laura/antoine, 18, intj, from italy (but half french). bigender (she/her/hers - he/him/his) and hellenic polytheist. history, art, social justice. also les misérables and star wars trash. ( )

viverobespierre:

To be completely honest, the heterosexist double standards Robespierre is subjected to irk me more than anything else.

Let’s take for instance, the way his appearance is dealt with by many Marxist, Revisionist, and post-Revisionist historians. We’ve all read the description a million times: Robespierre in his powdered hair, pressed suit, silk stockings, and lace cuffs sitting beside the “real men” of the 1790s. Too often, Robespierre’s appearance is used to associate him with fragility and femininity, but also with wealth, privilege, and elitism. These associations rest on the ridiculous assumption that Robespierre was the only member of the revolutionary government who dressed the way he did, and that his clothing somehow correlated with his revolutionary virtues.

Obviously, neither of these assumptions are true, and yet Robespierre’s appearance is constantly used to discredit his republicanism and undermine his understanding of the poor. Danton, for instance, is always juxtaposed by these historians as the man’s man to Robespierre’s fragile dandy whose drinking, womanizing, and corruption somehow made him “of the people.” Yet these historians spend next to no time describing the way Danton dressed, (which by the way, was remarkably similar to the way Robespierre did). Instead, they go out of their way to make it seem as though Robespierre was the only man in breeches sitting among a crowd of rags– as if, inexplicably, Danton spoke from the tribune in the costume of a sans-culotte while Robespierre lounged in gold and frills.

In reality, Robespierre’s appearance was neither extreme, nor correlated to his relationship with poverty. Danton grew up with considerably more wealth than Robespierre, whose miserable youth was punctuated with letters to his scholarship supervisor begging for a larger allowance to replace his hole-ridden clothing. Robespierre knew poverty and was more than capable of sympathizing with the poor. Dismissing his convictions because of the way he dressed is nothing more than loosely disguised heterosexism used to further emphasize the “otherness” of a man these historians cannot be bothered to understand.

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