Anise K. Strong

@anisekstrong

Roman historian at W. Mich U. specializing in gender, sexuality, & their reception in tv, music videos, games, & film. she/hers/ista Mom of 3. Avid baker & traveler. Antifascist. Always learning from unusual niche subject experts. Opinions are my own.

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Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· 28d

Well, now I have a new concern about Nolan's #Odyssey & a new picture to show my students in History and Film when I explain the effect of racist lighting techniques alongside the shot from #Glory, in which Washington, Freeman, and Braugher appear to have the same difficult-to-distinguish skin tone

Nolan's Odyssey stars in Paris photo call, where Lupita Nyong'o (Helen/Clytemnestra), is literally almost indistinguishable while Hathway, Damon, and Zendaya are beautifully lit.

Group shot from Glory (1989) paired with photos of Denzel Washingon, Morgan Freeman, and Andre Braugher.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· 28d

For all my archaeologist, ancient studies, and anthropologist friends, from the Meow Wolf Omega Mart installation in Las Vegas:

A weird supermarket sign reading Cereal, Adult Cereal, Surreal, Other, Snacks, Candy, ASKsDSF, and Ritual Goods

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 13

I wonder if the American beer joke translates well to Norwegian....

From Zohran Mamdani, on the bus to the World Cup. Norwegian fan: "Ro!" Mamdani: "That's a lonely ro..." Norwegian fan: "It's a canoe."

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 8

It's the Asterion-izing of Greek myth phenomenon:

Adorable baby minotaur as drawn by mythoworldddd

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 8

Well, I suppose this is a form of classical reception. @antiquitymedia.bsky.social

Build-a-Medusa-Bear, known as a "Lovable Legend."

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 7

Now _this_ is Euripides' Helen. [Context for non-classicists: Euripides adapts the common alternate myth in which Helen never goes to Troy, but stays in refuge in Egypt for 10 years while a magic simulacrum takes her place in Troy.] Lupita Nyong'o is serving some lovely Nefertiti/Kore fusion here.

Lupita Nyong'o doing press for Nolan's Odyssey, with her hair upswept Nefertiti-style to emphasize her ridiculously beautiful swan-like neck.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 4

Celebrating the 250th Fourth of July w/ an all-American afternoon tea party w/ my daughter in Las Vegas, featuring apple caramel turnovers, cranberry pecan chicken sandwiches, blueberry scones with strawberry jam, & pesto parmesan madeleines, & wishing the best to our Canadian Loyalist cousins.

Mother and daughter with a 3-tier tea tray for the all-American afternoon tea at Cobblestone Cottage, Las Vegas. Everything, according to the 10YO, is "very fancy."

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 2

In premodern terms, "built like Adonis" = not actually that muscular!

Carradini's 17th century sculpture of a sleeping Adonis, narrow-shouldered and not that full of abs.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 1

Happy St. Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Day!

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jul 1

Tomorrow, I will post more about my visit to Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and my analysis of it as a work of classical reception (scholarship that hasn't been updated in 20 years or so!) But in the meanwhile, I give you this teaser. It is still 20X more classy than the Trump Temu Arch.

The facade to the opening gate of the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas, a "marble column" edifice with a Latin inscription reading "Vive Diu Et Prospera."

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 30

I have always enjoyed visiting the actual Indiana Jones props at the Indianapolis Children's Museum, where they for obvious reasons don't include any of the Nazi stuff.

Indiana Jones diary, golden idol, and sand bag, with the caption "It belongs in a museum!"

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 22

Adorable Best Friending of the Day!

Blue-eyed huskador puppy crades pink-haired child in her paws.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 21

I had not expected Hades II to be prognosticating the future, I will admit!

Narcissus of Hades II stares into the increasingly murky green water, refusing to give his gifts any more because he isn't appreciated enough.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 20

Sadly, Cosmo remains more of a space dog than a lake dog.

A blue-eyed husky labrador puppy sits patiently on a green lawn as the sun sets gloriously on the lake behind her..

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 19

It's intriguing to think about this in the LLM era: Aaron Rich's article on Hollywood's research libraries' approach to recreating ancient Rome suggests the precise lack of differentiation between expert knowledge & popular stereotypes that leads to complaints: online.ucpress.edu/representati...

When Quo Vadis director Mervyn LeRoy described the function of
research departments, he said that their job was ‘‘to catalogue everything
that might be needed for the picture.’’30 This explanation points to the key
antiquarian element of visual research in Hollywood in which taxonomic
sources were mixed with imaginative and narrative representations of the
world. For Quo Vadis, all visual materials were treated with an equivalent
understanding, regardless of whether they derived from actual objects, as in
the case of the many images from Montfaucon, or from narrative depictions
of Rome created in later periods, such as the paintings by G´eroˆme and
Alma-Tadema. For a craft worker designing or building the visual space of
a film, the veracity of the original sources did not matter. Hollywood studios
were more concerned with finding creative ways to produce the most believable film, one that would tell a story that would appeal to the audience.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 19

Physics/archery/swimming experts: I'm not an expert but would it be accurate to say this scene from the 1955 film Jupiter's Darling, in which the Carthaginian villain uses his bow to shoot Esther Williams' Roman girl underwater in a shipwreck is fairly implausible? www.youtube.com/watch?v=upbf...

Mago the Carthaginian, swimming underwater, nocking an arrow in his bow. Jupiter's Darling, 1955.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 17

I've been delaying writing this analysis for weeks because, while highly useful, I find Delmar Daves' script notes on how to "improve" the character of Messalina in the 1954 film Demetrius and the Gladiators so deeply squicky & also indicative of contemporary attitudes.

“She seems too masculine in her drive, attitudes, and methods. Actually, historically, she is probably only 17 years old at the time of our story! However, we may presume she has been a pretty naughty young lady since her thirteenth birthday, and in the atmosphere of Caligula’s court (where she would see the courtesans from the palace brothel every day) she would be sexually mature and aware… To me, there is much more evil in a sexually precocious child than in a too-worldly woman…I feel that she constantly has everything too well in hand, that she is the counterpart (today) of the very efficient, though sexy, female executive! I think she needs more girl-woman handling, even though some of the “girl” quality reveals the shocking sadism of a child who pierces flies with pins, who would enjoy the sight of a stranger bleeding to death.” -- Delmar Daves, script notes, Jan 9th, 1953, Stanford Library Research Collections.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 16

From my cousin @nataliekeyssar.bsky.social's coverage of Trump's party _on Flag Day_ for NBCNews, the treatment of the flag by Mr. Pirate Hat is a vivid demonstration of how little these MAGAts actually respect or revere our nation. Another guy, meanwhile, is wrapping "MetaAI" ribbon on his arms.

4 White men on mostly dead grass at Trump's Birthday Party/Flag Day celebration. The man on the left, wearing a "Pirate's Life For Me" hat, has the American flag crumpled up into a mess in his hand. The guy on the ground is wrapping "MetaAI" ribbon around his arms.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 14

A really cool tombstone(s) without a name in the old Stowe cemetery.

A cairn of stones cemented to each other in the Stowe, VT cemetery.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 12

Well, this Odyssey popcorn bucket will make a fun die roller to match w/my Colosseum bucket, if remarkably ill-suited for its intended function. Are the Greeks stacked on top of each other like a cheerleading pyramid? Who Gets To Be The Head? (Obvs Agamemnon wants it, but..) Is Philoctetes the arse?

A plastic rearing wooden horse with popcorn spilling out of its open abdomen. The Official Nolan Odyssey Popcorn Bucket.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 11

Roman-bro fantasies swing thru Western imperialist cultures every ~25 years. Every time they are undermined b/c the very media intended to promote a narrow militaristic Christian abs-focused masculinity "accidentally" makes Sexy Empresses & Campy Emperors the most fun chars. See forthcoming book.

Nero (Peter Ustinov), the Empress Poppaea (Patricia Laffan), and courtiers examine Nero's model of a New Rome, based heavily on the Gismondi/Mussolini model, in Quo Vadis (1951, MGM, DeMille).

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 8

I could point out here that #Spartacus was a Zionist and Communist and antifascist allegory, but honestly, I'd rather just post what the actual clear future that Rama Duwaji wants is, because she's a talented artist and can draw her own vision all by herself:

Opening shot of Spartacus (1960, Kubrick) showing Roman legionaries guarding long lines of enslaved miners.

Rama Duwaji's "Ode to Grape Leaves and the Act of Rolling Them, featuring a number of modestly clad women and men as well as more casually dressed people engaged in community cultural cooking. "https://www.instagram.com/p/DIlqRmKuM2D/?hl=en

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 7

I remember being full of pity last year on Santorini where we kept encountering these hordes of folks dressed to the nines moving from one "Insta-ready" photo location to the next, never actually stopping to _look_ at or enjoy the amazing scenery or food or archaeological ruins or even go swimming.

A tiny white-painted church in a cave in the caldera of Santorini, with gorgeous blue-green water next to it. There are no humans in sight.

A luscious full fresh calamari with lemon butter sauce from a tiny out-of-the-way local seafood restaurant on Santorini.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 7

Yes! (Though credit mostly goes to my kid's History Day Project on this). The best quick primer is Bernadette Banner's video, but here's my kid's graph on the subject: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaRo...

Pocket depth over time, demonstrating that during the tie-on pocket era, women's pockets were deeper than men's, but after the incorporation of pockets into clothes women's pockets became functionally useless, with brief upticks during the suffragette era, WWII, and 1970s 2nd-wave feminism.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 6

From my colleague Del Chrol, an amazing picture of the Siena 1945 palio prize banner, preserved in the Lupa Contrada, which, well, says a lot about local attitudes!

A U.S. missile-spear impales a dragon wih swastikas on it as the dragon flees the medieval gates of Siena, from the banner given to the winners of the Siena palio in 1945 in the Lupa Contrado: https://www.siena.edu/visit/about/siena-college-palio-flags/

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 6

"Boghossian did not answer questions about how he in turn selected the participating scholars." Perhaps purely coincidentally, the 10 scholars include only 2 women & 1 Black man, when humanities & social sciences are ~50/50 by gender. The report warns against pursuing goals of "full equity."

A set of charts demonstrating different measures of diversity among published sociology, economics, and communication scholars, from the 2024 article: "Who Authors Social Science? Demographics and the Production of Knowledge
Jeffrey W. Lockhart https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1519-9588 jlockhart@uchicago.edu, Molly M. King https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9558-8622, and Christin MunschView all authors and affiliations
Volume 12, Issue 1
) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23294965241246805

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 4

Teaching Marjane #Satrapi's film Persepolis this year felt more relevant than ever. The scene that especially resonated with my students was when Marjane's grandma rebukes her for denouncing an innocent if sleazy stranger in order to protect herself from being arrested by the modesty police.

4 panels from the Persepolis comic. "The regime had understood that the person leaving her house while asking herself: "Are my trousers long enough? Is my veil in place? Can my makeup be seen? Are they going to whip me?" no longer asks herself: "Where is my freedom of thought? Where is my freedm of speech? My life, is it livable? What's going on i the political prisons?"

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 4

I'm honored to announce the Nov publication date of 1 of my 2 forthcoming articles on historical video games & sexuality, "Brothels, Buffs, & Breeding,"in Cook, Houghton, & Kempshall's all-star volume. The amazing TOC makes clear this will be my new textbook! www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

Routledge Companion to Video Games and History, with a picture from the first Civ game, picturing "Caesar" settling an empty landscape.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 4

Me: Spends 2 days carefully writing my own explication of Laura Mulvey's famous male gaze theory & subtheory of the "dismemberment of women" as subverted by 1940-60s sword-&-sandal movies & its echoes in 2000s media (See JLo's Venus razors ad) Trump Admin: Just Posts as the lead image on Moms. Gov.

A headless pregnant White Woman with long blonde hair wearing a yellow gown with wheat symbols on it stands in a wheat field while caressing her belly, with superimposed pink and blue baby footprints besides her. Her hands seem giant and oddly distorted.

Anise K. Strong@anisekstrong· Jun 1

New word of the day: Cleavagel, a specific type of jewelry sewn into earlier costumes to conceal cleavage sufficiently enough to pass the MPAA "Hays Code" Production Reviewers. Here are some examples, from Joseff's of Hollywood.