Women in the Middle Ages
Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:32 am
The book that vlindsay mentioned in the book thread got me thinking.
Europe in the Middle Ages was not a bad place to be for a woman compared to the rest of the world. In spite of the fact that female rulers and players were greatly outnumbered by males they could still be rulers and players when the circumstances were right. The Icelandic Sagas portrayed women in power as kniving and power hungry (and sometimes a shape-shifting witch) but there were a few who were not. So the Norse back then were similar to the Norse today...more women in power but their opinion of them today is much better.
The name of the book, She Wolves actually reflects the opinion that people had of ruling women back then.
This is one reason why I think Rome and Greece are given too much credit for Western Civilization (especially Ancient Greece which was more similar to Persia than it was to Rome) in that they would have found the idea of women rulers outrageous. The Greeks wrote comedies with that idea as the premise. There was one where they spent a good deal of time arguing about who borrowed the wooden dildo (I cannot remember the name but it was mentioned in The History of Sex by Reah Tanlill.) since it was comically misplaced and the women did not know what to do without it. Considering men were the actors of all sexes back then I did not take it as a commentary making fun of men not being needed or preferred for sex, but rather that women tended to argue about stupid stuff.
Rome was so horrified when Buedica beat them once that they slaughtered all the druids and destroyed their religious center (the one unifying thing that Celts had). Until Honoria, women were not even powerful enough to screw stuff up in Rome (she betrothed herself to Attila if he would rescue her, thus giving him a pretext for invasion).
So as far as women's rights went, Medieval Europe was a Suffragette continent compared to Ancient Rome...which is often viewed as a more civilized era, and Equality Land compared to the Ancient Greeks.
Europe in the Middle Ages was not a bad place to be for a woman compared to the rest of the world. In spite of the fact that female rulers and players were greatly outnumbered by males they could still be rulers and players when the circumstances were right. The Icelandic Sagas portrayed women in power as kniving and power hungry (and sometimes a shape-shifting witch) but there were a few who were not. So the Norse back then were similar to the Norse today...more women in power but their opinion of them today is much better.
The name of the book, She Wolves actually reflects the opinion that people had of ruling women back then.
This is one reason why I think Rome and Greece are given too much credit for Western Civilization (especially Ancient Greece which was more similar to Persia than it was to Rome) in that they would have found the idea of women rulers outrageous. The Greeks wrote comedies with that idea as the premise. There was one where they spent a good deal of time arguing about who borrowed the wooden dildo (I cannot remember the name but it was mentioned in The History of Sex by Reah Tanlill.) since it was comically misplaced and the women did not know what to do without it. Considering men were the actors of all sexes back then I did not take it as a commentary making fun of men not being needed or preferred for sex, but rather that women tended to argue about stupid stuff.
Rome was so horrified when Buedica beat them once that they slaughtered all the druids and destroyed their religious center (the one unifying thing that Celts had). Until Honoria, women were not even powerful enough to screw stuff up in Rome (she betrothed herself to Attila if he would rescue her, thus giving him a pretext for invasion).
So as far as women's rights went, Medieval Europe was a Suffragette continent compared to Ancient Rome...which is often viewed as a more civilized era, and Equality Land compared to the Ancient Greeks.