Of an age suitable for marriage, especially used to refer to a woman at the beginning of her childbearing years; nubile.
For most of recorded history in Asia, Africa, and Europe, men could be considered marriageable at 14 years and women at 12 years, although usually both parties had to be physically mature enough to consummate the marriage.
The bride is usually between 12-25 years of age, traditionally; depending on where and when the setting is, a bride 18 years of age can be seen as too young, too old, or perfectly marriageable; Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans and Ancient Hebrews, like much of Africa and South Asia today, wanted to marry their daughters off before she gave into physical temptation and had sex before she was married. Vikings, on the other hand, preferred a bride closer to age 20, in full bloom.
The groom, on the other hand, can be any age from a few years younger than the bride to roughly her age to at least a decade older than her.
Until recently, the quinceañera and sweet sixteen parties marked a young woman's entry into adulthood and marriageable age; now that so few women are married that early, both have lost some meaning and degenerated into excess.
The bride is usually between 12-25 years of age, traditionally; depending on where and when the setting is, a bride 18 years of age can be seen as too young, too old, or perfectly marriageable; Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans and Ancient Hebrews, like much of Africa and South Asia today, wanted to marry their daughters off before she gave into physical temptation and had sex before she was married. Vikings, on the other hand, preferred a bride closer to age 20, in full bloom.
The groom, on the other hand, can be any age from a few years younger than the bride to roughly her age to at least a decade older than her.
Until recently, the quinceañera and sweet sixteen parties marked a young woman's entry into adulthood and marriageable age; now that so few women are married that early, both have lost some meaning and degenerated into excess.
by Lorelili November 30, 2013
Get the marriageable mug.One of the most disturbing serial killers in history. This seemingly harmless, grandfatherly old man was a deranged child rapist and cannibal.
He was one of very few sadomasochistic serial killers and enjoyed receiving pain as much as inflicting it. He was also a religious zealot.
He attacked and raped numerous children and bragged that he'd "had children in every state". Most of his victims were handicapped or black children, easy targets.
He was convicted of torturing and murdering four-year-old Billy Gaffney and ten-year-old Grace Budd, both of whom he cannibalized. He was connected to three other murders and hundreds of rapes.
His downfall began when he sent a letter to Grace Budd's grieving parents, bragging about what he did to Gracie.
He was one of very few sadomasochistic serial killers and enjoyed receiving pain as much as inflicting it. He was also a religious zealot.
He attacked and raped numerous children and bragged that he'd "had children in every state". Most of his victims were handicapped or black children, easy targets.
He was convicted of torturing and murdering four-year-old Billy Gaffney and ten-year-old Grace Budd, both of whom he cannibalized. He was connected to three other murders and hundreds of rapes.
His downfall began when he sent a letter to Grace Budd's grieving parents, bragging about what he did to Gracie.
Albert Fish: noun, a psychopathic pervert who likes torturing, raping and murdering children and then eating their flesh. A flesh-and-blood embodiment of fairy tale monsters, a la "Hansel and Gretel"; a seemingly kind, benevolent elder who offers a child candy and turns out to be a cannibal.
In short, a legitimate reason for children not to talk to strangers.
In short, a legitimate reason for children not to talk to strangers.
by Lorelili April 08, 2010
Get the Albert Fish mug.Originally meant joyful, vibrant, and full of life.
Now it's used by ignorant (and often prejudiced) people to describe something that they don't like. It's especially common among teenage boys, who use it to look cool or to "hide" their insecurity about gay people.
Gay is now slang for a homosexual person, that is, somebody who is attracted romantically and sexually to people of their own sex.
Gay men are known as gays, while gay women are known as lesbians. And some bisexuals also identify as gay.
Up to 1 in every 10 adults is predominantly gay; everybody is somewhere in between the two extremes of heterosexual and homosexual.
Gay is only sometimes, but not always:
-Living with AIDS.
-Living a promiscuous life.
-Acting very much like the opposite gender (very masculine women and very feminine men.)(When people think of these stereotypes, they're usually thinking about transsexual people or transgender people instead. Most of these people are straight and just happen to identify as the opposite gender.)
-All about sex.
Being gay is not an illness or a perversion; it's a totally normal variation of human sexuality and it's been around for countless ages, not to mention existing in many different species of animals. In fact, heterosexuals could learn some things from gays, bisexuals, transgender people, pansexuals, asexuals, and other queer people... if they would only put their prejudice aside and look at them as people.
Gay men don't take any women from the straight men looking for a lady and vice versa with lesbians and straight women... and lesbians (and sometimes gay men) provide something exciting for the straight men and women to watch... same-sex kisses.
Gays are perfectly normal people. Their only "difference" is that they (romantically) love somebody of their own sex. Aside from the cruel prejudice that they face because of who they love, they usually are able to live wonderfully full, happy lives.
Often, gays have reclamed old derogatory terms for them as terms of affection: fag and queen for the men, dyke for the women, queer for anyone from the non-heterosexual community, etc... although they can still be used as insults by the bigoted.
Gays sometimes do imitate heterosexual gender roles (butch and femme) in their marriages (in every other way if not legal), but most do not; plenty of femmes pair up with other femmes, butches with other butches, androgyny and so forth. It's often remarkable how much their unions resemble heterosexual unions.
A man can be highly flamboyant and act and dress quite feminine, but sleeping with men is the last thing on this mind. Likewise, a man can be incredibly butch and swaggering, and yet he likes to sleep with men; being gay has to do with who you are attracted to sexually, not how masculine or how feminine you are.
Gay is not all about sex. Most gays are happy doing other things than sex. And most gays loathe the idea of molesting a child, contrary to the beliefs of ignorant people. (Almost all pedophiles are heterosexual)
And with marriage ending in so many divorces, then those in favor of marriage should be happy that there are people who want to get married and are willing to fight for that right. Gays have had to fight so much for the basic rights that straights take for granted.
Now it's used by ignorant (and often prejudiced) people to describe something that they don't like. It's especially common among teenage boys, who use it to look cool or to "hide" their insecurity about gay people.
Gay is now slang for a homosexual person, that is, somebody who is attracted romantically and sexually to people of their own sex.
Gay men are known as gays, while gay women are known as lesbians. And some bisexuals also identify as gay.
Up to 1 in every 10 adults is predominantly gay; everybody is somewhere in between the two extremes of heterosexual and homosexual.
Gay is only sometimes, but not always:
-Living with AIDS.
-Living a promiscuous life.
-Acting very much like the opposite gender (very masculine women and very feminine men.)(When people think of these stereotypes, they're usually thinking about transsexual people or transgender people instead. Most of these people are straight and just happen to identify as the opposite gender.)
-All about sex.
Being gay is not an illness or a perversion; it's a totally normal variation of human sexuality and it's been around for countless ages, not to mention existing in many different species of animals. In fact, heterosexuals could learn some things from gays, bisexuals, transgender people, pansexuals, asexuals, and other queer people... if they would only put their prejudice aside and look at them as people.
Gay men don't take any women from the straight men looking for a lady and vice versa with lesbians and straight women... and lesbians (and sometimes gay men) provide something exciting for the straight men and women to watch... same-sex kisses.
Gays are perfectly normal people. Their only "difference" is that they (romantically) love somebody of their own sex. Aside from the cruel prejudice that they face because of who they love, they usually are able to live wonderfully full, happy lives.
Often, gays have reclamed old derogatory terms for them as terms of affection: fag and queen for the men, dyke for the women, queer for anyone from the non-heterosexual community, etc... although they can still be used as insults by the bigoted.
Gays sometimes do imitate heterosexual gender roles (butch and femme) in their marriages (in every other way if not legal), but most do not; plenty of femmes pair up with other femmes, butches with other butches, androgyny and so forth. It's often remarkable how much their unions resemble heterosexual unions.
A man can be highly flamboyant and act and dress quite feminine, but sleeping with men is the last thing on this mind. Likewise, a man can be incredibly butch and swaggering, and yet he likes to sleep with men; being gay has to do with who you are attracted to sexually, not how masculine or how feminine you are.
Gay is not all about sex. Most gays are happy doing other things than sex. And most gays loathe the idea of molesting a child, contrary to the beliefs of ignorant people. (Almost all pedophiles are heterosexual)
And with marriage ending in so many divorces, then those in favor of marriage should be happy that there are people who want to get married and are willing to fight for that right. Gays have had to fight so much for the basic rights that straights take for granted.
-"Those flowers are so lovely in here! So bright and gay! Don't you think so?"
-"Yes! Quite nice to look at!"
-"Aw man, this computer is being so gay! It won't let me print!"
*Smack!*
-"Hey, what was that for?!"
-"You are being so straight!"
-"Scott... I have to tell you something very important...
-"What is it, Colin?"
-"I- I'm gay."
-"That makes two of us."
-"You are?!... Then are you comfortable knowing...?"
-"Knowing what?"
-"That I love you..."
-...
-"Scott?"
-...
-"I- I'll leave you alone if you want me to...!"
-"No, stay! Joe..."
-"Yeah?"
-..."C'mere!"
-"Yes! Quite nice to look at!"
-"Aw man, this computer is being so gay! It won't let me print!"
*Smack!*
-"Hey, what was that for?!"
-"You are being so straight!"
-"Scott... I have to tell you something very important...
-"What is it, Colin?"
-"I- I'm gay."
-"That makes two of us."
-"You are?!... Then are you comfortable knowing...?"
-"Knowing what?"
-"That I love you..."
-...
-"Scott?"
-...
-"I- I'll leave you alone if you want me to...!"
-"No, stay! Joe..."
-"Yeah?"
-..."C'mere!"
by Lorelili March 23, 2005
Get the gay mug.From the old French word for knighthood, "chevalerie", the art of being a chevalier (a knight or horseman).
This was originally a system by which mounted warriors were to act, but while service to their people is touched upon the general goal of medieval knights was not saving many a damsel in distress, devotion to God, or enforcing justice; most knights defined chivalry as warfare and obtaining fame and fortune in the name of their king(s) and without any display of cowardice in battle. In a sense, it's hardly different from joining the military for the benefits that it offers, including the money that pours in from the business of war. Chivalry was basically a boy's culture: fighting other men, riding horses, power and profit and the ability to exploit that power.
The modern notion of chivalry as courtesy to women has tenuous links to chivalry as it was originally conceived. Perhaps courtly love (coined in 1883 to describe the worship of a married noblewoman by a lowly troubadour or knight and his vow to do great deeds in her honor) influenced this notion, but courtly love is, for all intents and purposes, adultery (very dangerous to both participants) and to what extent that courtly love was ever practiced remains unknown.
This was originally a system by which mounted warriors were to act, but while service to their people is touched upon the general goal of medieval knights was not saving many a damsel in distress, devotion to God, or enforcing justice; most knights defined chivalry as warfare and obtaining fame and fortune in the name of their king(s) and without any display of cowardice in battle. In a sense, it's hardly different from joining the military for the benefits that it offers, including the money that pours in from the business of war. Chivalry was basically a boy's culture: fighting other men, riding horses, power and profit and the ability to exploit that power.
The modern notion of chivalry as courtesy to women has tenuous links to chivalry as it was originally conceived. Perhaps courtly love (coined in 1883 to describe the worship of a married noblewoman by a lowly troubadour or knight and his vow to do great deeds in her honor) influenced this notion, but courtly love is, for all intents and purposes, adultery (very dangerous to both participants) and to what extent that courtly love was ever practiced remains unknown.
Chivalry, for the most part, was the opposite of the Geneva Convention; it was all about making a profit on war. The image of an honorable knight saving a fair maiden from a dragon is not much more than sheer fantasy, and most of it seems to stem from the Victorian era; the Victorians, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, looked at the Middle Ages through rose colored glasses as an idyllic place of pre-industrial innocence, projecting their own ideals of men and women onto the knight and the damsel in distress. A real knight in shining armor was actually more like a trained assassin and the local rapist rolled into one and the damsel in distress, a helpless shrinking violet, never really existed.
by Lorelili October 09, 2011
Get the chivalry mug.1692, in Salem (now Danvers), Massachusetts, fourteen women and six men were executed on charges of witchcraft because of the antics of a group of girls and young women.
The girls, who were most likely acting and seeking attention, had been screaming hysterically, thrashing about, uttering strange sounds, and were generally acting in very aberrant ways. Owing to the already tense atmosphere of the village, people suspected witchcraft and, upon hearing the testimonies from these "possessed" girls, they were willing to follow whatever the girls said. The Puritans, as humorless and superstitious as always, were convinced that God had abandoned them.
By October of that year, nineteen people were hanged, one man was pressed to death under a board weighted with rocks, and hundreds had been jailed. It was only when the girls began accusing ministers, men, children, the wealthy... and the governor's wife of witchcraft that the authorities finally intervened and stopped the trials.
The girls, who were most likely acting and seeking attention, had been screaming hysterically, thrashing about, uttering strange sounds, and were generally acting in very aberrant ways. Owing to the already tense atmosphere of the village, people suspected witchcraft and, upon hearing the testimonies from these "possessed" girls, they were willing to follow whatever the girls said. The Puritans, as humorless and superstitious as always, were convinced that God had abandoned them.
By October of that year, nineteen people were hanged, one man was pressed to death under a board weighted with rocks, and hundreds had been jailed. It was only when the girls began accusing ministers, men, children, the wealthy... and the governor's wife of witchcraft that the authorities finally intervened and stopped the trials.
The Salem Witch Trials would probably not have gone very far had the girls named very respectable people first, but they first named outcasts, people who were already suspect by the community, such as Sarah Good (an irritable beggar) and Sarah Osborne (a bedridden old woman who rarely went to church). But soon the accused included highly unlikely people: the arrests of Rebecca Nurse (a pious, elderly matriarch, highly respected by the community) and Martha Corey (pious and respected, but skeptical about the credibility of the girls) shocked Salem; it meant that anybody could be a witch.
The youngest accused: four-year-old Dorothy Good, the daughter of Sarah Good, who probably confessed to be with her mother in jail. While spared, Dorothy lost her mother and was traumatized for the rest of her life.
Now the Salem Witch Trials are invoked to recall Joseph McCarthy's legacy or any other irrational panic that leads to scapegoats.
The youngest accused: four-year-old Dorothy Good, the daughter of Sarah Good, who probably confessed to be with her mother in jail. While spared, Dorothy lost her mother and was traumatized for the rest of her life.
Now the Salem Witch Trials are invoked to recall Joseph McCarthy's legacy or any other irrational panic that leads to scapegoats.
by Lorelili July 28, 2011
Get the Salem Witch Trials mug.A low spot, a ditch or a pit.
A low point in one's life. It can be boring, sad, or frustrating.
To mate, to fuck.
A low point in one's life. It can be boring, sad, or frustrating.
To mate, to fuck.
by Lorelili February 15, 2006
Get the rut mug.A man or woman who fights for women's issues, but usually used for women.
An obnoxious word that is built off of the word "hero", which is not native to English and etymologically unrelated to "he" and "she". "Hero", strictly speaking, is gender neutral now and "shero" specifies gender, contrary to feminist efforts to make language gender-neutral; way to shoot yourselves in the foot, feminists.
An obnoxious word that is built off of the word "hero", which is not native to English and etymologically unrelated to "he" and "she". "Hero", strictly speaking, is gender neutral now and "shero" specifies gender, contrary to feminist efforts to make language gender-neutral; way to shoot yourselves in the foot, feminists.
"Heroine" can be used in a positive way; drop the "shero" and use "heroine" to describe a strong, intelligent woman and the connotations will change. Or just use "hero" if you don't want to differentiate.
by Lorelili December 29, 2007
Get the shero mug.