r/AskHistorians • u/caffarelli Moderator | Eunuchs and Castrati | Opera • Feb 04 '14

Feature Tuesday Trivia | Forgotten Day-to-Day Details

Previous weeks' Tuesday Trivias and the complete upcoming schedule.

Today’s trivia theme comes to us from /u/sarahfrancesca!

Okay, this topic is actually really interesting but it’s a bit esoteric so you’ll have to bear with me for the explanation!

What we’re looking for here is those little bits of daily life in history that no one would realize are missing from modern life. As an example, the person who submitted this said that she likes to think about how in the era before modern ballpoints and typing, people who wrote would have been walking around with ink on their hands quite a lot, whereas now our hands are very clean. What we’re basically looking for are the sorts of little asides that good historical fiction writers pop in to add verisimilitude to the story!

Next Week on Tuesday Trivia: going back to a nice simple theme: HAIR. All times, all places, all genders. Just what was doing with hair in history.

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u/gwern Feb 04 '14

As most of the men are getting up there in age there is not much time for their appearance to change significantly.

So, ah, doesn't that refute your claims about 'culturally conditioned' and whatnot? I mean, if they do not look or sound anything like their vaguely similar historical forebears, then that seems like a good reason for the stereotype to have disappeared...

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u/caffarelli Moderator | Eunuchs and Castrati | Opera Feb 04 '14

Perhaps, but in the time when eunuchs "existed" they still would have been identified as eunuchs no matter what age. People would have been actively looking for their eunuchness, and so they would see it. Every ounce of fat would have been "typical for eunuchs," a lack of blush would have been "typical of eunuchs," any emotional behavior "typical of eunuchs." They would have been made to fit an identity that doesn't exist any more.

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u/FizzPig Feb 07 '14

do you think that the stereotypes and biases against eunuchs are comparable to modern homophobic attitudes to homosexuals?

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u/caffarelli Moderator | Eunuchs and Castrati | Opera Feb 08 '14

Maybe! The comparison is not hard to draw. I have noticed (through my google alert on the words "eunuch," "castrati," etc.) that some right wingy blogs do seem to be using these words in a way that you could easily replace with the f-word or something similar, as gay slurs are now totally unacceptable as insult in political discourse. Here's a good example. But it's still essentially the same attack on masculinity.