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jealousy, fear of cuckolding & gender in Partonope’s exemplum
Jealousy and concern for fidelity in love are common to both women and men. Yet persons with penises don’t know for certain, absent modern DNA paternity testing, who their biological children are....
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Ovid & Jerome vs. courtly love letters by formulae template
While men tend to be romantically simple, some men who considered themselves educated and sophisticated write flowery, courtly love letters to women. More than 1600 years ago, both the Master Teacher...
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“lead us not into temptation”: ancient, holy struggle
In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, followers of Jesus ask him to teach them how to pray. Jesus then teaches them a prayer.[1] A slightly elaborated version of that prayer has come to be known as the...
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Mary mother of God is fully divine woman in medieval literature
A young Jewish woman from provincial Nazareth, Mary the mother of Jesus came to be regarded in medieval Europe as the preeminent dispenser of justice. Mary from a Christian perspective is the mother...
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Syritha’s female gaze nearly defeated giant-slayer Othar
Literary scholars have extensively discussed the dominating power of the male gaze. They typically overlook or trivialize the female gaze. But is the female gaze actually less powerful than the male...
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codpiece is most important part of fighting man’s armor
In our misandristic culture, “junk” is common slang for male genitals. But a man’s wonderful testicles and penis are more rightly called jewels. Men’s jewels should be protected from castration...
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Pentecostal Oath as context for Elaine of Corbenic raping Lancelot
Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century Arthurian romance, The Death of Arthur {Le Morte Darthur} illustrates the peculiarly gendered notion of chivalry that arose in medieval European romance. Malory in Le...
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Danish woman-warrior Alvild fought like a man and loved a man
Even in our age of intense commitment to gender equality, many societies still don’t give women equal opportunities to fight and die in wars. The long history of men-only military conscription...
View ArticleSigne and Hagbard show shameful, death-destined love
Apparently dating from no later than the ninth century, the Viking love story of Signe and Hagbard became “one of the most beloved tales of Danish medieval literature.”[1] Signe and Hagbard betrayed...
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break the classical circle: love beyond castration and cuckolding
From the eight-century BGC ancient Greek text of Hesiod’s Genealogy of the Gods {Θεογονία} to the sixteenth-century French text of Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel and beyond, classical culture has...
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Mary merciful, unfailing advocate for medieval Christians
Lady, so great you are, such strength you bring,who does not run to you, yet looks for grace,his wish would seek to fly without a wing.Not only does your kindness come to braceour courage when we beg;...
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misused violence prevents women from loving men well
Mothers beat daughters for loving the wrong men or loving men in the wrong way. Women beat men who love them within the rigidly gendered sadomasochism of courtly love. Ending epic violence against men...
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Christine de Pizan’s defamation in the misandristic tradition
Historically entrenched in epic violence against men, castration culture, and harsh regulation of men’s sexuality, the misandristic tradition has become remarkably rich. It supports penal justice...
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Viking woman Svanhvita slayed evil stepmother and other monsters
In ancient Viking myth, the Swedish queen Thorild hated her stepsons Regner and Thorald. She appointed them as royal herdsmen to kill them at night in the countryside. However, the Danish princess...
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Rabelais on reforming penal justice in shadow of castration culture
Penal systems predominately punish persons with penises. That punishing inequality is a gross social injustice built upon the social construction of the penis as a criminal sign. Wholly apart from...
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Chrétien de Troyes excused Philomena for killing her innocent son
Ancient Greek literature tells tales of brutal violence. Epic violence against men institutionalized as war was the most prevalent brutality. But horrific violence also occurred within families....
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Ennodius celebrated seminal blessing & disparaged eunuch Tribune
The early Christian church fathers Jerome and Augustine vigorously denounced classical castration culture. Yet the poet of antiquity who thrust most firmly for men’s seminal blessing was the fittingly...
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medieval count courageously advised king
Advisors telling a leader something she doesn’t want to hear can harm the advisors’ status and remuneration. Nonetheless, for advisors to add value to a leader’s decision-making, they must not merely...
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Radegund of Thuringia loved Amalfred in Jerome’s way
Radegund of Thuringia, a sixth-century Germanic princess, queen, and founder of the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, was a highly privileged woman like those who sought Jerome’s spiritual and...
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Fortunatus’s De virginitate incoherently disparages men’s sexuality
Disparaging references to men’s sexuality are readily apparent in Venantius Fortunatus’s sixth-century poem About Virginity {De virginitate}. Fortunatus in this poem also depicted a woman’s ardent,...
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