Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 April 2018
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0251
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 April 2018
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0251
Introduction
The history of men in the Middle Ages is a recent field of study. Although men have traditionally dominated the historical discourse, they have done so as the universal, against which others—i.e., women—were measured. Thus, male experience has been universalized as human experience. Consequently, men have been overlooked in their sexed and gendered specificity. Men’s experience as men can only be recuperated when they are considered a marked category. For medieval men, this process began in the mid-1990s, although not without controversy. Some historians believed that so much was still to be learned about traditional history that focusing on men as sexed and gendered beings would distract from more important areas. Although the study of men and masculinity has continued to grow, it has not been systematic in terms of temporal periods or geographic locales. For example, few studies about men and masculinity in Byzantium are available because historians focus on the Islamic pressure on the Byzantine borders. On the other hand, there is considerable interest in social history, including masculinity and male sexuality, in Italy and the Anglo-French world. Importantly, these areas have rich sources to support research on men. The history of medieval men is also complicated by the intricacy of medieval society. Ecclesiastical and secular values had a tremendous impact on men’s lives, yet these were often in opposition. Moreover, these two segments of society were composed of men of different power, rank, wealth, money, and opportunity. Not all churchmen thought alike, and not all laymen performed their masculinity identically. Finally, the image of men, their beliefs, and their values varies with the sources. Sermons and saints’ lives provide different worldviews than do paintings, chivalric epics, or court records. The historical sources cited in this article represent a cross-section of research, not specific questions. Rather, representative studies provide an introduction and overview to questions that historians are asking about men and masculinity. The sources range from Scandinavia to Portugal to the eastern Mediterranean, from late Antiquity to the transformation of early modern society. The literature reflects on social ranks from royalty to rags and provides insight into cultural and sartorial expressions of masculinity. Finally, additional material discusses nonnormative sexualities and men otherwise considered to have been marginal. Thus, this article serves as a topical overview, a theoretical introduction, and a starting point for further reading.
General Overviews
The nascent and innovative state of research into medieval men and masculinity is demonstrated by the absence of books offering a synthetic overview of the field. In order to produce an overview of a topic, a sufficient body of research is necessary to support the process of synthesizing research to arrive at general conclusions. The historical scholarship on men and masculinities is a burgeoning field with a rich and diverse scholarship. Individual topics include secular men and ecclesiastical men and the way in which men are portrayed in specific genres of sources, such as law or theology, court records, or imaginative literature. The field awaits overviews similar to those available on other areas of social history, such as women or the family. Instead, a wide array of essay collections has opened multiple perspectives on men in their gendered specificity and on theoretical and practical views of their life experiences. These essay collections have opened the field, and even the earliest collection remains highly current (Lees 1994). The perspective of the volume—that the study of medieval masculinity emerged from feminist research—set the tone for much of the subsequent research agenda. The need to view men and masculinity from a critical and gendered perspective is evident in the collections by Murray 1999 and Hadley 1999. Although these volumes cross wide geographic and temporal divides and incorporate information from broad and diverse sources, the essays also denaturalize masculinity, as originally encouraged in Lees 1994. Cohen and Wheeler 1997 presents an equally broad cross-section, but the collected essays bring more theoretically inflected interpretations to the subject. Some authors have isolated specific aspects of male identity and provide analyses that are both synthetic and focused. For example, Murray 1996 is an essay on male sexuality that provides an integrated examination of sources and varieties of sexualities over the course of the Middle Ages. Neal 2008 presents a remarkable three-dimensional analysis of the interior life of men in England. Adding to the perspective of men as social actors is a psychologically informed analysis that reveals something of men’s beliefs, values, and interior life.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, and Bonnie Wheeler, eds. Becoming Male in the Middle Ages. New York: Garland, 1997.
A rich collection of eighteen articles stretching from the time of the Anglo-Saxons to the end of the Middle Ages. It includes explorations of masculine physicality, including male embodiment, eunuchs, and three interlocking essays on Peter Abelard. Essays employ feminist and queer theory, cultural studies, literary criticism, and a variety of other theoretical approaches.
Hadley, Dawn M., ed. Masculinity in Medieval Europe. London: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.
Thirteen essays are organized according to these themes: “Attaining Masculinity” (Part 1), “Lay Men and Church Men” (Part 2), and “Masculinity and the Written Word” (Part 3). Essays range from the 4th to the 16th centuries and geographically cross from Byzantium and Italy to England, France, and Germany. The essays explore the manifestations of masculinity influenced by age, profession, and other social variables.
Lees, Clare A., ed. Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
The earliest collection of essays on medieval masculinities, this volume set the tone for much of the subsequent research. It moved the field beyond the study of men in the guise of human history as broadly defined and argued that the study of masculinity originated as a result of the study of feminism. Of special note is the essay by McNamara 1994, cited under Theory/Medieval Ideals.
Murray, Jacqueline. “Hiding Behind the Universal Man: Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages.” In Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. Edited by Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage, 123–152. New York: Garland, 1996.
One of the earliest examinations of medieval men as a marked category, this essay analyzes men in terms of the cultural construction of masculinity and male sexuality. Theological, medical, and secular sources provide a complex view that includes abstinence, aggression, and anxieties about impotence and sexual inadequacy. Male sexuality is revealed to be a social construction with unstable sexual identities.
Murray, Jacqueline, ed. Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities: Men in the Medieval West. New York: Garland, 1999.
Twelve essays bring together a variety of methodologies and disciplinary perspectives to examine men and masculinity in western Europe, from the early Middle Ages through the 15th century. The collection touches on a breadth of social contexts, using a variety of sources: theological, scholastic, and monastic writers; sagas; hagiography; memoirs; material culture; chronicles’ vernacular literature; sumptuary legislation; and ecclesiastical court records.
Neal, Derek G. The Masculine Self in Late Medieval England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226569598.001.0001
This monograph scrutinizes what it meant to be a man in England in the 14th and 15th centuries. Men are revealed not only as exterior, social beings but also as having complex psychologies and inner lives. Men’s social and gender superiority with respect to women is examined, as well as men’s interrelationships with other men and the values important for masculine respectability.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Alcuin of York
- Alexander the Great
- Alfonso X
- Alfred the Great
- Alighieri, Dante
- Angevin Dynasty
- Anglo-Norman Realm
- Anglo-Saxon Art
- Anglo-Saxon Law
- Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
- Anglo-Saxon Metalwork
- Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
- Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism
- Archaeology of Southampton
- Armenian Art
- Art and Pilgrimage
- Art in Italy
- Art in the Visigothic Period
- Art of East Anglia
- Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Mon...
- Arthurian Romance
- Attila And The Huns
- Auchinleck Manuscript, The
- Audelay, John
- Augustodunensis, Honorius
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus
- Benedictines After 1100
- Benoît de Sainte Maure [113]
- Beowulf
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bernardus Silvestris
- Biblical Apocrypha
- Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Boethius
- Bokenham, Osbern
- Book of Durrow
- Book of Kells
- Bozon, Nicholas
- Byzantine Art
- Byzantine Manuscript Illumination
- Calendars and Time (Christian)
- Cambridge Songs
- Canon Law
- Capgrave, John
- Carolingian Architecture
- Carolingian Era
- Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
- Carolingian Metalwork
- Carthusians and Eremitic Orders
- Cecco d’Ascoli (Francesco Stabili)
- Charlemagne
- Charles d’Orléans
- Charters of the British Isles
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Childhood
- Christian Mysticism
- Christianity and the Church in Post-Conquest England
- Christianity and the Church in Pre-Conquest England
- Christina of Markyate
- Chronicles of England and the British Isles
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The
- Cistercian Architecture
- Cistercians, The
- Clanvowe, John
- Classics in the Middle Ages
- Cloud of Unknowing and Related Texts, The
- Coins
- Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)
- Coptic Art
- Corpus Christi
- Councils and Synods of the Medieval Church
- Crusades, The
- Crusading Warfare
- Cynewulf
- da Barberino, Francesco
- da Lentini, Giacomo
- da Tempo, Antonio and da Sommacampagna, Gidino
- da Todi, Iacopone
- Dance
- Dance of Death
- d’Arezzo, Ristoro
- de la Sale, Antoine
- de’ Rossi, Nicolò
- de Santa Maria, Cantigas
- Death and Dying in England
- Decorative Arts
- delle Vigne, Pier
- Drama in Britain
- Dress
- Dutch Theater and Drama
- Early Italian Humanists
- Economic History
- Eddic Poetry
- El Cid
- England, Pre-Conquest
- England, Towns and Cities Medieval
- English Prosody
- Exeter Book, The
- Falconry
- Family Letters in 15th Century England
- Family Life in the Middle Ages
- Feast of Fools
- Female Monasticism to 1100
- Feudalism
- Findern Manuscript (CUL Ff.i.6), The
- Florence
- Folk Custom and Entertainment
- Food, Drink, and Diet
- Fornaldarsögur
- France
- French Drama
- French Monarchy, The
- French of England, The
- Friars
- Froissart, Jean
- Games and Recreations
- Gawain Poet, The
- German Drama
- Gerson, Jean
- Glass, Stained
- Gothic Art
- Gower, John
- Gregory VII
- Guilds
- Handbooks for Confessors
- Hardyng, John
- Harley 2253 Manuscript, The
- Hiberno-Latin Literature
- High Crosses
- Hilton, Walter
- Historical Literature (Íslendingabók, Landnámabók)
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Hood, Robin
- Hospitals in the Middle Ages
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary
- Hungary, Latin Literacy in Medieval
- Hungary, Libraries in Medieval
- Hymns
- Icons
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Illustrated Beatus Manuscripts
- Insular Art
- Insular Manuscript Illumination
- Islamic Architecture (622–1500)
- Italian Cantari
- Italian Chronicles
- Italian Drama
- Italian Mural Decoration
- Italian Novella, The
- Italian Religious Writers of the Trecento
- Italian Rhetoricians
- Jewish Manuscript Illumination
- Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- Julian of Norwich
- Junius Manuscript, The
- King Arthur
- Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485, English
- Kings’ Sagas
- Knapwell, Richard
- Kraków
- Lancelot-Grail Cycle
- Late Medieval Preaching
- Latin and Vernacular Song in Medieval Italy
- Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose, Medieval
- Latino, Brunetto
- Ælfric
- Libraries in England and Wales
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Liturgical Drama
- Liturgical Processions
- Liturgy
- Lollards and John Wyclif, The
- Lombards in Italy
- London, Medieval
- Love, Nicholas
- Low Countries
- Lydgate, John
- Machaut, Guillaume de
- Magic in the Medieval Theater
- Maidstone, Richard
- Malmesbury, Aldhelm of
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Manuscript Illumination, Ottonian
- Marie de France
- Markets and Fairs
- Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages
- Medicine
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuri...
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Twelfth to Fifteenth Cent...
- Medieval Bologna
- Medieval Chant for the Mass Ordinary
- Medieval English Universities
- Medieval Ivories
- Medieval Latin Commentaries on Classical Myth
- Medieval Music Theory
- Medieval Naples
- Medieval Optics
- Melusine
- Mendicant Orders and Late Medieval Art Patronage in Italy
- Middle English Language
- Mirk, John
- Mosaics in Italy
- Mozarabic Art
- Music and Liturgy for the Cult of Saints
- Music in Medieval Towns and Cities
- Music of the Troubadours and Trouvères
- Musical Instruments
- Necromancy, Theurgy, and Intermediary Beings
- Nibelungenlied, The
- Nicholas of Cusa
- Norman (and Anglo-Norman) Manuscript Ilumination
- N-Town Plays
- Nuns and Abbesses
- Old English Hexateuch, The Illustrated
- Old English Language
- Old English Literature and Critical Theory
- Old English Religious Poetry
- Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas
- Ottonian Art
- Ovid in the Middle Ages
- Ovide moralisé, The
- Owl and the Nightingale, The
- Papacy, The Medieval
- Paris
- Peasants
- Peter Abelard
- Petrarch
- Pictish Art
- Pizan, Christine de
- Plowman, Piers
- Poland
- Poland, Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval
- Pope Innocent III
- Post-Conquest England
- Pre-Carolingian Western European Kingdoms
- Prick of Conscience, The
- Pucci, Antonio
- Queens
- Rate Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61)
- Regions of Medieval France
- Regular Canons
- Religious Instruction (Homilies, Sermons, etc.)
- Religious Lyrics
- Rímur
- Robert Mannyng of Brunne
- Rolle, Richard
- Roman Law
- Romances (East and West Norse)
- Romanesque Art
- Ruthwell Cross
- Sagas and Tales of Icelanders
- Saint Plays and Miracles
- Saint-Denis
- Scandinavian Migration-Period Gold Bracteates
- Schools in Medieval Britain
- Scogan, Henry
- Seals
- Sermons
- Sex and Sexuality
- Ships and Seafaring
- Shirley, John
- Skaldic Poetry
- Slavery in Medieval Europe
- Song of Roland, The
- Songs, Medieval
- Spain
- St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
- St. Peter's in the Vatican (Rome)
- Textiles
- The Middle Ages, The Trojan War in
- The Use of Sarum and Other Liturgical Uses in Later Mediev...
- Theater and Performance, Iberian
- Thirteenth-Century Motets in France
- Thomas Aquinas
- Thomism
- Thornton, Robert
- Tomb Sculpture
- Travel and Travelers
- Trevisa, John
- Tropes
- Troubadours and Trouvères
- Troyes, Chrétien de
- Usk, Adam
- Usk, Thomas
- Venerable Bede, The
- Vercelli Book, The
- Vernon Manuscript, The
- Vikings
- Von Eschenbach, Wolfram
- Wace
- Wall Painting in Europe
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Welsh Literature
- William of Ockham
- Witchcraft
- Women's Life Cycles
- Wulfstan
- York Corpus Christi Plays
- York, Medieval