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The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society
The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society | Eleanor Janega
19 posts | 5 read | 4 to read
A vibrant and illuminating exploration of medieval thinking on womens beauty, sexuality, and behavior. What makes for the ideal woman? How should she look, love, and be? In this vibrant, high-spirited history, medievalist Eleanor Janega turns to the Middle Ages, the era that bridged the ancient world and modern society, to unfurl its suppositions about women and reveal whats shifted over timeand what hasnt. Enshrined medieval thinkers, almost always male, subscribed to a blend of classical Greek and Roman philosophy and Christian theology for their concepts of the sexes. For the height of female attractiveness, they chose the mythical Helen of Troy, whose imagined pear shape, small breasts, and golden hair served as beautys epitome. Casting Eves shadow over medieval women, they derided them as oversexed sinners, inherently lustful, insatiable, and weak. And, unless a nun, a woman was to be the embodiment of perfect motherhood. In contrast, drawing on accounts of remarkable and subversive medieval women like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Hildegard of Bingen, along with others hidden in documents and court cases, Janega shows us how real women of the era lived. While often mothers, they were industrious farmers, brewers, textile workers, artists, and artisans and paved the way for new ideas about womens nature, intellect, and ability. In The Once and Future Sex, Janega unravels the restricting expectations on medieval women and the ones on women today. She boldly questions why, if our ideas of women have changed drastically over time, we cannot reimagine them now to create a more equitable future.
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annamatopoetry
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Pickpick

Eleanor Janega is always terrific, although I kind of wanted a little bit drier of a tone, this is basically 90% of my interests all in one small book.
Oh well. Enjoyable read, especially tearing down weird evopsych claims about sexuality at the end.

(Although wtf is up with the blurb depriving her of her doctorate?)

(also also new photo editing software, it's gonna be a struggle for a bit)

annamatopoetry @donut_jefa I'm gonna make you read it 6mo
donut_jefa @annamatopoetry sounds intriguing! 6mo
6 likes2 comments
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annamatopoetry
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1) language is a discrete combinatorial system that frequently creates combinations of words that have never been heard before 2) my camera has a level finally thank fuck

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catiewithac
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Pickpick

Eleanor Janega goes for a tongue in cheek tone in this history of women in the Middle Ages. It‘s a quick, short read with illustrations. I‘m glad I read a library copy though!

iread2much The title and cover are awesome! 1y
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RowReads1
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I was just reading about “The icon” and what was said in this book flashed in my 🧠. Oh and keep the mental illness is sexy in the 90s where it belongs.

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Amie
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Pickpick

Women's roles during medieval period, society's views of women, and our modern misconceptions about medieval women and society.

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RowReads1
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It‘s going on “just a girl” because that‘s where it belongs😉.

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RowReads1
Pickpick

👍👍👍👍👍 Honestly 🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻.

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RowReads1
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RowReads1

“Even if women from common backgrounds could afford the clothes that were considered attractive, they likely could not afford to buy the license to wear them”. 🤨

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RowReads1

“Cosmetics occupied a dark place in the medieval imagination for a number of biblical reasons. First and foremost, they were not natural, and naturalness was the benchmark of anyone truly beautiful. The moment a woman resorted to cosmetics, she was attempting to embellish the work of the divine. This in turn led to a second concern, a conflation of makeup with dark magic 🧙🏼‍♀️🧛‍♀️. Both concerns were combined in the biblical story of Jezebel

RowReads1 which was trotted out to warn women who were thinking about trying a new recipe for rouge. 2y
29 likes1 comment
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RowReads1
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#Two4Tuesday 1. The above. I‘m stretching out reading it. 2. Classes. Spring is bursting out all over, though currently it‘s very wet. Enjoying the new plant life. Mom‘s birthday. All the things that make March March. Hopefully getting a new job. @TheSpineView

TheSpineView Good luck on a new job. Thanks for playing 2y
33 likes1 comment
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RowReads1
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👹

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RowReads1

Eve/Mary were the only women considered in early Christian ideas of gender. A range of characters pop up in medieval theological and natural philosophical debates.Mary/Eve can be considered the anchors of medieval Christian femininity.They comprise a Christian shorthand for the best and the worst possible outcomes for women and are referenced most often in musings about the nature of women.*Sarah checks doesn‘t see her own name and 🥱*

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RowReads1

“Eve had decided to eat the fruit of the tree because when the snake tempted her, she was easily swayed and lacked sufficient mental and moral strength to push back. Adam, according to Augustine was tempted and ate the fruit not simply because he was weak but because he wanted to participate in the experience with Eve. Yes, he was forced to leave the garden, just as she was, but his reasons for being forced out were certainly purer than hers or

RowReads1 stronger at the very least. Augustine‘s message was that even when a man disobeyed God, it was probably because a woman has convinced him to do so. 2y
28 likes1 comment
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RowReads1

Women weren‘t considered stable enough to vote in Rome, and they certainly weren‘t considered able to join in scholarly debate about their humanity. However-and this is important- they still tried. In both Greek and Roman society, women who were a part of the wealthy elite were often educated and often worked as teachers, wrote poetry, and created art. They were also brilliant philosophers.

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RowReads1

The fact that Plato accorded wild-card status to both penises and uteruses might seem like a kind of evolution or marker of progress over Hipppocratic thought. It was not. While the unruly penis makes a brief appearance in his characterizations, the wandering uterus is a major figure, as well as the necessity of keeping it held in place by making babies. Plato understood women as fallen men and naturally inferior to men as a result. 😒😝

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RowReads1

“These ideas about women and their nature didn‘t spring fully formed from the head of Zeus:they derived from ancient scholars.The intellectuals of the time believed they were “standing on the shoulders of giants” a phrase that was coined by the philosopher Bernard of Chartres (ca. twelfth century).What he meant was the knowledge was cumulative,begun by the great philosophers/thinkers of the ancient world and steadily built upon by later scholars.

RowReads1 In fact, the entire medieval educational system was constructed around and upon the work of writers from Ancient Greece and Rome. When it came to sexual differences, the ideas of a core group had an outsize influence on medieval thought. 2y
29 likes1 comment
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RowReads1
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😃There is something very satisfying about getting a book the day it comes out (Ok two days after).

batsy Oh, I follow her on twitter! That looks so good and I love the cover. 2y
62 likes1 comment
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Clare-Dragonfly
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Late Christmas gift (because it was a preorder) from my husband 😍😍😍

monalyisha Gorgeous cover design! 2y
25 likes1 stack add1 comment