London's 1770s 'macaronis' wore huge wigs and shaped how Britain talked about same-sex desire

arts, ideas & societyanalysisThe Public Domain Review1770s · London, England

London's 1770s 'macaronis' wore huge wigs and shaped how Britain talked about same-sex desire

the gist

In 1770s London a new figure appeared: the macaroni, a young man with an enormous wig, painted face and dainty clothes. Macaronis took their name from the pasta, as a symbol of Italian-influenced fashion picked up on the Grand Tour. Satirical prints mocked them as effeminate and foreign. Their appearance coincided with scandalous trials for sodomy, and the stereotype became linked to same-sex desire. This brought public discussion of the subject into print culture decades before Oscar Wilde's trials.

so what

The macaroni shows how fashion, class and ideas about gender and sexuality were entangled, and how caricature shaped public attitudes.

fun fact

The song 'Yankee Doodle' mocks the colonial soldier who stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.

more on this

background

"Macaroni" (formerly spelled "maccaroni") was a pejorative term used to describe a fashionable fellow of 18th-century Britain. Stereotypically, men in the macaroni subculture dressed, spoke, and behaved in an androgynous manner. The term "macaroni" pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of high-end clothing, fastidious eating, and gambling. He mixed Continental affectations with his British nature, like a practitioner of macaronic verse (which mixed English and Latin to comic effect), laying himself open to satire.

From Wikipedia: Macaroni (fashion) (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗

see

Philip Dawe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Collet 1772, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Matthew Darly, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Public Domain Review

source: The Public Domain Review ↗

historyWikipediaclassic1336–1565 · Karnataka, India

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗