@drjostanley.bsky.social

'Sexual Histories of SASH at sea: toxic attitudes and individual women’s fightback 1850-1950.' It's not new. Read the story of abused 1860 stewardess Isabella McKenzie. lnkd.in/e6htqkFE. I've been collecting post-1910 'funny postcards' that portray such behaviour as amusing. I'm not laughing.

Comic postcard c 1950 of young woman with sailor boyfriend, about to enter the tunnel of love at a fair. Her smiling lover has brought a very big anchor, with which to secure the boat while they are in the darkness. The implication is that he will be seeking sex, but she is ignorant of this plan.

Seafarers of colour in the very heart of the British empire. I'm looking fwd to catching their story in this London exhibition and re-launch talk on Friday May 1. lnkd.in/ehgpsZup. Exhibition continues at Lloyd's Register for two weeks afterwards.

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Shoreside women, maritime males, heterosexual sex. I'm interested in the fresh angle, including trafficked Estonian barmaids, in Deborah Warner's version of Britten's opera Peter Grimes. # Royal Opera House, London, 5-28 May. lnkd.in/eZh-EChj # Catherine Phipps' blog about it at lnkd.in/eWSGUDzk.

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🌈 MUSEUMS. News for people trying to represent queer maritime pasts. Rainbow Seas in Maritime Museums has just agreed new plans for 2026: # meetings every month, alternating networking & talks # topics/speakers list now available, up to 2027. Please email me.

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Browse this special March IWD edition of the magazine SHE of Change. lnkd.in/eB7Ju6EN. On pp39-40 you will find my five tips to help us write better.🔦 This is about letting the complexity and ambiguity of life be visible 💚💚💚💚 - which AI so often omits.

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Celebrating International Women's Day, 8th March. Capt Barbara Campbell is one of the maritime inspirations. Alert! She'll be spotlit in a very interesting piece of social media on that day. Very sportingly, in 2016, she posed for the cover of my - now newly re-vamped- book on women's mar hist.

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