As someone who studies kingship and the idea of rulers to my fellow scholars who also study this stuff: why this incessant and persistent twee woobification of kings and queens?
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Replying to @AdmiralHip @HalstedMedieval
I think, to some extent, it is because we (collectively) have information about them and their lives. As a result, books, movies get written! Sure, I can stan another figure, but I just won’t have as many details about them.
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Replying to @bloodredrache @HalstedMedieval
I’m not really wondering why people study them. I wonder why people stan them on social media like they are celebrities. And just because the historical records are skewed...I don’t think that it should follow that we stan them.
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I generally do not agree with stanning anyone. Even historical figures I admire. Everyone is complicated and has said or done some shit and putting people on a pedestal removes all nuance and tbh complicates a lot of how we as historians engage with the public on the past.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip
I meant in pop culture! That their stories are easily accessible, I think, is in part why they become “celebrities” despite problems with monarchy. People like stories, and people guide their lives around stories. Whereas Clerk X doesn’t have a story, unless you read charters.
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Replying to @bloodredrache
I am well aware that people enjoy stories. I’m not talking about pop culture. I’m talking about my fellow scholars whose scholarly work revolves around these people they stan. I think that feeds into pop culture.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip @bloodredrache
But it’s not the same as making the 100th movie on King Arthur. People who are academics treating medieval queens as feminist icons is my issue. People treating the kings they study as their pals is my issue.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip @bloodredrache
I think I relate to this. I have the same issues around Chaucer (and around the way scholarship and pop culture egg each other on to make out he'd be a really cool bloke, as opposed to a privileged rapey creep with a nasty mind.)
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Yes, this is a good point.
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