tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9071757402186489670.post6959221863672152621..comments2023-03-25T21:50:50.891+13:00Comments on Bavardess: The slipperiness of premodern sexBavardesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10737120234578385755noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9071757402186489670.post-44117728693023188092009-10-26T22:01:31.332+13:002009-10-26T22:01:31.332+13:00And it wasn't just who you had sex with or wha...And it wasn't just who you had sex with or what you did, but how you did it. Regardless of whether it was male-female, male-male or female-female sex, the 'passive' partner (broadly understood as the one being penetrated) was gendered as feminine. Even in 'straight' male-female sex, any position other than missionary was considered 'against nature', with woman-on-top and other heterosexual practices also being represented as gender transgression. <br /><br />In their article on the Rykener case, Karras & Boyd say that in the original Latin document, the grammatical gender used by the scribe to refer to John/Eleanor changes between masculine and feminine depending on which acts are being recounted. I think that probably reflects both confusion on the part of the officials as to how to categorise John, and the general medieval privileging of gender performance rather than biological sex.Bavardesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10737120234578385755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9071757402186489670.post-80174933309782197102009-10-26T08:34:34.364+13:002009-10-26T08:34:34.364+13:00Great post, thanks!
I've been referencing Nan...Great post, thanks!<br /><br />I've been referencing Nancy Partner's article "No Sex, No Gender" (Speculum, 68(2): 419-443)in class discussions about the differences between sex and gender in my physical anthropology class. To oversimplify (most likely) she suggests that a medieval construction of gender had to do with who one was having sex with, so that celibate clergy, for example, were categorized as a separate gender.<br /><br />I will have to take some time to read the John/Eleanor case you linked to!Diggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14851524413793098615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9071757402186489670.post-84341075849917799692009-10-25T20:05:49.459+13:002009-10-25T20:05:49.459+13:00Welcome, dgm. I'm glad you brought up the case...Welcome, dgm. I'm glad you brought up the case of John/Eleanor Rykener, as it's definitely an interesting (if highly unusual, in the sense of surviving records) example of the fluidity of medieval concepts of sex, gender and sexuality. I was recently re-reading the 1996 article on the case by Ruth Karras & David Boyd, which including the transcript you've linked to. I think the phrasing "dressed up as a woman, thinking he was a woman" is quite significant in terms of indicating the possibilities of shifting sexual subjectivity and gender identity.<br /><br />For other readers, John Rykener was a man who, dressed in women's clothing and going by the name of Eleanor, worked as a prostitute and was apprehended having sex with a male client in London in 1395. The testimony of his interrogation was recorded in the Corporation of London's Plea and Memoranda Rolls. A transcript, translation, and an image of the original document are available on the link above from dgm (along with some interesting background on how the details of this case were suppressed in an early 20thC print edition of the Rolls). John/Eleanor confesses to having sex with men *as a woman* (not just dressed as one), but he also says he has had sex with many women *as a man*. There is no evidence to show what happened to John/Eleanor after this interview, or if he/she was eventually charged with either prostitution or sodomy.Bavardesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10737120234578385755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9071757402186489670.post-60520887246606180592009-10-25T18:19:10.632+13:002009-10-25T18:19:10.632+13:00There was the whole gamut of sexual behaviour in t...There was the whole gamut of sexual behaviour in the medieval world, such as in the case of <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1395rykener.html" rel="nofollow">John Rykener</a> - what is more interesting is the way it was both seen as a continuum and people could have different behaviours at different times ...dgmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16429298708780406789noreply@blogger.com