Queer Bookworm

Salutations! I'm Jessica, and this is the blog of a nutty, slightly obsessive, bisexual, teenaged, feminist, fannish, internet activist. Therefore, you ought to expect lots of LGBTQ+, feminism, anti-racism, shipping, and general fandom nonsense, including but not limited to Harry Potter, Star Trek (TOS, Reboot, and DS9), Merlin, Psych, Community, Elementary, various other incarnations of Sherlock Holmes, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Homestuck, The Avengers, Doctor Who, Supernatural, cats, other assorted adorable animals and various other things which have a tendency to be shiny, squeeable and/or very, very gay. Any oppressed group I'm a member of, I'm an activist for, and any that I'm not, I try to be an ally for. Please, call me out on my bullshit whenever it occurs. I'm a seventeen year old high school graduate (skipped a grade, woohoo), and I want to be a novelist or a geneticist. Perhaps both, but probably not at the same time. I tag the shit out of everything, so 1) my blog is apparently an awesome reference point, and 2) I really won't mind if you need me to tag something for Tumblr Savior. I don't do followbacks unless you're fandom or SJ and I like what you post. If you want me to check out your blog, go ahead and ask. I might not follow you (I tried to keep the number of people I follow pretty low), but I will at the very least look at it! Currently single. ;) You can follow me on Twitter, too! I post a lot of stuff on there that never makes it here. Talk to me! I get bored easily; you can help alleviate that boredom! :D I'm most likely to be active between the hours of ten AM and ten PM, Eastern Standard Time.
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archiemcphee:

“Haenyo – The Indomitable Diving Grandmas of Jeju Island”

They call themselves haenyo (pronounced hen-yuh), which literally means sea women and the whistling sound they made preceding their exit from the depths is called sumbisori. They are representative of a centuries old tradition, one which transformed their island in to a functioning matriarchy but a way of life which today is in danger of disappearing forever.

The island of Jeju, 53 miles south of mainland Korea, lies at the watery crossroads of the Yellow and East China Seas. Diving for conch, octopus, urchin, and abalone had always taken place there but due to large taxes was never very profitable – something men would take up if there was no alternative. That was until a canny group of women in the 18th century realized that women did not, unlike their men folk, have to pay taxes. A loophole was about to become a living.

The haenyo (sometimes spelled haenyeo) do not use oxygen tanks, which would only weigh them down and make their difficult task even harder. Their black wet suits and goggles are all they need to descend to the sea floor to collect their bounty. The skills they possess serve them well now – and did so too under the Japanese occupation of the Second World War. Many haenyo became heroines of the Korean resistance movement.

Learn more about these awesome women over at Kuriositas!

Photos by DMac 5D Mark II and Baraka50

[via The Presurfer]

(via cannedebonbon)

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