Toxic Masculinities: Creating, Enforcing, and Distorting Ideas of Manliness in the Middle Ages
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Monsters: The Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application (MEARCSTAPA); Société Rencesvals, American-Canadian Branch
Organizer Name
Ana Grinberg; Asa Simon Mittman
Organizer Affiliation
Auburn Univ.; California State Univ.-Chico
Presider Name
Larissa Tracy
Presider Affiliation
Longwood Univ.
Paper Title 1
Humorous Heroes, Gentle Giants: Pulci's Redefinition of Chivalric Manhood
Presenter 1 Name
Benedetta Campoleoni
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Edinburgh
Paper Title 2
Fragmenting the Body and Forming the Man: Identity Constructions and Toxic Masculinities in New York, Morgan MS M.638
Presenter 2 Name
Caitlin DiMartino
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Northwestern Univ.
Paper Title 3
"She nought agroos, ne nothyng smerte": Toxic Masculinity and the Erasure of Female Suffering in Troilus and Criseyde
Presenter 3 Name
Sarah Friedman
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
Start Date
12-5-2019 10:30 AM
Session Location
Fetzer 1045
Description
Medieval narratives create norms for “men” and “manly” behavior that often resemble but are not identical to modern ones: masculinity is not a permanent or transhistorical category. Likewise, medieval codes for behavior that often appear to be gendered masculine, such as chivalric ones, may not be as closed as they seem. This panel intends to focus closely on medieval constructions of gender rather than modern or medievalist ones, although the topic is of special urgency as contemporary discourses that reinforce “toxic masculinities” frequently claim the historicity of the gender binary and argue that there are the positive social effects of supposedly “medieval” structures, such as formal courtship, enforced monogamy, and chivalry.
Medieval heroic narratives serve as cultural vessels of destructive male expression. Bisclavret mauls his wife’s face because she leaves him out of reasonable fear. Roland’s pride and his decision not to sound the Oliphant until the last moment only leads to the slaughter of his soldiers. King Arthur seeks to rectify his incestuous mistake via Herod(ian) style massacre. These characters engage in toxic behaviors, responding to social expectations of manliness.
As part of our mission to bring together different fields and methodological approaches, MEARCSTAPA and Société Rencesvals, American-Canadian Branch seek to examine constructions of masculinity in the medieval world that destroys its subject, where it glorifies rape or violence as a means of restoration, or where, in other ways, it proves harmful to those caught in its restrictive ideologies. Ana Grinberg
Toxic Masculinities: Creating, Enforcing, and Distorting Ideas of Manliness in the Middle Ages
Fetzer 1045
Medieval narratives create norms for “men” and “manly” behavior that often resemble but are not identical to modern ones: masculinity is not a permanent or transhistorical category. Likewise, medieval codes for behavior that often appear to be gendered masculine, such as chivalric ones, may not be as closed as they seem. This panel intends to focus closely on medieval constructions of gender rather than modern or medievalist ones, although the topic is of special urgency as contemporary discourses that reinforce “toxic masculinities” frequently claim the historicity of the gender binary and argue that there are the positive social effects of supposedly “medieval” structures, such as formal courtship, enforced monogamy, and chivalry.
Medieval heroic narratives serve as cultural vessels of destructive male expression. Bisclavret mauls his wife’s face because she leaves him out of reasonable fear. Roland’s pride and his decision not to sound the Oliphant until the last moment only leads to the slaughter of his soldiers. King Arthur seeks to rectify his incestuous mistake via Herod(ian) style massacre. These characters engage in toxic behaviors, responding to social expectations of manliness.
As part of our mission to bring together different fields and methodological approaches, MEARCSTAPA and Société Rencesvals, American-Canadian Branch seek to examine constructions of masculinity in the medieval world that destroys its subject, where it glorifies rape or violence as a means of restoration, or where, in other ways, it proves harmful to those caught in its restrictive ideologies. Ana Grinberg