#feminine pursuits

[libraryleopard]

Adult historical romance set in early 19th-century England

A young woman who worked as an assistant for her recently-deceased astronomer father and aspires to become a recognized astronomer herself is hired by a widowed countess to translate a French scientific text and sparks fly between the two of them

In addition to romance, one lead grapples with historical sexism in scientific fields and exclusion from historically male academic spaces while the other recovers from her marriage to her abusive, domineering husband and tries to find her own passion and goals in life now that she’s a widow

Exploration of science vs. the arts and whether there’s truly a divide between the two

Embroidery and astronomy

In addition to the initial falling-in-love section of the romantic arc, the two women also have to navigate being in a long-term relationship that can’t be validated in the eyes of society and how to find satisfaction and community

Both characters have a lot of individual growth outside of the romance, which I liked

Lesbian main character, bisexual main character, F/F romance

#this was good! #first full-length sapphic historical romance i read #would definitely like to continue the series #also it's plenty sexy as well as having good character growth #i really wish there was an author's note though! #i want to know the inspirations for astronomy and embroidery stuff #the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #2022 reads #books #lulu speaks #lulu reads the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #feminine pursuits #lulu reads feminine pursuits #olivia waite

[readtilyoudie]

Lucy grinned. “You ought to have stayed home and learned about good old-fashioned English debauchery, as I did.”

Catherine chuckled as Lucy pulled the sheets over them both. “If you’re offering to teach me, I expect you’ll be a proper scholar and do it rigorously.”

Lucy snorted, and nipped at Catherine’s earlobe, enjoying the way it made the lady sigh and shiver. “I shall take careful notes, and make sure my experiments are repeatable.”

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits, #1) by Olivia Waite

#romance wednesday #book quote #the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #olivia waite #feminine pursuits #historical romance #sapphic #queer #quote #quotes #booklr #bookblr

[neverthetwinsshallmeet]

Do you like ROMANCE NOVELS? Do you like HISTORY? Then surely you’ll like our most recent episode on historical romance novels!

#a caribbean heiress in paris #las leonas #adriana herrera #the siren of sussex #mimi matthews #the queer principles of kit webb #cab sebastian #the duke who didn't #courtney milan #wedgeford trials #the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #olivia waite #feminine pursuits #captain's log #never the twins shall meet #podcasts

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Maddie Morrow- Havenfall by Sara Holland

Lucy Muchelney- The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Moiraine Damodred Sedai- The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan

Silariathas “Silas”- Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

#Maddie Morrow #Havenfall #Sara Holland #Lucy Muchelney #feminine pursuits series #The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics #Olivia Waite #Moiraine Damodred Sedai #WoT #The Wheel of Time #The Wheel of Time Series #New Spring #Robert Jordan #Silas #Silariathas #Sorcery of Thorns #Silas Sorcery of Thorns #Margaret Rogerson #polls #lgbt books #queer book character tournament 2.0

[cathademia]

My under grad had the only correct option to women dropouts in stem majors

No affirmative action, no changing of grade stuff

All they did was put the stem girls in the same dorms. That was it. They figured that girls are more social and need more social supports and friends, and since the classes were only 25% female they would have a harder time making them

Anyway the drop rates from stem majors plummeted. The school doesn’t feel the need to recruit female students who aren’t interested in being engineers to become them, they just basically provide a nice environment for those who do

#op #this is actually the best approach to women who want masculine fields anyway #like give them the freedom to do it but don’t disincentivize and devalue feminine pursuits #the ones who want it will come #and those who don’t will be happier for not doing it

[orkbutch]

strange urge to put laura palmer's theme in my shadowheart playlist

#why? i dont know. perhaps the feminine pursuit of oblivion. thoughts are thinking

[stuckinblrjail]

Inelele zmeilor(The rings of the Zmei) is the third story in the ‘Fairy tales of the waters’ collection and it goes a long way to subvert classic Romanian fairy tale conventions. Having read first read it at a time when I had to write long repetitive essays about said conventions it can’t score any lower than 5/5 from me.

Illustrations by Elena Boariu

Basmele Apelor by Monica Aslan

1987

Summary: A very doting mother of 3 zmei makes 3 enchanted whips to cheer her sons up after they failed in their one job of getting the plot rolling by kidnapping a princess. One whip turns men to stone, one folds entire land masses into rings for easy carry and one dispels the magic of the other two. And then she gets herself killed fighting the king that the said princess married, who also died of his wounds. The 3 brothers are still hung up on her and try to convince her to marry one of them and when refused they each steal in turn the mountains of the kingdom, the fields and the god damned sea.This lands us in the classic set up for most hero’s journeys in Romaninan fairy tales: some zmei steal a very precious natural resource, a hero journeys to the otherworld to get it back, guided by an old wisewoman and getting a bride in the process- either finding her locked up in the Zmei’s residence or as a reward from the ruler of their particular patch of land. This time however when the three sons of the Queen go to their mother to start the who’s worthy of going after the zmei routine, the local old wisewoman tells them to sit their pretty asses back down, they are certainly going to get turned to stone, this problem gets solved with brains not tropes. So she volunters her three daughters to go on a mission to recover the lost lands, which they do by being clever and god like at sowing and when they get back they each choose a prince to marry.

#romanisme #at some point I am going to have to gush about how Monica Aslan treats traditional feminine pursuits in her fairy tales #especially dress making #so many plot points revolve around dress making #fairy tales #basmele apelor #monica aslan #elena boariu #vintage illustration #old books #artists I dream about #books I dream about

[mothslimes]

said it before i say it again. maybe it's less internalized misogyny and more "girls who look and act like this literally bullied me from kindergarten to 12th grade and beyond" so no i would rather not talk to girls who treat female beauty standards as the holy law

#mik talks #if you think criticizing female beauty standards and those who impose them on others = criticizing all women then you might be the sexist #like im so fucking tired of feminism being all about the poor stereotypically beautiful women wearing pink skirts who are soo forced into i #hey what about the girls on the playground who were their perpetual fucking victims in their pursuit of gaining mild power #those who coulkd never even dream of fitting the mold because they werent white or straight or skinny or cis or whatever the fuck #like even the fucking barbie movie is about some beauty standard white blond skinny feminine woman being sad about sexism #this is what many terfs dont understand lul. for some feminity is a cage they dont even fit into #they have no fucking safe area of just performing their societal role #if i see one more 'fixed' 'pick me' comic where they make the author kiss the girl thats based on their bullies i will kill something #yeah blablabla the plastics in mean girls are actually victims yaaalll.... its so sad theyre the real victims...... #when will yall accept that stereotypically beautiful (especially white) women still hold power. and are often bullies. #my mom is being harassed at her workspace by her exclusively female colleagues but u tell me again how female spaces are so wholesome #and oh tell me more about the perfect female commune and the matriarchy. god you guys make me sick #oh you felt forced into performing feminity and your friendships seemed a little fake? i was called slurs in 6th grade #they stole my stuff. destroyed my things. hit me. cyberbullied me. but oh you had it so bad #to be clear this is not to say these women hold the same power as men but yeah lets not infantilize girls who CHOSE to put others down #nerdy girls who make fun of popular girls being shallow were never the problem :skull: but you all called them misogynists for being pissed #for being bullied....and wanting to feel some mild sense of superiority in their lower social role

[ciceroballtorture]

i dont get how ppl want to target a specific class demographic (upper class or the uber rich) and then go white women. like in general the take of 'white women glorify housework' when the intent is clearly rich white women (and even then if we are talking abt the right variety they are not allowed to have careers and ARE forced to be unpaid housewives lol). moreover, lmao, as if its white women who decided that we should normalise being financially dependent on male partners by doing unpaid labour, and not, yk, men.

#.text #like chdhd it wasnt women who decided some girl schools should ~focus on more feminine pursuits such as needlework and cooking #bc that surely is going to serve them better in the real world #also lol unless youre talking millionaires white married women are expected to do the housework #in addition to their other work #and like if that was in response to some 16yo girl on tiktok who said she wants to do nothing and be a housewife #i wonder who presented that option to impressionable teenagers 🤔

[zinesbycee]

I'm reading a book named "A Guide to The Correction of Young Gentlemen Or, The Successful Administration Of Physical Discipline To Males, By Females" - essentially, a fantasy femdom BDSM book, written in 1924 by Alice Kerr-Sutherland but first published in 1991.

It has some genuinely fascinating stuff to say about gender, and I feel like it's worth looking at/thinking about in the context of Historical Gender Stuff. This 100 year old book has the following to say:

"The truth is that some young gentlemen would rather they had been born young ladies: they cannot admit this openly, because in the male world to confess as much would lead to instant ostracism if not worse; but they cannot conceal it either, and by preferring the company of girls, and soft, feminine clothing, and by flinching during the rough pursuits to which all boys, willing or no, are occasionally heirs, they attract opprobrium."

"Such boys weep too readily for their fellows' tastes - weeping is a great crime among boys unless it is generally admitted that circumstances left little choice - and are hounded for that reason."

"Just as there are girls who had rather been boys - we all know examples of the type - there are boys who, in a kinder world, would have been born into the gender more suited to their dispositions."

"Many young people of this sort are riven with a guilt they do not deserve but have been forced, by the conventions of society, to adopt; they are confused, ashamed and thoroughly unhappy."

"The ideal thing to do would be to treat these cases on their merits, send them to girls' schools, and so on. (The same thing should happen with those girls who would rather be young gentlemen.) Boys of this sort are girls in any case-in all respects save one."

"Most subjects of this sort have a secret name - a girl's name."

#gender #gender history #transgender #trans history #transgender history #text

[readtilyoudie]

“I am tired of twisting myself into painful shapes for mere scraps of respect or consideration. Tired of bending this way and that in search of approval that will only ever be half granted.”

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits, #1) by Olivia Waite

#book quote #the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #olivia waite #feminine pursuits #historical romance #sapphic #queer #quote #quotes #booklr #bookblr

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Evander (Andy) Mills- Lavender House by Lev Ac Rosen

Catherine St. Day- The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Sideways Pike- The Spacegracers by HA Clarke

Malini- The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

#Evander Mills #Andy Mills #Lavender House #The bell in the fog #Lev Ac Rosen #Catherine St. Day #The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics #feminine pursuits series #Olivia Waite #Sideways Pike #spacegracers #scratch daughters #The Spacegracers #HA Clarke #Malini #The Jasmine Throne #The Oleander Sword #the burning kingdoms #tbk #malini tbk #Tasha Suri #polls #lgbt books #queer book character tournament 2.0

[sadioradio]

Listen, I don't like the argument of "did you even pay attention" but like...did you even watch the show TOT

#“no goals but feminine pursuits” oh brother... #I know what you are TOT #god FORBID a woman be happy

[atortoiseplease]

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is book two of the Feminine Pursuits Series by Olivia Waite. I absolutely devoured this one, just like the characters deliciously devoured one another.

7.5/10

#books #wlw #wlw books #olivia waite #the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #the care and feeding of waspish widows #feminine pursuits series

[thirteensdyke]

i wish i was a writer because i desperately want more of lucy and catherine :(

#the lady’s guide to celestial mechanics: feminine pursuits #olivia waite