Tag: Consent

  • This Dreadful Nonsense is the Law: A Not-So Marvellous Marriage by Lemony Snicket

    The overwhelming feeling I have for the Baudelaire Orphans is concern. In fact, so concerned was I for their safety that when the Netflix show came out, I couldn’t watch the final episode of A Series of Unfortunate Events for months. Because what if? Snicket had been promising emotional devastation since the first page, the…

  • Playing Marriage

    “Marriage is no picnic.”  Indeed it is not. It also isn’t a play. Or is it?  A Series of Unfortunate Events (the movie) follows Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire on their quest to uncover the truth behind their parents’ deaths and the destruction of their home. On their path to truth and justice, they (have…

  • Persephone and Hades : A Marriage Made in Hell?

    A strange shift is occurring within the myth of Persephone and Hades: the young people have gotten hold of it, and they’re making it wholesome. This metamorphosis occurred to me recently as I was scrolling through my Instagram, and a page I follow (@lit.memery – I am who I am) posted the following: And I’ve…

  • Delicious Dolls and Reluctant Brides: Forced Marriage in Nineteenth Century Art

    We can learn a lot about a culture from their art. What do the people value? What stories do they tell? When we answer those questions, we learn a lot about an era. Nineteenth-century portrait artist Auguste Toulmouche was known for his paintings of beautiful, indolent women. In fact, Émile Zola (an author and playwright…

  • Even Superheroes 

    I have a confession to make: ‘The Killing Joke’ is the only Batman story I have ever read, until now. And the only reason I read another one is because I came across a Reddit post entitled ‘Remember when Batman was forced to marry Thalia and?’ Don’t judge me.  If you are as unfamiliar with…

  • “I do – not”: An Introduction to Forced Marriage 

    Forced marriage is a global problem that does not pass by the UK. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), Walk Free and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that, worldwide, at least 22 million people lived in forced marriages in 2021. In 2022, around 300 people asked the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) for advice…