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. 

Nature vs. Nurture: Sex Change Romances

In class we explored sex change romances, a reoccurring topic in medieval literature, notably the tale of Silence. The neomedieval books we studied also bore traits of gender confusion and appropriation, such as the path of Arya Stark in AGOT. I looked up some information about sex change romances and came across the article "How to be a Man, Though Female: Changing Sex in Medieval Romance" by Angela Jane Weisl. [Access it at http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1813&context=mff.]

Weisl explores gender confusion and transformation in medieval literature, which she finds to be a "surprisingly popular topic." She states that the literature "offers a full range of gender potential, suggesting that the gendered body is permeable and malleable" and that "in more modern parlance, the romance implies that biology is far from being destiny." In class we discussed how Arya's journey through the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series seems to portray a more realistic struggle of a woman posing as a male as she struggles to embody and master masculine, rather than feminine, traits. In contrast, Silence seemed to portray a far more idealized depiction of a woman thriving as a man, for not only was her gender never questioned, but she was a wondrously successful knight [before her gender was exposed, at least].

A quote in Weisl's text helped me to understand why it was far easier for Silence to pose as a man than it was for Aria. Weisl states: "because knighthood is so explicitly defined in terms of gender, the women who pass as men in these stories are able to do so because of their rigid understanding of what nature means." This quote sheds some light on the nature vs. nurture debate that Silence examined. Since Silence was raised from a young age to live as a boy—she learned all the social cues of a man and was raised with the gendering of a male—it made it much easier for her to assimilate as one. She was exclusively and explicitly taught to think and act like a man, which gave her a solid grasp of how to be one. On the other hand, Aria clearly had an innate desire to jettison her traditional female upbringing, but since she was not allowed to learn the social customs and training of a boy, she struggled more when forced to live like one. Therefore, nurture clearly played a role in both females’ abilities to pose as men.

However, I find that both texts undermine the importance of nature. A debate over the "cultural and biological determinations of gender" can be read at http://articles.latimes.com/2004/may/13/local/me-reimer13, which delves into the sad story of David Reimer. After a botched circumcision rendered the male infant genitally deformed, his parents chose to raise him as a girl. Reimer lived for 14 years as a girl, but he “rebelled at [his] imposed identity from the start,” always knowing that something was wrong. After discovering what had happened, Reimer chose to live as a male, but the psychological scars were too devastating for Reimer to overcome. He eventually took his life at age 38. Therefore this very real case argues against some of the questions raised in the medieval sex change romances and neomedieval tales that we examined. Though gender is in part a product of social conditioning, I think that nature also plays a predominant role in shaping an individual, which Silence eventually comes to learn at the end of her tale, as she so seamlessly is able to embrace her biological female nature once women are allowed to inherit once more.

Feminine and Jewish Discrimination "Bleeding" into the Medieval Era

Feminine and Jewish Discrimination "Bleeding" into the Medieval Era

During the Middle Ages, differences between men and women were established through physiological capabilities, such as men producing sperm and women producing menstrual blood. According to Galen, a man who claimed to be an authority on the female body, women were incomplete and deformed versions of men. Women’s ovaries and menstrual blood were thought to be crude mimics of a man’s testicles and sperm. This idea was based on the thought that women did not receive enough heat in the womb, preventing them from fully developing into men who received plenty of heat and were the perfect form of humanity. The notion of woman being a lesser man was integrated into many tales written in the Medieval era, one such tale being Beroul’s Tristan. In this story, Beroul utilizes female menstruation as a form of othering, degrading the leper Ivan as simultaneously feminine and Jewish.

Under Galen’s belief that women were deformed versions of men, a parallel can be drawn between Ivan the Leper and women. Leprosy is a disease that causes deformation of the body through loss of body parts, such as an arm or leg. This disease can be connected to women because of their incomplete bodily construction, i.e. their inability to have testicles and sperm. These missing body parts portrayed women as deformed as well, and since both leprosy and being a woman were seen as deformities, there is a connection between Ivan and the female body. Such a connection allows for the ridicule of Ivan, especially in the manner of how he is killed.

Ivan, the leper to whom Queen Isolde is given as a form of punishment for sleeping with another man, is abruptly put in his place by Tristan and Gorvenal who end up saving the Queen. As recited in the story, “Gorvenal indeed, snatching up an oak sapling, crashed it on Ivan’s head till his blood ran down to his misshapen feet” (Beroul). Notice here that blood ran from Ivan’s head down to his feet. This occurrence could invoke imagery of menstruation because the blood is running down Ivan’s body and presumably down his thighs and lower legs. Ivan’s bleeding mixed with his deformities mirrors the biological and conceptual ideas thought about women in the Medieval era since women bled between their legs and were “deformed” men.

Perhaps if we examined this a little more, we might notice how Ivan’s bleeding is reminiscent of the notion that Jewish men menstruate. It was believed that Jewish men were not fully formed either, and because of this they would menstruate from their anus or even their penis. Such a thought lumps Jews right in there with the grossness of women and demonstrates a form of othering that Christian males would often use back in the Middle Ages. This othering could certainly have been utilized when depicting Ivan because he noticeably bleeds from his head. In this case the word head may be representing the head of a penis instead of the cranium, meaning that Ivan would not only be deformed like a woman, but also bleeding from his male genitalia like a Jewish man.

Whether Beroul was actually attempting to other Ivan as female and Jewish can be debated, but textual evidence along with the prevalent theories about women during the Medieval era seem to point to the conclusion that he was.

Thanks Uterus.

You wake up one morning double over in pain. You can't walk. You can't eat but you still throw up because you are in so much pain. Just a typical day on your period.
Despite this being the worst pain that you've ever felt, having cramps and being on your period is not something that you can talk about much less an valid excuse to miss class. With most professors being male, talking openly and honestly about why you are pale and shaky and why you miss class is not something that you feel comfortable doing. Even if that were possible, most professors wouldn't understand the pain.
That's not the main complaint, however. The societal phobia of periods and the barrier that prevents you from talking about it is the main issue. You know, despite the actual blood coming from you body.
This societal phobia is not anything new. In the medieval times, period blood was even more feared and taboo that it is today. In Only Women Bleed it says that "Women's blood-menstruation and the blood or parturition-have long been associated with pollution in the Judeo-Christian tradition" (3). This traces back the Eve and after the original sin, both men and women were punished. Men were cured with working in the sun for their food and women were cursed with periods and painful childbirth. Even though men were also cursed, it was the women's punishment that became taboo and a negative symbol.

Expanding the definition of virginity and purity that we know today, in medieval times women that were considered virgins and pure were not just women that abstained from premarital sex. These pure women also did not bleed. This is, of course, ridiculous, since women cannot reasonable control whether or not they have their period. Even though this more extreme view has not been carried over to present day, the fear of women starting their periods is still very real and present. People worry that once a girl's period starts, she will also become sexually aroused, have sex, and get pregnant. There is a sort of innocence around a girl that has not started her period.
This negativity and way of thinking continues through today. Men and even women are uncomfortable talking about periods and most things associated with the uterus, even though it is a natural part of the female body. In fact, it is actual a sign of a fertile, healthy woman. Despite that fact, when a girl is in pain while she is on her period, the chances of her actually saying that to a male or even female professor is very slim. This is because you don't want to make anyone uncomfortable or come across as weak. Most of the time, you just say it's stomach pains or say something else vague or simply avoid saying anything at all. While we are lucky enough to now have all of the taboos that women in the medieval ages had to deal with, being a woman with a functioning uterus is still difficult.