[x] I think I’ve found heaven!
-Levi
Here’s the run down…
My eye is being removed. I will have an empty cavity where it used to reside. The doctor will supply some sort of thing to fill he space from healing shut because if it heals shut there are more complications with the infection. I am secretly planning how to input some kind of steam-punk monocle thing there…
First of all, I applaud you for not freaking out about a somewhat scary thing that’s going to happen. Second, I applaud you for thinking up awesome ways to improve the lot you’ve been given in regards to your eye. Do ask your doctor about putting something in there, because you don’t want to just shove things in there.
But be sure to post pictures and message me when you do!
ATTN: EVERYONE
DRESSING LIKE A VICTORIAN-ERA SKANK IS STILL DRESSING LIKE A SKANK, EVEN IF YOU PUT A BUNCH OF SUPERFLUOUS GEARS AND COGS AND SHIT ON TOO
ACTUALLY REALLY PEOPLE DIDNT EVER WEAR SKIRTS THAT SHORT AND SHOW THAT MUCH SKIN BACK THEN FOR ANY REASON BUT WHATEVER
THAT IS ALL
The main basis of steampunk is steam-powered technology and old-style, old-world dress and tech combined with alternate history and time travel and what have ye. I think the point of steampunk is the exotic and creative yearning that it satisfies with ideas of alternate history, beautiful machines and what could have been. (steam-powered technology, let’s not forget the BASIS for all this!)
Onto steampunk fashion.
That said, steampunk is expanding, expanding fast. It’s hard to limit yourself to just Victorian England style things, with heavy layers and lots of cloth. (Even then, a lot of things people think are Victorian might actually be Edwardian or even Georgian.)
Not only does that get old and quickly, it’s also hot and impractical for people in the tropics and sub-tropics - and practicality is a huge part of steampunk. If you’re a mechanic, you don’t need a petticoat skirt. If you live in a place where you start sweating as soon as you walk outside, you don’t need stockings under a long dress layered under a corset and vest. I dress affordably and coolly in the steampunk fashion, but that doesn’t mean I’m showing off my legs adorned with a ton of cogs and gears. I rarely wear goggles anymore because I don’t feel they add to the outfit.
I will admit, I am sick to fucking death of seeing lingerie-like outfits with a ton of gears and cogs and pieces of metal dangling off of them touted as “steampunk.”
Even if it is the honest-to-goodness steampunk style, I think there’s too damn much frilly shit out the ass in the steampunk tag on tumblr. Even though bitching about it isn’t going to change anything oops
Steampunk fashion is going to keep expanding. Yeah, there are a ton of people who dress in really short skirts and tack goggles and gears and cogs onto everything and then scream “STEAMPUNK,” but face it - most steampunks went through the goggles-and-gears phase. I know I did, I’m just not ashamed to admit it. I know people who, just getting into the subculture, decked themselves out in gears and goggles and whatever and thought they were the Steamgods of the subculture. Now, the same people are looking down on the new steampunks who try to incorporate other cultures and styles into steampunk (or doing the same gluing gears and goggles on) and making nasty comments and posts about it. WTF? Are they actually trying to keep people out of the steampunk fandom?
Ugh, look, I’m rambling again. My biggest point is: with the possibility of time-travel, steampunk is no longer limited to Victorian-inspired fashion. With the subculture of steampunk spreading all over the world, steampunk is not going to remain a strictly Victorian style - if it did, that would be exclusive and impractical.
And if someone has the wrong idea of steampunk, isn’t it better to correct them gently so they don’t walk away feeling shamed, with negative feelings towards the fandom? If they don’t change, so be it. That’s their prerogative and you cannot control it.
You’d think current purist steampunks don’t want anyone joining their fandom!
And honestly, do you think a bustle skirt is practical on an airship? In a boiler room? On the docks? Some skin is going to start showing, especially for those with creative minds and really hot homeplaces. It’s time we got over it and started considering how we can creatively add to the steampunk fandom without losing the Old World touch it has.
#and thus the leviathan cried #get out i’m taking a bath #and the angel said you’ve been using up all the hot water #and smote him.
Okay… Little rant.
About steampunk and women.
Okay.
It is not fucking steampunk if you have a girl in lingerie wearing a piece of fucking metal.
Steampunk is usually set around in the era when steam and machinery was becoming increasingly popular (BIG SURPRISE). No women with a sense of class would dress in a two piece. Girls wore long dresses maybe even a skirt or two. BUT NOT A BRA AND PANTIES with metal on it. No.
That is not in the spirit of steampunk and doesn’t deserve to be there.
C’mon people.
I don’t see a “steampunk” man in underwear. Okay. Ya.
The first thing I’m going to say about women in underwear and metal - shit like that sells, and that’s why there’s a lot of it. Nope, I myself don’t like it, and I’m fairly tired of seeing it but…
Long dresses and skirts are no longer the only steampunk thing for ladies. Fusion with tribal designs, retro-futuristic styles, vintage rock looks and uniquely designed scavenger/desert wasteland styles have helped steampunk evolve along. Metal is heavily incorporated in steampunk, dur durr. Nobody at a steampunk convention would be allowed past the security section of an airport.
I’m tired of seeing the lingerie looks, true, but steampunk is evolving so much that it’s no longer confined to a single time period. One of the big things about steampunk is “time travel fantasy,” introducing quite literally a melting pot of influences that come together to make looks that are all over the place. You may see Celtic designs incorporated with South American tribal half-skirt styles and Edwardian style waistcoats. You may get a lot of skin shown, because steampunk is not just the 1890s and early 1900s in England anymore.
This article says something interesting:
“…accommodate a stew of influences, including the streamlined retro-futurism of Flash Gordon and Japanese animation with its goggle-wearing hackers, the postapocalyptic scavenger style of “Mad Max,” and vaudeville, burlesque and the structured gentility of the Victorian age. In aggregate, steampunk is a trend that is rapidly outgrowing niche status.”
I’m not sad to see variety in steampunk! If we stuck to the Victorian/Edwardian look of things, it would get old, and quickly.
So while I do think that tracking the “Steampunk” tag on Tumblr is one of the worst ideas I ever carried out, I do believe that there’s a lot more out there for it than just long dresses/skirts, and women in metal underwear.
