Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages (Volume 7)

Medieval Cultures #7

by Clare A. Lees

Medieval Regarding Men in the Middle Ages (Medieval Cultures) [Paperback] [Jul 14, 1994] Lees, Clare A.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Clare Lees (MA, PhD) is professor of Medieval Literature and History of the Language at the Department of English, King's College (London, UK).

Reviews

[M F]

Not nearly as relevant as I'd hoped -- some interesting articles, but nothing that touched on Irish material nor really anything that could be linked in a comparative manner, so that's a little disappointing. I should probably have stopped reading and moved onto something else once I realised that, but it *was* interesting, it just... didn't help me with my dissertation at all.

[Laura Creedon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely important contribution to the intersection between gender-studies and medievalism! Wide variety of essays and a wonderful preface by Thelma Fenster.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really interesting to read a theoretical essay on male stereotypes as opposed to the commonly discussed female stereotypes in literature. Reading this essay, it explains how men are just as entrapped by patriarchal, societal, and historical stereotypes as women are.

Despite the focus of this text, however, I was slightly confused reading it because no matter what route this text took, it always linked back to femininity and women being inferior. It was interesting, though, to read examples of how however men try to oppose the stereotype of maleness, it always leads to being regarded as feminine and therefore emasculated. For example: if men loved a woman it was called 'womanly love' and they were emasculated, if men didn't want to take a wife it was seen as odd and effeminate, if men didn't portray their superiority and power over women they were emasculated, and if you lived comfortably and didn't have a hard life you were feminised and emasculated.

But even in such an enlightening essay, there is still the ever-present blame towards women. Women were blamed for a man's impotence and sterility, for example, and officials blamed specifically witches and their craft.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the ways in which masculinity was constructed in Medieval Europe. It relies a lot on literary analysis1 and would thus have been more interesting if I'd been more familiar with the works discussed.

[Nicole]

Skipped a few essays in this, but overall I really enjoyed it.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lees's volume brings together diverse articles and themes. All very good.