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The corset has a bad reputation. And unfairly so, according to Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who says this undergarment of centuries past is not nearly as evil or confining as modern folks have come to believe. More »
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Amid the paroxysm of gasping that gripped the nation this week when Michelle Obama told  "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King that she's not "some angry black woman," political pundits may have lost some historical perspective. Exhibit A: their breathless discussion of the ‘salacious' details in Jodi Kantor's recently released chronicle of the First Couple, The Obamas.  It's understandable that everyone's a little giddy about the book — reports of lavish Alice in Wonderland fetes and simmering conflict between the First Lady and prominent White House staffers is for TV's talking heads what a weekend run on the out-of-town parents' liquor cabinet and a lunchroom break up is to middle schoolers.  Liza Mundy, however, in her review of Kantor's book, puts the revelations about Michelle Obama in perspective.  She writes, More »
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One of the oldest pieces of British porn has been discovered in mud near the Putney Bridge in London. The artifact from the first century A.D. looks like it might feature two blobs wrestling, but it's actually a kind of token used in brothels across the Roman Empire, which one could turn in for a particular sex act. It's been handed over to the Museum of London, where it will provide cheap thrills to kids on field trips. More »
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When Mitt Romney talks about how much he loves "America the Beautiful," he probably doesn't know that the song was written by poet Katharine Lee Bates, a lesbian feminist who spoke out against greed. According to the Times, her original third verse was, More »
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Researchers initially doubted the theory that Columbus and his crew brought syphilis back to Europe from the New World, because 50 European skeletons allegedly dating back to before Columbus's first voyage showed signs of the disease. But now biologist George Armelagos and his team have reexamined the skeletons, and found that most don't actually meet all the criteria for diagnosing the disease. And those that do are contaminated by carbon from seafood intake, which gets into bones and can make them look older than they really are. Result: there's currently no compelling evidence of syphilis in Europe before 1492, and Columbus might well be the culprit after all. More »
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To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, several states have launched campaigns to have people bring their family artifacts to museums to be scanned. Archivists from the Library of Virginia have been traveling around the state, cataloging objects that tell stories about the people who are often overlooked in history books. One such item is a surprisingly elaborate valentine from Confederate soldier Robert King to his wife, Louiza. King used a penknife to cut through an envelope and a newspaper, then wove them together into a heart shape. When opened, the card shows two figures crying. King was killed in battle and never saw Louiza or their child again. More »
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Chatter about Rep. Barney Frank's schlumpy attire on the House floor earlier this week prompted the Washington Post to take a look back at other sartorial scandals in D.C., including the controversy over the first woman to step onto the House floor in pants. On Dec. 24, 1969, Rep. Charlotte T. Reid (R-Ill.) caused a stir when she showed up in "a black wool, bell-bottomed pantsuit." Men flocked to see the scandalous sight and most had nothing nice to say, but Reid said, "(Rep.) Gerald Ford told me he thought it was great and I should do it more often." Few of us will be working on the 42nd anniversary of this momentous occasion, but on Saturday we'll get comfy in some sweatpants as a tribute to Reid. More »
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New research provides a sad look at both the last days of former Argentinian first lady Eva Perón and how severe pain caused by cancer and other diseases was sometimes treated back in the 1950s. It's well-known that Perón died of cervical cancer when she was only 33, but a Yale researcher says that several months before she died "Evita" was given a lobotomy. More »
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There's a surprising resolution to MSNBC's effort to learn more about a photo of women fighting fires caused by the attack on Pearl Harbor: The picture wasn't taken during the bombing and the women aren't even putting out a fire in the photo. However, the real story is still pretty interesting. More »
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In honor of the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor yesterday, MSNBC posted a series of photos taken that day, including one amazing shot of female firefighters directing a hose shortly after the bombing. Many readers asked questions about the women and now the site is trying to use the power of the internet to identify them. Hopefully they're still around, because it looks like they'd have a hell of a story. More »
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Most of us know some vague, historically inaccurate and racially insensitive tale about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, but the story of how the holiday came to be has a surprising hero. While today many women's magazine editors seem primarily focused on telling women they need to buy things in order to make themselves look presentable (when they aren't trying to convince us that our manfriends want us to surprise them with sex moves that they find uncomfortable and slightly frightening) we actually have a ladies' magazine editor to thank for the turkey dinner and ensuing four day weekend that we're about to enjoy. More »
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Harris's List is an 18th century catalog of London prostitutes complete with (real) names, addresses, and descriptions of each, and it proves to me just how much men throughout the ages have loved reviewing prostitutes. They love it today, they loved it 250 years ago, and my guess is that even most Egyptian hieroglyphics and ancient animal cave paintings will one day be recognized as elaborate codes indicating who gave the best BJ in exchange for some fruit. Not that it's all about crude physical congress; Harris's List attests that johns have always valued good education, witty conversation, and pleasant demeanor in their paid companions while frowning upon arrogance and high prices. There's also an astonishing amount of sexism on display with the regular endorsement that if she weren't such a fallen slut, Suzy Hooker would have been a proper lady. ("Notwithstanding the unfortunate bent she has taken;" "if she had not quitted the path of virtue.") More »
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Johnny Appleseed, who was a real guy named John Chapman, may have had kind of a beef with women. David Futrelle quotes from a contemporary account, via Wikipedia: More »
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Halloween was about sex before it was about "trick or treat," and the wonder is that we ever saw it any other way. More »
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This may be one of the earliest images in Western art of a woman giving birth, but that isn't the only reason it's incredible; it was found by a student who's legally blind. William Nutt of the University of Texas at Arlington found the 2,600-year-old relief on a fragment of a pot in an ancient Etruscan site near Florence, Italy. "I used dental tools and a sharpened trowel to slide along the ground. I'd run my hands along the soil, feeling and uncovering different layers," says Nutt. "The image is unique because in the classical world, we don't see a lot of birthing scenes." In January Nutt and the other researchers will be present their findings to the Archaeological Institute of America. More »
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As it turns out there was — in Real Life — a Fat Bank opened somewhere in our fair land, a fat bank made for people to store their own fat from surgical enhancement procedures that could be used sometime in the future to be used elsewhere in the depositors' bodies. More »
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Here's a macabre reminder of what happened to women who got out of line in medieval times. 800-year-old remains were found with seven nails driven through the jaw bone, leading archaeologists to conclude that the woman was believed to be a witch. The area in Tuscany is thought to be a witches graveyard, since another female skeleton was found surrounded by 17 dice, a game women were forbidden to play. The women, who were around 25 to 30 years old, were buried in shallow graves with no coffin or shroud, and the first had 13 nails strewn around her that were used to pin down her clothes. Archaeologist Alfonso Forgione says, "This indicates to me that it was an attempt to make sure the woman even though she was dead did not rise from the dead and unnerve the locals who were no doubt convinced she was a witch with evil powers." More »
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This weekend the Lovers of Valdaro, two skeletons found wrapped in an embrace, were displayed for the first time at Mantua's Archaeological Museum. The bones date back to the Neolithic era and were found face to face with their arms and legs entwined in 2007. There's no sign that the man and woman, who were around 18 to 20 years old, died a violent death. Some believe they died holding each other on a freezing night, though it's more likely that they were just buried in that position. Fans of the Lovers in Mantua are campaigning to give them a permanent spot in the museum, now that they've been moved from the grave they shared for 6,000 years. More »
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You may not have heard of the late aviatix and all around daredevil Betty Skelton, but after reading this article about her life, you might kind of want to be her. More »
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According to recently declassified documents, during World War II British spies hatched a cunning plan to beat Hitler: Simply slip estrogen into his food until he becomes feminized and loses interest in the whole "take over the world" thing. It would have worked too, because everyone knows ladies can't be mass-murdering monsters! More »
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The Kennedy family has eight hours of tape made by Jackie just months after JFK's death. To hear some outlets tell it, the tapes include the former First Lady's conspiracy theories about the assassination and tales of her own extramarital affairs. Others say they're not as salacious. We're about to find out. More »
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"I was ready to die but give my consent never. Never, never." Those were the words Rosa Parks used in a never-published, never-before-seen essay on an encounter that took place when she was 18 and working as a housekeeper for a white neighbor. More »
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Moments ago, NASA sent Atlantis and its four astronauts into the final space shuttle mission after over 30 years of space exploration. It's hard to believe that the STS-135 mission is the last — but oh, was it beautiful to watch. More »
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At this point, we're all just waiting on the next bit of nonsense to come out of Michele Bachmann's mouth. But in case you can't wait that long (and let's be honest, it can't be too long) the folks at Jimmy Kimmel Live have imagined what Bachmann's account of American history would sound like. More »
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Benjamin Franklin is one of our best-known and most beloved founders. His sister, not so much. More »
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Today in obligatory tangential Royal Wedding news: St. Andrews, where the pair met, has a collection of ancient sex toys. More »
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Buzzfeed calls our attention to this gallery of before-and-after images of vintage pin-up ladies — proving women have been retouched in photos, paintings, and advertisements long before Photoshop came into our lives. In this era, artists were "fixing" imperfections on their models with an actual paintbrush. More »
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My class read Clan Of The Cave Bear in fifth grade. I'm not sure why — was it part of English? History? Sex ed? What I do know is that it was vivid, and steamy, and taught us a gesture that meant, "You, on your knees for fornication. Now." More »
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This gown worn by famous actress Ellen Terry for her 1888 portrayal of Lady Macbeth was covered in all-natural sequins: 1000 jewel beetle wings. (Don't worry, the insects shed them.) Recently restored at a cost of £50,000 and 1,300 painstaking hours, the gown is now on display at Smallhythe Place, Kent. More »
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This instrument of torture was known as a "scold's bridle," a device used on "rude, clamorous woman" in the workhouses through the early 19th Century. Oh, and in case the iron mask isn't bad enough, "this example has a bell on top to draw even more attention to the wearer, increasing their humiliation." More »
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Click to enlarge. More »
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Remember how Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of rape by a woman in Georgia that one time, and suspended by the NFL for a few games? Yeah, well, let's just put that all behind us now, okay? More »
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The tagline for Bangable Dudes In History is "Dead man porn for your still beating heart." The site's a hoot, but I'm morally confused and upset by the hotness of young Josef Stalin. More »
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This 1919 photo shows a Girl Scout harvesting crops near Washington D.C. During World War I, the Woman's Land Army of America brought more than 20,000 city women to rural areas to replace male farm workers. More »
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A history textbook for Virginia fourth-graders includes the misspellings "developement," "ammendment," "seccession," "neccesary" and "seperate." It also misstates the start date of the Revolutionary War — maybe Virginia kids should just learn history from silly YouTube videos instead. More »
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Virginia officials ordered a review of U.S. history textbooks by Five Ponds Press, which are used in some Virgina classrooms, only to find that they're chock full of glaring inaccuracies, including "wrong dates and facts everywhere." More »
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Tonight, for the first time since 1378, a total lunar eclipse of a full moon falls on the winter solstice. OMFGWTFBBQ! What does it mean? More »
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An extremely addictive new Internet toy allows you to track the frequency of specific words in books going back all the way to 1500. We decided to check out how words like "depression," "ho," and "vagina" fared through the ages. More »
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