140 likes | 418 Views
Question: should a man always open the door for a woman?. Code of chivalry (detail). To fear God and maintain His Church To serve the liege lord in valour and faith To protect the weak and defenceless To give succour to widows and orphans To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
E N D
Code of chivalry (detail) • To fear God and maintain His Church • To serve the liege lord in valour and faith • To protect the weak and defenceless • To give succour to widows and orphans • To refrain from the wanton giving of offence • To live by honour and for glory • To despise pecuniary reward • To fight for the welfare of all • To obey those placed in authority • To guard the honour of fellow knights • To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit • To keep faith • At all times to speak the truth • To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun • To respect the honour of women • Never to refuse a challenge from an equal • Never to turn the back upon a foe
tournaments • Game of Thrones • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcnFPp2mFoc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAx6gESfwnc Medieval love song
Do we have a modern equivalent? • Jason Derulo, “Marry Me” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRCsZ5a3aCM • Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZE_IRwLNI • Ten Things I Hate About You • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6XGUhzfutc • Top Gun • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNWSEX-WqU
Is chivalry dead? …should it be?
Church views on women • Could not become priests • Women could become abbesses (leaders of a convent) but they only had authority over the other women in the convent • "No matter whether the most blessed Virgin Mary stands higher, and is also more illustrious, than all the apostles together, it was still not to her, but to them, that the Lord entrusted the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.” - Pope Innocent III (1210)
Middle/upper class women • Two options: • Marriage and child-rearing • Join a convent • Only opportunity for most women to learn to read and write and play a more active role in society (religious society) • Working women • Midwifery (helping to birth babies) • Helping husbands with the business • Spinning (creating textiles)
Lower class women • Equality (a.k.a. shared poverty) "Burdened with children and landlords' rent; What they can put aside from what they make spinning they spend on housing, Also on milk and meal to make porridge with To sate their children who cry out for food And they themselves also suffer much hunger, And woe in wintertime, and waking up nights To rise on the bedside to rock the cradle, Also to card and comb wool, to patch and to wash, To rub flax and reel yarn and to peel rushes That it is pity to describe or show in rhyme The woe of these women who live in huts;” (from Piers Plowman, a medieval poem)
Two (awesome) exceptions Eleanor of Aquitaine Joan of Arc French peasant who led the army to victories during the Hundred Years’ War after seeing a vision from God Burned at the stake for heresy at the age of 19 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpswyzn-LZA • Queen of France • Went on the Second Crusade to “tend the wounded” dressed in armor and carrying lances • Queen of England • Mother to three kings (King Richard I and King John) • Led sons in rebellion against King (imprisoned for 15 years) • Cemented marriage alliances across Europe
Women begin to break the mold • Near the end of the Middle Ages (1300-1500), women begin to assert themselves more in society. • In social life, as spokespeople for women’s issues. • Example: professional writer Christine de Pizan • In Church life, as abbesses and sometimes Saints. • Example: Saint Teresa of Avila • In political life, ruling alongside their husbands. • Example: Queen Isabella (with her husband Ferdinand of Spain) • Because of this, more restrictions began to be placed on women’s work and trade guilds became increasingly male-only. Also, women’s property rights began to be limited.