Medieval Gender Roles

In modern society, there is much talk about how gender roles and views on relationships between the sexes are hurting women and men alike. We are constantly surrounded by media telling us how to be the “perfect” man or woman, outlining sets of specific, yet unattainable, traits that we should all have. However, these gender expectations were not formed from nothing, and rather have roots going back all the way to medieval times. Works such as The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, The Decameron, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, and The Book of the Courtier all show examples of medieval views on sex and gender. Although we would like to believe that we have come a long way in terms of gender roles and views on relationships, medieval literature

The Romance of Tristan and Iseult is an example of the courtly love tradition, as it is a love story following a formulaic plot of courting between a man and a woman who each fill a distinct and stereotypical gender role. The man, Tristan, is portrayed as brave and heroic, while the woman, Iseult, is seen as demure and valued primarily for her beauty. The story makes Iseult out to be more of a prize and a symbol of victory than an actual person, as after Tristan slays the beast and earns her hand in marriage, the story states, “So… did Tristan by guile and by force conquer the Queen of the hair of gold,” reinforcing the idea of Iseult as a piece of property that can be “conquered,” as well as simplifying her down to her appearance. The defined gender roles portrayed in this story are still prevalent today, as men are still expected to be the more masculine and strong of the pair, and women more submissive and delicate. From a young age, children in today’s society are force-fed the idea that men should be strong and women should be pretty, through the prescribed gender roles that dictate what children are supposed to wear, play with, and act like, as well as animated movies that perpetuate the outdated courtly love ideal of a

In The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio satirizes the courtly love tradition and turns some of the traditional gender roles on their heads, though not in an entirely good way. Rather than portraying women as demure and sensitive, he writes them as fickle and promiscuous, though still dependent on men. In the introduction of the book, one of the women says that, “women, when left to themselves, are not the most rational of creatures, and… without the supervision of some man or other their capacity for getting things done is somewhat restricted,” showing that despite the difference in traits for women, Boccaccio is still expressing that women are nothing without men. In some ways, he gives women power in his stories, as they often seem to have the upper hand in their relationships with men, but he gives them power for the wrong reasons. Women in Boccaccio’s stories are powerful because of their sexual appeal and their ability to please men, not because of their intelligence or skills, showing that just because an author writes about powerful women, it does not mean he is a feminist writer. It is also interesting to note that in the last story of The Decameron, the woman, Griselda, is portrayed as overly-submissive even when tortured by her husband, Gualtieri, who