![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yes, it's the return of the Kalamazoo Live-Blog! Lauri and I arrived just in time to catch the 1:30 sessions, but I didn't have my brain together enough to blog that one. I may or may not have time to post my regular Friday Review as well. If not, this is what you get.
Session 286 - Hermaphrodites: Genitalia, Gender, and Being Human in the Middle Ages (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies
Organizer: Ruth Evans
Presider: Eileen A. Joy
I picked this session because I've been tracing the theme of hermaphrodites/intersex status as a context/"excuse" for apparently female-female sexual relationships in medieval and early modern texts. So I'm interested to see what other people are saying about the topic. From the material I've been covering in the LHMP, it's clear that claims of being a hermaphrodite were sometimes used as exculpatory evidence against accusations of female sodomy. But given the often peculiar popular notions of what hermaphroditism was at that time, it seems to me that the popular image was sometimes (often?) used as cover for f/f or woman/trans man relationships, while other times possibly reflecting genuine intersex individuals in the process of being recategorized.
Introductory Notes - from Ruth Evans
Today, medical/cultural issue that challenges binary categories. Medieval view similarly challenged categories, not only of gender but of religion and the nature of humanity.
Hermaphroditism and Liberation - David Rollo, Univ. of Southern California
Looks at concepts of "Excess", that sometimes transgression comes not from the nature of an act, but from doing anything to excess. [I'm not quite catching the treatise he's working from because the display has tiny tiny text.] This treatise has been viewed as a polemic against "acts against nature", but Rollo argues that it is not about clear-cut boundaries, but about how "natural" acts, reactions, and attitudes can lead to sin/transgression if followed to excess. E.g., a girl's "natural" obedience to a parent can be sin if the parent demands sexual obedience. Rollo refers to this text as a "hermaphroditic text" but seems to be using h. in a metaphoric sense, rather than biological/categorical.
Sex and Genre: Disorienting the Place of Hermaphrodites in Pilgrimage Narratives - M. W. Bychowski, George Washington Univ.
What is excluded from the debate/narrative of hermaphrodite/transgender discussions as what is discussed. In particular, intersex individuals tend to be excluded and omitted from modern debates on gender categorization. In both modern and historic gender category discussions, intersex tends to be displaced to "other" places and peoples. Looks at the historic roots of modern gender-category debates in medieval pilgrimage narratives. This genre often touches on travel to "exotic" locations where othered individual of many types exist, literally in the margins of civilization. John Mandeville's travel tales discuss just such marginal hermaphrodites who are perceived not simply as distant from humanity, but as something set entirely apart and independent of "ordinary" humanity. [A fair amount of the paper plays with imagery/metaphor of the intersection of "Hermes" and "Aphrodite" in post-modernist ways, and regularly tying the topic back to modern gender-category politics. The main thrust of the presentation focuses very strongly on the contemporary issues.]
Talking Back: Sodomy Laws and Intersex Subjectivity in Medieval Venice - Alexander Baldassano, Graduate Center, CUNY
Opens with context of the N.C. HB2 "bathroom bill", similarly to the previous presentation. Ties the historic legal case into the question of scrutiny of questionable bodies in order to assign appropriate categories. The legal concept of sodomy often addressed the transgression of binary gender categories via "inappropriate" sexual interactions. The defendant was being evaluated as having committed sodomy with a man, which would require categorization as a man. The defendant had been married to a woman at a past point, but the legal case was prompted by a sexual encounter with a man in which the defendant was viewed as having a passive (female) role. After this, the defendant moved to another city and lived as a woman, but was accused of posing as a woman to commit sodomy and condemned as such. Though the defendant throughout claimed female identity, the court refused to accept this defense and insisted on being given "a better truth". The legal context did not allow for an intermediate interpretation in which both the original presentation (as male) and the later one (as female) might have been equally (un)true.
The Hermaphroditic Soul in Medieval Art - Sherry C.M. Lindquist, Western Illinois Univ.
[Once more opens with remarks about current legal controversies.] Survey of hermaphroditic images in medieval art, e.g., as monsters in marginal locations of maps. But also used as positive image, e.g., in alchemical imagery, or representing the biblical passage about "there is neither male nor female in Christ". But these representations existed simultaneously with the "one gender" image of women as imperfect men. Image of the soul as devoid of physical gender cues. In some images, nudity of the soul represents purity, while in other cases, clothed "souls" represent sanctity (souls in heaven) while nudity represents damnation. Sometimes otherwise naked souls wear underpants, for an intermediate message[*], or props within the image conceal the genitalia to avoid the question. Esp. a conventionalized image of angels holding up a naked soul-person in a sort of white cloth hammock which often conceals the genitalia. Similarly, an image of the soul as a winged (angelic?) figure might use the wings to conceal the genitalia. Conversely, because of the grammatically feminine nature of "anima" and the image of the soul as the bride of Christ, there may have been pressure on male viewers to accept identification with imagery of the soul as female. And some representations are clearly female, with notable breasts and feminine hairstyles.
[*] But note that this interpretation seems to assume that underpants are non-gendered, which I would dispute based on my own research on the topic.
"Wikked Wyves" and the "Secrets of Women": The Wife of Bath's Hermaphroditism - Wendy Marie Hoofnagle, Univ. of Northern Iowa
Hermaphrodites represented disorder and strife. This symbolism was particularly framed as misogynistic accusations against women viewed as transgressing against gendered limitations. So, for example, Chaucer's wife of Bath, and her familiarity with "women's secrets" and the Trotula (female-oriented medical manual), is described in terms that often invoke gender-blurring and the appropriation of "male" characteristics. The concept of "women's secrets/wisdom" reveals how female access to knowledge and wisdom was manipulated to exclude women from general knowledge and restrict them to topics specifically relevant to sex/reproduction, but also to frame "women's secrets" as malicious and dangerous to men. This then led to male-oriented texts on "women's secrets" and heightened anxiety about malicious women's knowledge and techniques that imperiled men, especially in sexual contexts. Another way to control women's medical authority was to associate traditions of "women's secrets" with hermaphroditism and sorcery. Chaucer's descriptions of the wife of Bath in masculinized terms includes description of her "shield-like" hat, her wearing of spurs, as well as her sexual dominance and outspokenness.
Session 286 - Hermaphrodites: Genitalia, Gender, and Being Human in the Middle Ages (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies
Organizer: Ruth Evans
Presider: Eileen A. Joy
I picked this session because I've been tracing the theme of hermaphrodites/intersex status as a context/"excuse" for apparently female-female sexual relationships in medieval and early modern texts. So I'm interested to see what other people are saying about the topic. From the material I've been covering in the LHMP, it's clear that claims of being a hermaphrodite were sometimes used as exculpatory evidence against accusations of female sodomy. But given the often peculiar popular notions of what hermaphroditism was at that time, it seems to me that the popular image was sometimes (often?) used as cover for f/f or woman/trans man relationships, while other times possibly reflecting genuine intersex individuals in the process of being recategorized.
Introductory Notes - from Ruth Evans
Today, medical/cultural issue that challenges binary categories. Medieval view similarly challenged categories, not only of gender but of religion and the nature of humanity.
Hermaphroditism and Liberation - David Rollo, Univ. of Southern California
Looks at concepts of "Excess", that sometimes transgression comes not from the nature of an act, but from doing anything to excess. [I'm not quite catching the treatise he's working from because the display has tiny tiny text.] This treatise has been viewed as a polemic against "acts against nature", but Rollo argues that it is not about clear-cut boundaries, but about how "natural" acts, reactions, and attitudes can lead to sin/transgression if followed to excess. E.g., a girl's "natural" obedience to a parent can be sin if the parent demands sexual obedience. Rollo refers to this text as a "hermaphroditic text" but seems to be using h. in a metaphoric sense, rather than biological/categorical.
Sex and Genre: Disorienting the Place of Hermaphrodites in Pilgrimage Narratives - M. W. Bychowski, George Washington Univ.
What is excluded from the debate/narrative of hermaphrodite/transgender discussions as what is discussed. In particular, intersex individuals tend to be excluded and omitted from modern debates on gender categorization. In both modern and historic gender category discussions, intersex tends to be displaced to "other" places and peoples. Looks at the historic roots of modern gender-category debates in medieval pilgrimage narratives. This genre often touches on travel to "exotic" locations where othered individual of many types exist, literally in the margins of civilization. John Mandeville's travel tales discuss just such marginal hermaphrodites who are perceived not simply as distant from humanity, but as something set entirely apart and independent of "ordinary" humanity. [A fair amount of the paper plays with imagery/metaphor of the intersection of "Hermes" and "Aphrodite" in post-modernist ways, and regularly tying the topic back to modern gender-category politics. The main thrust of the presentation focuses very strongly on the contemporary issues.]
Talking Back: Sodomy Laws and Intersex Subjectivity in Medieval Venice - Alexander Baldassano, Graduate Center, CUNY
Opens with context of the N.C. HB2 "bathroom bill", similarly to the previous presentation. Ties the historic legal case into the question of scrutiny of questionable bodies in order to assign appropriate categories. The legal concept of sodomy often addressed the transgression of binary gender categories via "inappropriate" sexual interactions. The defendant was being evaluated as having committed sodomy with a man, which would require categorization as a man. The defendant had been married to a woman at a past point, but the legal case was prompted by a sexual encounter with a man in which the defendant was viewed as having a passive (female) role. After this, the defendant moved to another city and lived as a woman, but was accused of posing as a woman to commit sodomy and condemned as such. Though the defendant throughout claimed female identity, the court refused to accept this defense and insisted on being given "a better truth". The legal context did not allow for an intermediate interpretation in which both the original presentation (as male) and the later one (as female) might have been equally (un)true.
The Hermaphroditic Soul in Medieval Art - Sherry C.M. Lindquist, Western Illinois Univ.
[Once more opens with remarks about current legal controversies.] Survey of hermaphroditic images in medieval art, e.g., as monsters in marginal locations of maps. But also used as positive image, e.g., in alchemical imagery, or representing the biblical passage about "there is neither male nor female in Christ". But these representations existed simultaneously with the "one gender" image of women as imperfect men. Image of the soul as devoid of physical gender cues. In some images, nudity of the soul represents purity, while in other cases, clothed "souls" represent sanctity (souls in heaven) while nudity represents damnation. Sometimes otherwise naked souls wear underpants, for an intermediate message[*], or props within the image conceal the genitalia to avoid the question. Esp. a conventionalized image of angels holding up a naked soul-person in a sort of white cloth hammock which often conceals the genitalia. Similarly, an image of the soul as a winged (angelic?) figure might use the wings to conceal the genitalia. Conversely, because of the grammatically feminine nature of "anima" and the image of the soul as the bride of Christ, there may have been pressure on male viewers to accept identification with imagery of the soul as female. And some representations are clearly female, with notable breasts and feminine hairstyles.
[*] But note that this interpretation seems to assume that underpants are non-gendered, which I would dispute based on my own research on the topic.
"Wikked Wyves" and the "Secrets of Women": The Wife of Bath's Hermaphroditism - Wendy Marie Hoofnagle, Univ. of Northern Iowa
Hermaphrodites represented disorder and strife. This symbolism was particularly framed as misogynistic accusations against women viewed as transgressing against gendered limitations. So, for example, Chaucer's wife of Bath, and her familiarity with "women's secrets" and the Trotula (female-oriented medical manual), is described in terms that often invoke gender-blurring and the appropriation of "male" characteristics. The concept of "women's secrets/wisdom" reveals how female access to knowledge and wisdom was manipulated to exclude women from general knowledge and restrict them to topics specifically relevant to sex/reproduction, but also to frame "women's secrets" as malicious and dangerous to men. This then led to male-oriented texts on "women's secrets" and heightened anxiety about malicious women's knowledge and techniques that imperiled men, especially in sexual contexts. Another way to control women's medical authority was to associate traditions of "women's secrets" with hermaphroditism and sorcery. Chaucer's descriptions of the wife of Bath in masculinized terms includes description of her "shield-like" hat, her wearing of spurs, as well as her sexual dominance and outspokenness.
