Historical Thoughts on Mens(fu)stration

          Menstruation has always been seen in a negative spotlight.  Some African tribes believe that a woman will affect a man's virility if a menstruating woman is sleeping in his bed (Gomez-Sanchez, 373).  The Ubangui believe that if a woman prepares food while she is menstruating that she will give her husband bad fortune while he is at war and will be shot to the point where his blood runs freely (Gomez-Sanchez, 374).  According to other cultures, menstrual blood had evil qualities.  Similar ideas spread throughout Western Europe where it is believed that menstrual blood prevented germination of plants, make fruits fall from trees, make animals abort, cause the skies to be pitch black and dark, cause rust and iron to blackened, and turn mirrors foggy. (Gomez- Sanchez, 374).  Some cultures absolutely believe menstrual blood to be a symbol of impurity.  Ironically, the vagina is a self-cleaning organ and has unique maintenance.  Even now, notorious discomfort persists when dealing with the topic on menstruation.  Menstruation should be seen as a biological event rather than a taboo topic.

 

         Comparing history to modern day, the menstrual cycle is still a taboo topic.  According to a 2016 online Huffington news article, "Menstrual Cycle Still a Barrier to Achieve Gender Equality," the menstrual cycle is still not a topic that is ever mentioned in Nepal.

Resources:

Gómez-Sánchez, Pio Iván, et al. "Menstruation In History." Investigacion & Educacion En Enfermeria 30.3 (2012): 

377. MedicLatina. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

Neofem: New Approach?

Recently, I found some social media commentary on a popular feminist trend called, Neofeminism.  I came across this term while scrolling through my Moment’s timeline on Twitter (via Amber Rose Twitter). I am still learning about what this effort entails, but I found it relatively applicable to the Wife of Bath's Prologue. There isn’t as much literature on Neofeminism as I hoped for, but I managed to find a broad definition of it: Neofeminism describes an emerging view of women as becoming empowered through the celebration of attributes perceived to be conventionally feminine…a female assumes or believes that females should lead and be more dominant in work, life, etc. than men…It glorifies a womanly essence over claims to equality with men (wiki, quora). A Neofeminist approach to the Wife of Bath's Prologue would support the representation of the Wife of Bath, Alys, as an empowering figure because her character asserts dominance over men.

            As we discussed in class the prologue reveals a female character that can be analyzed in different ways. The Wife of Bath is a complex portrayal of a medieval woman. One that is explicitly shameless about the way she uses sexual power to get what she wants. So, by portraying her in this way, Neofeminist would deny Chaucer is using the character to confirm negative stereotypes about women (manipulative and deceitful), but that she is a woman rightfully exuding her power in a male-dominated society.

            Through a Neofeminism lens, the prologue would be read as an encouraging piece for women.  The Wife of Bath would be deemed powerful because she is not only showing that she has control over one man but several.

 

The approach would highlight the fact that the Wife of Bath uses her sexual attributes for personal gain instead of focusing on proving her equal status with men. Her demeanor is one that emanates an authoritative attitude and reiterates the Neofeminist idea that women are more superior:

                 “At the end I had the better in every way,

       By trickery, or force, or by some such thing”  (408).

 

So, was Chaucer saying women are better than men? Mm.*shrugs*.

 

 

 

 

 

Sex in Medieval Times

Sex in Medieval Times

         Augustine is thought to be the only Church Father who has wrote in great detail about church and sex (Finn, 47).  He argued that marriage served to restrain and focus on sexual desires and thoughts, which he claimed to be a dangerous and destructive human energy that is capable of tearing society apart (Finn, 49).  Even so, Augustine proposes marriage to be a sacrament, in addition to fidelity and offspring (Finn, 52).  It is thought that his teachings are what developed Christian thoughts on marriage.  In Western Christendom; marriage was formed by the consent of both parties.  Marital promises followed by sexual intercourse created an indissoluble marriage (Karras, 1).  Even then, during the medieval times,  any extramarital relationships were looked down upon and considered as an adulterous sin.  Christian couples who were married accordingly with the secular and familial world were considered to be validly married (Finn, 46).  It was during the twelfth century that christian marriages was not only found in church but also increasingly prevalent under ecclesiastic jurisdiction (Finn, 47).  Marriage was solely seen as a process to reproduce.  Anyone who indulged in sex with the use of contraceptives was seen as engaging in "lustful cruelty" (Finn 63).  Peter Lombard considered a couple of this special category as "fornicators" and no longer "spouses" (Finn, 63).  In The Book of Margery Kempe Margery is a woman who would be considered as a fallen woman who has transformed into a fornicator rather than a spouse for being tempted by desire. 

        Although Margery seems to be mad or unstable she only portrays reality through her eyes of society's own instability.  Was there any particular reason why her husband John did not go "mad" or crazy as Margery appeared to be?  She was a victim of rape, yet she felt as if she were the criminal.  Rape was not considered if it occurred in a marriage.  Even today there is still controversy whether rape is committed within a marriage.  Read "Sex, Dementia, and a Husband on Trial at Age 78" to observe that the line of rape in marriage is still blurry.  During the medieval ages, women were held accountable for any sexual accounts.  However, men were held accountable for their personality characteristics rather than the sexual morality standards society created.  Margery goes through great distress when she becomes tempted by lustful thoughts.  Unfortunately, today there are still double standards. 

         

         

Resources:

Finn, Thomas F. "Sex And Marriage In The Sentences Of Peter Lombard." Theological Studies 72.1 (2011): 

           41. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.

Karras, Ruth Mazo1. "The Regulation Of Sexuality In The Late Middle Ages: England And France." Speculum 86.4 

           (2011): 1010-1039. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 28 Apr. 2016.

Excalibur: Arthur’s Phallic Show of Force and Post-Castrative Sexual Dominance

Let me open by stating that, while the implications surrounding the readings of medieval literary texts including swords can easily be swayed to assume all swords are extensions of their wielder’s masculinities, this post is not concerned with that generalization. Here I am concerned with one sword and some of the most explicit underpinnings of a scene in Morte Arthure. Excalibur, Arthur’s lynchpin for the kingdom of Britain and a sign of his dominance, is used in a duel to successful effect, but in a way that can be read as an assertion of masculine force if interpreted under certain linguistic contexts. In the final climactic duel between the king and the treasonous Mordred, Arthur drives his sword into a gap in Mordred’s armor, effectively killing the usurper only after being mortally wounded himself (Sutton 280).
        Previous scholarly debated has centered around the poem and its approach to wounds as having a tradable quality, echoing the adage “an eye for an eye” (Sutton 282). Arthur’s wound is often translated to have occurred on the loins, and in this stands the common reading of Mordred’s treason as castrating Arthur’s sense of leadership and “virtus,” here meaning masculine virility. To keep with the sense of trade, an equal or more damaging wound would thereby need to be inflicted. To keep with this, Sutton argues about the location of the blow delivered by Arthur to Mordred’s fente, or armor flap.
Usual translations site this armor to be a part of a helmet or breastplate, but Sutton contends that fente in previous translations misses the clear comparison to another Middle English word of etymological relation: vent. This word, while possibly meaning gap or open space, also has a more bodily connotation. Given the way the term is used, and the nature of the description of Mordred’s death, Sutton contends that the flap described here covers the buttocks, and the final mortal blow delivered by Arthur impales Mordred through the anus (284).
This would not be the first instance of such a wound in medieval literature. In fact, Sutton contends that for a British audience, the wound would call to mind the demise of Edward II, who is likewise described as being pierced in his final moments.  The parallel then stands to accentuate the ideas that failure in war is tantamount to ultimate disgrace, even to the point of regal, physical evisceration. In this reading, Arthur’s slaying of Mordred is as much a show of masculine dominance as it is an act of combative aggression. In many ways, these functions are perhaps more synonymous in Medieval literature than in modern retellings.
One point still remains after Mordred is slain. Arthur’s wounds are fatal, and the symbolism stands twofold. Mordred removed any means for Arthur to continue his line, eliminating the patriarchal power from Arthur’s sense of authority. Genealogically speaking, Arthur is already dead. There’s something Oedipal in the underpinnings, but more importantly, this notes how fragile the sense of masculine strength present in a king truly is. In the end, the wounds signify a loss of something that Arthur was likely destined to lose anyway, and the returning of his blade to the Lady in the Lake in other tales seems to echo the destined returning of power. In the end, all power, whether usurped or absorbed, must be returned.

MASCULINITY GONE TO SHIT

As you may have noticed there is a rather “shitty” theme that runs throughout Chaucer’s A Miller’s Tale. The subject first comes up as we are introduced to Absolon, the rather effeminate parish clerk from the local church. Chaucer gives a long description of his appearance and musical abilities. Then he decides to wrap things up by telling us this:

Later, poor Absolon is tricked into kissing the ass of Alison, the woman he loves. He is outraged and angrily returns with a hot iron to get his revenge. This time, Alison’s lover Nicholas, who has just stolen her from her husband sticks his ass out the window hoping to fart in Absolon’s face before receiving a kiss of his own. Instead Absolon thrusts the red-hot piece of metal upward burning Nicholas’ rear end.

These passages reminded me of the husband from The Long-Assed Berenger who is forced to kiss his own wife’s ass right after she has had sex with another man. There seems to be some sort of connection between fecal matter, gas, assholes, and masculinity, or rather, the lack thereof. According to Morrison’s Excrement in the Late Middle Ages, “Excrement was a relic of ‘gay matter,’ ‘an intermediate between the living body and dead disintegrating matter that is being transformed into earth, into manure. The living body returns to the earth its excrement, which fertilizes the earth as does the body of the dead’” (2008, p. 6). She goes on to explain how excrement played an interesting dual role, representing both abundance and humiliation, medicine and corruption, as well as renewal and death. Through this duality we see how shit can be related to both the male and female body fluids with the male being controlled and pure and the female being uncontrolled and polluting.

Through this understanding we see how Alison and Nicholas use their asses and farts to humiliate Absolon. In the story, the two lovers hold all the control, they just tricked Alison’s husband into humiliating himself by building a bunch of crazy boats. Then, they trick Absolon into kissing their butts and fart in his face. On their end, the use of “shit” is powerful because it is controlled. Absolon on the other hand is not in control of the shit and therefore embodies the feminine position. It is interesting to note again, that Absolon is “squeamish about farting.” Perhaps this is because he is already insecure in his masculinity, as indicated by his description.

Interestingly, Absolon is not the only man in the story who ends up with a damaged masculinity. The carpenter, who embodies the physical aspects of masculinity and is described only as old and ugly, has his wife taken and is humiliated in front of the other town. Nicholas, who embodies the mental aspects of masculinity as an intelligent scholar gets a hot iron up his ass. In the end, these men’s pursuit of a beautiful woman leads to their ultimate downfall. 

Classism and Female Sexual Deviancy in the Middle Ages

There seems to be a profound difference between the sexual lives of upper and lower class women in the Middle Ages, specifically that upper class women were more heavily scrutinized and judged than lower class women when it came to sexual actions. This isn’t to say that lower class women escaped all scrutiny, but they seemed to have less repercussions from their actions than those of a higher class. Whereas higher class women would be publicly punished and reviled for any sexual promiscuity, sexual promiscuity in middle to lower class women seemed to be overlooked or even found amusing. We can view this difference in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale” and Beroul’s “Tristan”, where two different women take part in sexual dalliances that lead them down two different paths.

In “The Miller’s Tale” the main female character is named Alisoun. Alisoun is married to a man much older than she is and because of this, ends up desiring a younger man by the name of Nicholas. On the sidelines is a third man, Absalon, who also wishes to make Alisoun his own. This leaves Alisoun with three different potential suitors/husbands which was quite a large number of men for a woman to interact with, especially when she is already married. By the end of the tale, Alisoun runs off with Nicholas and faces virtually no repercussions or reprimands from anyone in the story.

For a woman in the Middle Ages, this is quite unusual. Generally one such woman would be castigated and punished for her sexual deviancy on multiple accounts such as adultery, promiscuity, and potential polygamy. But instead of being scorned or at least mocked for her actions, Alisoun becomes an amusing character, one who makes her audience laugh at her sexual antics. I believe this is because of her lower class position in society. As discussed by Judith Bennett and Ruth Karras in their article “Women, Gender, and Medieval Historians”, lower class women were not forced to maintain gender roles as stringently as upper class women did. I believe this carries over into the sexual field for lower class women as well. While upper class women were generally required to maintain an air of righteousness and purity, lower class women were more concerned with daily survival and taking care of their children. Because of this, lower class women were not held to the same standards or scrutinized as thoroughly as high class women.

In juxtaposition to this, the Queen in Beroul’s “Tristan” is vilified and nearly burnt to death for her promiscuity. Instead of remaining faithful to King Mark, the Queen sleeps with her lover Tristan and is caught. Once caught, the Queen is sentenced a publicly punished, at first threatened to be burned but then given over to a colony of lepers. I believe that the Queen would not have received such punishment if she had been of lower station. She suffered the wrath of a King scorned and because such a man is privileged and powerful, the Queen’s death had to be made into a spectacle so King Mark could keep his pride. The Queen residing in the public eye ends up being her downfall, at least when it comes to critique over her sexual promiscuity.  

Margery Kempe: Martyr in the Middle Ages

The Book of Margery Kempe was one of the earliest autobiographies written, but was not entirely an autobiography. The biography was dated back to 16th century Middle Ages and was interpreted from Margery’s word by a monk. Margery’s story details the life of a woman who was scorned and deemed a heretic because of her intense devotion to Christianity. Although Margery was said to have had 14 children and a middle class home, her devotion lead to her to celibacy from her husband and wore only white to represent her renowned pureness. She expressed visions to the public, which in turn titled her a heretic and endured a great amount of suffering.

Margery’s beliefs made her a heretic in the public’s eye and in some cases thought of as a martyr. During the Middle Ages, Saints were often, at first, seen as martyr’s due to the miracles they enacted on others. Martyr’s were admired for their intense persecution and willingness to die for their faith. These Saints were an integral part to Medieval Christianity because without their intense persecution and beliefs, a hierarchy within the Christian religion would have not been established. Saints were then put on a pedestal for their great devotion and lessons they brought into the world. Saints were also said to experience visions, performed miracles, and were extremely blessed in the eyes of their faith.

As a notable theme in the story, Margery felt her suffering was a necessity to be closer to her faith and ultimately God. Her suffering is rooted from the New Testament where Christ informs St. Paul that he must suffer in Christ’s name in order to be closer to God. Margery does not directly cite this verse in her story, but she follows the same notion. In a way, Margery’s interpretation of being scorned from being persecuted is because her suffering is a reminder of the greater suffering that Christ endured. Margery’s visions make her a witness (martyr can also be interpreted as witness) to Jesus and Mary’s suffering, making her connected to the suffering. Margery’s tears then become a sign of her willingness to share that suffering. As a place in the tradition of Christian mystics, Margery’s tears “saving others” acts as a personal union with God. By looking at Margery and saints in the Middle Ages, readers are able to see a more clear distinction. Although Margery was not inactly a Saint, one may say she held saint qualities and should be noted in Christianity’s history.   

Work Cited:

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/saints/

The Hysterical Mystic

4,000+ years ago, hysteria was one of the first mental disorders that was attributed to women, which according to the ancient Egyptians was caused by spontaneous uterine movements within the female body. Stated in the Eber Papyrus, typical symptoms of hysteria were tonic-clonic seizures and a sense of suffocation or death. In greek mythology, Melampus attributed Argo’s phallus-refusing virgins as having gone mad due to lack of orgasm or “uterine melancholy,” and the only treatment was carnal activities with young and strong men.

The term hysteria is first coined by Hippocrates, which he believed was caused by “hysteron,” or the movement of the uterus, causing the entrapment of poisonous humors resulting from an inadequate sex life. As we have discussed in class, Hippocrates also believed that the female body was innately cold and wet, thus making it prone to disease and retainment of humors.To promote bodily cleansing Hippocrates advised the widening of the female canals a.k.a having satisfactory sexual intercourse regularly and procreation, within the boundaries of marriage of course. He also promoted the use of herbal remedies to repair the misplacement of the uterus. Thus single, sterile, or widowed women were at higher risk of experiencing anxiety disorders, tremors, convulsion, and even paralysis.

In Rome, Galen critiqued Hippocrates and the other former theorist. While he agreed that the disease was linked with the uterus, he felt that the only cure was to repress female sexual desires and promoted marriage so as to not excite young women. Greek physician Soranus implored different treatments for uterine displacement. He argued that uterine movement was a result of childbirth. Thus the true remedy was abstaining from sexual activity to allow full recovery, again promoting virginal behaviors.

In the early middle ages, Galen and Hippocrates' theories are translated to arabic, making them more widespread and influencing other scientific thinkers globally. The concept of hysteria was again confirmed by other medical texts and these concepts then spread throughout medieval Europe. Herbal remedies continued to be administered for treatment; new scientific theories emerged to intertwined science and faith, promoting the link between hysteria and original sin. Further convoluting theories of hysteria, ecclesial authorities start to promote chastity and celibacy over the clergy and the imminent threat of heresy increased. Mental illnesses in women now becomes associated with demonic activity because women were weak and vulnerable to the devil's temptations, and exorcisms were deployed as treatment. And along with this new ideas of hysteria came also the connection of women to sorcery and the concept of the woman-witch emerges, which would lead to the false prosecution and murder of thousands of innocent women.

In the case of Margery Kempe, she is accused of heresy on multiple occasions and is outcasted by society due to her disheveling behavior, despite attempting to be the most devoted Christian. Throughout her travels, Margery has many episodes of uncontrollable sobbing and body tremors/trembling whenever she has visions of Jesus and Mary, and when she attends religious services. Often these episodes are described as being extremely physical, and even sexual, which seems consistent with the symptoms of hysteria and its conflicting causes.

Her dalliance was so sweet, so holy, and so devout that this creature might not oftentimes bear it but fell down and twisted her body and made wondrous faces and countenance with violent sobbings and great plenty of tears, sometimes saying "Jesus mercy," sometimes "I die." And therefore many people slandered her, not believing it was the work of God but that some evil spirit vexed her in her body or else that she had some bodily sickness (30, section 17).

Margery has given up her former maternal lifestyle by asserting her celibacy so that she can pursue her devotions and willingness to suffer for Christ, yet because she has chosen to defy her natural duties as a woman, she is casted out by (most of) the Christian community, which was(and is still currently) a male dominated system.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480686/

What It Means to Be A Woman; Then and Now

The description of what it is to be a woman changes with the times like many other things, but some things do stay the same, one of these being the inaccurate idea that women are defined by beauty and their abilities in the “womanly arts”. This inaccuracy is applied to both Silence and Caitlyn Jenner because of ignorance and a patriarchal mindset. In one of the first scenes where Nature and Nurture are arguing over Silence and what it is she should identify herself as Nature maintains that Silence should recognize herself as female because of all the work Nature put into her. Nature says that she “extracted the beauty of a thousand to create [Silence’s] lovely appearance” (2511-12). She continues to go on and on about how beautiful Silence would be as a woman and how even now many females are in love with her because of how beautiful she is as a man. Silence then goes on to consider the arguments made by both Nature and Nurture and comes to the conclusion that “a man’s life was much better than that of a woman” after thinking in detail about “the past times of a woman’s chamber” (2637-38)(2633). A genuine fear that Silence had was that if the rules of the land changed and she was able to inherit that she would not know how to be a woman because she had spent so much time in the wilderness hunting and fighting rather than in a room learning needle point and other womanly arts. Silence saw that because of the way she grew up that she could not possibly be a woman because she “[had] a mouth too hard for kisses, and arms too rough for embraces” (2646-47). Not very often do the arguments for and against being a woman go below the surface level of what society tends to believe being a woman is about. Both Nature and Nurture include in their arguments such basic and somewhat sexist reasons for why Silence should or should not identify herself with her biological gender.

You would think that now in 2016 after the many great strides our society has taken in acceptance and understanding towards the Transgender and Transsexual community that people would view gender as so much more than putting on makeup and going shopping or cracking open a cold one and watching the game. But alas this is not true, when Caitlyn Jenner came out as transgender and underwent her surgeries people accused her of being “too feminine, that she defines her womanhood in terms of hair and makeup” (Source Two). It’s as if the arguments presented by the medievalist created Nature and Nurture have not left society’s mind when considering gender. Even in her show, I Am Cait, her close friend Jenny Boylan expresses her concerns that she believes Caitlyn focuses too much on the superficial aspect of being a woman. And continuing to further sexist stereotypes but on the opposite side of the spectrum Jenny Boylan in her blog comes to Caitlyn’s defense by saying that “you also ought to also note that so far, in her show, we’ve seen her riding a motocross dirt bike, pumping her own gas, and flying a radio-controlled helicopter” (Source Two). As honest as her intentions were she still is trying to associate a feeling of gender with stereotypical acts but this time against males. It is a difficult discussion and something that requires a lot of thought to truly figure out what it is and what it means to be female or male but because of the changing times it really is something we should try and define so as not to continue an old and misguided perception of gender. Femininity and what it is to be a woman are so much more than what the “Romance of Silence” and critics of Caitlyn Jenner make it out to be. No two women are the same so to try and group them together under a canopy of deeply rooted sexist stereotypes as an effort to explain the meaning and feelings of being female is quite an idiotic idea. As Jenny Boylan says in her blog “The world contains Janet Reno and Dolly Parton; Mother Teresa and Lady Gaga, and newborn baby girls who have been “women” less than a couple of hours. Surely, if there is room in this world for all these different ways of being female, there is room enough for Caitlyn; room enough for you, and room enough for me.” (Source Two). 

Source One: Romance of Silence 

Source Two: http://www.jenniferboylan.net/2015/08/14/jenny-boylan-on-caitlyn-jenner-the-big-dress-theory/

White

The color white in western culture has a long-standing meaning of purity and virginity. In North America women traditionally wear white on their wedding day to show that they have stayed virgins until marriage. In Moby Dick, the whale that Ishmael is hunting is the pure white whale, and an entire chapter is devoted to discussing the color white, showing the strange "purity" of hunting whales and being on a ship at sea and following your passion or the purity of the whale depending on your interpretation.
The symbolism of white can be traced back to medieval texts with a heavy religious overtone accompanying the color white. Since western Europe was predominantly Christian in medieval times, the color white was used in the Biblical sense; white meant purity and virginity. This is why the Mother of Christ is depicted usually wearing something white.
In the Miller's Tale from the Canterbury Tales, this symbolism is mocked and turned on its head. The young wife in the tale is described as being clothed in lots of white, "An apron as white as morning milk upon her loins, full and many a flounce. White was her smock" (lines 3236-3238). In the rest of the description of Alisoun, there are many references to her being pretty and being clothed in white. But in the rest of the story, her virginity is of no question. She is not loyal to her husband; sleeping with another man on multiple occasions and being described as a flirt. So what is Chaucer doing here? He has essentially destroyed the purity surrounding the color white by attaching it to a character who is not sexually pure.
Of could he be doing something entirely different? White is just a color, something that anyone can wear wherever they like. It is just an outward thing. Purity is something that is on the inside that cannot be determined by the colors that a person wears. In this tale, Alisoun wore a lot of white but that did not change the fact that she was very sexually promiscuous. Chaucer seems to be making fun of the heavy symbolism and assumptions that go with the color white. 

Traps and Illusions: Gwyndolin in Dark Souls

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR DARK SOULS 
In order to celebrate the recent release of the popular neo-medieval action RPG Dark Souls 3 , I've decided to blog about the character Gwyndolin in Dark Souls. A reader can break down this character through reading in the gender  and how Gwyndolin functions in web culture.


So: A quick rundown of who Gwyndolin is and her function within Souls.

The land of Anor Londo used to be overrun with dragons but Gwyn, Lord of the Sunlight, Nito, The First of the Death,  and  the Witch of Izalith all fought the dragons. After this war, humanity was able to live within the land of Anor Londo. Gwyndolin is the most beloved child of Gwyn, and the only child to live within the realm of humanity. She has been tasked with guarding the tomb of Lord Gwyn.  She was born a male child, but due to her affinity towards the moon, was was raised as the daughter of Gwyn. Having a feminine (or androgynous) appearance, she's pretty much treated as a (very deadly and mysterious) woman according to her father and her sister, Gwynevere.   Serpents follow her as she moves around and her power lies within illusions. 

Scan from Dark Souls Design Works

I'd like to start off by speaking a little on how we connect Gwyndolin to our readings of gender within medieval and neo-medieval texts. A note on pronouns: Keeping with a neo-medieval theme, FromSoftware made all the characters speak English, with Japanese subtitles for the Japanese version. Gwyndolin speaks of herself us我 (ware) pronoun, which is analogous to to the gender-neutral royal We. She's so blue blooded, her father was literal lord of all light. A description of her waistcloth (which you pick up after her defeat) uses the 彼の (ano) pronoun, another hint of ambiguity. It's a pronoun that is similar to the Royal We, but is tinged with fantasy and neo-medieval ideas, matching her speech pattern of "Thee" and "Thou". (DISCLAIMER: I know near nothing about Japanese speech patterns, this is according to other people who have written on Gwyndolin)
Frankly, just as with Silence, it's Calvinball with Gwyndolin's pronouns. I only refer to her as "her" because I can, I guess.  The English Localization team decided to refer to her as "he" and give him/her a cis male voice actor, although with a pretty andro voice. 


By taking a look at her powers, we can see that Gwyndolin's forte is illusions and trickery. She even tricks the player into thinking her sister, Gwynevere is among the humans, when she is simply an illusion. She leads on the player constantly, she is constantly pulling on the strings, even leading the player to self-immolate themselves in order to extend the lifetime of the gods in Anor Londo. Where have we heard gender non-conforming individuals that serve royalty before? Silence's father chose to "disguise her/ as you heard me before/ I want to make a male of a female" (2039-2041). The "magic" that inhabits both Silence and Gwyndolin stems from belonging to one "nature", but transgressing due to "nurture". With Gwyndolin, thanks to actual factual Magic and deityhood, the feeling of transgressing against "nature" and it's chromosomes and hormones is intensified. 

A reader could continue to see connections with Silence through Gwyndolin's attempts to hide her identity. Gwyndolin finds that her illusions help her hide her "repulsive appearance" (according to item descriptions that she drops).A reader can connect this to how Silence hides behind his "mouth too hard for kisses, and arms too rough for embraces...Whatever Nature may do, I will never betray the secret!" (2647-2657). Both are secretive about their identity, Gwyndolin hides behind a mask while Silence hides behind his socialization as a boy. There is something to be said for how these two characters are contradictions of all our preconceived notions on gender within medieval settings. Both embody the cultural anxieties that a reader might have towards gender transgressions and how it effects power relations. A player is left wondering why Gwyndolin has chosen to look so unsettling and strange.   

One of the few SFW fan art images of Gwyndolin I could find on the internet
thanks to witnesstheabsurd

I wanted to discuss briefly on how Gwyndolin is an aspect of web culture. 

As pointed out by the caption on the picture I could find, Gwyndolin is often fetishized as something "other" and it really infuriates me that all of the fanart is lewd of her. She's a powerful character! There's so many cool things about her, but somebody biologically male who decides to be feminine loses all of her agency in the face of that.  How is a character like Gwyndolin supposed to come off as powerful and accepting of herself when she is fetishized? How is this literal moon goddess supposed to have agency when she becomes fodder for raunchy imageboard posts?

I would say that this is part of web culture's obsession with "traps", and could be argued as empowering, but honestly with stuff like this I wish people just could be respectable, damnit. 

 related google searches to Gwyndolin are a hint at how she's treated online.

Special thanks to Eva Problem's great Medium article "Yes, Dark Sun Gwyndolin is a trans woman, no, you can't have her"
As well as Rory Fleming's article on Entropy " DARK SOULS, DARK SUN GWYNDOLIN, AND THE SPIRIT OF ART"

The Judges of Women: Margery Kempe and the Fallen Woman

Margery Kempe was an outcast for her eccentric faith and dramatic personality. When reading Margery’s life, I saw many similarities between the way she was treated and the popular character trope of 19^th-centruy literature of the fallen woman. The fallen woman was any woman who had “fallen” from society, implying a loss of innocence normally associated with loss of virginity before marriage. The characteristics of a fallen woman were always tied to her sexuality and often served as an example or warning to young women reading these stories to be cautious of the evils of the world. The fallen women emerged from the oppressive Victorian societal standards, placed specifically on women.

The popular use of this trope shows that the obsession with the sexual activity of women continues to be a main theme throughout literature. One of the first things Margery does is vow chastity, even though she is married. Then she starts to dress in all white. Interestingly, fallen woman are criticized for their lack of sexual purity while Margery is hated for her attempt to regain sexual purity. 

The people claim she is a hypocrite and Lollard and she becomes an outcast by most of society for her outrageous behavior. Margery spends most of her time crying and she is constantly on the brink of distress for Christ’s suffering. She is very aggressive in her faith.  Similarly, the fallen woman is often portrayed as mentally or emotionally unstable as her outcast from society quickly makes her go insane. The story for the fallen woman often ends with her death, as there is no redemption for her actions.    

The view of Margery Kempe is mixed between followers who have seen miracles worked around her and people who call her a heretic and shun her. With the fallen woman trope, there are always sets of people that want to support her but society at large is completely against her. Margery also deals with the officials of society and the majority of the population constantly mocking her.

The difference with Margery Kempe though is that she does not care about what society thinks of her. The entire character of the fallen woman is based on how society is seeing her and it is arguably society rather than the woman that cause her downfall.  Margery on the other hand is completely immune to society’s opinion of her, in so far as it does not discourage her away from Christ.

Once Upon A Time as a Neomedieval Experience: The Purity and Abjection of Birth and Heroes

Warning: Spoilers Beyond This Point. Do Not Proceed If You Care About That Sort Of Thing. I'm Not Marking Them.

This is a look at the relationship between the abject acts of menstruation and birth in relation to purity and heroes in the show -- primarily Snow White and Emma Swan.

"Look, 28 years from now I'll be exactly the same age as my baby!"

Let's start by looking at Snow. In the show's first episode, the audience is given the great privilege to watch Snow give birth to her daughter Emma, who also happens to be the Savior (yes, capital "S"), the product of True Love, and manipulated destined to be untouched by darkness. She parallels the Virgin Mary in terms of giving birth to a Savior child, being married, and considered pure.  While Mary was a virgin (one way in which there can be a removal of association between Jesus and the fact that he was in a womb), Snow White is clearly demonstrated to have been sexually active to become pregnant (not only with Emma, but with her second child Neal) due to a lack of holy or magical conception. And a primary feature of Snow White's character is that she is perceived as being good, pure, and a hero of the people -- associated with her actions as a hero rather than her state as a virgin. Coincidentally, Snow frequently wears white (Margery Kempe would be so proud) even after her marriage, and most importantly, when she is giving birth to Emma.

Now let's take a look at Emma. She's the most intriguing part of the neomedieval setup because the audience perceives her from goop-covered infant to adult woman birthing a child to Savior figure -- all kinds of abject to super awesome sauce (so much intended). So we have a mirror of the same issue from the medieval perspective on Emma as they did with Jesus: being born from a womb where all the body goop is. However, because Emma later becomes an adult who menstruates (unlike Jesus), she obtains an additional level of the medieval abject-ness -- an extremely inappropriate trait for a female hero/Savior. Not only this, but Emma becomes pregnant (ironically enough with the son of the man currently hosting all Darkness inside him), out of wedlock, by being sexually active. In this way, Emma also embodies an inversion of Mary, by being impure (can anyone say vigilante or thief?) and very unmarried. At least she only wears white when she's in the Enchanted Forest and wearing white signifies her hero status. Technically, her son Henry is questionably a Savior-like figure -- he too possesses incredible magic tied to his destiny and bullshit epic power, albeit in an indirect form (no fireballs for young princes) -- but can also be negated by the fact that he came from a womb and was conceived in the traditional manner.

"The Whole Family -- minus the rest of the cast"

But there you have it: Snow White is Mary, Henry is Jesus, and Emma is a Mary/Jesus hybrid -- the Hybrid Hero.