Today I am going to tell you a story about a young girl, Louise Rasmussen, who was born in 1815. When she was 11 years old she was admitted to the Royal Theaters School of Ballet, and in 1842 she had a son. Louise was not married to the child's father, so the little boy was placed with fosterparents, and Louise went to Copenhagen to establish a fashion shop.
The child's father introduced Louise to crown prince Frederik. Frederik became King Frederik the 7th in 1848, and in 1850 he married Louise "to his right hand". That means that if they had children, they wouldn't have right of inheritance to the Danish crown. He had to do it this way, since he had already been married twice. When the two were married, Louise got the title Countess Danner.
The Danes, especially the aristocracy and the upper class, were very shocked over this marriage between the king and the daughter of an unmarried maid, so she was harassed in different ways. After the kings death in 1863 she lead a retired life.
In 1873, shortly before her death, she established the "King Frederik the Seventh's establishment for poor women of the working classes". The House was finished in 1875, and is now known as the Danner House (Dannerhuset).
Here is the Danner House anno 2008:
The Danner House contains a private, humanitarian organisation, which works for womens rights. The house is preserved, and does also contain a refuge for battered wives and their children. More than 1,000 women enquire at the Danner House every year. The House is run by 23 employes and almost 200 volunteers.
Men are not allowed in the house due to security issues.
Throughout Sweden the feast day of Lucia, or Lucy, is celebrated as a festival of lights. In the early hours of the morning of December 13 a young woman, dressed in a white gown, and wearing a red sash and a crown of lingonberry twigs and blazing candles, would go from one farm to the next carrying a torch to light her way, bringing baked goods, stopping to visit at each house and returning home by break of day. Every village had its own Lucia. The custom is thought to have begun in some of the richer farming districts of Sweden and still persists although the crowns are now mostly electric lights.
In Norway and Sweden it is still a custom on December 13 for a girl in a white dress (representing the Saint), to bring a tray of saffron buns and steaming coffee to wake the family. She is called Luciabrud (Lucy bride). In Denmark it is common to have Luciaoptog (Lucy processions) at schools, in churches, at nursing homes, in hospitals and many other places.
Lucia symbolizes light and growth for human and beast as she emerges out of the darkness. She is said to have been beheaded by the sword during the persecutions of Diocletian at Catania in Sicily. Her body was later brought to Constantinople and finally to Venice, where she is now resting in the church of Santa Lucia. Because her name means "light" she very early became the great patron saint for the "light of the body": The eyes.
Many of the ancient light and fire customs of the Yuletide became associated with her day. We find "Lucy candles" lighted in the homes and "Lucy fires" burned in the outdoors. Before the Reformation Saint Lucy's Day was one of unusual celebration and festivity because, for the people of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, she was the great "light saint" who turned the tides of their long winter and brought the light of the day to renewed victory. Today when I was going home from work I got a nice surprice. At the stairs (on my way down) I saw 20 children all dressed in white gowns, and with candles in their hands. They looked like a bunch of little angels! I stopped and gazed.
A girl, 8-9 years old, stopped me when I reached the ground floor. "You just missed the show!", she said to me. I put on my saddest face, and said, "Awww, I am sorry to hear that!" "Yes", she said, "and it was really beautiful!" At this time 5-6 of the other little angels gathered around me. I said "I am sure it was beautiful. Are you going to sing again?" The little angel patted my shoulder twice, and said to me in the saddest little voice "No, I am sorry, we are not. I feel sad for you that you missed it!" Then they all turned around and went into another room, leaving me smiling all over. She was sooo cute!
Yīn and Yáng comes from old Chinese philosofi and shows how everything work. The outer circle represents the universe. Originally the symbol was red and white, but today it is mostly showed in black and white.
Yīn is the dark element: it is passive, dark, feminine, negative, downward-seeking, consuming and corresponds to the night.
Yáng is the bright element: it is active, light, masculine, positive, upward-seeking, producing and corresponds to the daytime.
Yin is often symbolized by water and earth, while yang is symbolized by fire and air.
Yin and yang are descriptions of complementary opposites as well as absolutes.
So ~ have you been in contact with both your inner Yin and Yang today?
December 1st. Today is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.
The concept of a World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.
In Africa there are countries, where half the population has AIDS, and you can meet villages where only children and old people live, because AIDS has exterminated the adults.
In Denmark about 4-5,000 people are infected with HIV or AIDS.
Around the world, there are a number of different myths about HIV and AIDS. Here are some of the more common ones :
"You would have to drink a bucket of infected saliva to become infected yourself" This is a typical myth. HIV is found in saliva, but in quantities too small to infect someone. If you drink a bucket of saliva from an HIV positive person, you won't become infected. There has been only one recorded case of HIV transmission via kissing, out of all the many millions of kisses. In this case, both partners had extremely badly bleeding gums.
"Sex with a virgin can cure HIV" This myth is common in some parts of Africa, and it is totally untrue. The myth has resulted in many rapes of young girls and children by HIV+ men, who often infect their victims. Rape won't cure anything and is a serious crime all around the world. "It only happens to gay men / black people / young people, etc" This myth is false. Most people who become infected with HIV didn't think it would happen to them, and were wrong.
'HIV can pass through latex' Some people have been spreading rumours that the virus is so small that it can pass through 'holes' in latex used to make condoms. This is untrue. The fact is that latex blocks HIV, as well as sperm - preventing pregnancy, too.
Today is it officially J-day in Denmark. In English it would probably be translated into C-day.
This Friday at 20.59 the breweries will release their Christmas beer.
This one is the one I prefer:
(Sorry for the missing formatting of the text, but I can't figure out how to make line breaks when I insert Youtube clips.)
There has been a lot of talking about thin / skinny girls in the media lately. A talk about how girls starve themselves in order to live up to the models in the magazines.
But this phenomenon is not new at all.
The first forerunner of the thin womens ideal is the 1920's "flapper girl".
She stood for women's liberation. She didn't wear corset under her dress, and she was the woman that started wearing men's clothes: Trousers. She drove her own car, she drank and smoked and she had sex in the same pace as men did.
On the other hand she was a paradox regarding equality of status. She looked more like a boy than a woman: She had narrow hips, flat chest and a slender figure. She was an ideal that opened the way for women to make their own decisions, but bodily she was unattainable for most women.
1960's gave us the most sexy women's ideal of all times. Marilyn Monroe was a woman with a fuller figure, she had both breasts and butt. This body is attainable for more women, especially if you have good breast genes.
When it comes to equality of status, this type of woman wasn't a true ideal. Even though Marilyn was not a dumb blonde, she was known and loved as one. She was seen as a helpless adorable sexbomb in the middle of a bunch of strong handsome men.
That points in the direction that feminine, fuller figured women have to be a bit dumb to be accepted and appreciated.
The 1960s did also give us Twiggy.
Twiggy did look a lot like the 1920s Flapper girl with her pre-puberty body, but she was a different type of woman. She didn't live the wild, limit-breaking life.
She was the skinniest woman the fashion industry had seen, and she became a fashion icon. She was 16 years old when she started her model career, and she weighed only 6½ stone (41 kg / 90 lbs).
Twiggy was a doll that the designers could dress up.
1970s was the hippie-era. This was the years were the liberation of women really speeded up.
These were the times where women burned their bras in the name of liberality and everything were facing a more "natural" way of living.
But it was also the times where tall, slim women like Jerry Hall and Cher posed on Studio 54. They were strong and had charisma, but not a body easily achieved.
Diane Keaton's Annie Hall-figure did also have a big influence on the fashion. She was tall and skinny and she wore oversized men's clothes. The woman who had the teenage boy's characteristic was back as an ideal.
The 1980s was fast and rough, and gave us a new version of the masculine woman. She was sporty, top trained, and she showed her body in lurex aerobics outfits, and stuffed her shoulders in order to make them look bigger.
Grace Jones was a typical icon of the 80s and there was nothing innocent about her. Man and woman melted into one, and the ideal for both genders was to achieve their goals, even with their elbows first.
The 1990s changed the ideal a little bit, with models like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell: Women who were still tall and slim, but with both butts and breasts.
As for today, it is hard to analyze when you're in the middle of it.
A lot of women try to achieve the size zero look. It's kind of a traume, really. We are surrounded by opportunities and demands. When we find out that we cannot meet all the demands, we seem to seek control and acceptance. Control of our body, and acceptance from the surroundings. And as long as the media glorifies skinny women, that is the image many women seek to shape themselves into.
This week we celebrate a special birthday: Monica Lewinsky turns 34 tomorrow. Can you believe it? It seems like only yesterday she was crawling around the White House on her hands and knees and putting everything in her mouth.
No Smoking Day is an annual health awareness campaign that helps smokers that want to stop. The first No Smoking Day was on Ash Wednesday in 1984 and it now takes place on the second Wednesday in March, this year it'll be March 14th.
In Denmark the No Smoking Day is on March 9th - today.
Celebrated on March 8th, International Women's Day is the global day connecting all women around the world and inspiring them to achieve their full potential.
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's.
Today I am going to tell you a story about a young girl, Louise Rasmussen, who was born in 1815. When she was 11 years old she was admitted to the Royal Theaters School of Ballet, and in 1842 she had a son. Louise was not married to the child's father, so the little boy was placed with fosterparents, and Louise went to Copenhagen to establish a fashion shop.
This is a typical myth. HIV is found in saliva, but in quantities too small to infect someone. If you drink a bucket of saliva from an HIV positive person, you won't become infected. There has been only one recorded case of HIV transmission via kissing, out of all the many millions of kisses. In this case, both partners had extremely badly bleeding gums.
(40%)
WIDGETIZE