Tenebrous

Tenebrous (pronounced ten-uh-bruhs)

Dark; gloomy; obscure.

1375-1425: From the late Middle English tenebrose (full of darkness, gloomy), from the Anglo-Norman tenebrous (the earlier spelling was tenebrus), from the eleventh century Old French tenebros (dark, gloomy) (which endures in modern French as ténébreux), from the Latin tenebrōsus (dark), from tenebrae (darkness, shadows).  The Latin forms may have been dissimilated from the earlier temebrai, from the primitive Indo-European root temsro- (dark), an adjective from temos- (darkness).  The adjective tenebrous indicates a high degree of darkness but not an absolute absence of light, the comparative is thus more tenebrous and the superlative most tenebrous.  Tenebrous is now a literary word valued by poets because of the relative novelty of the rhyming and is used also figuratively (as early as the 1670s it was deployed to suggest someone was “morally or mentally dark”.  Tenebrous, tenebricose & tenebrific are adjectives, tenebrity, tenebrousness & tenebrosity are nouns and tenebrously is an adverb; the noun plural is tenebrosities.  The alternative spelling is tenebrious and except in literary use, the verb tenebrize is now obsolete.

Salomè con testa del Battista (Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, circa 1608), oil on canvas by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio; 1571–1610), National Gallery, London.

Tenebrosity (darkness, gloom, obscurity) was from the early fifteenth century, tenebrious (pertaining to darkness, of a dark nature) dates from the 1590s, tenebrity (quality of being dark) was in use by at least 1792 while tenebrific (producing darkness), dating from the late 1760s, was implied in the earlier tenebrificating, recorded in 1743.  In 1818, it was reported in a London publication there was a theory darkness was not simply the absence of light, but that certain heavenly bodies (called Tenebrific Stars), emitted rays of positive darkness, which produced what commonly was called “night”.  This is how science evolves, theories existing to compete as explanations for this and that until disproved.  The early fifteenth century Tenebrer (bearer of darkness) was an epithet of Satan.  One variant which didn’t endure was recorded in the mid-seventeenth century was tenebrion (one that will not be seen by day, a lurker, a night-thief (also a “night-spirit” and “hobgoblin”)).  In Christianity, the Tenebrae is a religious service celebrated by the Western Church on the evening before or early morning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, involving the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are chanted or recited.  In fine art, the related tenebrism describes a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, with darkness a dominating feature of the image and a tenebrist is an artist applying the method.  Works in the genre are said to be tenebristic and in the late nineteenth century those painting in this manner (described usually as “in the style of Caravaggio” were called the tenebrosi; by 1959 the preferred term among art historians was tenebrism.

Illustrating the adjectival: Lindsay Lohan tenebrous (left), more tenebrous (centre) and most tenebrous (right), from Pop Magazine photo-shoot, Fall/Winter 2007.

The MOGAI

MOGAI stands for “Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments and Intersex” and is something of an omnibus term, acting as an umbrella term for sexual orientations, gender identities and intersex traits not considered “mainstream” although the very notion of “mainstream” is now a morass of cross-cutting claims, some factions demanding inclusion, others insisting on their separateness.  Whatever has been the track of MOGAI since its emergence in 2015, the original intent seems to have been one of “inclusiveness” and in that sense it’s both a logical extension of the LGBTQ+ concept and a recognition that so many categories could be identified the “extended model” (ie LGBTQQIAAOP and such) was becoming unmanageable.  Even “LGBTQ+” was in a sense counter-productive because in relegating certain letters (and thereby individuals or groups) to the “+”, there was an act of marginalization which, in the modern construct could be deemed a microaggression.  What advocates emphasize is that MOGAI exists for marginalized identities and it’s also as a kind of clearing house for novel or less recognized gender labels.  

DSM-5-TR (Text revision (2022) of DSM-5 (2013)).

In the narrow technical sense, MOGAI is a classification system but its focus on non-binary and other gender identities that are not cisgender seems to have acted to encourage the growth in the creation of categories and while some have “filled a gap”, there’s also clearly been linguistic adventurism in the same way some have been beyond imaginative in the coining of long German compound nouns and others have describe phobia despite there being no evidence of the particular fear ever having been defined as a clinical condition or even reported, a phenomenon the marvellously comprehensive Phobiapedia cheerfully acknowledges.  Whereas the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) exists to codify mental health conditions including phobias, MOGAI is just one of many list of gender identities but one which commands interest simply on the basis of numbers: it has spawned literally hundreds of entries and while some are “variations on a theme”, the breadth is striking.

The DSM contains two obviously tenebricose conditions, Social Anxiety Disorder and Seasonal Affective Disorder (a mood disorder characterized by recurrent depressive episodes that occur at particular times of the year, usually in winter), tenebrous used of the former figuratively, of the latter literally.  In a decision which may have been an agenda item on one of the editorial committee's meeting, it was decided the acronym “SAD” would be applied to Seasonal Affective Disorder (presumably on the basis it described the sadness associated with dark, wintery conditions); Social Anxiety Disorder typically is abbreviated as SoAD and the differentiation makes sense because while sadness can be associated with SoAD, it's the prime dynamic of SAD.  Multiple uses of acronyms is of course common but within the one publication it could confuse for the editors made a wise choice.  First described in 1984, SAD was included in the revision to the third edition (DSM-III-R (1987)) as a “seasonal pattern”, a modifier applied to recurrent forms of mood disorders, rather than as an independent entity.  In the DSM-IV (1994), its status as a standalone condition was changed, no longer classified as a unique mood disorder but instead a specifier (called “with seasonal pattern”) for the “recurrent major depressive disorder that occurs at a specific time of the year and fully remits otherwise”.  In the DSM-5 (2013), although there were detail changes in terminology, the disorder was again identified as a type of depression (Major Depressive Disorder with Seasonal Pattern).  The symptoms of SAD often overlap with the behaviors & mood changes noted in clinical depression, the novelty being the condition manifesting usually during the fall (autumn) & winter when temperatures and lower and the hours of sunlight fewer, the symptoms tending to diminish with the onset of spring.

A gathering of high tech, robotic lawnmowers: Four Stihl iMows of the apocalypse.

Suggested collective nouns for lawnmowers have included “graze”, “scythe”, “lawn” & “swathe” but the most evocative was the (presumably Australian) “startyafuquer” (pronounced stahrt-yuh-fuhk-ah).  Most “high tech” lawnmowers are controlled using a cell phone app but some include the feature of a user being able to create their own voice-activation command set so “startyafuquer” could be recorded as the “start command”, the obvious companion phrase being “stopyafuquer”.

While notably less common, there are those who experience SAD during the summer and in either case it’s seen more frequently in women; SAD appears to be possible at any age but is most typically suffered in the age range 18-30.  In the US, the dynamic of the condition is illustrated by the diagnosis of SAD ranging from 1.4% of the population in sunny Florida to 9.9% in often gloomy Alaska and, after some initial scepticism, the condition was accepted as legitimate by most of the profession although there has been some contradictory research.  Although in a sense SAD has for centuries been documented in the works of poets and artists, it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that structured research began and it has been linked to a biochemical imbalance in the brain prompted by exposure to reduced hours of daylight and a reduction in sunlight.  It’s thought that as the seasons go by, some experience a shift in their internal “biological clock” (circadian rhythm) which induces the mechanism to become asynchronous with their daily schedule.  Predictably, SAD appears more prevalent among those living far from the equator where the conditions in winter are exaggerated.  Seemingly paradoxically, clinicians treating SAD do in some cases recommend “outdoor activities” on the basis (1) of “confronting the problem” as is sometimes done for fears (heights, spiders etc) and (2) its frequent effectiveness in countering depression.  One popular activity suggested is gardening and while many have reported it as therapeutic, those suffering from Sponeopapaaughprosebeeanthropopcacareophobia (the phobia describing the “fear of high tech lawn mowers”) would need to be cautious in their choice and handling of equipment.   

Gender lists are however not “peer reviewed” in the traditional sense (controversial as that model of academic publishing has become) so in a sense all the categorization systems are of equal validity with users free to determine which works best for them.  That’s democratic and how a classic marketplace of ideas operates but does mean it’s a field in which most are left to make of it what they will.  It would be interesting to compare a “comprehensive list” curated by academics in the now well-populated discipline of “gender studies” with the hundreds of entries which the MOGAI community hosts.  In the most recent edition of the DSM (DSM-5-TR, 2022), while there are five sub-types of specific phobias: (1) animals, (2) the natural environment, (3) blood, injections, medical procedures and such, (4) situational types (airplanes, elevators, enclosed spaces etc) and (5) other types, officially, terms like nomophobia, coulrophobia, globophobia, arachibutyrophobia etc) are no longer accepted clinical terms used in psychiatry and instances are grouped to be diagnosed as “Specific Phobia, other type”.  Remarkably, given the frequency of use of xxx-phobia in general use, only two explicitly are mentioned in the DSM and they are not unrelated: Agoraphobia (an extreme or irrational fear of entering open or crowded places or leaving one's home) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SoAD or Social anxiety).

The MOGAI community's lists of gender types are an invaluable resource but can be challenging for those suffering Albumistaphobia (the phobia describing the “fear of lists”).

Still, even if many of MOGAI’s entries might not survive an academic cull, there would be gender theorists or activists who might acknowledge the entire set because a syndrome need not be widespread to be defined as such: a single case can establish the diagnosis.  Word nerds too must have been impressed by the diversity and intricacy (if not always the grammar and spelling) because MOGAI definitions can also be mapped onto specific systems or sets of labels, such as the Celestial Gender System (based on celestial bodies) or the Restaurant System (based on restaurants and eateries).  What that has meant is that as well as serious contributions, the MOGAI community has seen the creation of new labels of dubious practical validity which, like some alleged phobias, clearly exist just because their creation was possible and fun.  Those schooled in labelling theory might also be interested because, once created and vested with the “validity” of appearing in a “gender list” on the internet, a label can gain some gravitational pull and convince readers they’ve just discovered their “true gender” identity or identities.  As patients can create the diagnosis, so the diagnosis can create the patient.

Xenogender

A xenogender identity is one in which a person's gender is connected to an aesthetic or sensory experience.  It is non-binary and applies concepts beyond traditional male, female or androgynous categories to describe a gender that cannot be contained by traditional human understandings of gender.  Xenogender claims to be all-encompassing and is this positioned as an umbrella term for identities related to abstract sources like animals, plants, concepts and imaginary or inanimate objects; the linkages need not in any way be literal or concrete and can be simply a device people use to best articulate how their gender “feels” (or “appears” for those who view themselves from beyond their own physical body) to them.  Some xenogenders are used by the neurodivergent community but the essence of xenogenderism is they cannot be exclusive and thus cannot be used in an exclusionary way.

Hallowgender

Hallowgender (or Halloweengender) is an aesthetigender in which one's gender is tied closely to “the silly part of Halloween and the Halloween aesthetic” (ie it focuses on the fun rather than the dark and scary).  The first known use of hallowgender was by Tumblr user asukazepplinsoryu in 2014.

Flags of the Hallowgender.

Left to right: (1) The original hallowgender flag, designed by an anonymous user; (2) the first alternate hallowgender flag designed by Tumblr user ask-pride-color-schemes; (3) the second alternate hallowgender flag designed by Tumblr user momma-mogai-sphinx, (4) the third alternate hallowgender flag designed by Tumblr user momma-mogai-sphinx and (5) the fourth alternate hallowgender flag designed by FANDOM user WriterThatArts.  In the ecosystem of gender-diversity, flags have become a thing; the gay liberation movement's Rainbow flags are the best-known but there are banners for many non-cisgender sub-sets and other divergencies including the still much-marginalized Objectum community.  

TFS: The Tenebrous Gender System

A fork of the MOGAI community, the TGS (Tenebrous Gender System) was said to have been created by Tumblr user Hallowgender who on 12 September 2020 published a codified version; under TGS, all sub-types are in some way and to some degree connected to “darkness and gloominess”.  All are related also to other things or concepts and that some of those might stand in stark contradiction to darkness and gloominess was noted without further comment.  In a sign of the times, TGS, with seven categories, is said to be “one of the smallest gender systems” and that reflects the recent proliferation from something which for millennia usually was represented as a binary.  Each TGS category has a flag:

Tenebrariarumian: A gender that is dark, enveloping, and colorful.  It is gloomy, calming and cold.  Exemplar: Billie Eilish (b 2001).

Tenebrasian: A gender that is dark, separating, and sullen.  It is gloomy, tumultuous and warm.  Exemplar: Lindsay Lohan (b 1986).

Tenebellariumian: A gender that is flamboyant, dark, cool, and wintry. It is gloomy, calming, and freezing as well but may tend also to fluidity and can be similar to Burlesgender.  Exemplar: Kim Kardashian (b 1980).

Tenebrationisian: A gender that is masculine, toasty, calming, and similar to the sea at night.  It is gloomy, calming, and connected to anchors, boats, and summer.  Exemplar: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC, b 1989).

Tenebricosumian: A gender that is cautious, wintry, dark and comforting.  It is small, fluid, and flux.  Exemplar: Bernie Sanders (b 1941).

Tenebricumian: A gender that is icy, soft, watery and comforting. It is large, fluid, and flux.  Exemplar: Sydney Sweeney (b 1997).

Tenebrosumian: A gender that is icy, soft, electric and powerful.  It is large, fluid and flux as well.  It can be connected to lights in a city at night, blankets and snowy afternoons.  Exemplar: Jessica Simpson (b 1980).

Aesthetigender

Aesthetigender was said to have been coined in 2014 by Tumblr user curiosityismysin and the original description read: “a gender experience that is derived from, or the embodiment of, an aesthetic”; from that came the mission creep which saw the term evolve from a “standalone gender” to being an entire sub-category of MOGAI genders to the point where it is one of the largest.  The nature of the beast is such that within the rubric of aesthetigender it’s an irrelevance to try to determine where one ends and another begins and the extent of proliferation anyway made overlap inevitable.  As might be imagined, a category in which the imperative is “a gender which in some ways relates to an aesthetic” is so broad that probably all MOGAI genders could be made to fit under the umbrella, including terms that aren't obviously “aesthetically linked” because just as “everything is text”, in a sense, “everything has an aesthetic”.  That has to be right because the root of aesthetigender ultimately can be traced back to a rejection of gender as a binary and the nonbinary activist movement really began as something aesthetic before a conceptual framework was built.  The MOGAI community now lists over 600 known aesthetigenders and while some (like many entries in the phobia lists) are variants, jocular coinings or exercises in novelty, such is the breadth, there must be something for just about everyone; some illustrative examples are:

Abandoe: a gender similar to that of an abandoned house; could be dead, genderless or of themes being empty and intimidating.

Adorbian: a xenic alignment to cuteness or cute things.

Aesthetigxrl: a girl or woman who is also aesthetifluid.  Your aesthetigenders act as an overlay, affecting pronouns and desired presentation.  If the aesthetic is heavily aligned with a different gender, your gender might be obscured until the aestheticgender changes. Comes under the genderfluid umbrella. (Gxrl can be substituted with your main gender (bxy, boy, girl, xen, enby ect).

Ancientus: a gender that feels like it is becoming ancient and unused, regardless of whether it is or is not.

Animecoric: a gender related to animecore.

Antiancientius: a gender that feels like it is coming back from being ancient and unused to being new and used

Arcage: a gender that feels locked up in a coffin or mausoleum, it’s desolate and unused but can be revisited and used for a small amount of time.  It can also be related to coffins, cemeteries and Halloween.

Autumnusian: a slightly neutral gender related to autumn (fall), fallen leaves, oak trees, the smell of maples, rain, and/or the sun.

Bellusgender: a gender relating to anything beautiful to the user’s eye (can be flowers, pets etc).

Burlesgender: A gender that is ineffable, extremely hard to label, but is flamboyantly and fabulously androgynous.  It was first coined as Ziggystardustgender but changed due to this referencing a fictional character.

Camogender: a gender that’s hard to see on the outside, almost invisible, but very deep and full of meaning on the inside. Can be thick or thin but is always not what it appears to be.

Cosmiccoric: a gender that feels like you’re a cosmic entity, one with the universe, especially when meditating.

Crystalforestgender: a gender associated with both crystals and forests or that is easily described by both forests and crystals.

Demi-Smoke: a transcendental, spiritual gender roughly drifting to other genders that are unable to be foreseen or understood, shrouded in darkness within your inner visual.  Elevating through mystery and caused by a lack of inner interpretation and one’s dark emotional states.

Derkazgender: where you feel like parts of your gender are hidden or concealed in darkness.

Djender: a gender that is harsh and jagged.

Elegender: a gender up to interpretation by individuals, but in essence is an ethereal gender that is unable to be understood by either the individual or others; a gender that cannot be explained; a dainty, elegant, or delicate gender.

Estetikgender: when your gender is influenced by your current aesthetic.

Fatugender: a useless gender.

Fractigender: a gender identity characterized by different genders occurring with different intensities, and yet still connected (either through expression, interpretation, or being experienced simultaneously).  This identity is based on the Latin fractus (broken), perfect passive participle of frangō (break, fragment), the idea being a pattern that repeats on smaller and smaller scales, and different locations.

Genderabyssalis: a gender that is dark, deep, and abyssal.  It may be connected to darkness, dimness, and cold nights.  It can be masculine or neuter-aligned, but need not be.

Genderamburo: a gender that feels slightly scorched or burnt.

Genderardere: a gender that feels like it has been burnt/scorched, but still remains.

Genderatrum: a gender shrouded into darkness. It feels gloomy and unwelcoming, isolating itself from other genders.

Gendercalefecere: a gender that feels like it warms, and then quickly cools again.

Gendercimiterium: a gender related to graveyards.  It feels buried underneath other genders, and trapped forever more.

Genderclock: a xenogender related with time and clocks.

Gendergothica: a gender that feels Gothic or related to Gothic architecture or literature.

Gendermortes: A gender that fades into death.

Gendermortuss: A gender that feels dead or is barely clinging to life.

Gendernoir: A gender related to the noir aesthetic.

Genderplush: A gender related to teddy bears.

Gendertextus: a gender that is woven into other genders.

Icegender: A cold gender that's disconnected from emotion

Lolitagender: A gender related to Lolita fashion.

Magikavine: A gender related to the color purple, dark circus aesthetics, and magic.

Mermaidcoric: A gender related to mermaidcore.

Multioculaec: a gender related to having or wanting multiple eyes (Based off Wingphinaec).

Naufragiumgender: a gender simply abandoned.  It is similar to a shipwreck in that it just plainly disappears for a while, later to be rediscovered by advancing into the depths of gender.

Necrogender: a gender that used to exist but is now 'dead' or nonexistent.

Nightshadegender: when your gender feels ominous and dangerous if wrongly handled.

Noirgender: an aesthetic gender based on being goth.

Noxnidorian: A gender that’s related to the night and specifically the smell of the night.

Nymphetic: genders relating to the nymphet/doelette/coquette/faunlet aesthetic & fashion, without k!nk attatched

Ophthalmogender: a gender described by your own eye and its characteristics at some point.

Opscugender: a dark, murky gender, hard to describe or see.

Pastelgothcoric: a gender related to pastel gothcore, or just pastel goth in general!

Petrichic: a xenic-alignment with rain, storms, and water.

Pictogender: a gender that can only be described through imagery. A pictogender individual might only be able to describe their gender with icons, symbols, emojis, color gradients, or some other visual.

Pinkcoric: A gender related to pinkcore.

Punque: a gender characterized by the punk aesthetic, fashion, culture, music and attitude.  Can be used as a descriptor or as a noun.

Puppetic: A xenogender related to puppets/marionettes.

Sadcoric: A gender related to sadcore

Sapphiregender: A gender that is aesthetically related to sapphires, a gender that is feminine, non-binary, and vaguely fluid.

Savmysterius: a masculine xenogender that feels shrouded in fog and is hard to define. It’s slightly fluid, golden and ancient, and draws influence from many sources, including: crystals & forests, stars & death, old gods & demons, angels and the fae.

Sexygender: a gender that is very, very sexy

Shampooium: a dermagender that feels sudsy like shampoo, and makes other genders feel healthy as well.

Shipwreckian: a gender somehow connected to shipwrecks, the deep sea, shades of blue and warm ocean waters.

Sliwarmasix: a slightly warm gender, it hovers slightly above other genders and never flares up.

Somnigender: a gender identity related to, dependent upon, or inexorably connected to a feeling of sleepiness or tiredness. Alternately, it can refer to a gender that is difficult or impossible to perceive or identify due to feelings of sleepiness or tiredness.  Not a narcolepsy/insomnia-based neurogender, just general sleepiness.

Squishyic: a xenogender related to squishies.

Starboy: A gender related to boasting, cyberpunk, and crime.

Tenebric: a gender that feels cold and dark; it smells of moss and nature.

Traumacoric: A gender related to traumacore.

Urbisgender: a gender built like a city, composed of many, many parts that all function to help one another; full of many small parts and things to discover.

Vampcoric: a coric gender related to vampirecore.

Wanderlust Gender: a labyrinthine, eerie gender that’s impossible to navigate or map, but which causes no anxiety.  This gender is fun to explore even if it’s easy to get lost in.

Windowgender: a gender feeling like the space between the glass and the screen of the window thus either a free-flowing gender or for those who feel their genders are transparent!

Wingphinaec: a gender related to wings or having wings!

Witchcoric: a xenogender related to witchcore.

Xenoirgender: A gender based in emo, scene and other offshoots of goth.

Zombiecoric: a masculine, feminine or neutral gender based around zombiecore; feels decayed & dark, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Velvet

Velvet (pronounced vel-vit)

(1) A fabric fashioned from silk with a thick, soft pile formed of loops of the warp thread either cut at the outer end or left uncut.

(2) In modern use, a fabric emulating in texture and appearance the silk original and made from nylon, acetate, rayon etc, sometimes having a cotton backing.

(3) Something likened to the fabric velvet, an allusion to appearance, softness or texture,

(4) The soft, deciduous covering of a growing antler.

(5) In informal use (often as “in velvet” or “in the velvet”), a very pleasant, luxurious, desirable situation.

(6) In slang, money gained through gambling; winnings (mostly US, now less common).

(7) In financial trading, clear gain or profit, especially when more than anticipated; a windfall profit.

(8) In mixology, as “Black Velvet”, a cocktail of champagne & stout (also made with dark, heavy beers).

(9) A female chinchilla; a sow.

(10) An item of clothing made from velvet (in modern use also of similar synthetics).

(11) In drug slang, the drug dextromethorphan.

(12) To cover something with velvet; to cover something with something of a covering of a similar texture.

(13) In cooking, to coat raw meat in starch, then in oil, preparatory to frying.

(14) To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.

1275–1325: From the Middle English velvet, velwet, veluet, welwet, velvette, felwet veluet & veluwet, from the Old Occitan veluet, from the Old French veluotte, from the Medieval Latin villutittus or villūtus (literally shaggy cloth), from the classical Latin villus (nap of cloth, shaggy hair, tuft of hair), from velu (hairy) and cognate with French velours.  The Latin villus is though probably a dialectal variant of vellus (fleece), from the primitive Indo-European wel-no-, a suffixed form of uelh- (to strike).  Velvet is a noun, verb & adjective, velvetlike & velvety are adjectives, velveting & velveted are verbs & adjective; the noun plural is velvets.

The noun velveteen was coined in 1776 to describe one of first the imitation (made with cotton rather than silk) velvets commercially to be marketed at scale; the suffix –een was a special use of the diminutive suffix (borrowed from the Irish –in (used also –ine) which was used to form the diminutives of nouns in Hiberno-English).  In commercial use, it referred to products which were imitations of something rather than smaller.  The adjective velvety emerged in the early eighteenth century, later augmented by velvetiness.  In idiomatic use, the “velvet glove” implies someone or something is being treated with gentleness or caution.  When used as “iron fist in a velvet glove”, it suggests strength or determination (and the implication of threat) behind a gentle appearance or demeanor.  “Velvet” in general is often applied wherever the need exists to covey the idea of “to soften; to mitigate” and is the word used when a cat retracts its claws.  The adjective “velvety” can be used of anything smooth and the choice between it and forms like “buttery”, “silky”, “creamy” etc is just a matter of the image one wishes to summon.  The particular instance “Velvet Revolution” (Sametová revoluce in Czech) refers to the peaceful transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from in late 1989 in the wake of the fall of Berlin Wall.  Despite being partially in the Balkans, the transition from communism to democracy was achieved almost wholly without outbreaks of violence (in the Balkans it rare for much of note to happen without violence).

Ten years after: Lindsay Lohan in black velvet, London, January 2013 (left) and in pink velour tracksuit, Dubai, January 2023 (right).

The fabrics velvet and velour can look similar but they differ in composition.  Velvet historically was made with silk thread and was characterized by a dense pile, created by the rendering of evenly distributed loops on the surface.  There are now velvets made from cotton, polyester or other blends and its construction lends it a smooth, plush texture appearance, something often finished with a sheen or luster.  A popular modern variation is “crushed velvet”, achieved by twisting the fabric while wet which produces a crumpled and crushed look although the effect can be realized also by pressing the pile of fabric in a different direction.  It’s unusual in that object with most fabric is to avoid a “crumpled” look but crushed velvet is admired because of the way it shimmers as the light plays upon the variations in the texture.  The crushing process doesn’t alter the silky feel because of the dense pile and the fineness of the fibers.  Velour typically is made from knit fabrics such as cotton or polyester and is best known for its stretchiness which makes its suitable for many purposes including sportswear and upholstery.  Except in some specialized types, the pile is less dense than velvet (a consequence of the knitted construction) and while it can be made with a slight shine, usually the appearance tends to be matte.  Velour is used for casual clothing, tracksuits & sweatshirts and it’s hard-wearing properties mean it’s often used for upholstery and before the techniques emerged to permit vinyl to be close to indistinguishable from leather, it was often used by car manufacturers as a more luxurious to vinyl.  The noun velour (historically also as velure & velours) dates from 1706 and was from the French velours (velvet), from the Old French velor, an alteration of velos (velvet) from the same Latin sources as “velvet”.

US and European visions of luxury: 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman in velour (top left), 1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham in leather (top right), 1978 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 in velour (bottom left) & 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 in leather (bottom right).  Whether in velour or leather, the European approach in the era was more restrained. 

In car interiors, the golden age of velour began in the US in the early 1970s and lasted almost two decades, the increasingly plush interiors characterized by tufting and lurid colors.  Chrysler in the era made a selling point of their “rich, Corinthian leather” but the extravagant velour interiors were both more distinctive and emblematic of the era, the material stretching sometimes from floor to roof (the cars were often labeled “Broughams”).  The dismissive phrase used of the 1970s was “the decade style forgot” and that applied to clothes and interior decorating but the interior designs Detroit used on their cars shouldn’t be forgotten and while the polyester-rich cabins (at the time too, on the more expensive models one’s feet literally could sink into the deep pile carpet) were never the fire-risk comedians claimed, many other criticisms were justified.  Cotton-based velour had for decades been used by the manufacturers but the advent of mass-produced, polyester velour came at a time when “authenticity” didn’t enjoy the lure of today and the space age lent the attractiveness of modernity to plastics and faux wood, faux leather and faux velvet were suddenly an acceptable way to “tart up” the otherwise ordinary.  At the top end of the market, although the real things were still sometimes used, even in that segment soft, pillowy, tufted velour was a popular choice.

1989 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D'Elegance in velour (left) and a "low-rider" in velour (right).  The Cadillac is trimmed in a color which in slang came to be known as "bordello red".  Because of changing tastes, manufacturers no longer build cars with interiors which resemble a caricature of a mid-priced brothel but the tradition has been maintained (and developed) by the "low-rider" community, a sub-culture with specific tastes. 

At the time, the interiors were thought by buyers to convey “money” and the designers took to velour because the nature of the material allowed so many techniques cheaply to be deployed.  Compared with achieving a similar look in leather, the cost was low, the material cost (both velour and the passing underneath or behind) close to marginal and the designers slapped on pleats, distinctive (and deliberately obvious) stitching and extra stuffing, the stuff covering seats, door panels, and headliners, augmented with details like tufting (recessed) buttons, grab-handles and chrome accent pieces (often anodized plastic).  By the 1980s, velour had descended to the lower-priced product lines and this was at a time when the upper end of the market increasingly was turning to cars from European manufacturers, notably Mercedes-Benz and BMW, both of which equipped almost all their flagships destined for the US market with leather and real wood although the cloth was more common in Europe.

The Velvet Underground with Nico (Christa Päffgen; 1938–1988) while part of Andy Warhol’s (1928-1987) multimedia road-show The Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966-1967 and known briefly as “The Erupting Plastic Inevitable” or The Exploding Plastic Invisible).  Unusually, the acronym EPI never caught on.

The (posthumously) influential US rock band The Velvet Underground gained their name from a book with that title, published in 1963, the year before their original formation although it wouldn’t be until 1965 the band settled on the name.  The book was by journalist Michael Leigh (1901-1963) and it detailed the variety of “aberrant sexual practices” in the country and is notable as one of the first non-academic texts to explore what was classified as paraphilia (the sexual attraction to inanimate objects, now usually called Objectum Sexuality (OS) or objectum romanticism (OR) (both often clipped to "objectum")).  Leigh took a journalistic approach to the topic which focused on what was done, by whom and the ways and means by which those with “aberrant sexual interests” achieved and maintained contact.  The author little disguised his distaste for much about what he wrote.  The rock band’s most notable output came in four albums (The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), White Light/White Heat (1968), The Velvet Underground (1969) & Loaded (1970)) which enjoyed neither critical approval nor commercial success but by the late 1970s, in the wake of punk and the new wave, their work was acknowledged as seminal and their influence has been more enduring than many which were for most of the late twentieth century more highly regarded.

Gay

Gay (pronounced gey)

(1) Of a happy and sunny disposition (now rare except for historic references although "gay" is sometimes used in this sense when some mischievous ambiguity is sought).

(2) Given to or abounding in social or other pleasures (probably obsolete except for historic references).

(3) Of relating to, or exhibiting sexual desire or behavior directed toward a person or persons of one's own sex (homosexual); technically gender and sex-neutral but use tends now to be restricted to males.

(4) Of, indicating or supporting same-sex interests or issues.

(5) Slang term among certain classes of youth for something thought bad or lame; use now frowned upon in polite society.

1275-1325: From the Middle English gay, from the Old French gai (joyful, laughing, merry), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (impetuous, lively), from the Gothic gaheis (impetuous), merging with earlier Old French jai (merry) and Frankish gāhi, both from the Proto-Germanic ganhuz and ganhwaz (sudden).  Origin was the primitive geng or ǵhengnh (to stride, step”), from ǵēy or ghey (to go), cognate.  Word was cognate with Dutch gauw (fast, quickly) and the Westphalian Low German gau and gai (fast, quick) which became the German jäh (abrupt, sudden), familiar in the Old High German gāhi.  There is alternative view, promoted by Anatoly Liberman, that the Old French gai was actually a native development from the Latin vagus (wandering, inconstant, flighty) as in French gaine (sheath).  The meaning "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree" existed from the beginning but "wanton, lewd, lascivious (though without any suggestion of homosexuality) had emerged at least by 1630 and some claim it can be traced back to the work of English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400).  The word gay has had various senses dealing with sexual conduct since the seventeenth century. Then, a gay woman was a prostitute, a gay house a brothel and, a gay man was a womanizer.  Gay is a noun, verb, adjective & adverb, gayness & gaiety are nouns, gayify is a verb and gayest is an adjective; the noun plural is gays.  Irregular forms like gaydar or gaynessness are coined as required but in many cases, use of some outside the gay (or in certain cases the the broader LGBTQQIAAOP community) is socially proscribed.

A brief history of gay

Hillman Minx, 1955 (Rootes Corporation).  "Go gay" was an advertising slogan and not an editorial imperative; at this time, advertising was carried on the covers of magazines.  It was not until the 1960s that the relationship between cover photography and the news-stand sales of magazines became better understood.

There’s a widespread perception that gay shifted meaning from describing happy folk or events to a chauvinistic assertion of group identity as an overtly political act dating from the late 1960s.  The specific use actually dates from the 1920s, the years immediately after the First World War when first it appeared as an adjective.  It was used thus by Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) in Miss Furr & Miss Skeene (1922), becoming widespread in certain circles in US cities by the late 1930s.  Academic literature picked this up and reports of gay as slang began to be cited in psychological journals in the late 1940s.  Later, archivists found the term gay cat existed as early as 1893 among itinerants in north-east American cities and the use clearly persisted, attested to in Erskine's 1933 dictionary of Underworld & Prison Slang.  Nothing is known about the author of this work and the name N. Erskine may be a pseudonym, one assumption being he had served time in prison.  Within the community, those “in the linguistic know” certainly made use of “gay” in the modern sense well before the 1960s.  The troubled English mathematician Dr Alan Turing (1912–1954) spent time in the US (taking his PhD at Princeton University (1936-1938)) and it may have been there he, by some path, became acquainted with the re-purposing.  Whether it was part of his general speech (at least is some circles) isn’t recorded but in 1951 he wrote a “short story” (three pages of which still exist) in which appeared: “Now that his paper was finished he might justifiably consider that he had earned another gay man, and he knew where he might find one who might be suitable.”  There is though little to suggest that in the early post-war years “gay” in that sense was widely used outside the US with “homosexual” still the prevalent term although it seems between gay man, it wasn’t uncommon for them to reclaim “queer”, then otherwise a gay slur.

Admiring glance: Lindsay Lohan (right) during her "L" phase with former special friend Samantha Ronson (left). 

It wasn’t gay’s first fluidity in meaning; for centuries it’d been used in reference to various flavors of sexual conduct, ranging from female prostitutes to womanizing(!) men, all while the traditional use continued in parallel.  The most recent shift, essentially an appropriation for political purposes, ended the duality and has become so entrenched this may be final.  This final shift began in the late 1960s and quickly won the linguistic battle, use of gay in the new sense being common, though not universal, throughout the English-speaking world within a decade.  Other things changed too, some quickly, some not.  When in 1974 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued the seventh printing of second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II (1968)), they (sort of) de-listed homosexuality as a mental disorder although it wasn't wholly removed the publication of until the DSM-III in 1980; legislative changes unfolded over many decades.  One practical effect of removing homosexuality from the DSM's list of mental disorders was that overnight, tens of millions of people instantly were "cured", a achievement which usually would gain someone the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Flying the rainbow flag: Members of Gay Men Fighting AIDS with their pink SPG, London for Pride Parade, 24 June 1995.

In service with both the British and Indian armies variously between 1965-2016, Vickers built 234 of the FV433 "Abbot" 105 mm Self-Propelled Gun (SPG) Field Artillery vehicles, using the existing FV430 platform with the addition of a fully-rotating turret.  The factory project code (and informal military designation) was “Abbot”, in the World War II (1939-1945) British tradition of using ecclesiastical titles for self-propelled artillery (following the Bishop, Deacon & Sexton).  The official model name was “L109” but to avoid confusion with the US-built 155 mm “M109” howitzer, 144 of which also entered British Army service in 1965, this rarely was used.  While the sight of a cluster of gay men atop a pink SPG might have frightened a few, the thought of one in the hands of a pack of lesbians truly is terrifying.    

LGBTQQIAAOP: The Glossary: The generally accepted oral shorthand used to be “LGBT” but any truncation can suggest issues around the politics of hierarchy and exclusion.  The modern practice seems to be to use variations of “LGBTQI plus” (often written as LGBTQI+).

L: Lesbian: Women attracted only to women.

G: Gay: Men attracted only to men (historically gay can used to describe homosexual men and women but modern convention is still to use lesbian for women although many lesbians self-describe as gay).

B: Bisexual: A person attracted to both sexes.

T:Transgendered: A person who has or is transitioning to the opposite sex, as they were born as the wrong sex, in the wrong body.  The most obvious category to illustrate sex and gender are not synonymous.

Q: Queer: A non-heterosexual person who prefers to call themselves queer.  Often used by those in the queer art movement, especially by those who maintain there is a distinct queer aesthetic.  Queer used to be a term of disparagement directed at certain non-heterosexuals but (like slut in another context), became a word claimed and re-purposed.

Q: Questioning: Someone questioning their sexual orientation, either unsure of which gender to which they’re attracted or not yet ready to commit.

I: Intersex: Anyone anywhere on the spectrum which used to be defined by the term hermaphrodite.  Intersex is now the accepted term and hermaphrodite should be used only where necessary in the technical language of medicine.

A: Asexual: A person not sexually attracted to anyone or anything (sometimes styled as aromantic).

A: Allies: A straight person who accepts and supports those anywhere in the LGBTQQIAAOP range(s).

O: Objectum: A person attracted to an inanimate object.  Curiously, despite being the only category which, by definition, can't harm another, objectum is now the most controversial entry on the spectrum.

P: Pansexual: A person attracted to a person because of their personality; sex and gender are both irrelevant.

One amusing footnote in the history of matters LGBTQQIAAOP is the persistent urban myth Queen Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901) prevailed on the government not to include women under the provisions of “Gross Indecency contrary to Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885” because she didn’t believe there was anyone lesbionic in the world (or at least the British world).  The 1885 act (the so-called Labouchere Amendment) criminalised “gross indecency” between men, whether in public or private and replaced an earlier statute which since 1533 explicitly had criminalized “the detestable and abominable vice of buggery”; that evocative phrase (usually as “the abominable crime of buggery”) in some parts of the old British Empire remaining on the books for many decades and in England & Wales, as late as 1861, a conviction could attract the death penalty although this was thought so onerous a punishment for what was often a consensual act that prosecutions became rare.  For the state, the problem was the old law had been so specific and if the prosecution could not beyond reasonable doubt prove anal sex had happened between at least two “male persons”, a conviction couldn’t be secured.  Thus the attraction of the phrase “Gross Indecency” which covered the whole vista of “unnatural caresses” and it was under the new law Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was tried and convicted, receiving a sentence of two years.

Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas (1870–1945, left) and Oscar Wilde (1854–1900, right) in sepia, London, 1893.

It seems only to have been in the late 1960s the “Queen Victoria didn’t believe lesbians existed” story appeared in print when it was reported as “campus student lore” and it first attracted wide publicity when, during a lesbian rights demonstration in Wellington, New Zealand in 1977, protestors draped a statue of Victoria with a banner reading: “Lesbians Are Everywhere”.  No evidence (parliamentary records, government papers, royal correspondence etc) has ever emerged to suggest she was ever consulted about the matter or attempted to “warn, counsel or advise” and that’s in accordance with British constitutional law in which the monarch possesses no “line-item power of veto”; no king or queen had since the early eighteenth century withheld royal assent to a act.  While it was true Victoria did on occasion try to influence things (by threatening to abdicate), her interest was piqued by great matters of state or foreign affairs, not the details of criminal law, especially if something she’d likely have thought distasteful.  Historians have concluded lesbians were not included in the 1885 act because male politicians and churchmen (1) believed women were unlikely to engage in such acts and (2) if they did it didn’t really matter because it was just something women did.  Victorian legislators were more anxious about the threat of male homosexuality to patriarchal structures, military, and public schools.

The Illustrated Police News reports the final Wilde trial, 4 May 1895.

There were though many judges and politicians who, drawing on classical literature and other sources, were aware of the long history of female same-sex activity but it does seem to have been thought an “upper class” thing of the drawing room set and thus less of a concern to the law, the argument being criminalising lesbianism would risk drawing attention to it and encouraging it among those “not of the better classes”.  However, in 1921 the House of Commons did vote to add women to the act because of the moral panic around the so-called “Black Book”, compiled during World War I (1914-1918) by the German espionage service which listed the names of thousands of “sexual perverts” (men and women).  Fearing the subjects may be subject to blackmail and thus a threat to national security the government decided to discourage such acts but the House of Lords rejected the bill, deciding that to acknowledge sapphism in statute was at some level to legitimize it in cultural discourse; their lordships thought it might give women ideas, never something of which men much approve.

Tread-wheel and oakum-shed, City Prison, Holloway.

The “Gross Indecency” provision was called the Labouchère Amendment because it was introduced (apparently as an afterthought) by Liberal Party MP Henry Labouchère (1831–1912) during the late stages of debate on the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.  As originally envisaged, the act primarily was concerned with raising the age of consent (from 13 to 16) and tackling child prostitution with Mr Labouchère adding his clause as a proposed amendment during the second reading (the substantive debate) after agreement mostly had been reached.  The wording of Labouchère’s amendment was clever in that it was an early example of “fuzzy law”, a vague, catch-all provision which, by not descending to specifics (such as explicitly listing “the detestable and abominable vice of buggery”) allowed to state to prosecute any conduct between men much beyond a handshake; to the many moralists in the state, it was delightfully vague with the additional attraction of not demanding much evidence to secure a conviction.

Truth, 10 February, 1937.

Henry Labouchère was described as “a paradoxical Victorian figure: a radical in some respects, yet profoundly reactionary in others, a defender of democracy and free speech yet the man who authored the repressive law used to persecute Oscar Wilde.”  That is however a modern view and on matters of personal sexual morality, the “small l liberals” of the nineteenth century probably tended to be as conservative as many of the era.  Also, there’s nothing novel about individuals holding apparently disparate views, Arthur Calwell (1896-1973; Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader of the opposition 1960-1967) in his memoir (Be Just and Fear Not (1972)) writing of one colleague: “…he was left-wing on some issues and right-wing on others, just as many men are.”  Labouchère was in this vein, backing causes such as republicanism, extending the franchise, Irish Home Rule, opposition to the monarchy’s lavish spending, and anti-imperialism while being deeply prejudiced in other fields: he was anti-Semitic, homophobic and a puritanical moralist who helped entrench one of the harshest anti-homosexual laws in modern Europe.  He may also have had a financial interest, being the founder and editor of the popular weekly newspaper Truth, which specialised in muckraking exposés of corruption, quackery and hypocrisy.  The Truth often featured articles concerned with sexual “immorality” and giving the police scope to “scoop up” men performing “gross indecencies” upon each other would have provided much juicy content.