IMC 2004: Sessions
Session 720: Medieval Masculinities, II: Sex, Abstinence, and Meaning
Tuesday 13 July 2004, 14.15-15.45
| Organiser: | Rachel Stone, Department of History, King's College, University of London |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Katherine J. Lewis, Department of History, University of Huddersfield |
| Paper 720-a | Size Matters: Penile Problems in Sagas of Icelanders (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Sexuality |
| Paper 720-b | Clerical Masculinity: Virginity, Sex, and the Upper Clergy in Late Medieval England (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Gender Studies, Sexuality, Social History |
| Paper 720-c | 'Resisting Manfully' or 'Mad About' a Girl: Controlling Sexual Desire in the Late Middle Ages (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Medicine, Sexuality |
| Abstract | This session looks at the contradictory ideas surrounding men having or not having sexual intercourse. How important was sexual activity and potency for lay and clerical masculine identities? What were the perceived meanings of bodily states (such as impotence or virginity)? If men were not sexually active, whether because of impotence, church pressure, personal asceticism or magic, how was this seen? Could men actually restrain their sexual desire? What was the role of women in this struggle for male self-expression or self-control? |