Medical Connections

Masculine Identity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Vern L. Bullough's article, "On Being a Male in the Middle Ages," addresses how vital it was for a man living in the middle ages to be sexually active in order to maintain a masculine identity by explaining:

Even though gender roles in modern-day society appears to be dissimilar compared to Beowulf's era, the male and female roles during the eighth-teen century resembled Beowulf's age gender roles. During the eighth-teen century, the title "women" brought unequal prohibitions to the woman regardless of their own inalienable rights. Prohibitions limited the women's career fields among the society, limited the women's rights upon the marriage, and forced women to devote for household that circumscribed their involvement and characteristics to the society; moreover, married women considered as the possession of the men. therefore, the men thrived in various fields than the women. The men's contributions to the society were beyond the abilities of the women's roles, however the

Thus, we see that in a sense, Catholicism acted as a catalyst in the development of female education. Paradoxically enough though, at the same time, it limited the possible level of knowledge they could attain. The thought of the supposedly foolish, sinful female sex breaking the bonds of ignorance made many people fear the possibility of women reading “forbidden” books. Dante’s “La vita nuova”, the Petrarchan sonnets and the “Decameron” are a few examples of books that were considered lasciviously dangerous and kept off-limits (Grendler, 1989). Indeed, women could be educated, yet within a certain framework. Their level of knowledge only went up to a point, in order to make sure they grew up to be exemplary, pious, Christian housewives.

Jeff HIST 101 11/11/13 Gender As Seen in Abelard and Heloise The gender views of European medieval society were largely built upon the views of Aristotle and others alike that degraded the status of women into a lower form of life, characterizing them as secondary to men. Many successive Christian intellects such as St.

In the Middle Ages from 476 CE- 14th century almost all of the power of women was determined by biblical references. The average woman in a rural area had the duty of making clothes from wool, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. The women in town often were tasked in purchasing and trading goods and the normal housekeeping. In extreme cases women were known as witches. Other women became nuns and got involved in spiritual matters. In the year 1000 traditional marriage that involved getting married for financial reasons became less common. Although the parents still assisted in choosing the spouse it was becoming freer to choose who to marry. The woman was essentially owned by a male guardian almost like a child. However, if a rich widowed woman decided she did not want or have another guardian available, she was able to have her own name. During the Middle Ages many rich women were able to participate in things such as art, music or writing. It was rare for a woman not that well off to be able to purchase the tools or have the education to do art, music, or writing. All the rules developed depended on how

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

All through Canterbury Tales, women are dealt with as objects in everyday life. In the “Miller’s Tale,” an old man marries a younger, attractive women for her looks. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” a virgin woman has her virginity and innocence taken from her by what is suppose to

From a plethora of many authors and compilations over many centuries comes the fourteenth century The Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern frame story during which there are as many as four implanted stories. In the outermost frame of this tale, a king who is betray by his wife vows to take a new wife each night and kill her the next morning in order to prevent further unfaithfulness. The main inner frame are stories from one of his wives which she continues each night to keep the king interested and thus postpone her death. Through these stories, the reader can examine the role of men and women in this time, specifically how women function in conjunction to men in the text. The reader may assume the men are superior while the woman are inferior, but through close reading of the text, the reader will discover that women in the text are only treated subordinately by men in the story but are revealed to the reader as the more powerful of the sexes. Authors reveal the power of women by their prowess at trickery or “women’s cunning” (The Thousand 1181), and their ability to force the actions of male counterparts. The reader can examine men’s attempt to stifle this power, which further acknowledges the women’s merit, through the excessively frequent occurring instances of men treating the women as insignificant, as well as instances when women are turned to ungulate animals, such

Medieval Jewish society, like all traditional Jewish culture, was run by patriarchal hierarchy “Philosophical, medical, and religious views of the time all supported the view that men were superior to women both in nature and in deed” . Women’s position in society was secondary in comparison to that of men. They were characterized as lightheaded, weak, easily seduced, and linked to sorcery.

If men had ever been found in society without women, or women without men, or if there had been a society of men and women in which the women were not under the control of the men, something might have been positively known about the mental and moral differences which may be inherent in the nature of each. (1160-1161)

In medieval literature, the role of women often represents many familiar traits and characteristics which present societies still preserve. Beauty, attractiveness, and grace almost completely exemplify the attributes of powerful women in both present and past narratives. European medieval prose often separates the characteristics of women into two distinct roles in society. Women can be portrayed as the greatest gift to mankind, revealing everything that is good, pure, and beautiful in a woman's life. On the other side of the coin, many women are compared to everything that is evil and harmful, creating a witch-like or temptress quality for the character. These two aspects of European culture and literature show that the power of

Lola Sanders Janet Feight 3/28TH/15 Lit Analysis In William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesmen” there is Notable themes of gender role and gender identity. Faulkner’s Character Anse is Comparatively Similar but also Contrastingly different in the roles they both convey as head of their households, In their

During the Middle Ages, except for those in religious positions, women were only seen as three things, which were daughter, wife, and mother. But in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, new opportunities in learning humanism arose for only those in the higher class families. Even though they started to educate themselves, the majority had no rights whatsoever in money matters as well as estate. From the 17th century and up to the scientific revolution, women’s rights had consistently been improving. However, during the revolution, the study of the human body brought to attention that the male brain is quite larger than that of a female. This revelation set back the female race back to a limited role, but this time this setback was

Throughout the Anglo-Saxon and renaissance period the literatures written really portrayed how life was during those times. Each stories settled upon the basic role of each gender, the man was the main focus while the women were led to be side characters. The different but same roles that were placed on each gender set an example on how each were displayed and what kind of character were to be shown. Evan though the similarities each sex had their characters are vastly different. In these literatures we can see how sex was interpreted in the Anglo-Saxon and Renaissance age.

During the 12th century Reformation, the number of anchorites increased dramatically. Most of these anchorites’ gender was not recorded, showing the inapplicability of gender. According to theorist Judith Butler, “…gender can be regarded as a private and public behavioural performance.” Butler also recognizes that gender is a performance of “acts,