Thread by @polyamstories

Hello #polyam history fam! We return from a bit of a hiatus because 1) it seems there's a worldwide pandemic on and 2) your authors were preparing and then editing (and editing and editing) a article on the work we are doing, which will form part of the introduction

and the theory that will eventually underlie our book. We will be sharing more about this in the future!

If you are reading this, we hope you and yours are safe&sound&healthy&staying inside! This is one of the harder challengs the #polyamory #polyam community

has faced--challenges about quarantining, not being able to see other partners, and, in some cases, being trapped with abusive partners, but from the bottom of both of our hearts we hope that all are safe and quarantining--we're all in this together now <3

But for now it is time for another (his/her)story! We will be focusing today and this week on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Kahlo and Rivera are fascinating in themselves, of course, but the story of their relationships has much to teach #polyamory #histsex

In terms of our history, are also our first Mexican and Spanish-speaking couple. As your historian today is not a person of color and does not speak Spanish this means that there will likely be some gaps in the narration—which I accept responsibility for and invite critique of!

However, your historian today *is* #crip, which is one of the reasons that I am drawn towards Kahlo story as a historical example of a #polyam crip. Crip, for those of you who are not aware of it, is a shortened form of the word cripple.

Cripple was formally considered a derogatory word, but it is being actively reclaimed, similar to the way that slut is being reclaimed by sex-positive feminists--and #polyam folx, come to think of it--yay for #sexpositive crips!

Crip theory, or just #crip is a type of cultural analysis that shares many strands in history with queer theory and is deployed to “resist the contemporary spectacle of able-bodied heteronormativity” according to @RobertMcRuer.

I highly recommend this Wright State website, written by Julie Williams wright.edu/event/sex-disa… if you’d like to know more.

Of course Kahlo never would have used the words cripple crip or polyamorous to describe herself, so it might be fair to ask if one should feel entitled to 'claim the dead' under that hashtags, so to speak.

This is a kind of complicated question that has a lot of different moving parts to sort through, but to get to the heart of it, I (@brimwats) believe the history is always somewhat reclamatory &

#twitterstorians #histsex

that I think this specific project #polyamstories is premised on reclaiming and re-examining past lives under modern assumptions and understandings, so this is the philosophy and ideas I will be operating with as I go forward on this narrative.

But! Enough preface! Let’s get into talking about Frida Kahlo. Her life partner, Diego Rivera, will play a major part in this narrative, but Kahlo is definitely my fave—Rivera makes it...hard to like him. But more on that later!

Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Kahlo y Calderón on 6 July 1907 in Coyoacán, a central district of Mexico City. The picture below is one she took of her neighborhood, which should key you into the fact that she was better off than not. Even today Coyoacán remains well-off

Khalo, like (unfortunately) many of those whose story we well, comes from a very privileged background so that should inform all of what follows. Here’s the Kahlo’s house, today a museum (@museofridakahlo)

She was the daughter of two very different parents. Her father, Willhelm, was a rather secular artist and photographer raised in Nuremberg, Germany.

her mother was Matilde Calderón, a devout Catholic who held conservative and religious views of women's place in the world. they would both go in to inform Kahlo's art

here they both are (check out the stasche on Willhelm!)

Frida at 4 years of age, by Guillermo Kahlo, 1911, Coyoacán, Mexico. © Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera Archives. Bank of Mexico, Fiduciary in the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museum Trust

Mexico at the time was ruled by a wealthy upper class who were excessively pro-European. Fetishizing Euro-style art, this group frequently hired Willhelm (also spelt Guillermo) to take photographs that would emphasized the “Europeanness” of Mexico, like these

The Indian and Spanish traditions that Kahlo would so closely follow in her own painting were generally ignored or maligned.

Educated at an exclusive, elite school, Khalo’s early friends would remain at the core of her social circle for the rest of her life.

Indeed, many of them became models for her as she was learning to paint. Among them was Alejandro Gómez Arias, her first partner. Gerry Souter describes Kahlo like this (and we are sure he is not using a nuanced form of the word cripple):

The Arias that Souter mentions there was an important early partner of Khalo, but until recently, there were no known paintings of him by Khalo, which is very unusual for her style—that is, until the painting here was rediscovered in a wardrobe rcently.

The note in the top left is from Khalo

Alex,
I lovingly painted your portrait, which is a picture of my friend for all time.
Frieda Kahlo. 1952.
30 years later.
Read about this recently rediscovered painting and Kahlo and Alejandro’s romantic life here: artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/now-is…

If you know anything about Khalo, you know this story has been leading up to her accident, the one that supposefly became the 'center' of her life. While it's very true that it had a major impact on her life,

I find that many abled-bodied historians who write about #crip folx *overly* focus on "the accident" or "the disability" to the point where they interpret far too much of a person's life around that. #twitterstorians

Nonetheless, here is Kahlo’s description of the event, which is poetic and artistic--unsurprisingly so

The disaster was so brutal that her doctor submitted it as an anonymous medical case study: #histmed

Accident causes fractures of third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, three fractures of pelvis, eleven fractures of the right foot, dislocation of the left elbow,

penetrating abdominal wound caused by an iron hand rail entering the left hip, exiting through the vagina and tearing left lip. Acute peritonitis. Cystitis with catheterisation for many days. Three months bed rest in hospital. Spinal fracture not recognised by doctors

until Dr. Ortiz Tirado ordered immobilisation with plaster corset for nine months… From then on has had sensation of constant fatigue and at times pain in her backbone and right leg, which now never leaves her.

In her painting Kahlo only “returned” to this scene once

Although she managed to begin walking again a few months later, she collapsed in public and was rushed to the hospital—three more spinal fractures were discovered, and she was wrapped in plaster and laid out in her room again.

It was at this point that she began to slip into depression, losing hope and giving up her goals of medical school and college.

Instead, she began to paint, one after another after another, pouring the pain and joy of relearning how to walk and every life experience from those years until the day she died. In many ways painting rescued her from the dark days of body cast and the loss of hope.

Though Kahlo and Arias had agreed to begin seeing other people and ceased their sexual relationship before the accident, they continued to write long, intense sexual letters to each other for many years.

Maybe a #polyam #pandemic for partners you cannot see? Some inspiration:

This is a remarkably reoccurring theme in many of our #polyamstories—especially in light of a supposedly monogamous past. In each of our bios, there is a willingness early on to share partners or to open relationships.

A supposedly modern relationship structure might not be so modern after all.

Tune in later this week for more on Kahlo and Rivera, but we'll leave you with this lovely picture from the next installment