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Shiva is one of the main gods of the Hindu religion. When all is said and done, there are millions and millions of deities in the Hindu pantheon, so I guess Shiva is pretty special. In truth, my first exposure was in Final Fantasy VII when I summoned her using red materia to vanquish some foes. As one might imagine, Square Enix’s interpretation of Shiva is pretty off the map and hyper-sexualized but whatever. Shiva, like many (if not all?) gods of the Hindu religion is both man and woman and takes many different forms. As the god of destruction, Shiva represents positive and negative changes that range from the introspective to the more physical world and is often referred to as “The Destroyer”.
I’ll be honest, my knowledge of Shiva is very limited, so if you’re interested I suggest digging a little further on your own. Obviously, I have chosen to depict Shiva in a fully female form, but like I said, he/she has attributes of both sexes…annnnnd I’m not scholar of religion up in this piece.
FYI: from Stardusted.Tumblr.com: “Heeey, so Hindu follower of your blog here! So Shiva. Shiva himself is the male manifestation of the universe, and his wife Parvati is the female manifestation of the universe. They each have 108 forms/names. The genderfluid version you’re talking about is Ardhanarishvara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara). As you see, if you read the article, it’s pretty complicated- and it made me really uncomfortable to see Shiva used for fashion this way. I know you probably meant no disrespect, but Shiva isn’t a woman. (and let’s not even get into the video game)”
1. Dress by Marchesa, shoes by Tsumori Chisato
2. Dress by Peter Pilotto, shoes by Alexander McQueen
3. Dress by Mary Katrantzou, shoes by Altuzarra
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Hello. Welcome to a blog post I wrote. This post is about Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem. For most, she’s an unfamiliar name because high school history classes tend not to delve to deeply into the Crusades, but take my word for it when I say she was very interesting. Sibylla was the sister of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, famously known as “The Leper King” because, you guessed it, he had Leprosy. Eventually, the disease claimed his life and in his stead, Sibylla’s son ascended throne during his minority. However, the young king didn’t outlive his regents and Sibylla then became Queen. Once crowned, she took the French Guy of Lusignan as her husband, known for his brutish and war-hungry attitude. The immediate concern of Sibylla was to protect Jersusalem from the encroaching armies of Saladin, who was making moves to capture Jerusalem in the name . In an attempt to stave off the warriors, Sibylla’s husband rode out to meet them in battle but was defeated and taken prisoner. Now, nothing stood between the armies of Saladin and the holy city. In a last ditch attempt, Sibylla led the remains of her defenses against Saladin, but was forced to concede and was allowed safe passage from the city with her children. You can’t deny that Sibylla was pretty badass, she has a little bit of the Eleanor of Aquitane vibe about her, admirable for somebody who was stuck in a fairly oppressive time.
1. I am awesome because I am great.
Dress by Manish Arora, shoes by Altuzarra
2. I’m the Queen of Jerusalem, yo.
Dress by Altuzarra, shoes by Marchesa
3. Fine Saladin, you win all the things.
Dress by Marchesa, shoes by Dior
