Antifeminist literature of the Middle Ages
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"In spite therefore of certain ideals of chastity presented by the Christian hagiographies, in spite of the incense burnt at the altar of Woman in romances, at tourneys and in the Courts of Love, there was never a time in the world's history in which women were more grossly insulted, more shamefully reviled, or more basely defamed than they were in the middle ages, by men of every class, beginning with the most serious writers of theology and going down to the mountebanks of the street-plays. The number of anecdotes, trivial or obscene, that drag women in the dirt is simply infiniteā¦"--Vergil in the Middle Ages (1872) by Domenico Comparetti |
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Antifeminist and anti-matrimonial literature of the Middle Ages is a corpus of antifeminist literature found in medieval texts. In these writings, women are stereotypically portrayed as unfaithful and cunning.
In the corpus is included the Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves, a collection of texts mentioned in The Wife of Bath's Tale in The Canterbury Tales.
Other texts in this category are Le Miroir de Mariage by Eustache Deschamps.
Often referenced in the Middle Ages are Tertullian's "An Exhortation to Chastity" and Solomon's downfall because of his polygyny.
In theory, this antifeminism was countered by the concept and practices of courtly love, which idealizes women.
Precursors in Antiquity
- Satire VI by Juvenal
- Casta est, quam nemo rogavit by Ovid
Renaissance
See also
- Antifeminism
- Criticism of marriage
- Female infidelity
- Insatiability of women
- Medieval literature
- Misogyny
- Pauline epistles
- Portrayal of women
- Power of Women
- Venus in the Middle Ages
- Women's rights in the Middle Ages