Medieval+Sexuality

BY: BRANGELA K. WEST

**__ Topic: __**

I am researching Medieval Christianity and their sexuality. It was interesting in some of my in class readings how women were considered masculine because of their ability to not have sexual intercourse through the form of temptation. The women would pray for God to take sexual temptation away from them. So even though a man could entice a woman to have sex she would be able to abstain through prayer. I am going to research "Medieval Sexuality and Christianity." I will read scholarly articles and narrow my topic down. I will use scholarly articles and books, as well as videos and pictures.

**__ Working Notes: __**

I went online and entered the Mercer library. I chose to enter the JSTOR scholarly article site and found some interesting articles on Medieval Sexuality. The articles were:

1. Is There a History of Sexuality 2. Forgetting Foucault: Acts, Identities, and the History of Sexuality 3. Ruling Sexuality: The Political Legitimacy of Isabel of Castile 4. Sexuality and Religion in Anglo-American Culture 5. Sex and the Emergence of Sexuality

**__ Sources/Bibliographies: __**

1. Halperin, David M. “Is There a History of Sexuality?” //History and Theory,// Vol. 28, No. 3 (1989): 257-274. []

2. Halperin, David M. “Forgetting Foucault: Acts, Identities, and the History of Sexuality” //Representations,// No. 63 (1998): 93-120. []

3. Lehfeldt, Elizabeth A. “Ruling Sexuality: The Political Legitimacy of Isabel of Castile” //Renaissance Quarterly,// Vol. 53, No. 1 (2000): 31-56. []

4. Davidson, Arnold I. “Sex and the Emergence of Sexuality” //Critical Inquiry,// Vol. 14, No.1 (1987): 16-48. [] 5. Murray, Jacqueline “Agnolo Firenzuola on Female Sexuality and Women’s Equality” //The Sixteenth Century Journal,// Vol. 22, No. 2 (1991): 199-213. []

6. Lassonde, Stephen “Review: Sexuality and Religion in Anglo American Culture” //The Journal of Interdisciplinary History,// Vol. 18, No. 3 (1988): 471-479. []

7. Wolfthal, Diane. “A Hue and a Cry”: Medieval Rape Imagery and Its Transformation, Vol. 75, No. 1 (1993): 39-64. []

__**ANALYSES: **__  


 * __FINAL PAPER: __**

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; tabstops: list .75in; text-indent: -0.5in;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I chose to critique this wiki because I thought I would find it interesting. Boy did I! I also found it a little disturbing. Christians have always struggled with Christianity but I did not know that it actually became illegal not to be a Christian. I also learned that there were two themes of sexuality. I found it humorous that the social status determined how much sex one had. How sad for those of the high and low status. One thing that I did not realize was that so much homosexuality existed, much less bisexual relationships. This surprises me as I read that the Beguines were thought to be prostitutes or lesbians because they lived in large groups together. I read this as it was a condemnation on their part, but yet it was widely accepted with men. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> The medieval rape and imagery disturbs me and I relate it to a picture that was on the Lust Wiki. My thoughts to that were this is like medieval porn. I am also shocked that it was acceptable as I would think it would fall under the deadly sin Lust. I am truly disturbed and cannot comprehend why they looked at rape and thought it was heroic and then used these images as art. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> The layout of the wiki was great. Your article analysis looked really good and went along with the paper. The in text citations were listed correctly and included a bibliography. The format was simple and easy to read and comprehend. I was first a little confused on the argument, but after reading it again, I feel that you are arguing the reasons that rape was legal during this time which you said in your first paragraph. You portrayed some bad situations in a way that was acceptable. Good Job!


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