"Same-sex sexual practices between women in the medieval West were perceived to be a sin "against nature, that is, against the order of nature, which created women's genitals for the use of men, and conversely, and not so women could cohabit with women." If this is how Peter Abelard (d. n42) glossed Saint Paul's epistle to the Romans (Rom. 1:26), he was only reiterating what church fathers had been claiming and echoing the difficulties they had in imagining the very possibility of lesbian sexuality. In fact, Anastasi us (d. 518), bishop of Antioch, is said to have asserted: "Clearly [the women] do not mount each other but, rather, offer themselves to the men." Despite repeated attempts to negate their possibility and existence, same-sex practices between women must have persisted since, centuries later, medieval manuals of penance address the question of how to deal with such "vile affections."Â Jean Gerson, the fifteenth-century rector of the University of Paris, describes this lustful act as one in which "women have each other by detestable and horrible means which should not be named or written."Â
This silencing strategy which dictated that female lesbian practices be neither named nor committed to writing seems to have enjoyed especial appeal among jurists in the following centuries. Indeed, one hundred years later, in his gloss of Spain's law code, the Siete Partidas (1256), Gregory Lopez alludes to the sin "against nature" as "the silent sin" (peccatum mutum). Similarly, a sixteenth-century jurist, Germain Colladon, recommended that descriptions of such crimes, requiring the death penalty, should not be read aloud publicly, lest they incite other women to imitate them: ''A crime so horrible and against nature is so detestable and because of the horror of it, it cannot be named." This denied, unnamed, unnamable, and silenced sin that must have been common enough in the European Middle Ages to warrant such pronouncements from theologians and legal scholars alike and that at times merited the death penalty has led until very recently to a general neglect of medieval female homosexuality among contemporary critics.
The disavowal of female same-sex activity by medieval (male) legal authorities goes hand in hand with the prevailing negative attitudes toward women in the Middle Ages, the contradictory notions regarding their sexuality in general, including heterosexuality. After all, "natural sex" was limited to a narrow range of acceptable behaviors, as Karma Lochrie reminds us: "sex in the proper vessels with the proper instruments in the proper positions with the appropriate procreative intentions in orderly ways and during times that are not otherwise excluded."Â These views, based on Aristotle's male-centered model which considered a woman to be an "accidental deviation," a failed male fetus, were recuperated by the Christian church fathers (Augustine, Jerome, Tertulian, and others), who emphasized celibacy and persistently associated sexuality with the Fall, and woman with sin. In this worldview, male and female homosexuality was nothing but a "human distortion of divine order."
Ironically, the invention of the category "sodomy'' in the middle of the twelfth century only served to exclude female homosexuality from public discourse and thus to silence it even further. Even though sodomy was defined as both a male and a female sin, few theologians actually concerned themselves with female homosexuality. Theological discourses regularly focused on men more than they did on women because their primary goal was the control of clerics and their sexual misconduct: Peter Damian's virulent pamphlet against sodomy contained in his Book of Gomorrah (ca. 1048-54), which does not discuss women, is a case in point. Similarly, medieval medicine and medieval science both paid relatively little attention to homosexuality (male or female) in the Middle Ages. After all, according to the dominant clerical teachings of the period, same-sex relations between women could only be perceived as trivial because women were passive "by nature," played a secondary role in sexuality and reproduction, and were thus at some level not fully sexual.Â
In addition, such relations were overlooked because of the prevailing Western phallocentric view of human sexuality, because "no sperm were spilled," and because sexuality between women did not pose a threat to lineage through the production of illegitimate heirs. Contemporary scholarship seems to have followed Peter Damian's footsteps or medieval theological and scientific perspectives and maintained the primacy of male homosexuality over female alternative sexual practices. The scholarly neglect of medieval lesbianism has been so profound that in her biography of a sixteenth-century Italian nun, Judith Brown observed: "In light of the knowledge that Europeans had about the possibility of lesbian sexuality, their neglect of the subject in law, theology, and literature suggests an almost active willingness to disbelieve." Her view has been echoed more recently by Jacqueline Murray in a 1996 essay tellingly entitled "Twice Marginal and Twice Invisible." In this article, Murray describes the status of the medieval (Western) lesbian in contemporary scholarship, observing that "of all groups within medieval society lesbians are the most marginalized and least visible."
âŠThe study of female homosexuality in the Middle Ages has been further hampered by anachronistic views of what constitutes lesbianism. Given the definitional fluidity of this category today (Who exactly counts as a lesbian?), critics have been at a loss as to where to search for medieval literary lesbians. Because the distinction between desire and acts still remains a powerful organizing principle in queer studies, scholars have been struggling with important methodological issues: Should the medievalist search for expressions of female homosexuality in literary depictions of samesex acts or in the portrayal of homoerotic desires? Can one speak of homosexuality even in the absence of specific (homo)sexual acts? What conclusions should be drawn from texts that insert a brief sexually alternative interlude only to end on a heteronormative note? Where is the line between intimate female friendships and female same-sex attachments? What distinguishes the lives of medieval literary single women, prostitutes, and lesbians?Â
These questions, coupled with the fact that medieval lesbians for the most part did not leave traces of their relations and that the majority of surviving literary texts are composed by men, have all contributed to the further silencing of the medieval literary lesbian in contemporary scholarship. Perhaps the most persistent methodological (and theoretical) issue facing medievalists is the question of naming: How should the absence of a specific label denoting lesbianism in medieval Western literary texts be interpreted (and this will be the case of all Old French texts that we will be examining)? Critics continue to struggle over what to call expressions of same-sex desire in the Middle Ages. They have been especially reticent to apply the label "lesbianism" to manifestations of same-sex attraction, sentiments, eroticism, and even behaviors because the notion of sexual identity continues to be viewed as a modern phenomenon.Â
The fact that no specific label to denote lesbianism was used until the sixteenth century has been taken to mean that medieval culture was silent on the question of lesbianism. And yet, as Sautman and Sheingorn remind us, it is "highly problematic to assume that sexuality begins to exist only when discourse says it does, either by explicitly naming it (as in the modern period) or by speaking authoritatively about it (as in the medieval period)." It is equally problematic to assume that the absence of a name necessarily means absence of power, for again, as Sautman and Sheigorm observed, such lack may paradoxically also signify "power reclaimed through resistance to externally imposed categories with their implicit negative assessments and marginalizations." Recent scholarship has revealed that female same-sex desire and practices, if not a specific identity, then at least an actual consciousness, existed in the West well before the nineteenth century.
In fact, classical archaeology has uncovered that the first figurations of female couples (in clay, bronze, and stone) predate any other figuration of human couples including not only that of Adam and Eve, but also Homeric couples such as Achilles and Patrocles. The statues of these female couples, discovered in the Gonnersdof caves in the Rhine Valley and dated to 12,500 B.C.E., are not unique. Some have also been discovered along the Danube River, in Romania, while others were painted on Anatolian vases. In fact, 90 percent of all human couples dating from the twelfth to the sixth century B.C.E. are of female couples, according to Gabriele Meixner. Furthermore, the existence of female homosexuality is attested in Plato's Symposium where Zeus's slicing of humans resulted in three types of couplings: male homosexuals, female homosexuals, and androgynous heterosexual couples. Female homosexuals are clearly identified in Plato's text: "All the women who are sections of the woman have no great fancy for men: they are inclined rather to women, and of this stock are the she-minions."
âŠMy reading has benefited from Judith Bennett's concept of "lesbian-like," which has proved to be especially helpful in expanding the scholarly search for "real life" lesbians in the Middle Ages. Because Bennett's goal is to document the sexual practices of "ordinary [Western] women" who represented "more than ninety percent of medieval women" (2)-as opposed to literary lesbians (whose story Crossing Borders will begin to tell)-she bids us to broaden our investigation into medieval sources and to include "women whose lives might have particularly offered opportunities for same-sex love; women who resisted norms of feminine behavior based on heterosexual marriage; women who lived in circumstances that allowed them to nurture and support other women" (10). If these are the women that Bennett dubs "lesbian-like," this is how she describes the "range of practices" that such women might engage in: If women's primary emotions were directed toward other women, regardless of their own sexual practices, perhaps their affection was lesbian-like.Â
If women lived in single-sex communities, their life circumstances might be usefully conceptualized as lesbian-like. If women resisted marriage or, indeed, just did not marry, whatever the reason, their singleness can be seen as lesbian-like. If women dressed as men, whether in response to saintly voices, in order to study, in pursuit of certain careers, or just to travel with male lovers, their cross-dressing was arguably lesbian-like. And if women worked as prostitutes or otherwise flouted norms of sexual propriety, we might see their deviance as lesbian-like. Bennett's category "lesbian-like" has many advantages, not least that of being more specific than Adrienne Rich's "lesbian continuum," which includes all woman-identified experiences. It also possesses undeniable value for the study of literary lesbians in the Middle Ages, for, as will become evident in the following chapters, the range of practices that Bennett describes permeates much of medieval French writings.â
- Sahar Ahmer, âCrossing Disciplinary Boundaries: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Same-Sex Love Between Women.â in Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures
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Last day of the projectweek crossing borders @ Minerva. Sweeet! Today all the students finised their prints and presented the work. Wow what a day! đ Thanks Merel!! Everybody!!
One night I (had a) dream of bringing the oldest person in El Paso to talk to the oldest person in Ciudad Juarez â stuff that is super human. Like, you immediately understand thereâs a connection, a humanity â thatâs what I want to see emerge.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer quoted in an article by Vic Kolenc in the El Paso Times. Art installation will open communication between El Paso, Juarez residents via beams of light
Welcome to the 2017 Politics and Prose Holiday Newsletter. As always, weâre proud to present a selection of some of the yearâs most impressive books. Happy holidays to all!
Crossing Borders
Mohsin Hamid has consistently shown his genius for using literature to capture the tensions between Islam and the West that play out globally and in individual lives. His latest novel, Exit West (@riverheadbooks), is another example of his spare, elegant writing, and his fearlessness in treading on uncomfortable political ground. A love story at its core, the novel exposes disquieting truths about secular and fundamentalist interpretations of religion, culture, family, and community. Moments of magical realism provide an imaginative backdrop to the story, much of which takes place in a country never named and with doors that serve as metaphorical entry and exit points. A stunning novel. - Lissa M.
âHistory has failed us, but no matter.â When a writer opens her second novel with a sardonic statement like that, you hope that sheâs up to the task of making it stick. Have no fear, Min Jin Lee is. Starting in the early 20th century, Pachinko (@grandcentralpub) chronicles the fortunes of a Korean family, first in a Korea under Japanese occupation, then as immigrants in Japan. The pachinko parlor that the family runs while in Japan is a perfect symbol of the kinds of hardships Korean immigrants in Japan face. The gambling establishment is their road to a better life. In fact, itâs the only such road. Perhaps this gives you the impression that the novel is only good as social commentary, its characters puppets. Actually, the reverse of is closer to the truth. Itâs as if Lee started with the minutest details of her charactersâ lives and the commentary grew out of it organically. When she observes how quickly Yangjin and Sunja have to get over Hoonieâs death, âAt his burial, Yangjin and her daughter were inconsolable. The next morning, the young widow rose from her pallet and returned to work,â you feel the hardscrabble life of a Korean peasant all the more. One reviewer has aptly compared Lee to Thomas Mann. This is one book you can lose yourself in. - Sharat B.
Winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice, The Leavers, (@algonquinbooks) by Lisa Ko, is an exploration of the lives of a family of Chinese immigrants. Â Polly, an undocumented immigrant, is rounded up in a raid on the nail salon where she works, gets caught up in the system, and eventually is repatriated to China. Â Her eleven-year-old son doesnât know where sheâs gone or what happened to her. Sheâs just gone. Â Fostering with a kind, intelligent couple (both are professors) in the suburbs, Deming has difficulty recovering from the trauma and confusion of his early life. Â The book is timely and the subject important, but the strength of the novel lies in the composition of the principal characters, showing the depth of their humanity, their worthiness of our empathy. -Â Mark L.
In the Midst of Winter (@atriabooks-blog), by master storyteller Isabel Allende, begins on a cold and snowy day in Brooklyn. After a traffic accident brings them together, Richard Bowmaster and Evelyn Ortega discover theyâre connected by a dark secret. This also involves Lucia Maraz, Richardâs tenant and colleague, who he turns to for help after the incident. Owing to circumstances, our three protagonists, plus one dog, find themselves becoming closer while going to extraordinary lengths to hide their secret. As Allende narrates their various pasts, it becomes clear that each of them faces a personal winter, living a life frozen in place. Richard is a professor who believes the great passions of his life have come and gone. He maintains strict order to keep his regrets under control. Lucia, despite the struggles and disappointments she endured in her native Chile, still searches for happiness in the unlikeliest of places. Evelyn is a refugee from the violence in Guatemala, where she was robbed of family and future. Together this trio discovers, as Albert Camus wrote, an âinvincible summerâ within that slowly melts the frost enshrouding their lives and opens them to renewed hope and love. This is a beautiful story that will see you through all the seasons to come. - Michael T.
When asked, Haris Abadi describes himself as an Iraqi and an American. He means that he was born in Iraq but traded his first identity for American citizenship after working as an interpreter for the occupying American forces. Somewhere in the transaction, the two loyalties canceled each other out and Haris lost track of himself. As Dark at the Crossing (Knopf) opens, Haris is in Antep, Turkey (âa city with two names and three meaningsâ), hoping to regain a sense of purpose by joining the struggle against the al-Assad regime in Syria. But the border is closed, and Elliot Ackermanâs powerful and poignant second novel follows his protagonistâs efforts to find a way across. As Haris faces the disappearance of his fixer; is betrayed, robbed, and beaten by a guide; and tours the Syrian ward of the local hospital, where both the dying and the dead are stashed in the morgue, his experiences give a close, yet panoramic view of the Syrian civil war and its regional fallout. At the same time, Harisâ recurrent flashbacks of the interrogations and searches he participated in with the Americans in Iraq reflect that he is also stuck at an internal psychological border. So, too, is Daphne, a Syrian refugee Haris befriends. Certain that her daughter is still alive, she wants to return to Aleppo and find her. Incredibly, though the conflict has left Daphne with nothing, she feels that âwar can be a blessing⊠If youâre trapped, its destruction can free you.â Ackerman, a former Marine who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and has covered Syria since 2013, is unflinching in his depiction of what war can do. - Laurie G.
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Iâm soooo so late to the party, but I am posting a preview for every day this week, even if itâs not on the appropriate day. All the categories are happening!! :P
Title: Crossing Borders
Ship: Stiles & Lydia
Show: Teen Wolf
Chapter: 8
PREVIEW -
Scott could practically hear Stiles fidgeting on the other end of the phone. He sighed audibly.
âSay it.â
Stiles stopped fidgeting abruptly, causing the backpack heâd been lightly kicking to catch on his ankle and cause him stumbling across his bedroom until he braced himself on his desk.
Scottâs eyebrows furrowed in concern. âStiles?â
âS-say, what?â Stiles asked innocently, his voice sounded a little strangled.
Scott rolled his eyes.
âSay what you want to say. Ask me about Lydia.â
Stiles sputtered, âW-what do you mean ask you about Lydia? I-I wasnât going toââ
Scottâs silence was testament to just how well he knew his best friend.
âFine. So, I want to know about Lydia. What was I to think when you texted me that she had come by last night and thatâs why you told me not to come by your house till sheâd left â whenever that would be?â
âShe was fragile last night, Stiles. It took a lot to get her through the front door. I didnât want anything keeping her from leaving when talking with my mom was obviously helping her.â
Stiles was silent for a beat. âAnd did it help her? Is sheâŠokay now?â
Scott sighed and ran a hand through his hair. âI donât know. I mean, am I okay?â
Allison.
âIs she still there?â Stiles asked, and Scott didnât know if he was referring to Allison or Lydia.
âSheâs sleeping on the couch,â he said, figuring the redhead was a safer bet.
âThe couch.â
âI offered her my room, but apparently she thought my bed would smell. When my mom offered hers, she insisted it would be too much of an inconvenience and almost left. Since she was already sitting on the couch, I suggested that and told her we had plenty of extra blankets. I guess that was enough to convince her.â
âHmm.â
Scott almost laughed at the seriousness of his response. âWhat?â
âIâm just curious is all. And concerned. And confused.â
Scott was baffled. âWhat are you concerned and confused about?â
âWell, I meanâŠâ Stiles shrugged. âHow do we move forward? Do we walk around on eggshells around her? Is she going to be your shadow now?â
Scott heard the subtle jealousy in his voice plain as day. He shook his head at how ludicrous it was.
âYou have nothing to worry about, Stiles.â
âOh yeah, why not?â he demanded.
This time Scott did laugh. âAllison wasnât the only thing Lydia talked about last night.â
Crossing Borders: Immigration and American Culture
As part of our Citizens and Borders initiative, we have launched a digital exhibition of works from MoMAâs collection by artists who immigrated to the U.S., often as refugees in search of safe haven. The works were chosen by staff across the Museum, and represent a range of mediumsâpainting, sculpture, drawing, photography, performance, film, design, and architectureâand a span of nearly 100 years.
We'll be posting a selection of those works here over the next week, but you can explore all the works at mo.ma/crossingborders.
