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 what’s shifted over time—and what hasn’t. 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
beauty’s epitome. Casting Eve’s 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 women’s 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.
General
| Imprint: |
W W Norton & Co Inc
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
2024 |
| Authors: |
Eleanor Janega
|
| Dimensions: |
210 x 140mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
272 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-324-07446-5 |
| Categories: |
Books
|
| LSN: |
1-324-07446-9 |
| Barcode: |
9781324074465 |
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