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The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega

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The Once and Future Sex

Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society

by Eleanor Janega

Narrator Samara Naeymi

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Length 7 hours 33 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“This history of women and gender roles in the Middle Ages is as enjoyable to read as it is informative - impeccably researched and humorous without sacrificing scholarly merit (as long as we can all agree that noting 'medieval people loved a good fart joke' does not diminish academic integrity). While much of the existing information on women from this period pertains to members of the ruling class or eccentric religious mystics, Janega pays particular attention to the lives of everyday women, who were not only wives and mothers but business owners, tradespeople, laborers, medical professionals, artists, and scholars. In holding women's contributions to medieval society against men's discourses on how the 'ideal' woman should look, behave, and generally exist, Janega notes how modern expectations of women, though often drastically different, are hardly less restrictive.”
— Lily • Quail Ridge Books

Summary

A vibrant and illuminating exploration of medieval thinking on women's beauty, sexuality, and behavior.

What makes for the ideal woman? How should she look, love, and be? In this high-spirited history, medievalist Eleanor Janega turns to the Middle Ages, the era that bridged the ancient world and modern society, to unfurl its suppositions about women and reveal what's shifted over time—and what hasn't.

Enshrined medieval thinkers, almost always male, subscribed to a blend of classical Greek and Roman philosophy and Christian theology for their concepts of the sexes. For the height of female attractiveness, they chose the mythical Helen of Troy, whose imagined pear shape, small breasts, and golden hair served as beauty's epitome. Casting Eve's shadow over medieval women, they derided them as oversexed sinners, inherently lustful, insatiable, and weak. And, unless a nun, a woman was to be the embodiment of perfect motherhood.

In The Once and Future Sex, Janega unravels the restricting expectations on medieval women and the ones on women today. She boldly questions why, if our ideas of women have changed drastically over time, we cannot reimagine them now to create a more equitable future.

History Nonfiction