Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love

by R. Howard Bloch

Until now the advent of Western romantic love has been seen as a liberation from—or antidote to—ten centuries of misogyny. In this major contribution to gender studies, R. Howard Bloch demonstrates how similar the ubiquitous antifeminism of medieval times and the romantic idealization of woman actually are.

Through analyses of a broad range of patristic and medieval texts, Bloch explores the Christian construction of gender in which the flesh is feminized, the feminine is aestheticized, and aesthetics are condemned in theological terms. Tracing the underlying theme of virginity from the Church Fathers to the courtly poets, Bloch establishes the continuity between early Christian antifeminism and the idealization of woman that emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In conclusion he explains the likely social, economic, and legal causes for the seeming inversion of the terms of misogyny into those of an idealizing tradition of love that exists alongside its earlier avatar until the current era.

This startling study will be of great value to students of medieval literature as well as to historians of culture and gender.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Medieval, Love, Gender Studies, Literary Criticism

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[John Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a laughable perversion of history. I actually enjoyed seeing the extent to which ignorance can form the basis for a book that many take seriously. Reading this book is like a modern physician reading medieval texts on blood-letting.

The book is based upon the false premise that men are in control of culture and society and that men have used this "power" through history to oppress women and hate women.

The entertaining intellectual gymnastics in this book are similar to watching inebriated trapeze artists falling from their perches in a circus tent.

First of all, our current culture is very much driven by women's supremacy that both the Church and governments have imposed on men since the reign of Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was the most powerful ruler in the last thousand years and made certain that she reduced men to disposable sub-humans in pursuit of her wars. As the leader of the Second Crusade, Eleanor of Aquitaine promulgated a code making men nothing more than sub-humans "in the service of women." Ulrich's Von Liechtenstein Frauendienst, Vol. 1 [Frauendienst is a medieval auto biography of a German nobel who was delivered into sex slavery for medieval aristocratic women at the age of 14. Frauendienst means: "In the service of women."] Eleanor of Aquitaine was just one of the many rulers in history who exploited men for wars and personal power and greed. She actually conducted "Courts of Love" in which men were convicted of violating women's supremacy rules and required to do penance as thralls of women.

A sober examination of history, by scholars, reveals that it has not been men oppressing women, but women oppressing men (often with violence) to make men their proxy servants in a vast scheme, sanctioned by the Church, in which all women are "The Blessed Virgin Mary" and all men are simps who owe them anything to which they they think they are entitled. Gynocentrism: From Feudalism to the Modern Disney Princess

Our current culture of privileged and elite white women is the culmination of thousands of years of women's supremacy and shows no sign of abating. The Democratic Party's War on Men: Gynocentrism

Men can read this book with a sense of humor and gain some understanding of the intellectual perversion that is behind the women's supremacy movement in Western culture.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I found this book very dense, it was extremely useful and interesting.

[emily dunsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

followed this until he started chatting about the biosymbolic latencies of motherhood and then i tapped out x

[Janin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic, easy to read approach to medieval views of women-- how they came about, how they were advanced, and how they were responded to, both by clergy, women and men, across various social and economic groups. I was pleased with how clearly and concisely information was presented-- things weren't simply glossed over, there was 'meat' and research behind the claims to substantiate them. It's a portion of Medieval history you simply are not exposed to in your average literary class, even when they move into the quintessential 'courtly love' section.

[Daniel]

A propósito de Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love de R. H. Bloch

[The Funky Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
in my infrequent forays into academic writing, which involve feminism often due to my own interest, i tend to find fantastic theses, but not enough bases for the conjectures. this book quotes plenty of old french literature, and yet the conclusions it draws from it, while i can see why they might be likely, don't seem to stand on very strong legs from my academically illiterate standpoint. perhaps i'm missing something, who knows.

side note: absolutely incredible writing from the author, an actual scholar.

[Eleonora Stampoli]

"These may seem like frivolous remarks, but they contain more than a grain of historic truth in that the fear of women entering the public sphere-that is to say, the fear of their playing a role in history-has historically been associated with an elevation above the temporal that is synonymous with the very type of idealization of the feminine that courtliness represents."

[franklinia ☦︎ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected a thoughtful, well-researched, and empowering book; something to give justice and credit women throughout history. Instead, I found it filled with nonsense, misinformation and absurd claims.