Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia was so infamous for her sexual freedom

   

Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia was so infamous for her sexual freedom Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia was so infamous for her sexual freedom that when she died from a stroke at the age of 67, there was even a rumour claiming she actually died while copulating with a horse. We learned about Catherine the Great how she modernised Russia, enlarged her empire, protected the Orthodox Christianity, pioneered public vaccination, women’s education, assassinated her husband, enlisted Voltaire to her cause and presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment. Her kinky side, however, was rudely omitted from her official biography.

The flamboyant and powerful empress, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader, had 22 male lovers throughout her life, many of them significantly younger than her. But aside from her extra-marital affairs and multiple illicit relationships with Russian royalty, Catherine also had a habit of collecting sexually-charged furniture and even kept an erotic cabinet; rooms stuffed with eccentric period pornography and walls covered in sexually explicit art.

It’s thought Catherine kept her cabinet adjacent to her suite of rooms in her favourite palace in St. Petersburg now known as the Pushkin Palace; a salon salon full of furniture adorned with graphic erotica. The doorknob shaped like a phallus, tables with erect penises for legs, chairs embellished with female genitalia and pornographic scenes depicted on the walls.

There are photographs of this room, or at least claiming to be, taken by German soldiers who arrived at the palace in 1941 during WWII and stumbled across the eye-opening boudoir. These Wehrmacht soldiers may very well have been the last witnesses to see the room before the palaces were bombed and most of their contents destroyed in the ensuing fire. Experts and historians however adamantly believe that the contents of the erotic boudoir were most certainly purposefully removed from the palace and all traces of the erotic cabinet vanished under suspicious circumstances.

Russian authorities have always been very secretive about this peculiar Czarist heritage. Catherine was a confident woman with too much passion who ignored the boundaries of womanhood in her time. Labelled a nymphomaniac and hyper sexual, in reality, her sexual adventures were unlikely all that different from her male counterparts, but Catherine, Empress or not, was born a woman trapped in a man’s world, and the rumours that circulated around her private life led to negative portrayals of her reign.

What is an interesting story you’d like to share?

 

Here’s a story that’s not just cool, but downright inspiring. Princess Eugenie, yep, the granddaughter of the Queen of England, turned heads and sparked conversations worldwide on her wedding day—and not just for the usual royal razzle-dazzle. What got people talking? Her wedding dress. But it wasn’t just any dress. This gown had a specific, bold design: a low back that prominently displayed a long scar running down her spine. Why? Let’s dig into that.

As a kid, Eugenie underwent major surgery to correct her scoliosis, a condition that causes a sideways curvature of the spine. Instead of hiding the physical evidence of her ordeal, she chose to highlight her scar on one of the most public and photographed days of her life. Why take such a stand? Eugenie had a powerful message to share.

When quizzed about not choosing a dress that covered her scar or opting for surgery to minimize its appearance, Eugenie shut down the superficial concerns with a badass response. She pointed out her academic achievements and linguistic skills, questioning why the focus was on her physical scars instead of her personal and intellectual accomplishments. Talk about a mic-drop moment!

Eugenie’s decision to showcase her scar was more than just a personal choice; it was a statement. It was about challenging beauty standards, opening up a dialogue on body positivity, and making a stand for authenticity. She wanted to send a message of gratitude to the medical staff who treated her and offer a beacon of confidence to others, especially young women, who might feel insecure about their bodies.

By choosing visibility over concealment, Princess Eugenie used her royal platform to advocate for a deeper understanding of beauty—one that celebrates resilience and the stories our bodies tell, not just superficial perfection. This move by a member of the royal family is a vivid example of using one’s position to influence societal attitudes positively. It’s a reminder that true beauty really does come from owning your story, scars and all. What a queenly act in a princess’ tale!

What are some punishments of the Indian army?

 1. One of the toughest punishment you will ever face during military training. Just wish for a group punishment so you can enjoy this with your buddies.

2. Passing the drill is very challenging, if you do not clear your drill in time, you will not get leaves and liberty. Cadets do not perform the drill correctly will be roasted in front of all. Drill is something which you will show others during POP.

3. Running 5 Kms with a fully loaded backpack and a heavy dummy gun.
This punishment will scare you till death. This looks easy but needs lot of stamina. Watch out.

4. Crawling in a cold water naked. This will make you more disciplined. At least inside the academy.

5. Front roll on a rough surface under the sun. Yes, backpack is in bonus.

6. Crawling with a backpack and crossing different obstacles.

7. Getting drenched with your coursemate. The best feeling ever.

The History of the Human Zoo

  

The History of the Human Zoo. 

From the late 1800's to around the 1950's, there were human zoos internationally. From Europe to New York, there were people of color (POC) residing in zoos and museums as living exhibits. They were Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and Indigenous people. They were on display, clothed or nude, in “naturalistic” man-made habitats purported to look as close to each captive POC’s homeland. Spectators would pet and photograph them because they viewed these people as 'exotic animals'. POC were held captive for having body parts, sizes or shapes, considered “unusual” to the non-POC eye.

In 1906 at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, there was an exhibit called “The Monkey House”. This was essentially a human zoo. Among other captive people, who were all in different makeshift, artificial exhibits of their homelands, there was a Congolese man named Ota Benga who was put on display with a monkey. People that came to see these exhibits gawked and ogled. They used his cultural practices as a show for the public such as using his archery skills and weaving skills as a performance act. These people placed him in the same category as an animal and dehumanized him.

Similar to Ota Benga, Saartjie Baartman was also placed on display as a living, breathing exhibit. Baartman was a black woman who had a health condition called Steatopygia. Steatopygia is an excessive development and build up of fat in the lower areas of the body commonly in women of African descent. Due to Baartman’s symptoms, her body features were put on display at London’s Piccadilly Circus as an attraction for the public eye.

Her private areas and large buttocks were considered ‘exotic’, and unusual. Wealthy customers paid for private shows in their homes where she was touched like a pet. When she died at age 26, a plaster cast of her body was made before her autopsy. Her skeleton, brain, and genitals were preserved in pickling juice and jars. They were placed on display at Paris’s ‘Museum of Man’ until the year 1974. In 2002, her remains were removed and taken back to the Eastern Cape Province to be buried.

Reverend James H. Gordon, superintendent of the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn, voiced his disapproval of these exhibits and said “Our race, we think, is depressed enough without exhibiting one of us with the apes. We think we are worthy of being considered human beings, with souls.”

Because of this history, the word exotic is still used to refer to POC in consumerism and in conversations.

While a person using the word exotic to describe a person of another race and culture than their own may seem like a harmless compliment, it's actually a backhanded compliment. It is a reminder that they are less human and less real compared to non POC. It points out their race as being of wonder, as if they're a sideshow act at a circus that you can't see anywhere else. It's demoralizing and is viewing and labeling a person as an object. This results in what's called 'otherization'.

Othering and otherization is defined as categorizing a living, conscious being as something abnormal. This can happen when describing a POC and their physical features. Comparisons of their physical features to food or objects is a common occurrence. This could be from saying things such as one person has almond eyes, silky or kinky hair, or chocolate skin.

A human is not food, a plant, or a rare artifact.

A human is a person.

Human beings are not objects, they are people that deserve to be treated like they aren't a different species. The more we decolonize the word exotic from our vocabularies the closer people will come to joining with POC and their constant fight to be seen as human, rather than othering them as exotic objects.

The words you say and actions you take can affect people’s lives. Take the time to understand the meanings behind the stereotypes, jokes, and terms that are being widely used. It may be surprising to find that most, if not all of them, are racist, offensive, and dehumanizing for the people being described.

From racist sports team mascots, names and their logos, to offensive Halloween costumes, the US culture is working on changing its ways with appropriating other cultures in our societies. The US is becoming more inclusive and more informed while we learn of the horrible, and inhumane, history we have always had with treating POC.

The goal is to appreciate and not appropriate. However, these are just a couple ways that the world has dehumanized entire groups of people. To learn about how the United States is still using colonialism to systemically dehumanize Indigenous people and how it has caused over 5500 Indigenous women and girls to go missing every year

Why is the 1991 American film The Silence of the Lambs considered one the 1000 best films?

 Apart from the fact it’s well written, well directed and well acted, “Lambs” completely changed the way we thought about horror films.

In the past, horror films involved an antagonist that was scary because they were violent for no well defined reason, except maybe they didn’t like teenagers having sex. They were silent monsters without a thought in their brain except to kill, kill, kill. They were also really, really ugly.

(Typical horror movie antagonist - Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a good film in its own right).

“Lambs” gives us two antagonists in its “plot within a plot” format (which itself created an innovative storytelling technique), The first is our “main” antagonist:

Meet “Buffalo Bill”. Bill isn’t a homicidal maniac, but he is a killer. He’s not crazy, just deeply disturbed. Bill thinks he’s transsexual, but he isn’t. He doesn’t use a chainsaw, he uses a couch to lure in his victims and a pit to finish them off. Bill’s actions aren’t random - he wants to make a suit out of human skin which he can wear to look like a woman. He picks his victims very carefully - overweight young women who he starves so their skin will be easier to harvest. He’s also fairly smart.

However, he’s picked the wrong victim. The FBI is after him, and they have chosen this young agent to help hunt him down - she’s our protagonist.

Meet Clarice Starling - a pretty young FBI agent straight out of the academy. She soon realizes she’s a pawn in the FBI’s game, but she’s damned if she’s going to let this career opportunity go to waste. She’s been chosen to try to manipulate another killer, and here is where the horror genre is blown out of the water.

Hannibal Lecter. Possibly the scariest character in movie history. Currently serving multiple life sentences in a specially constructed cell which he never leaves. He was a psychiatrist who was obsessed with killing people and eating them. He would have gotten away with it too if some FBI agent hadn’t lucked out. The agent barely survived his encounter with Lecter. However, despite being extremely dangerous he’s also incredibly intelligent, outwardly charming and supremely manipulative. He’s our secondary antagonist.

Hannibal has information the FBI needs. They hope Clarice will appeal to him and he will give up the identify of Buffalo Bill. Bill’s case is well known to Hannibal, but the FBI thinks that Hannibal knows his identity.

But Hannibal’s problem isn’t with Clarice, it’s with this butthead:

Doctor Frederick Chilton. Hannibal’s pretty much at the mercy of this butthead, who takes delight in torturing Hannibal for his own purposes. He’s also trying to help out the FBI and thinks he can do it by putting pressure on Hannibal. He’s our secondary protagonist. Essentially, it’s a race between him and Clarice to get the information out of Hannibal. However, Chilton’s primary motivation is to make Lecter’s life a living hell.

Let’s just say that nothing goes to plan and examine some of the other ways the story is told.

The entire theme of the movie is manipulation, with each character at some point trying to manipulate one of the others to get their way. Even Clarice gets into the act, offering Hannibal the chance to actually spend some time in the “real world” on a beach on an island. Manipulation and counter manipulation run rife as when a character realizes they are being manipulated, they often manipulate back (Hannibal knows they won’t let him out of his cage).

The movie also allows the audience to be engrossed in the story at several points, allowing them to get inside Hannibal’s mind at several points. Not to give too much away, watch for the scene where Chilton can’t find his pen (don’t worry, you will know exactly where it is) and one where they find a dead guard in the elevator shaft (yeah, you will figure out what’s going on right away then too).

And like any good horror movie, the move implies more horror than it actually reveals, and keeps you on the edge of your seat sometime waiting for something bad to happen.

What are some amusing historical facts?

In 1958, 17 year old Robert G. Heft designed a 50 star flag for a school project. He received a B- on it, but his teacher made a deal that if he got it approved by Congress he would bump his grade up. A year later, when Alaska and Hawaii were granted statehood, his flag design was chosen and he got an A.

US President Coolidge used to prank his bodyguards by ringing for them and then hiding under his desk.

Gabriel de Clieu brought the first coffee seedlings to the New World to the island of Martinique in 1720. Over the next fifty years there were 18,680 coffee trees and it eventually spread to other parts of Latin America. Of the top 10 coffee producing country 6 are from Latin America, all because of those first little seeds.

Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1826. Jefferson’s last words were, “Is it the Fourth?” and Adams were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.”, not knowing that Jefferson died several hours earlier.

During World War II, in order to fool Germany into thinking the invasion would come from somewhere else, the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops or Ghost Army used inflatable tanks, sound trucks, and fake radio transmission.

The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War was fought between the Isle of Scilly and the Netherlands from March 30 1651 to April 17 1986. The total casualties resulted in zero for each sides due to the Netherlands declaring war on the Royalist forces holding the island right before they would surrender to the Parliamentarians ending the English Civil war, but there was never an official declaration of peace so the war just continued until Jonkheer Rein Huydecoper signed a peace treaty.