“We are here. We are Queer. Get used to it!”(Queer Nation 1990). The Queer movement from the 1960’s has been able to win a level of social justice undreamt of in the Middle Ages. In medieval Europe, punishments for homosexuality were very diverse and designed to be shaming, harsh and potentially fatal. However, it depended upon your location. Sodomy was a sin and a punishable crime, especially within the monastic communities. However, Chaucer was a medieval poet, who was known for writing poems that tended to celebrate life below the waist. One may say that “The Summoner’s Tale” is an example of this. The tale, displays many different aspects of gender and sexual curiosity, through different characters engaging in homoerotic activities. These aspects are mainly illustrated in the scene when Friar, Dan John visits the home of the young couple, Thomas and his wife. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Summoner’s Tale” we find rejection of the heteronormative potential, bi-curious behavior and body policing, to highlight the Thomas and Dan John’s sexuality curiosity about each other’s bodies.
Based on both men’s willingness to “grope” both the conscience and the body it is easy for readers to assume that Dan John the friar and peasant Thomas may be bi-sexual or in some ways bi-curious. However, this curiosity is “closeted” in
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According to Frantzen sodomy “called the act a sin that offended even the devil and fouled the air in which its name was spoken” (454). Yet despite his homoerotic liaison with Thomas, that interaction may be a supplement to the homoerotic satisfaction that Dan John was still seeking within the monastery. When Dan John and Thomas’ wife discuss the death of her child, the friar may reveal more about his nocturnal activities than are strictly spiritual and pastoral and elsewhere, Yet Dan John was still seeking homosexual pleasure both within the
Cornelius, Michael G. "Sex and Punishment in Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale.'" Human Sexuality. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2009. 95-104. [ILL]
In his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer fully explicates the cultural standard known as courtesy through satire. In the fourteenth century, courtesy embodied sophistication and an education in English international culture. The legends of chivalric knights, conversing in the language of courtly love, matured during this later medieval period. Chaucer himself matured in the King's Court, as is revealed in his cultural status, but he also retained an anecdotal humor about courtesy. One must only peruse his Tales to discern these sentiments, for Chaucer’s view of courtesy can seem shocking and, all together, obscene at times, it’s the similarity of the differences that make Chaucer’s tales superior. An example of this can be seen through Nicholas’ attempt at “courting” Alison versus Arcita and Palamon’s endeavors at courting Emily. Nicholas' anxious and lewd behavior, in conjunction with his explicit sexual connotation, demonstrates Chaucer’s more farcical side; where as, the manner in which Arcita and Palamon court Emily can seem more satirical. In the Miller's Tale, Chaucer juxtaposes courtly love with animalistic lust, while in the Knight’s tale, the subject of chivalry is held with much higher regard, and used as a florid, glorious attribute. These numerous references provide the reader with a remarkably rich image of the culture and class structure of late fourteenth century England.
homosexual liberation. Some have demonstrated their anger and concerns about prejudice against homosexuals in both riots and artistic forms. Therefore, these people seek to prove to the heterosexual world that homosexual ‘deviancy’ was a myth.
The sexual lifestyle of women during the medieval time period was quite different among married and single women. Medieval women were not accurately informed of their sexual organs due to bad medical research. They thought they must perform sexual acts on a regular basis to preserve themselves. The third-century writer Galen was looked upon as an authority for medical information on sexual activities. Galen stated that, “a woman’s womb was ‘cold’ and needed constant warming by ‘hot’ sperm” (Time Traveler’s 55). One would assume that hu...
Medieval and Renaissance literature develops the concepts of love and marriage and records the evolution of the relation between them. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Christian love clashes with courtly love, as men and women grapple with such issues as which partner should rule in marriage, the proper, acceptable role of sex in marriage, and the importance of love as a basis for a successful marriage. Works by earlier writers portray the medieval literary notion of courtly love, the sexual attraction between a chivalric knight and his lady, often the knight's lord's wife. The woman, who generally held mastery in these relationships based on physical desire and consummation, dictated the terms of the knight's duties and obligations, much like a feudal lord over a vassal. This microcosm of romance between man and woman was anchored by the macrocosm of the bonds among men and their fealty to their lord. The dominance of women and fealty to the leader in courtly love contrasts with the dominance ...
The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.
Sexuality is often looked down upon by mainstream society. Embedded into culture and tradition, sex itself has been made to be seen as a taboo of sorts. Prostitution was made illegal; pornography was made evil. Rooted deep within the teachings of the most common religious morality systems, sex and sexuality is often paired with punishments. Those who explore their sexuality is often shamed, and labeled with words that can ostracize such persons from society. Kant’s view of sexuality almost destroys his credibility as a philosopher by providing unclear and unreasonable points of sexuality and objectification, yet he remains keen on trying to prove that sex, outside of marriage, is the worst possible sin. However, there are those who believe that expressing sexuality is power, and is exercising autonomy. Many existentialists see sexuality as a means of self-expression, and to not be comfortable with sexuality shows that the person inhabits the morality of the sheep.
The language in this text is not as complex like the older texts and moves into a time period, which has advanced in literature. In the poem he is not afraid to sin and rather risk it. The poem goes into complete detail in describing, what he sees and how he likes it “ lips, breath, and tongue, which I delight to drink on: The first so fair, so bright, so purely precious! brow, eyes, and cheeks, which still I joy to think on” (“The last so sweet, so balmy, so delicious”). He also, has a feeling that what he is doing might be wrong, but he does not care. He is willing to feed on his fantasies even if his conscience tells him it might be forbidden “I am so forbidden” (“The last so sweet, so balmy, so delicious”). I assume, that the time period of this poem is, when people started to let go of the thought of religion. Therefore, started caring less about committing sins. According to scholars, “a person, especially a man, who behaves without moral principles or a sense of responsibility, especially in sexual matters.” (Hotline) In this poem, I think there is a libertine, but he is not harshly criticized and he is more open-minded about his actions. In the end, he questions himself if what he is doing is
While some who fall into the category of Queer may also want to live relatively heteronormative lives such as same-sex marriage, and adoption are called homonormative. These people while being Queer want to be included in the regular life plotted out by years of normativity. Queer can also be used to look at history, politics, economics through the lens of the marginalized. In history Queer people were “invented” though terms to describe them in England during the Victorian era, many of these queer people were seen as abominations and put to death. While later many queer people were subject to disapproval, shunning, and an early death in the early 90s in the AIDS
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Los Angelos, CA: University of California Press, 1992. Print.
These three articles give the modern reader a sense of what sexuality was in Ancient Rome. These articles reinforce that sexuality is important in human societies. They show that how you did or did not do sexual activity was very important and under scrutiny like in Western societies today. Though these articles are using limited resources to make conclusions, they do their best to help the reader make sense of sexual Roman society.
Hansen, Elaine. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. 188-207.
St. Augustine's sordid lifestyle as a young man, revealed in Confessions, serves as a logical explanation for his limited view of the purpose of sexuality in marriage. His life from adolescence to age thirty-one was so united to passionate desire and sensual pleasure, that he later avoided approval of such emotions even within the sanctity of holy union. From the age of sixteen until he was freed of promiscuity fifteen years later, Augustine's life was woven with a growing desire for illicit acts, until that desire finally became necessity and controlled his will. His lust for sex began in the bath houses of Tagaste, where he was idle without schooling and "was tossed about…and boiling over in…fornications" (2.2). Also during that time, young Augustine displayed his preoccupation with sexual experience by fabricating vulgarities simply to impress his peers. In descript...
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. (1992). Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. University of California Press, Ltd: England. (pgs 188-208).
Throughout Western civilization, culturally hegemonic views on gender and sexuality have upheld a rigid and monolithic societal structure, resulting in the marginalization and dehumanization of millions of individuals who differ from the expected norm. Whether they are ridiculed as freaks, persecuted as blasphemers, or discriminated as sub-human, these individuals have been historically treated as invisible and pushed into vulnerable positions, resulting in cycles of poverty and oppression that remain prevalent even in modern times. Today, while many of these individuals are not publicly displayed as freaks or persecuted under Western law, women, queer, and intersexed persons within our society still nonetheless find themselves under constant