User:TheWatTyler/Medieval female sexuality

Canon law and secular courts
The laws of the Catholic Church and the secular laws of the medieval period mixed into, generally, one united front. Whatever would have been a concern for the Church, was automatically reflected in the concern of the secular court. The ultimate purity for the Church was for one to maintain virginity throughout one's life, but if one must have a sexual life, it would then only be legitimate for procreation through marriage.[17] The sin of women's sexual immorality, love of extravagant dress, and petulant nature were common themes of medieval sermons.[7]

Many restrictions theoretically limited the circumstances in which sexual activity was permissible to engage in. For example, sex was a forbidden activity during the following times: Sundays, sometimes Fridays and Wednesdays, the feast days of the saints, periods of fasting such as Lent or Advent, and during a woman's life when she was considered to be impure. Impurity was believed to be during menstruation, pregnancy, the first forty days after giving birth, and while nursing. Since the goal for a woman was to give birth to as many children as possible and nurse them all into good health, a woman, given the set restrictions, would not have had much time to engage in sexual activity.[17]

The sexual activities considered permissible moral in the Christian world were those that were believed to facilitate conception. The normative sexual encounter positioned the man on top, though the woman did not necessarily have to be supine.[20] Non-procreative sexual acts were considered sodomy; the charge of sodomy was so serious that it would have been tried in the secular court and possibly been subject to a death sentence.[8] couples were forbidden from using contraception, though the widespread vilification of contraceptive methods can be taken as evidence that contraceptive practices existed and were used.

However, evidence of practices that were likely to prevent or terminate a pregnancy demonstrate that contraception was understood and commonly used. Women used potions, amulets, and concoctions of herbs and spices to prevent pregnancies. The church claimed that using contraceptives and having an abortion were both forms of murder.[18] Some handbooks giving advice on how to ensure fertility are so detailed in their descriptions of what should be avoided for a woman that wants to conceive, that they may have been surreptitiously providing contraceptive advice.[19]

'''The positions of Medieval theologians and church officials on the issues of contraception and abortion were not uniform; in fact, they often held opposing views. Some church leaders, such as John Chrysostom, the Bishop in Constantinople, condemned the use of contraceptives and even compared the practice to murder. However, a common position held by religious authorities and theologians was that of toleration. Some determined that embryos could not be recognized as individuals until further in development when they begin to develop “recognizable human features.” The period between conception and these later developments of the fetus was considered an appropriate time to induce an abortion. In some canon law, the motivation behind the practice of using contraception or inducing a abortion was an important factor in determining the degree of sin the woman was committing. A woman who had an abortion due to the inability to properly care for the child was not considered to be as sinful as a woman who was using the abortion to hide evidence of adultery or premarital sex.'''

Another large piece of female sexuality of concern for the courts was that of prostitution. A woman selling sexual services during the Middle Ages was, in theory, frowned upon by the Church as committing a sin; but in principle and in practice, the authorities believed that prostitution was a necessary evil and a public utility for preventing men from worse sins.[11]

'''There was no singular approach to prostitution in Medieval Europe; the manner in which it was addressed varied by town. Each town usually addressed prostitution either by making it illegal, regulating and taxing the exchange of sexual services, or institutionalizing it by establishing municipal brothels. These brothels would usually have strict regulations for the owners, employees (such as bookkeepers), and the prostitutes. These regulations included laws which determined the business hours of the brothel, the amount of pay prostitutes were entitled to, when they were allowed to leave, and who they were allowed to have personal relationships with. Some laws, however, worked in the prostitutes’ favor, such as laws that protected them from violence committed by the brothel owners.'''

The establishment of these brothels was justified using the argument that it was the “lesser evil.”By giving men the option of engaging in sex with a prostitute, it was believed to be saving esteemed women from corruption, rape, and sodomy. '''It was also believed that making attractive women available for men to have intercourse with would curtail homosexual practices. Essentially, the regulation and legalization of prostitution was not for the benefit of the prostitutes’ well-being, but for the good of the townspeople.''' While the Court and the Church sought to limit women's sexuality through the law, clearly in many ways it was a failure.

Medieval lesbianism
Main article: Homosexuality in medieval Europe

'''The history of Medieval women’s sexuality and lesbianism is not well-documented and seldomly acknowledged due to lesbianism being underplayed or ignored compared to male homosexuality in the Medieval time period. More often, Medieval physicians discussed male homosexuality in greater detail than lesbianism in handbooks that detailed religious confessions, and many theologians also overlooked same sex relations between women as well. According to historian Joan Cadden, this “invisibility” of women’s same sex relations is in part due to the subordinate place of all women in the Middle Ages, who are seen as lesser and easily overlooked compared to their male counterparts.'''

There are many examples of queer sexuality among medieval women, and its evidence traditionally comes from Canonical and secular law codes. While they do not reveal the lived experiences of medieval lesbian and lesbian-like women, they give insight into norms on gendered sexuality and homosexuality. Gendered sexuality in the middle ages came from Greco-Roman views of male and female sexuality. The most important aspect of this difference lays within a sexual hierarchy:

If a man submitted to a passive role in lovemaking, particularly by allowing penetration in a homosexual encounter. (It was perfectly acceptable to be the active partner in a homosexual relationship, since that preserved the all-important gender definition equating activity with masculinity. Oral sexuality with a female partner was much condemned since it, too, inverted the social hierarchy.[21]

Lesbian relationships challenged this sexual hierarchy, but it was not considered as dangerous as male homosexuality. Many male writers, often within the church, found sex without male genitalia hard to imagine. So, they often assumed lesbian sex could only exist if women used sexual instruments like dildos; only then would they be challenging the sexual hierarchy. In a letter from Saint Augustine to a community of nuns around 423CE, Augustine condemned sex and distinguishes between homoerotic activity and homosocial relationships that could be viewed in a more positive light:

The love between you, however, ought not the be earthly but spiritual, for the things which shameless women do even to other women in low jokes and games are to be avoided not only by widows and chaste handmaids of Christ, living under a holy rule of life, but also entirely by married women and maidens destined for marriage.[22]

The Penitential of Theodore punished lesbian activity, but they did not have the words to describe lesbian identities: “If a woman practices vice with a woman, she shall do penance for three years. (…) If she practices solitary vice, she shall do penance for the same period.”[23] Both of these pieces of canonical rhetoric and practice reveal that lesbian women existed and were known, but they did not possess the language to describe it. There were not many explicit definitions of lesbianism, especially as an identity, but these sources do reveal its existence. An interesting prescriptive source on convent life by Donatus (d. 355) shows how some clerics feared that affection would lead to lesbian sexual expression. He declares through a rule on how nuns ought to sleep:

Each should sleep in a separate bed and they should accept bedding according to the arrangements of the couches as the mother directs. If possible all should sleep in one place (…) Lights should burn in each chamber until day-break. They should sleep clothed, their girdles bound and always ready for divine service with gravity and modesty. (…) Nuns were to sleep together, with a complete lack of privacy, while at the same time they should sleep alone, without an occasion to touch a sister, or see a sister naked.[24]

A record from sixteenth-century Seville warned that lesbian women in prison who used dildos and hard language on other women (again, lesbian sex was not considered sex if there was not an instrument) could receive up to 200 lashes and be exiled.[25] Lesbianism was punished, but records of this punishment prove its existence and lesbian experiences as valid in the greater context of human history.

'''Although much of what is known about Medieval lesbianism comes from law codes, there is some additional evidence of romantic relationships between women during this period which provide a closer look into their personal lives. One such source is a collection of poems written by a woman to her female lover which were recovered from a twelfth-century manuscript from the monastery of Tegernsee. John Boswell, a historian of Medieval sexuality, considers this poem to be “perhaps the most outstanding example of medieval lesbian literature.” One of the poems discusses themes of awaiting her woman lover's return, recalling intimate moments, and grieving her absence daily. It also depicts the author and her lovers’ relationship as a physically intimate one, not just an emotional bond.'''