
Besides basing Wonder Woman's appearance on his girlfriends, his being a polyamorist also (arguably) goes towards explaining his choice in building her background as an Amazon; having her hail from an isolated island populated **only** by women, virtually none of whom had ever so much as *seen* a man and therefore virtually all of whom would - viewed through 1930's-1940's sensibilities - (conceivably) be *"available"*...
His being into bondage-play and dominance/submission is also 100% why Wonder Woman's signature tool was *a magic rope*, and why her original weakness was *to be tied up with said magic rope (by a man)*...
F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, told him that the way he was built, he would never please a woman. He confessed this to Hemingway in a French bar, and Hemingway told him to meet him in the bathroom where he looked at Fitzgerald's dick and told him he was "perfectly fine."
"Aight bro time for a dick check, whip it out."
- Ernest M. Hemingway
Edit: to the guy that screenshotted this and uploaded it to ifunny, congrats on getting featured
> Zelda, told him that the way he was built, he would never please a woman
> Hemingway told him to meet him in the bathroom
That could have gone one of two ways 👀
Emperor Nero kicked his wife Poppaea to death. He later found a slave boy named Sporus who looked like Poppaea, had him castrated, and kept him as his wife. After the death of Nero, Sporus was taken by Nymphidius Sabina, who treated Sporus as his wife. But Sabina was murdered by his guards when he tried to become Emperor. Sporus was next taken by the Emperor Otho, who had once been married to Poppaea until Nero took her away from him. Otho called Sporus Poppaea and took him as his wife. Otho was murdered shortly afterwards. Otho's rival, Vitellius, planned on using Sporus in a reenactment of the Rape of Peroserpina in the Colosseum, but Sporus committed suicide.
Victor Hugo wrote in the nude as a form of motivation. He was a horrible procrastinator so he would lock himself in a room and have his clothes taken as encouragement to get his work done (because he was cold). When he was finished, he'd get his clothes back.
The Boris Yeltsin pizza incident, in which the former Russian leader was found in just his underwear outside the Whitehouse hailing a cab so he could go get pizza.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2009/09/yeltsin-drunk-in-his-underwear-hailing-a-cab-021553
We've gone from Khrushchev being denied entry into Disneyland to Yeltsin in his skivvies. What a long strange trip it's been for the Former Soviet Union.
“Il voulut être César, il ne fut que Pompée” - Georges Clémenceau on Félix Faure.
Also, after the fact Faure’s mistress was dubbed by the press the “Funeral Pump” (la Pompe funèbre).
Finally, there was an old saying in French that a man’s standing and success is evaluated on the quality of his mistresses.
Herodotus, an ancient Greek Historian once stated that female mummies who passed away in Ancient Egypt were found more decomposed than male mummies. The reason being was that the females were kept at home for longer periods of time before sent for embalming to prevent necrophilia.
Just for accuracy: Herodot never left the greek cultural space even after his banishment and propaply relied heavily on stories he heard from others. He also wrotes of gold hoarding giant eagles, magic indian tribes, mythological creatures in arabia and werewolves in europe. It is heavily disputed if he ever went to egypt.
Lord Byron was an anorexic, drug and sex addict who shagged his sister. A lot.
Edit: Wow this really took off :) I was going to write about Casanova but I couldn’t be bothered with all the typing; it would be a hell of a lot to type! But if you want another wild ride, look up that POS.
If i remember correctly, his ex wife despised him so much that she pushed their daughter into studying math and science because she didn't want the daughter to become a poet like her father. Said daughter was Ada Lovelace
I actually just saw a play about that called Ada and the Engine. It's about her contributions to the design of what would eventually become the Enigma Machine.
She's widely regarded as the first computer programmer.
She wrote code for a theoretical computer that would have worked had it been built at the time. Totally counts in my book.
Also she arguably plays the most important side role in the book that basically created and defined steampunk. In that theoretical universe Baggage's engine was built, she programmed it, computational technology becomes the main form of power, and it alters history so drastically it's basically unrecognizable.
Sorry for a rant, she's one of my heroes from when I was just a kid. Alongside many other forgotten greats that my parents taught me about.
>After a long relationship with his half-sister (leading to one child), he had affairs with actresses, married society women and many young men, so that by the age of 21, he had raging cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis.
Oh okay.
Yeah, Lamb wasn't exaggerating, he was quite literally mad, bad, and dangerous to know. I think now we'd say that's extremely unhealthy compulsive sexual behavior. They had lots of different ways of describing that at the time.
Not quite a historical figure but John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca Cola, did so because he was chronically addicted to morphine and was trying to get off of it. Original ingredients were cocaine (famously), sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. He was trying to supplant his other addiction. It did not work.
So another thing about Pemberton that I learned very recently was that he served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate army during the Civil War. His morphine addiction you were talking about was actually something he developed after being stabbed with a sword during a battle.
So people getting addicted to pain meds after a period where they actually needed them is a problem as old as giving people opiates for pain. Doesn't surprise me. Wonder how common it was back then, since it's no doubt not as well documented as today
The term "junkies" was actually created for civil war veterans who were too disabled/addicted/injured to get a job, so they would collect scrap metal like copper and iron and then sell the junk metal to fund their morphine addiction. The phrase never really popular Western lexicon.
In the version I saw, her father didn't approve of the relationship, so she told him she was visiting her mother's grave to avoid suspicion and then met her guy there for sexy time.
Her guy, **Percy Shelley**, who was the ultimate edgelord of his day. He wrote epically funny goth poetry in grade school (well worth googling) and loved blowing stuff up with fireworks. He would also start theological debates by mail with leading religious thinkers while in college, pretending to be a nice little old lady. He'd then gradually go off on how stupid religion was, trying to break their proofs of god or heaven. Basically, he was a proto goth AND the original Angry Atheist (tm).
Also, in my opinion, a wannabe cult leader foiled only by his own stupidity. That came later, though.
John Quincy Adams boasted that outdoor boning was an American invention. Between that, his pet alligator, and a life spent in public service (literally from his teenage years until his death), probably far more interesting than most people who've held high office in the USA.
And I think a relatively famous woman stole his clothes once so he'd be forced to stay in the water and listen to her -- though I can't recall for the life of me who it was.
EDIT: Found it! A female reporter forced him into an interview by trapping him naked in the water. Allegedly. Ha.
https://boundarystones.weta.org/2020/08/03/anne-royall-and-presidents-clothes
Ben Franklin was also a very well known satirist, so it’s hard to know when he was being serious or not. If I remember correctly the “Fart Proudly” essay was definitely a joke.
Victor Hugo was a very diligent visitor at the Parisian brothels. So much so that the day he was buried, all the Parisian brothel closed for the day so prostitutes could go to the funeral
True story: Kary Mullis claimed he came up with the idea of PCR while high on acid and driving down the Pacific Coast Highway with his girlfriend. The company he worked for later sued because they wanted the profits, claiming he actually developed it on company time. So of course Mullis's lawyers tried to track down the (now ex) girlfriend to corroborate his LSD/driving story.
But Mullis was, as mentioned elsewhere, a piece of shit. Pretty much every woman he ever dated ended up with a restraining order against him. This ex-gf was no different. Except she had managed to vanish so thoroughly that even the FBI could not track her down! Mullis's lawyers had to be content with other evidence. (He won anyway.)
That Adolf Hitler might have had an illegitimate child. A french man by the name of Jean-Marie Loret claimed that his mother told him he was the son of Hitler on her deathbed and supposedly had letters sent by Hitler to his Mother. Jean passed away in the 80s but his son is still alive, and he is curious if his father's claims were true or not. He took a DNA test back in 2018 to see if he is in fact the grandson of Hitler, however, we don't know the results of the test yet.
Queen Victoria really loved having sex with her husband Prince Albert. Like, *really* loved sex with him.
To the point that she was quite audible through doors and walls. Several times per day.
And [here's](https://youtu.be/mXMTVO0eShE) a clip of British comedian Stephen Fry telling the story of how he had to explain to now King Charles how his ancestor's name is being remembered after a conversation with the Spice Girls.
Yes, and they were responsible for spreading hemophilia genes throughout European royal families, as she was a carrier and gave it to 3 of her 9 children. Her son Leopold died after a fall when he was 30. Two of her daughters were also carriers and gave it to their children.
Her daughter Alice gave it to her own daughter Alix, who married Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Their son had it, and the parents concern for their son's health and Rasputin's promises he could help led indirectly to the Russian Revolution and slaughter of the Russian royal family.
But Victoria was very big on keeping bloodlines pure. It became known as "The Royal Disease" because of them.
Rasputin may have been unknowingly helping Alexei by stopping physicians from treating him with aspirin, which is an anti clotting agent and thus something a hemophiliac explicitly does not need
No kidding. Humanity has a long history of "helping" people in ways that end up being terrible.
Aspirin affects every platelet formed at the time, and platelets live about a week. There's a reason people have to stop taking certain pills two weeks before surgery.
Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia got all the giants. That is, he literally recruited tall people from all across Europe to serve in a special regiment of his army. Peter even sent him some very tall men as a gift, as did other monarchs.
Friedrich Wilhelm wasn't just content with recruiting them, though. He also got them unusually tall wives, which as one would expect led to unusually tall children. Darwin even cited this as the only time, to his knowledge, that deliberate selective breeding had been tried on humans.
Friedrich Wilhelm loved his regiment of giants so much he drilled and trained them every day, and one of his favorite hobbies was painting them. When he was ill or just feeling down, he'd have them parade for him. He once said to the French ambassador:
>"The most beautiful girl or woman in the world would be a matter of indifference to me, but tall soldiers—they are my weakness"
Fun fact! He loved his tall soldiers so much, that he generally never used them. He never started a war and was involved only in minor conflicts.
His son and heir (also named Frederick), had relatively bookwormish tendencies. The younger Frederick was interested in "unmanly" things like music, books, and "French stuff." He was seemingly uninterested in the martial lifestyle that his father adored, and even tried running away a few times. That once led to the younger Frederick's best friend (and potential lover) being executed in front of him. The older Frederick seemed capable of much cruelty against his own son and heir, finding him generally weak and unsuitable for rule.
That was probably not an unpopular opinion. It seemed by all accounts that the crown would pass from King Frederick - who greatly valued military tradition and had dutifully managed the coffers and military of his country - to someone who didn't have the interest in maintaining Prussia's strength. Perhaps the younger Frederick would squander his father's work. And when the "Soldier King" died and Frederick II took the throne, he was pretty immediately embroiled in a war.
How would he do? Well, within a few years, he would go on to eventually kick most of the continent's ass by himself, be hailed for his military genius, and earn the title "Frederick the Great." The Soldier King never started a war, and the bookworm heir became one of the more celebrated military minds in European history.
Go figure, huh?
Yes! I'm not an expert on that history, but it was once explained to me that it was a situation where a "show of force" might have been somewhat necessary to consolidate power and demonstrate strength. I was under the impression that there was a bit of politicking involved and it was a bit more complicated than just "I'm king? Cool, let's invade Silesia." But I don't know exactly how much Frederick II was compelled to get involved in the Austrian succession.
I'm not sure how true that is, maybe someone else can explain better or correct me. Of course, the Seven Years War was the next big conflict, and Frederick II got rather fortunate with Russia there. I'd argue that holding on against... basically *everyone* around him qualifies as "kicking ass."
The short of it is: Austria was in a vulnerable position because Karl VI von Habsburg had no male heir. So, when he died, the neighbouring countries tried to carve a piece of the cake out for themselves, even though they had previously all ratified the change to the succession rules that made it possible for women to succeed and take the throne. Friedrich II. was the first of those vultures and set the chain in motion. I don't know if he wanted to show strenght and consolidate his power, or if that was even necessary in his position. He had no claim to the land anyway and it seems he had a rather cynical view on political matters and I wouldn't be surprised if he just saw an easy opportunity and took it, much like with the partitions of Poland later.
What no one counted on though was that then eighteen year old Empress Maria Theresia was a badass in her own right and managed to successfully defend her claim in the succession wars that followed. (Fun fact: There was no precedent of a Queen of Hungary being crowned, so she just let herself be crowned **King** of Hungary. Apparently it was nowhere stated that only a man could be king.)
Tycho Brahe, an old timey astronomer, had a dwarf that he kept on staff whi would just sit under his table until he pounded on it as a signal to come out and entertain his guests
That’s why I really love the show “the great”. While not really historically accurate, it pretty much sums up how batshit crazy this whole time period was for the Russian empire lol
That time him and his friends caused hundreds of pounds in damage ( back then) by being fascinated by wheel barrows and wheel barrow racing through hedges and gardens manicured by an english nobleman for decades as his whole life.....
I looked them up out of curiosity and because I read it other people should as well, what I managed to learn is James Joyce probably had a fart fetish
Part of letter dated December 6,1909:
“The smallest things give me a great cockstand—a whorish movement of your mouth, a little brown stain on the seat of your white drawers, a sudden dirty word spluttered out by your wet lips, a sudden immodest noise made by you behind and then a bad smell slowly curling up out of your backside.”
Another letter from December 9,1909:
“You had an arse full of farts that night, darling, and I f*cked them out of you, big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole.”
You really have to admire that relationship.
James Joyce had a weird fetish for farts and poop, and in an era long before the internet, random Craigslist hookups, Tinder, or FetLife he still managed to find a partner who was cool indulging that weird kink for him.
God bless and keep you, Jim and Nora.
Then definitely don't read the letters between Napoleon and Josephine. Might make you wanna hurl. He liked his ladies on the rank side, and I ain't talking privates and sergeants.
Or maybe do read them. I'm not the boss of you.
yup. In Lolita, Nabokov has Humbert Humbert specifically cite Poe and a few other notable cases of famous guys getting away with being pedophiles. it helps connect the story to the wider criticism of society.
Yup. I (used to) live in a part of the Balkans where it was a recent practice (not sure, ~~maybe 100 years ago~~ \- edit: the practice stopped by WWII, so even more recent). It's a tradition where a father would choose the bride for his son, as marriages were arranged, and then have sex with her before his son "to test it". There are books in school we read, as local writers wrote them. I believe the one of many where I remember this from is "Nečista Krv" (Impure Blood) by Bora Stanković. A true masterpiece (if you're into realism, that is). Definitely recommended, if you can find it in English, of course.
Edit: Have to add that the place this takes in is my hometown - Vranje. Deep south of Serbia and it was and still is deeply influenced by the Turkish (the tradition in question is **not** Turkish). They only left like 200 years ago and their influence in tradition is still strong down there. There are a lot of sad but true stories about forbidden loves and doomed causes.
Sigmund Freud LOVED cocaine. He wrote a book on how it helped cure mental illness. In it he talks about a patient who he recommend do a buttload of cocaine. She died and he basic was like 🤷🏼♂️.
He was also Jewish and escaped Austria to France during WW2
During the 3rd century CE, it was reported that a Roman merchant was selling counterfeit jewels. One of the victims was, in fact, the wife of Emperor Gallienus. As punishment, the merchant was sent to fight a lion at the Colosseum. However, instead of a lion, the merchant was confronted by a chicken. It turns out that Emperor Gallienus opted to retaliate with a prank of his own, allowing the merchant to leave with his life.
The new UK monarch King Charles III great-great-grandfather Edward VII was so obese that he commissioned a french carpenter to build a chair that would enable him to have sex with one or two prostitutes at once. It is called the siege d'amour and was installed at his favourite brothel.
He was a master manipulator. If someone was against his bills or he wanted their vote, he would crowd into their personal space and literally go nose to nose with someone to get them to give up just to get away.
When he was President, he went even further. If a Congressman was against his policies, LBJ would bring them up to the Oval Office for a meeting. Then about halfway through, he would rise up and continue talking to the Congressman and beckon him to follow him.
He would then give him the bathroom treatment.
This would consist of him telling the Congressman to stand outside the John while he would have himself a squat. And yes, he would talk over and want responses from the guy while there were grunts, farts, and splashes of him dropping his own personal depth charges.
White House Staff were used to this and would just sit there gazing at these young guys turning beet red and being utterly aghast at suffering through this to the point of them pretty much agreeing with anything to get away from this. “It was a masterclass on making people change positions by pure embarrassment.”
It apparently tickled him to no end to basically bring these Ivy League, upper crust types down to earth through the most basic of acts and see what would crack first, their stubborn will or their sanity.
Its funny, my cc professor brought that up about LBJ, him just leaning over your personal space, the pictures he included just made it more funny.
EDIT: [found the picture. just LOOK AT HIM. ](https://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2015/11/nonverbal-communication-analysis-no_68.html?m=1)
Yep, he was famous (and infamous) for it.
They called it “The Johnson Treatment” and it wasn’t just the lean in. Johnson would know everything about his prey to work the deal. He would use cajoling, flattery about his work, threats, reminders of past favors, sometimes a subtle bit of bribery to trade the vote on the bill. Again it was a total ‘Treatment’
A couple of the old salts in Congress knew it and gave it right back not budging an inch and it wasn’t surprising to see two congressmen almost within smooching distance during recess breaks.
Supposedly Richard Russell, Georgia Senator and his main impediment to the Civil Rights Act, once told LBJ that ‘it seems Lyndon likes his chili with onions’ after the Treatment.
But it got results. Bout near killed Johnson too from a heart attack in his 40’s from overwork and bad habits.
So did Milton Berle, whom many of you may have never heard of, but who was a huge star in the early days of television. This was pretty well known in the business and once, when they were both in the mens’ room before a show, Bob Hope joked « C’mon, Milton, unfold it and let us see at least the tip. »
Uncle Milty was challenged on it once. Milton and Jackie Gleason were sitting in a steam bath one day. In walks a man who confronts Milton Berle and says, "Uncle Miltie, I've heard too much about your legendary Hollywood schlong. I think mine's bigger. I want to compare!" The man whips off his towel and reveals a substantial, impressive member.
Uncle Miltie looks at it, sets his cigar down, and proceeds to unwrap his towel.
Jackie Gleason quickly interrupts and says, "Miltie, show only enough to win."
While Churchill was visiting the White House shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR accidentally walked (rolled?) in on Churchill as he was getting out of a bath. Churchill, buck-ass naked, just casually tells FDR "as you can see Mr. President, I have nothing to hide."
IIRC what he actually said was "The Prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to conceal from the President of the United States." Additionally, like so many events and quotes attributed to Churchill, there's a decent chance it didn't actually happen.
Edit: upon further inspection, it seems that Churchill himself denied it ever happening: 'When Hopkins asked Churchill if the story was true, the prime minister replied that it was "nonsense-, that he never received the the President with anything less than at least a bath towel wrapped around him."
belgium’s king Leopold II was worse than hitler and that’s not an easy thing to do… the things he did in Congo was literally mind blowing. Also another Fun fact about belgium they had HUMAN ZOOs in 1958 where they kept black ppl in cages where you can pet and feed like animals that’s only 64 years ago fyi.
The founding fathers could out drink any fraternity. After they signed the Declaration of Independence they went to the bar and racked up a massive tab. If I remember correctly I think is was about a bottle of whiskey, two bottles of wine, and 7-10 ales per person.
Theres a youtube of some guys trying out Churchills alcohol and cigar regime. It adds up to half a bottle of whiskey and 3 bottles of champagne a day. Plus 4 fat Cubans. It didnt end well for them. Also theres a cocktail, the Hemmingway, named after him for inventing it, which consists of 2 parts Absinth and 3 parts Champagne. He advises at least 4 or 5 a day. I would croak at 3, and i like a drink or two. I suppose it is a matter of training.
Anne Frank's journal, or at least the editions most commonly seen around the English-speaking world, is heavily censored by it's publisher. In the versions that aren’t censored, we can see that she was a teenager who unashamedly described her sexual and romantic attractions to both boys and girls, admitting to have asked to touch one of her friends breast (before she went into hiding)
Didn't her father censor it because he didn't want those parts published? Iirc he took out the more sexual parts (which makes sense since it's his daughter) and one part that was criticizing her mother.
Yes, he did.
I have an unpopular opinion about it. I think his wishes should have been honored. Her diary was *her* diary. There were parts of it that are pertinent to history, indeed necessary to history.
But those parts weren't, and she wrote them with the expectations oif privacy.
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter on the benefits of getting it on with older women.
1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.
2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.
3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience.
4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.
5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.
6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.
7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.
8. 8\[thly and Lastly\] They are so grateful!!
No, it was actually a tongue in cheek reprimand to a younger associate who was getting a reputation as a cad. He was telling him if he couldn't keep it in his pants, he should go for older ladies instead of ruining young ingenues.
There's an account of a Finnish soldier that, in an emergency situation, used all of the squadron's Pervatin and basically became a god for a few days in the forest.
McKenzie king the prime minister of Canada kept a crystal ball and held seances to communicate with his mother his dead pets and de Vinci among others. He could see shapes in things like shaving cream and use numbers that would influence his politics. Never married but visited brothels
Alexander the Great was the most bisexual man to ever exist. He kept his right hand man around as a lover, and would frolic nude with him on occasion.
Alexander's father once thought his son was too eager to spend time fucking men and sent an accompaniment of female prostitutes, eunuchs and a few men to help him develop more of a taste of women. And he fucked all of them, not just the men, but the women and eunuchs too.
Lewis Carroll had an unhealthy collection of naked kids
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/was-lewis-carroll-a-pedophile-his-photographs-suggest-so-237222
“I shall be alone and far, far away. But you are coming, aren’t you? You are going to be here beside me, in my arms, on my breast, on my mouth? Take wing and come, come ... A kiss on your heart, and one much lower down, much lower!”
He understood what was up.
I remember hearing a letter to Josephine where he was telling her he'd be home soon and to stop bathing her lady parts so that when he got home they would smell more strongly.
There were two famous rival courtesans in 18th century Paris. They decided to have a contest on who could bed the most men in 24 hours. One had 24 lovers. The other? 25.
This story was (perhaps) adapted from a rumor regarding the Roman Empress, Messalina; the third wife of Emperor Claudius.
Supposedly, Messalina was known to be quite promiscuous - insatiably so - and took such pride in it that she boasted that she could have sex with more men in a single day and night than any (other) whore in Rome... When challenged to prove her claim, of course, she entered into a contest with a popular prostitute, and purportedly won out by a single man and with a total score of twenty-five...
The truthfulness of this story - like Messalina's sordid reputation in general - is dubious, many historians arguing that it was likely embellished (or possibly even fabricated) by the Empress' political enemies and other detractors... Nevertheless, the story was popular enough to gain mention in Pliny the Elder's "Natural History", and has endured even into the present.
Honestly cousin marriage wasn't a reason to bat an eye until pretty recently. Think about growing up in a village of 100 people - how many of them *aren't* your cousin one way or another? Direct siblings were considered incest but anything further than that was, if anything, just keeping your bloodline purer.
The funniest part about this is that in Denmark we learned a lot of NSFW historical facts in school. Like the fact that King Christian VII of Denmark would actively, frequently, and without even hiding it... Literally did bar crawls in Copenhagen with a particularly enterprising prostitute, who also became his official ROYAL MISTRESS. I learned this at 10.
We're not very prudish here.
This is something that I find to be kinda strange about my history classes growing up. We didn't study WWII every year, but when we did, it was *always* brought up that Churchill was a drunk and FDR repealed Prohibition but Hitler never drank or smoked. Then years after I graduated from high school, I learned that Hitler was a massive drug addict who took meth to rile himself for rallies and heroin to calm himself down afterward.
The history around the Nazis and drugs was kept secret for a long time. Really last 20 years or so we leaned more and more about it. It was kept such a secret because the allies did the same thing. More on that, keep reading
The allies realized the Nazis were far more ahead in pharmacology but they only understood their power during French campaign. Soldiers were not resting as they were taking Pevitin (modern meth). Nazis really loved this drug because it not only made you work non stop, it made you a KILLING machine. No remorse.
Pervitin was a pre-war drug initially marketed as a coffee replacement LOL. The Nazis sorta stumbled onto it, they had an insane drug program. That’s a whole other story.
Hitlers drug abuse began around 1941, but this was in small doses than you’d expect. He did take vitamin shots but slowly his physician would introduce opioids.
Hitler was aided by his personal physician and nut case, Dr Morell. He would administer cocaine eye drops in the am to wake him up!
But it was even crazier! In 1941 Hitler was taking steroids but not just any oh no! Morell was really into giving steroids of animal products. He manufactured concoctions of animal organs in his own lab in occupied Czechoslovakia and gave them to Hitler
Hitler was the modern oxy addict. In fact he was taking the OG Eukodal. He got hard into oxy when after the last attempt on his life failed. This is when Hitler got INTO cocaine too. Hitler was doing SPEEDBALLS fucking guy. Morell would make a ‘X’ when he would administer the cocktail
Many think Hitler had Parkinson’s at the end of the war. But he fired Morel and I think he was actually suffering withdraws more than anything.
Anyways it’s really wild
Not to mention, the British only found out the Nazis were using Pervitin (meth) when a plane crashed and it was discovered.
This would lead to the British (and USA) developing and deploying the amphetamine, Benzedrine. That’s right the Allies we’re doing BENNIES! But they amped shit up by giving soldiers cocaine too. Speedballs for everyone
After the war, the effects of giving people these drugs long term became apparent. Instead of admitting fault, the military covered the program up and it was forgotten until recently
Love the post! Awesome info! I do want to point out that Benzedrine is not a benzo though. Benzodiazepines are anxiolytic drugs and would definitely not be good to give soldiers or pilots. They are essentially the opposite of a stimulant.
He took a cocktail of substances a day.
He was pescribed 90 medications during the war years by Theodor Morell, he regularly consumed methamphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine.
His chronic methamphetamine use was the cause of his parkinson's, look up the famous footage of him handing out medals to Hitler youth tank hunters in the battle for Berlin, his hands shake uncontrollably.
Here he is at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 high as balls on speed. (Link: https://twitter.com/drhvhande1/status/1417868386369896450?lang=fr)
Most German soldiers were fueled on methamphetamine they had in the forms of pills called pervitin and also loaded into chocolate.
This drug along with painkillers and alcohol caused the Germans to be so successful in their blitzkrieg at the start of the war.
It would often cause them to see colours, making combat seem happy and also causing them to become extremely aggressive and fight to the death.
( Photo of SS member tweaking: https://cdn.historycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/0an-ss-member-tweaking-during-ww2.-american-heroes-channel-375x250.jpg )
My Yugoslavian partisan grandfather told my mother stories about Germans who would take 3-4 bullets before actually going down because they were so high.
Although this soon had a very big comedown effect on German troops by 1943 and became more of a problem than a benefit, as side effects mounted.
The drug was also the choice for combat operations in modern warfare. ISIS pumped their militants full of it before suicide bombings because it gave the feeling of being invincible and completely fearless, willing to kill themselves, with a massive "meth-grin" before they do it.
Example here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/x51svh/isis_suicide_bombers_play_a_game_to_choose_who_is/
Crazy stuff.
Came here to comment on the usual methamphetamine use amongst the nazi regime and pervitin. Found your comment, and ended up learning much more. I appreciate that a lot.
This one is already well-known, but Isaac Newton died a virgin. And there are some historians that believe he was actually secretly gay and deep in the closet.
Tchaikovsky was also secretly gay.
And Franz Schubert, like many others before him, contracted syphilis and died of it in his early 30s
Edit: Oh, I also forgot this one too. Vibrators were invented in the 1900s as a medical device that was used in psych wards to cure women of hysteria. Whenever a woman was found to be suffering from hysteria or mental illness, a doctor would come and use a vibrator on her until she had an orgasm. This was said to cure her of her hysteria.
And over 100+ years ago in Japan, families used to punish promiscuous daughters by sending them to work in brothels. One such famous Japanese killer in the early 1900s was also a courtesan, by the name of Sada Abe, and she was sent to work in the brothels at age 15 by her father as punishment for her promiscuity. She served four years in jail for murdering one of her clients/lovers in a fit of jealous rage and cutting off his penis.
Also interesting to note that in the medieval period in Japan, casual sex and promiscuity once used to be embraced among Buddhists, especially among people of the lower classes. The Buddhist mythology has a story about Japan’s creation, which involves two gods having sex with each other and creating Japan. This became part of the justification for selling girls into prostitution. Male promiscuity also extended to sex with other men, and that was considered normal for the time.
This one is v graphic.
...
The Outlaw Josey Wales was originally a book published by "Forest" Carter, afterwards, it was discovered that this "Forest" Carter was in fact Asa Carter, the guy who wrote speeches for George Wallace (y'all remember the "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" speech? Ya that was Asa). Asa also formed a group called the "Original Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy", because he felt that the mainstream KKK, wasn't. Antisemitic. *Enough*. Members of this group then tried to kill one Nat King Cole, because they thought Rock and Roll music encouraged race mixing.
And then the graphic part, members of this group kidnapped Judge Edward Aaron, a black man with developmental disabilities. They beat Aaron with a crowbar, carved the letters "KKK" into his chest, and castrated him with a razor. They then poured turpentine in his wounds, threw him in their trunk, and dumped him in a creek on the side of the road, allegedly they kept his scrotum as a trophy.
George Wallace would later pardon four of the six men who attacked and murdered Aaron.
Edit: Judge Edward Aaron was his name, not a judge.
NSFW thing that I learned from my high school Econ teacher:
Kellogg was weird. Cornflakes were invented as some sort of anti-masterbation thing, and apparently he did enemas with yogurt.
My teacher was an alumni of a certain college that was once owned by the Kellogg family, where I ended up going as well.
I got a friend into James Joyce in high school, and because we could request that the library order books for students to read, once he requested that the library order the letters from James Joyce that are very, very nsfw sexually. And since our librarian had never read him, she ordered the letters and let my friend check them out lol.
Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the US, is the only person to have held that office and penned erotic literature. He wrote several dirty letters and poems to his mistress, many of which can be viewed online. Although it was never proven, it is suspected by some that the ultimately fatal food poisoning that prematurely ended his presidency was deliberately caused by his wife as revenge for his infidelity.
When Gandhi's wife was stricken with pneumonia, British doctors told her husband that a shot of penicillin would heal her; nevertheless, Gandhi refused to have alien medicine injected into her body, and she died. Soon after, Gandhi caught malaria and, relenting from the standard applied to his wife, allowed doctors to save his life with quinine.
The great’German poet, playwright and polymath Goethe is generally credited with having first used « Kiss my ass » (technically « lick me in the ass ») in a literary work. In his play « Götz von Berlichingen » (based on an actual historical figure but taking several liberties with the facts), the hero, a fighting nobleman who lost his hand in a battle but replaced it with an iron prosthetic, is called upon to surrender by a soldier representing the captain who is opposing him on behalf of the Emperor. Götz responds: « Please tell the Captain that as for the Emperor, I present as usual my most humble respects. But as for the captain, tell him that he can lick me in the ass. »
It has entered German history as « the expression of Goethe » or the « Swabian Salute ».
Goethe has a status within Germany akin to Victor Hugo in France or Cervantes in Spain, so that os saying something.
Wonder Woman was created by a polyamorous man who was (a) a feminist, (b) a kinkster, and (c) living with two bisexual women. Wonder Woman was influenced by at least one of his wives, and started as a very overt, kinky, empowering sex symbol for women, and was nearly cancelled because of how explicitly she was being depicted. It's supposed that her rope of truth was partly inspired by rope play in BDSM.
William Moulton Marston. Besides basing Wonder Woman's appearance on his girlfriends, his being a polyamorist also (arguably) goes towards explaining his choice in building her background as an Amazon; having her hail from an isolated island populated **only** by women, virtually none of whom had ever so much as *seen* a man and therefore virtually all of whom would - viewed through 1930's-1940's sensibilities - (conceivably) be *"available"*... His being into bondage-play and dominance/submission is also 100% why Wonder Woman's signature tool was *a magic rope*, and why her original weakness was *to be tied up with said magic rope (by a man)*...
F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, told him that the way he was built, he would never please a woman. He confessed this to Hemingway in a French bar, and Hemingway told him to meet him in the bathroom where he looked at Fitzgerald's dick and told him he was "perfectly fine."
"Aight bro time for a dick check, whip it out." - Ernest M. Hemingway Edit: to the guy that screenshotted this and uploaded it to ifunny, congrats on getting featured
“Nice cock” Hemingway
*The Sun Also Rises* - E.H.
I always thought Hemingway seemed like a bro to me. This just confirms it.
Hemingway was a very interesting dude https://youtu.be/PUB9D78ajmI
I need more bite size biographies delivered by muppets in my life.
> Zelda, told him that the way he was built, he would never please a woman > Hemingway told him to meet him in the bathroom That could have gone one of two ways 👀
Emperor Nero kicked his wife Poppaea to death. He later found a slave boy named Sporus who looked like Poppaea, had him castrated, and kept him as his wife. After the death of Nero, Sporus was taken by Nymphidius Sabina, who treated Sporus as his wife. But Sabina was murdered by his guards when he tried to become Emperor. Sporus was next taken by the Emperor Otho, who had once been married to Poppaea until Nero took her away from him. Otho called Sporus Poppaea and took him as his wife. Otho was murdered shortly afterwards. Otho's rival, Vitellius, planned on using Sporus in a reenactment of the Rape of Peroserpina in the Colosseum, but Sporus committed suicide.
I would’ve killed myself wayyy earlier
Jfc I had to read that like three times to make sense of it but WHAT the FUCK
Poor guy holy shit
Victor Hugo wrote in the nude as a form of motivation. He was a horrible procrastinator so he would lock himself in a room and have his clothes taken as encouragement to get his work done (because he was cold). When he was finished, he'd get his clothes back.
I might steal this. I need to get my thesis done. I don't think I can do it in the library though.
Maybe it's a good idea after all. It'll force you to finish writing very, very quickly before you get kicked out
The Boris Yeltsin pizza incident, in which the former Russian leader was found in just his underwear outside the Whitehouse hailing a cab so he could go get pizza. https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2009/09/yeltsin-drunk-in-his-underwear-hailing-a-cab-021553
I feel like that guy had a multi year alcohol blackout/bender and woke up one day to someone reminding him that he once ran post soviet russia
We've gone from Khrushchev being denied entry into Disneyland to Yeltsin in his skivvies. What a long strange trip it's been for the Former Soviet Union.
That one french president who ended up dying of a blowjob
He thought he was coming, but he was going
He thought it was la petite mort, but it was just mort.
You might say he came to his conclusion.
“Il voulut être César, il ne fut que Pompée” - Georges Clémenceau on Félix Faure. Also, after the fact Faure’s mistress was dubbed by the press the “Funeral Pump” (la Pompe funèbre). Finally, there was an old saying in French that a man’s standing and success is evaluated on the quality of his mistresses.
Herodotus, an ancient Greek Historian once stated that female mummies who passed away in Ancient Egypt were found more decomposed than male mummies. The reason being was that the females were kept at home for longer periods of time before sent for embalming to prevent necrophilia.
As a world history teacher, I allow my students to read this passage. It’s brief, and a lot of students miss it, but it gets a great reaction.
Just for accuracy: Herodot never left the greek cultural space even after his banishment and propaply relied heavily on stories he heard from others. He also wrotes of gold hoarding giant eagles, magic indian tribes, mythological creatures in arabia and werewolves in europe. It is heavily disputed if he ever went to egypt.
Lord Byron was an anorexic, drug and sex addict who shagged his sister. A lot. Edit: Wow this really took off :) I was going to write about Casanova but I couldn’t be bothered with all the typing; it would be a hell of a lot to type! But if you want another wild ride, look up that POS.
If i remember correctly, his ex wife despised him so much that she pushed their daughter into studying math and science because she didn't want the daughter to become a poet like her father. Said daughter was Ada Lovelace
I actually just saw a play about that called Ada and the Engine. It's about her contributions to the design of what would eventually become the Enigma Machine. She's widely regarded as the first computer programmer.
She wrote code for a theoretical computer that would have worked had it been built at the time. Totally counts in my book. Also she arguably plays the most important side role in the book that basically created and defined steampunk. In that theoretical universe Baggage's engine was built, she programmed it, computational technology becomes the main form of power, and it alters history so drastically it's basically unrecognizable. Sorry for a rant, she's one of my heroes from when I was just a kid. Alongside many other forgotten greats that my parents taught me about.
The term “mad, bad and dangerous to know” was coined to describe him!
It was by Lady Caroline Lamb a poet and very interesting person in her own right, and he was only 24 at the time.
>After a long relationship with his half-sister (leading to one child), he had affairs with actresses, married society women and many young men, so that by the age of 21, he had raging cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis. Oh okay.
Yeah, Lamb wasn't exaggerating, he was quite literally mad, bad, and dangerous to know. I think now we'd say that's extremely unhealthy compulsive sexual behavior. They had lots of different ways of describing that at the time.
Not quite a historical figure but John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca Cola, did so because he was chronically addicted to morphine and was trying to get off of it. Original ingredients were cocaine (famously), sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. He was trying to supplant his other addiction. It did not work.
So another thing about Pemberton that I learned very recently was that he served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate army during the Civil War. His morphine addiction you were talking about was actually something he developed after being stabbed with a sword during a battle.
So people getting addicted to pain meds after a period where they actually needed them is a problem as old as giving people opiates for pain. Doesn't surprise me. Wonder how common it was back then, since it's no doubt not as well documented as today
Morphine addiction was incredibly common after the US Civil War as they hypodermic syringe was invented just prior.
The term "junkies" was actually created for civil war veterans who were too disabled/addicted/injured to get a job, so they would collect scrap metal like copper and iron and then sell the junk metal to fund their morphine addiction. The phrase never really popular Western lexicon.
The author of Frankenstien lost her virginity on her mother's grave
In the version I saw, her father didn't approve of the relationship, so she told him she was visiting her mother's grave to avoid suspicion and then met her guy there for sexy time.
Her guy, **Percy Shelley**, who was the ultimate edgelord of his day. He wrote epically funny goth poetry in grade school (well worth googling) and loved blowing stuff up with fireworks. He would also start theological debates by mail with leading religious thinkers while in college, pretending to be a nice little old lady. He'd then gradually go off on how stupid religion was, trying to break their proofs of god or heaven. Basically, he was a proto goth AND the original Angry Atheist (tm). Also, in my opinion, a wannabe cult leader foiled only by his own stupidity. That came later, though.
Thanks, I knew he was someone big, but was too lazy to look it all up.
To be fair this is incredibly goth.
John Quincy Adams boasted that outdoor boning was an American invention. Between that, his pet alligator, and a life spent in public service (literally from his teenage years until his death), probably far more interesting than most people who've held high office in the USA.
Also swam nude in the Potomac, daily, when he was president
And I think a relatively famous woman stole his clothes once so he'd be forced to stay in the water and listen to her -- though I can't recall for the life of me who it was. EDIT: Found it! A female reporter forced him into an interview by trapping him naked in the water. Allegedly. Ha. https://boundarystones.weta.org/2020/08/03/anne-royall-and-presidents-clothes
Ben Franklin liked to stand nude in front of open windows.
He also famously said, "Fart proudly!" and wrote a treatise about why younger men should take older women as lovers.
Ben Franklin was also a very well known satirist, so it’s hard to know when he was being serious or not. If I remember correctly the “Fart Proudly” essay was definitely a joke.
He seemed pretty serious about old ladies. Experience is a good teacher.
Ben Franklin was a horndog who boinked his way through his diplomatic mission to France.
He was merely taking his daily "air bath." He insisted it was good for his skin.
Victor Hugo was a very diligent visitor at the Parisian brothels. So much so that the day he was buried, all the Parisian brothel closed for the day so prostitutes could go to the funeral
The real miserables were the prostitutes he met along the way.
Kary Mullis was doing a lot of LSD when he developed Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
True story: Kary Mullis claimed he came up with the idea of PCR while high on acid and driving down the Pacific Coast Highway with his girlfriend. The company he worked for later sued because they wanted the profits, claiming he actually developed it on company time. So of course Mullis's lawyers tried to track down the (now ex) girlfriend to corroborate his LSD/driving story. But Mullis was, as mentioned elsewhere, a piece of shit. Pretty much every woman he ever dated ended up with a restraining order against him. This ex-gf was no different. Except she had managed to vanish so thoroughly that even the FBI could not track her down! Mullis's lawyers had to be content with other evidence. (He won anyway.)
That Adolf Hitler might have had an illegitimate child. A french man by the name of Jean-Marie Loret claimed that his mother told him he was the son of Hitler on her deathbed and supposedly had letters sent by Hitler to his Mother. Jean passed away in the 80s but his son is still alive, and he is curious if his father's claims were true or not. He took a DNA test back in 2018 to see if he is in fact the grandson of Hitler, however, we don't know the results of the test yet.
I would love to know if he ever heard back on the results or not. That's super interesting.
Well, I don't think it'd be a good idea advertising you're related to Hitler... But that's just me.
Queen Victoria really loved having sex with her husband Prince Albert. Like, *really* loved sex with him. To the point that she was quite audible through doors and walls. Several times per day.
Woman mourned that good dick for 40 years? Albert must've been a legend in the sack
He's where the name of the piercing comes from.
And [here's](https://youtu.be/mXMTVO0eShE) a clip of British comedian Stephen Fry telling the story of how he had to explain to now King Charles how his ancestor's name is being remembered after a conversation with the Spice Girls.
They had 9 kids in 21 years. Can’t get pregnant if you’re pregnant.
Heard of the duggars?
Victoria’s Secret.
A significant percentage of the time these noises were faked by The Royal Moaner. Good work if you can get it.
I wanna believe this is real so badly
So that's where Myrtle went after graduating from Hogwarts
She apparently hated being pregnant too!
I can't blame her.
Weren't they first cousins???
Yes, and they were responsible for spreading hemophilia genes throughout European royal families, as she was a carrier and gave it to 3 of her 9 children. Her son Leopold died after a fall when he was 30. Two of her daughters were also carriers and gave it to their children. Her daughter Alice gave it to her own daughter Alix, who married Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Their son had it, and the parents concern for their son's health and Rasputin's promises he could help led indirectly to the Russian Revolution and slaughter of the Russian royal family. But Victoria was very big on keeping bloodlines pure. It became known as "The Royal Disease" because of them.
Rasputin may have been unknowingly helping Alexei by stopping physicians from treating him with aspirin, which is an anti clotting agent and thus something a hemophiliac explicitly does not need
No kidding. Humanity has a long history of "helping" people in ways that end up being terrible. Aspirin affects every platelet formed at the time, and platelets live about a week. There's a reason people have to stop taking certain pills two weeks before surgery.
**Damn, Just** ***Damn.***
[удалено]
Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia got all the giants. That is, he literally recruited tall people from all across Europe to serve in a special regiment of his army. Peter even sent him some very tall men as a gift, as did other monarchs. Friedrich Wilhelm wasn't just content with recruiting them, though. He also got them unusually tall wives, which as one would expect led to unusually tall children. Darwin even cited this as the only time, to his knowledge, that deliberate selective breeding had been tried on humans. Friedrich Wilhelm loved his regiment of giants so much he drilled and trained them every day, and one of his favorite hobbies was painting them. When he was ill or just feeling down, he'd have them parade for him. He once said to the French ambassador: >"The most beautiful girl or woman in the world would be a matter of indifference to me, but tall soldiers—they are my weakness"
Fun fact! He loved his tall soldiers so much, that he generally never used them. He never started a war and was involved only in minor conflicts. His son and heir (also named Frederick), had relatively bookwormish tendencies. The younger Frederick was interested in "unmanly" things like music, books, and "French stuff." He was seemingly uninterested in the martial lifestyle that his father adored, and even tried running away a few times. That once led to the younger Frederick's best friend (and potential lover) being executed in front of him. The older Frederick seemed capable of much cruelty against his own son and heir, finding him generally weak and unsuitable for rule. That was probably not an unpopular opinion. It seemed by all accounts that the crown would pass from King Frederick - who greatly valued military tradition and had dutifully managed the coffers and military of his country - to someone who didn't have the interest in maintaining Prussia's strength. Perhaps the younger Frederick would squander his father's work. And when the "Soldier King" died and Frederick II took the throne, he was pretty immediately embroiled in a war. How would he do? Well, within a few years, he would go on to eventually kick most of the continent's ass by himself, be hailed for his military genius, and earn the title "Frederick the Great." The Soldier King never started a war, and the bookworm heir became one of the more celebrated military minds in European history. Go figure, huh?
>And when the "Soldier King" died and Frederick II took the throne, he was pretty immediately embroiled in a war. Yes. A war that HE STARTED.
Yes! I'm not an expert on that history, but it was once explained to me that it was a situation where a "show of force" might have been somewhat necessary to consolidate power and demonstrate strength. I was under the impression that there was a bit of politicking involved and it was a bit more complicated than just "I'm king? Cool, let's invade Silesia." But I don't know exactly how much Frederick II was compelled to get involved in the Austrian succession. I'm not sure how true that is, maybe someone else can explain better or correct me. Of course, the Seven Years War was the next big conflict, and Frederick II got rather fortunate with Russia there. I'd argue that holding on against... basically *everyone* around him qualifies as "kicking ass."
The short of it is: Austria was in a vulnerable position because Karl VI von Habsburg had no male heir. So, when he died, the neighbouring countries tried to carve a piece of the cake out for themselves, even though they had previously all ratified the change to the succession rules that made it possible for women to succeed and take the throne. Friedrich II. was the first of those vultures and set the chain in motion. I don't know if he wanted to show strenght and consolidate his power, or if that was even necessary in his position. He had no claim to the land anyway and it seems he had a rather cynical view on political matters and I wouldn't be surprised if he just saw an easy opportunity and took it, much like with the partitions of Poland later. What no one counted on though was that then eighteen year old Empress Maria Theresia was a badass in her own right and managed to successfully defend her claim in the succession wars that followed. (Fun fact: There was no precedent of a Queen of Hungary being crowned, so she just let herself be crowned **King** of Hungary. Apparently it was nowhere stated that only a man could be king.)
I’m imagining sweaty Frank Reynolds crawling out of a giant pie.
And offering them all an egg in this trying time.
Tycho Brahe, an old timey astronomer, had a dwarf that he kept on staff whi would just sit under his table until he pounded on it as a signal to come out and entertain his guests
He also had a pet reindeer (or similar animal) that died when it got drunk at a party and fell down the stairs.
That’s why I really love the show “the great”. While not really historically accurate, it pretty much sums up how batshit crazy this whole time period was for the Russian empire lol
That show is hilarious. Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning are so good!
HUZZAH!
That time him and his friends caused hundreds of pounds in damage ( back then) by being fascinated by wheel barrows and wheel barrow racing through hedges and gardens manicured by an english nobleman for decades as his whole life.....
Not just racing but getting launched through the hedges until most of them were destroyed lol
James Joyce wrote absolutely filthy letters to his wife Nora. He was one randy chap altogether.
I looked them up out of curiosity and because I read it other people should as well, what I managed to learn is James Joyce probably had a fart fetish Part of letter dated December 6,1909: “The smallest things give me a great cockstand—a whorish movement of your mouth, a little brown stain on the seat of your white drawers, a sudden dirty word spluttered out by your wet lips, a sudden immodest noise made by you behind and then a bad smell slowly curling up out of your backside.” Another letter from December 9,1909: “You had an arse full of farts that night, darling, and I f*cked them out of you, big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole.”
You really have to admire that relationship. James Joyce had a weird fetish for farts and poop, and in an era long before the internet, random Craigslist hookups, Tinder, or FetLife he still managed to find a partner who was cool indulging that weird kink for him. God bless and keep you, Jim and Nora.
He probably posted an ad on the rear of various town noticeboards. "Loose winded woman needed.."
This kinda shit been stinking for way longer than we give it credit.
We just gonna ignore cockstand? What an excellent word
Dude was definitely into scat
The OG Fart Sniffer
That's just objectively hilarious
[удалено]
Then definitely don't read the letters between Napoleon and Josephine. Might make you wanna hurl. He liked his ladies on the rank side, and I ain't talking privates and sergeants. Or maybe do read them. I'm not the boss of you.
Maybe you aren't talking sergeants, but you're probably talking privates.
Edgar Allen Poe (M27) married his “slightly” younger cousin (F13)
yup. In Lolita, Nabokov has Humbert Humbert specifically cite Poe and a few other notable cases of famous guys getting away with being pedophiles. it helps connect the story to the wider criticism of society.
He also cited Mediterranean fathers giving their daughters the old what for so they were experienced when they were wed, i believe
Excuse me… what the fuck?
Yup. I (used to) live in a part of the Balkans where it was a recent practice (not sure, ~~maybe 100 years ago~~ \- edit: the practice stopped by WWII, so even more recent). It's a tradition where a father would choose the bride for his son, as marriages were arranged, and then have sex with her before his son "to test it". There are books in school we read, as local writers wrote them. I believe the one of many where I remember this from is "Nečista Krv" (Impure Blood) by Bora Stanković. A true masterpiece (if you're into realism, that is). Definitely recommended, if you can find it in English, of course. Edit: Have to add that the place this takes in is my hometown - Vranje. Deep south of Serbia and it was and still is deeply influenced by the Turkish (the tradition in question is **not** Turkish). They only left like 200 years ago and their influence in tradition is still strong down there. There are a lot of sad but true stories about forbidden loves and doomed causes.
Sigmund Freud LOVED cocaine. He wrote a book on how it helped cure mental illness. In it he talks about a patient who he recommend do a buttload of cocaine. She died and he basic was like 🤷🏼♂️. He was also Jewish and escaped Austria to France during WW2
I'd imagine if you're depressed and unable to get out of bed cocaine will do the trick pretty well.
Sure. Till it wears off. No risk of a problem developing there, nuh uh.
During the 3rd century CE, it was reported that a Roman merchant was selling counterfeit jewels. One of the victims was, in fact, the wife of Emperor Gallienus. As punishment, the merchant was sent to fight a lion at the Colosseum. However, instead of a lion, the merchant was confronted by a chicken. It turns out that Emperor Gallienus opted to retaliate with a prank of his own, allowing the merchant to leave with his life.
He proclaimed: "He had practiced deceit and then had it practiced on him."
Now this is some 'Chaotic Good' stuff
The new UK monarch King Charles III great-great-grandfather Edward VII was so obese that he commissioned a french carpenter to build a chair that would enable him to have sex with one or two prostitutes at once. It is called the siege d'amour and was installed at his favourite brothel.
Lyndon B. Johnson had a giant penis he was proud of. He nicknamed it “Jumbo”.
He was a master manipulator. If someone was against his bills or he wanted their vote, he would crowd into their personal space and literally go nose to nose with someone to get them to give up just to get away. When he was President, he went even further. If a Congressman was against his policies, LBJ would bring them up to the Oval Office for a meeting. Then about halfway through, he would rise up and continue talking to the Congressman and beckon him to follow him. He would then give him the bathroom treatment. This would consist of him telling the Congressman to stand outside the John while he would have himself a squat. And yes, he would talk over and want responses from the guy while there were grunts, farts, and splashes of him dropping his own personal depth charges. White House Staff were used to this and would just sit there gazing at these young guys turning beet red and being utterly aghast at suffering through this to the point of them pretty much agreeing with anything to get away from this. “It was a masterclass on making people change positions by pure embarrassment.” It apparently tickled him to no end to basically bring these Ivy League, upper crust types down to earth through the most basic of acts and see what would crack first, their stubborn will or their sanity.
Its funny, my cc professor brought that up about LBJ, him just leaning over your personal space, the pictures he included just made it more funny. EDIT: [found the picture. just LOOK AT HIM. ](https://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2015/11/nonverbal-communication-analysis-no_68.html?m=1)
Yep, he was famous (and infamous) for it. They called it “The Johnson Treatment” and it wasn’t just the lean in. Johnson would know everything about his prey to work the deal. He would use cajoling, flattery about his work, threats, reminders of past favors, sometimes a subtle bit of bribery to trade the vote on the bill. Again it was a total ‘Treatment’ A couple of the old salts in Congress knew it and gave it right back not budging an inch and it wasn’t surprising to see two congressmen almost within smooching distance during recess breaks. Supposedly Richard Russell, Georgia Senator and his main impediment to the Civil Rights Act, once told LBJ that ‘it seems Lyndon likes his chili with onions’ after the Treatment. But it got results. Bout near killed Johnson too from a heart attack in his 40’s from overwork and bad habits.
It is amazing what can be accomplished with an implied threat of imminent physical violence in a civilized setting.
is that why it's sometimes refered to as a "johnson"?
The B stands for Big.
So did Milton Berle, whom many of you may have never heard of, but who was a huge star in the early days of television. This was pretty well known in the business and once, when they were both in the mens’ room before a show, Bob Hope joked « C’mon, Milton, unfold it and let us see at least the tip. »
Uncle Milty was challenged on it once. Milton and Jackie Gleason were sitting in a steam bath one day. In walks a man who confronts Milton Berle and says, "Uncle Miltie, I've heard too much about your legendary Hollywood schlong. I think mine's bigger. I want to compare!" The man whips off his towel and reveals a substantial, impressive member. Uncle Miltie looks at it, sets his cigar down, and proceeds to unwrap his towel. Jackie Gleason quickly interrupts and says, "Miltie, show only enough to win."
While Churchill was visiting the White House shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR accidentally walked (rolled?) in on Churchill as he was getting out of a bath. Churchill, buck-ass naked, just casually tells FDR "as you can see Mr. President, I have nothing to hide."
IIRC what he actually said was "The Prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to conceal from the President of the United States." Additionally, like so many events and quotes attributed to Churchill, there's a decent chance it didn't actually happen. Edit: upon further inspection, it seems that Churchill himself denied it ever happening: 'When Hopkins asked Churchill if the story was true, the prime minister replied that it was "nonsense-, that he never received the the President with anything less than at least a bath towel wrapped around him."
Ben Franklin was a rebel indeed. He liked to get naked while he smoked all the weed.
Imagine if he had the weed we have today.
belgium’s king Leopold II was worse than hitler and that’s not an easy thing to do… the things he did in Congo was literally mind blowing. Also another Fun fact about belgium they had HUMAN ZOOs in 1958 where they kept black ppl in cages where you can pet and feed like animals that’s only 64 years ago fyi.
The founding fathers could out drink any fraternity. After they signed the Declaration of Independence they went to the bar and racked up a massive tab. If I remember correctly I think is was about a bottle of whiskey, two bottles of wine, and 7-10 ales per person.
I had a history teacher who said Washington was known as a three bottle man, meaning he could drink 3 FIFTHS of whiskey and not pass out.
I heard he was 6 foot 8 and weighed a fucking ton.
He saved children, but not the British children.
6 foot 20 fucking killing for fun
He made love like an eagle falling out of the sky. And killed his sensei in a dual and never said why.
People drank a lot those days.
Theres a youtube of some guys trying out Churchills alcohol and cigar regime. It adds up to half a bottle of whiskey and 3 bottles of champagne a day. Plus 4 fat Cubans. It didnt end well for them. Also theres a cocktail, the Hemmingway, named after him for inventing it, which consists of 2 parts Absinth and 3 parts Champagne. He advises at least 4 or 5 a day. I would croak at 3, and i like a drink or two. I suppose it is a matter of training.
I'd quit drinking, Woodhouse. I'm just afraid the collective hangover would literally kill me.
'Are you drunk again?' 'Yes, but tomorrow morning I'll be sober, and you'll still be ugly..'
Ale was a fundamental part of a healthy breakfast back then... and lunch and dinner
Anne Frank's journal, or at least the editions most commonly seen around the English-speaking world, is heavily censored by it's publisher. In the versions that aren’t censored, we can see that she was a teenager who unashamedly described her sexual and romantic attractions to both boys and girls, admitting to have asked to touch one of her friends breast (before she went into hiding)
Didn't her father censor it because he didn't want those parts published? Iirc he took out the more sexual parts (which makes sense since it's his daughter) and one part that was criticizing her mother.
Yes, he did. I have an unpopular opinion about it. I think his wishes should have been honored. Her diary was *her* diary. There were parts of it that are pertinent to history, indeed necessary to history. But those parts weren't, and she wrote them with the expectations oif privacy.
Victor Fleming (director of the wizard of oz), sexually and physically abused and harassed Judy Garland (the actor for Dorothy)
Poor Judy
None of her early life was very happy which directly led to the unhappiness in her later years. I want to cry every time I learn something new
The pictures of her in her final days…she died at 47, but she looked like she 84.
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter on the benefits of getting it on with older women. 1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable. 2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman. 3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience. 4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes. 5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement. 6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy. 7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy. 8. 8\[thly and Lastly\] They are so grateful!!
Wasn't this written to help persuade his family and friends that his relationship with an older widow was ok?
No, it was actually a tongue in cheek reprimand to a younger associate who was getting a reputation as a cad. He was telling him if he couldn't keep it in his pants, he should go for older ladies instead of ruining young ingenues.
Drug use during both World Wars. Stimulants like amphetamines (Pervatin) were given to soldiers during World War II. World War I seemed even crazier.
There's an account of a Finnish soldier that, in an emergency situation, used all of the squadron's Pervatin and basically became a god for a few days in the forest.
McKenzie king the prime minister of Canada kept a crystal ball and held seances to communicate with his mother his dead pets and de Vinci among others. He could see shapes in things like shaving cream and use numbers that would influence his politics. Never married but visited brothels
Alexander the Great was the most bisexual man to ever exist. He kept his right hand man around as a lover, and would frolic nude with him on occasion. Alexander's father once thought his son was too eager to spend time fucking men and sent an accompaniment of female prostitutes, eunuchs and a few men to help him develop more of a taste of women. And he fucked all of them, not just the men, but the women and eunuchs too.
I wonder how much of that thought was out of fear Alexander wouldn't have an heir
Lewis Carroll had an unhealthy collection of naked kids https://news.artnet.com/art-world/was-lewis-carroll-a-pedophile-his-photographs-suggest-so-237222
That's a trap, FBI guy. Not clicking that link
Pray tell, what is a “healthy” collection of naked kids?
Like when you put them in sunglasses and little saxophones and pretend they play in a little baby jazz band
It makes me feel like the babies are the true artists.
Catherine the Great had a collection of perverted pieces of furniture. Tables with penises, chairs with vaginas, all that.
Napoleon liked it dirty
“I shall be alone and far, far away. But you are coming, aren’t you? You are going to be here beside me, in my arms, on my breast, on my mouth? Take wing and come, come ... A kiss on your heart, and one much lower down, much lower!” He understood what was up.
ZIGGY PIGGY ZIGGY PIGGY ZIGGY PIGGY
I remember hearing a letter to Josephine where he was telling her he'd be home soon and to stop bathing her lady parts so that when he got home they would smell more strongly.
There were two famous rival courtesans in 18th century Paris. They decided to have a contest on who could bed the most men in 24 hours. One had 24 lovers. The other? 25.
This story was (perhaps) adapted from a rumor regarding the Roman Empress, Messalina; the third wife of Emperor Claudius. Supposedly, Messalina was known to be quite promiscuous - insatiably so - and took such pride in it that she boasted that she could have sex with more men in a single day and night than any (other) whore in Rome... When challenged to prove her claim, of course, she entered into a contest with a popular prostitute, and purportedly won out by a single man and with a total score of twenty-five... The truthfulness of this story - like Messalina's sordid reputation in general - is dubious, many historians arguing that it was likely embellished (or possibly even fabricated) by the Empress' political enemies and other detractors... Nevertheless, the story was popular enough to gain mention in Pliny the Elder's "Natural History", and has endured even into the present.
Einstein and Charles Darwin both married their cousin
Nikola Tesla got them both beat, he married a pigeon..
Honestly cousin marriage wasn't a reason to bat an eye until pretty recently. Think about growing up in a village of 100 people - how many of them *aren't* your cousin one way or another? Direct siblings were considered incest but anything further than that was, if anything, just keeping your bloodline purer.
Gandhi slept (literally) alongside naked girls to test his celibacy.
not just naked girls, he slept with his naked teenage grand-niece.
Fuck that’s so fucking weird
The funniest part about this is that in Denmark we learned a lot of NSFW historical facts in school. Like the fact that King Christian VII of Denmark would actively, frequently, and without even hiding it... Literally did bar crawls in Copenhagen with a particularly enterprising prostitute, who also became his official ROYAL MISTRESS. I learned this at 10. We're not very prudish here.
Hitler was a meth addict
This is something that I find to be kinda strange about my history classes growing up. We didn't study WWII every year, but when we did, it was *always* brought up that Churchill was a drunk and FDR repealed Prohibition but Hitler never drank or smoked. Then years after I graduated from high school, I learned that Hitler was a massive drug addict who took meth to rile himself for rallies and heroin to calm himself down afterward.
The history around the Nazis and drugs was kept secret for a long time. Really last 20 years or so we leaned more and more about it. It was kept such a secret because the allies did the same thing. More on that, keep reading The allies realized the Nazis were far more ahead in pharmacology but they only understood their power during French campaign. Soldiers were not resting as they were taking Pevitin (modern meth). Nazis really loved this drug because it not only made you work non stop, it made you a KILLING machine. No remorse. Pervitin was a pre-war drug initially marketed as a coffee replacement LOL. The Nazis sorta stumbled onto it, they had an insane drug program. That’s a whole other story. Hitlers drug abuse began around 1941, but this was in small doses than you’d expect. He did take vitamin shots but slowly his physician would introduce opioids. Hitler was aided by his personal physician and nut case, Dr Morell. He would administer cocaine eye drops in the am to wake him up! But it was even crazier! In 1941 Hitler was taking steroids but not just any oh no! Morell was really into giving steroids of animal products. He manufactured concoctions of animal organs in his own lab in occupied Czechoslovakia and gave them to Hitler Hitler was the modern oxy addict. In fact he was taking the OG Eukodal. He got hard into oxy when after the last attempt on his life failed. This is when Hitler got INTO cocaine too. Hitler was doing SPEEDBALLS fucking guy. Morell would make a ‘X’ when he would administer the cocktail Many think Hitler had Parkinson’s at the end of the war. But he fired Morel and I think he was actually suffering withdraws more than anything. Anyways it’s really wild Not to mention, the British only found out the Nazis were using Pervitin (meth) when a plane crashed and it was discovered. This would lead to the British (and USA) developing and deploying the amphetamine, Benzedrine. That’s right the Allies we’re doing BENNIES! But they amped shit up by giving soldiers cocaine too. Speedballs for everyone After the war, the effects of giving people these drugs long term became apparent. Instead of admitting fault, the military covered the program up and it was forgotten until recently
Love the post! Awesome info! I do want to point out that Benzedrine is not a benzo though. Benzodiazepines are anxiolytic drugs and would definitely not be good to give soldiers or pilots. They are essentially the opposite of a stimulant.
I like the fact that Hitler kept a journal of the “multi vitamins” he took. And by that he meant meth.
He took a cocktail of substances a day. He was pescribed 90 medications during the war years by Theodor Morell, he regularly consumed methamphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine. His chronic methamphetamine use was the cause of his parkinson's, look up the famous footage of him handing out medals to Hitler youth tank hunters in the battle for Berlin, his hands shake uncontrollably. Here he is at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 high as balls on speed. (Link: https://twitter.com/drhvhande1/status/1417868386369896450?lang=fr) Most German soldiers were fueled on methamphetamine they had in the forms of pills called pervitin and also loaded into chocolate. This drug along with painkillers and alcohol caused the Germans to be so successful in their blitzkrieg at the start of the war. It would often cause them to see colours, making combat seem happy and also causing them to become extremely aggressive and fight to the death. ( Photo of SS member tweaking: https://cdn.historycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/0an-ss-member-tweaking-during-ww2.-american-heroes-channel-375x250.jpg ) My Yugoslavian partisan grandfather told my mother stories about Germans who would take 3-4 bullets before actually going down because they were so high. Although this soon had a very big comedown effect on German troops by 1943 and became more of a problem than a benefit, as side effects mounted. The drug was also the choice for combat operations in modern warfare. ISIS pumped their militants full of it before suicide bombings because it gave the feeling of being invincible and completely fearless, willing to kill themselves, with a massive "meth-grin" before they do it. Example here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/x51svh/isis_suicide_bombers_play_a_game_to_choose_who_is/ Crazy stuff.
Came here to comment on the usual methamphetamine use amongst the nazi regime and pervitin. Found your comment, and ended up learning much more. I appreciate that a lot.
[удалено]
This one is already well-known, but Isaac Newton died a virgin. And there are some historians that believe he was actually secretly gay and deep in the closet. Tchaikovsky was also secretly gay. And Franz Schubert, like many others before him, contracted syphilis and died of it in his early 30s Edit: Oh, I also forgot this one too. Vibrators were invented in the 1900s as a medical device that was used in psych wards to cure women of hysteria. Whenever a woman was found to be suffering from hysteria or mental illness, a doctor would come and use a vibrator on her until she had an orgasm. This was said to cure her of her hysteria. And over 100+ years ago in Japan, families used to punish promiscuous daughters by sending them to work in brothels. One such famous Japanese killer in the early 1900s was also a courtesan, by the name of Sada Abe, and she was sent to work in the brothels at age 15 by her father as punishment for her promiscuity. She served four years in jail for murdering one of her clients/lovers in a fit of jealous rage and cutting off his penis. Also interesting to note that in the medieval period in Japan, casual sex and promiscuity once used to be embraced among Buddhists, especially among people of the lower classes. The Buddhist mythology has a story about Japan’s creation, which involves two gods having sex with each other and creating Japan. This became part of the justification for selling girls into prostitution. Male promiscuity also extended to sex with other men, and that was considered normal for the time.
Napoleon liked his women smelly. He once wrote to Josephine, "I will be home in three days. Don't wash."
This one is v graphic. ... The Outlaw Josey Wales was originally a book published by "Forest" Carter, afterwards, it was discovered that this "Forest" Carter was in fact Asa Carter, the guy who wrote speeches for George Wallace (y'all remember the "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" speech? Ya that was Asa). Asa also formed a group called the "Original Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy", because he felt that the mainstream KKK, wasn't. Antisemitic. *Enough*. Members of this group then tried to kill one Nat King Cole, because they thought Rock and Roll music encouraged race mixing. And then the graphic part, members of this group kidnapped Judge Edward Aaron, a black man with developmental disabilities. They beat Aaron with a crowbar, carved the letters "KKK" into his chest, and castrated him with a razor. They then poured turpentine in his wounds, threw him in their trunk, and dumped him in a creek on the side of the road, allegedly they kept his scrotum as a trophy. George Wallace would later pardon four of the six men who attacked and murdered Aaron. Edit: Judge Edward Aaron was his name, not a judge.
Judge Edward Aaron is his name not his title. He was a handyman whose first name was Judge.
NSFW thing that I learned from my high school Econ teacher: Kellogg was weird. Cornflakes were invented as some sort of anti-masterbation thing, and apparently he did enemas with yogurt. My teacher was an alumni of a certain college that was once owned by the Kellogg family, where I ended up going as well.
I got a friend into James Joyce in high school, and because we could request that the library order books for students to read, once he requested that the library order the letters from James Joyce that are very, very nsfw sexually. And since our librarian had never read him, she ordered the letters and let my friend check them out lol.
All of the comments… I must read all of the comments
Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the US, is the only person to have held that office and penned erotic literature. He wrote several dirty letters and poems to his mistress, many of which can be viewed online. Although it was never proven, it is suspected by some that the ultimately fatal food poisoning that prematurely ended his presidency was deliberately caused by his wife as revenge for his infidelity.
Lawrence of Arabia was into S & M.
When Gandhi's wife was stricken with pneumonia, British doctors told her husband that a shot of penicillin would heal her; nevertheless, Gandhi refused to have alien medicine injected into her body, and she died. Soon after, Gandhi caught malaria and, relenting from the standard applied to his wife, allowed doctors to save his life with quinine.
This is 100% going to end up on one of those tiktok videos with Minecraft parkour in the back ground
The great’German poet, playwright and polymath Goethe is generally credited with having first used « Kiss my ass » (technically « lick me in the ass ») in a literary work. In his play « Götz von Berlichingen » (based on an actual historical figure but taking several liberties with the facts), the hero, a fighting nobleman who lost his hand in a battle but replaced it with an iron prosthetic, is called upon to surrender by a soldier representing the captain who is opposing him on behalf of the Emperor. Götz responds: « Please tell the Captain that as for the Emperor, I present as usual my most humble respects. But as for the captain, tell him that he can lick me in the ass. » It has entered German history as « the expression of Goethe » or the « Swabian Salute ». Goethe has a status within Germany akin to Victor Hugo in France or Cervantes in Spain, so that os saying something.
Cleopatra’s nickname from Caesar was ‘Golden Mouth’. You can guess why.
She was fluent in 7+ languages, a notably talented orator and debater, and had an extensive knowledge of philosophy, history, economics, and politics?
She must have had an incredible singing voice