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What do you mean? Women don't?
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Are you guys talking about Rome again? 😏
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It's the only thing they know how to do. Everything must be about trannies now, the most important class of people that human society has ever known.
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@Rasterman @Hoss and part 2 of 2:
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Roman ruins reveal how emperors used winemaking in a lavish power play
Historians insist that Rome itself isn’t just “guy stuff,” as some men in videos called it.
“Ancient Rome was of course patriarchal and violent,” Lewis Webb, a historian of ancient Rome at Oxford University, wrote in an email. “But it was also a diverse place: there were numerous forms of masculinity, women could have agency and power, and there were multiple gender expressions and identities, as well as various sexualities.”
Historian Cornwell also points out that Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, or Elagabalus, the Roman emperor from A.D. 218 to 222, is frequently presented in ancient sources as experimenting with cross-dressing.
“Even when you get to some of the emperors, they’re doing weird and wacky things by modern conceptions of what a man is,” Cornwell points out. There were also female gladiators. “The Romans do have a clear sense of what is masculine and feminine, but within that there is an awful lot of flexibility. Which sometimes we often forget about,” she said.
And she herself, of course, thinks about the Roman Empire quite a lot — on a daily basis, as it is her chosen field. Her partner recently told her he thinks about it “1.6 times a month.”
So what is a healthy amount?
“Goodness,” she said, laughing. “I’d say it really depends on what you’re thinking about.”
CORRECTION
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the time period during which Roman emperor Elagabalus reigned. He was emperor from A.D. 218 to 222, not 218 to 222 B.C. This article has been corrected.
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Why do you pervert columnists have to make everything about gender and cross dressing?
You’re sick fucks.
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@Rasterman @Hoss I just ctrl-A ctrl-C the article text before the paywall loads. Here you go:
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INTERNET CULTURE
How often do men think about ancient Rome? Quite frequently, it seems.
By Leo Sands
Updated September 14, 2023 at 11:47 a.m. EDT|Published September 14, 2023 at 10:26 a.m. EDT
Men dressed as centurions parade by the Colosseum in April 2012 during celebrations of the founding of the city of Rome. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)
It’s been almost 2,000 years since the Roman Empire reached the historic peak of its power. But many men still contemplate it — quite a lot.
A new social media trend prompting women to ask the men in their lives how often they think about ancient Rome reveals that it crosses the minds of many men on a weekly basis. Even daily. Or more — to the surprise and confusion of their loved ones.
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“Three times a day,” answered one woman’s fiancé in a TikTok video. “There’s so much to think about,” he explained, eliciting a stunned look into the camera from his soon-to-be wife.
“They built an entire world-dominating society,” another man exclaimed when asked by a bewildered-looking woman to justify why he contemplates ancient Rome.
“Actually I was just having a conversation about their aqueducts and the fact that they had concrete that could harden. … How the hell did you know that?” answered another person who said they think about ancient Rome “at least once a day” in response to the question, in a screenshot shared on TikTok.
@kirakosarin
“theres so much to think about!” 🫠 #romanempire
But why? Sure, the Roman Empire boasted a dominion that stretched across the entire Mediterranean basin and far beyond. It was a flourishing laboratory of works of art and engineering that continue to astound. And it operated under a political system that still forms the basis of many modern counterparts. (At least, that’s what this reporter contemplates, maybe once a fortnight.)
But why does there seem to be a gender divide in who is daydreaming about ancient Rome today?
According to historians, one explanation could be that Western societies have historically overemphasized the aspects of Roman history that are associated with masculinity in the popular imagination.
The first thing that comes to the mind is “an image of the Roman legion, the imperial eagle and that sort of military aspect — along with gladiators, which has a long association with masculinity and power,” Hannah Cornwell, a historian of the ancient world at Britain’s Birmingham University, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Since at least the 19th century, she said, historians have tended to view ancient Rome through the prism of politics and warfare, in part as a result of their reliance on “elite, masculine” sources.
“That has informed popular culture,” she said. “And yet — it’s then missing out on so much.”
The slew of videos on TikTok appear to have been prompted by Artur Hulu, a 32-year-old Roman reenactor and history influencer from Sweden who has earned a large following.
Known as “Gaius Flavius” online, where he posts videos of himself as a Roman legionnaire and performs comedy sketches as a gladiator, Hulu wrote on Instagram: “Ladies, many of you do not realize how often men think about the Roman Empire. … You will be surprised by their answers!”
In an interview, Hulu said he posed the question after noticing a disparity between men and women in their interest in Roman history and seeing other creators discuss similar trends. Hulu’s Roman reenactment society, for example, involves 16 men and two women, he said. “It is heavily male dominated.”
The disparity in interest dates back hundreds of years, Hulu believes. “The men during the Renaissance did it. The Founding Fathers also thought about the Roman Empire. Once you get enough exposure to the Roman Empire, whether it’s the military stuff or the law, you start to see it everywhere,” he said. “I can’t remember a day when I didn’t think about the Roman Empire. … It just fascinates me how different but also how similar the Roman Empire is to our world today.”
A post shared by Gaius Flavius🌿🏛 (@gaiusflavius)
And “Gaius Flavius” is not alone. One Reddit user, when prompted by his wife, said he thinks about the Roman Empire a few times a week.
“So many things in our lives today were influenced by the Roman Empire,” he explained in a post. “Language, food, philosophy, architecture, war, entertainment, sports, mythology, culture. … I don’t actively focus on the Roman Empire but the connection always pops into my head as I go about my daily life.”
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@Hoss @Rasterman I’m too lazy to jump the paywall to actually read the article, but I just want to show this side-by-side comparison
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@ai @Hoss Is it possible to jump the paywall? (without paying) My expertise went as far as enabling NoScript, but that didn't work. :pepesad:
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Men are ready for a great man to come along and turn this decrepit and corrupt republic into a glorious empire that will span millennia.
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@Rasterman I think about Rome exactly never, but I think about Genghis Khan a lot.
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@rees @Rasterman @alex leo is NOTHING compared to genghis
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@alex @Rasterman >I think about Genghis Khan a lot
I think about leonardo dicaprio a lot. if he's having so much sex with women why does he never have controversies? no false rape accusations (???), hardly any gossip about his private life (ndas?), no pregnancies or children (vasectomy?)
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@rees @Rasterman @alex maybe he is cautious and responsible and a little bit lucky he hasn't run into a complete nutter.
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@Moon @Rasterman @alex I don't care about the body count I just want to know how he's dodging pregnancies and false rape accusations so easily
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@rees @Rasterman @alex I want to say he's just careful and kind but even I don't believe it's possible to go this long and not have even one serious accusation.
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@Moon @Rasterman @alex he's been banging models for decades now, had his own room at the playboy mansion, and you can see pics of him on yachts or islands with just himself and a dozen other models. it's either fake and gay or he's got some routine. like how does he meet them? jared leto got in trouble for dming a bunch of model's on twitter asking them out, that doesn't happen to leo. I know him and tobey maguire used to pickup game at celebrity bars when they were young
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@rees @Kacho @Rasterman @alex I think AI companions are a bigger perceived threat.
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@Kacho @Moon @Rasterman @alex it's already happening with like onaholes and vr porn, dudes are just checking out
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@Moon @Rasterman @alex maybe it's like that dude who got jailed and had a ton of women chasing after him, after a certain point of attractiveness and status you just become invulnerable. if you look at a lot of false rape accusations most of the guys aren't too terribly handsome
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@rees @Moon @Rasterman @alex The temper tantrums and desperation we're going to see from femoids as men start choosing AI replika girlfriends and sexdolls over them is going to be hilarious. Can't happen soon enough.
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@RustyCrab @Kacho @rees @Rasterman @alex none of this stuff actually bothers me personally except knowing that it's indicative of bigger systemic problems that probably manifest all kinds of other negative things.
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@Moon @Kacho @rees @Rasterman @alex well this is happening but it doesn't end with women being alone. It just ends with 20% of dudes having 5 girlfriends each.
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@RustyCrab @Kacho @rees @Rasterman @alex I am guessing partially it's hard to measure accurately but also there are numerous women who _think_ they're in a "relationship".
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@Moon @Kacho @rees @Rasterman @alex it's more of a curiosity for me. It's hard to get a picture of exactly what's happening on the ground but the observation of "every male you know is single and every female you know is taken" is hard to wrap my head around.
Rasterman
?? Humpleupagus ??
Hoss Delgado
ThisIsTheEnd
mist
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