Feminist Objectification In The Book Of Margery Kempe

In the book of Margery Kempe, the reader can notice how poorly John Kempe treats Kempe throughout the book. If this book was looked at from a feminist point of few, they would notice objectification made by John Kempe about Kempe. Feminist objectification can be defined as the seeing or treating of a person, usually a woman, as an object. The type of objectification shown in the book of Margery Kempe would be sexual objectification which is objectification in a sexual realm. Margery Kempe in the book of Margery Kempe, makes use of denial of subjectivity, reduction to body, and silencing to show how John Kempe treats her throughout the book.

Denial of subjectivity is the treatment of a person as something whose experience and feelings (if any)

After Kempe tells John Kempe that she no longer wants to have sex with him, John does not take Kempe’s feelings into account. John says that “he should when god would and so he would use her as he had done before and he would not spare” (Kempe, 2001, p. 10). John Kempe continues to have sex with his wife because he believes that she is his piece of property and that it is her job to have sex with him. Reduction to body is shown in this example because John Kempe is identifying his wife by her body parts and not all the other qualities that make up his wife. Kempe will grant her husband’s wish of still having sex, but with great weeping and sorrowing because she might not be, but with great weeping and sorrowing because she might not be chaste anymore (Kempe, 2001, p. 10). Another example of reduction to body in the book of Margery Kempe is when Jesus tells Margery “Therefore must I needs be homely with you and lie in your bed with you” (Kempe, 2001, p. 66). … “As a good wife ought to love her husband” (Kempe, 2001, p. 66). … In this quote Jesus is telling Margery that she needs to love him the way a wife should love her husband and that is by having sex with him. Jesus is also saying that this can be done by kissing him on the mouth. Jesus ends by saying that this deed can be done as often as she wants. This shows reduction to body because Jesus is think of Margery as identify

The reader can witness silencing in the book of Margery Kempe when Kempe is excluded from local parishes because of her troubled relationship with the priests. The priests excluded Kempe from the churches because they are irritated by her cries and weeping. By the parishes and priests excluding Kempe they are essentially silencing her and not allowing her to talk or show her emotions. The priests in the book of Margery Kempe are putting Kempe into a traditional gender role by excluding her from the church because they are irritated with her crying and weeping. The traditional gender role cast woman as being emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive (Tyson, 2006, p. 85). This is being used to exclude Kempe from equal access to the church. Kempe’s emotions should not have had her excluded from the parish. This was the parishes’ way of silencing Kempe. Another example of Kempe being silenced in the book of Margery Kempe is when she is getting married to Jesus. Margery believe that she got married to Christ on in chapter thirty five in the book of Margery Kempe. During the ceremony Margery did not talk. She stayed silent even when asked a question. Christ said “Daughter, I will have you wedded to my Godhead, for I shall show you my secret and my counsels, for you shall dwell with me and without end” (Kempe, 2001, p. 63). After Christ finished his statement Margery kept silence in her