Review by Booklist Review
In this entertaining consideration of women's roles in society, Janega (The Middle Ages: A Graphic History, 2021) maintains that contemporary notions are firmly rooted in medieval Western traditions and academia. Since most scholarship in the Middle Ages was based on Greek and often badly translated Roman philosophy, Janega first reviews what ancient writers and early fathers of the Christian church had to say about women (not a whole lot of good; some even believed women to be inside-out men). Next, she considers medieval definitions of beauty (not many specifics, other than qualities only nobility could aspire to: creamy, indoor complexions; smooth hands unblemished by hard work). Janega also takes on the roles of women as child bearers and mothers plus other womanly pastimes, all of which involved considerable work. The text takes on the humorous, slightly irreverent tone of a popular humanities professor; misconceptions are skewered, and Janega's points go down nice and easy, including her view that not a whole lot has changed. This book offers fresh, insightful takes on the medieval period from a feminine standpoint.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This incisive revisionist history tracks "societal expectations of women" from the Middle Ages to today. Blogger and historian Janega (The Middle Ages: A Graphic History) notes that early Christian theologians relied on ancient and scientifically erroneous assumptions to argue against women's education, sexual agency, and professional equity, and examines how these viewpoints still influence modern schools, churches, and workplaces. Throughout, she documents the gap between the Middle Ages' virginal ideal of womanhood and women's actual roles in society, noting that medieval women farmed, brewed alcohol, and ran large estates while taking primary responsibility for homemaking and childcare, or outsourcing those duties to other women. Janega also shows that modern and medieval women faced similar pressure to effortlessly achieve the right body shape (hourglass today; pear-shaped in the Middle Ages) and dress stylishly, and draws on theologian Hildegard of Bingen, poet Christine de Pizan, and other medieval women to offer an alternate perspective on their era. Accessible, informative, and clear-sighted about the insidious workings of misogyny, this is a persuasive call for deconstructing the past to create a more equitable future. Illus. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A British scholar revisits the medieval era to investigate long-held beliefs about women's roles, bodies, and sexuality. Janega, a professor of medieval and early modern history at the London School of Economics and author of The Middle Ages: A Graphic History, traces entrenched ideas about women largely created and reinforced by male writers, philosophers, and clergy. She first returns to the ancient writings of Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Galen for theories about women's nature--namely, that they are comprised of the cold and wet humors (men being warm and dry) and their bodies, "prone to sickness." In an era before dissection, women's bodies were simply unknown. "If men were essentially the default humans," as taught by Plato and Aristotle, women were the afterthought, an idea elaborated on by the early church fathers. Since so much of medieval thought was drawn from ancient writings, the sense of women as inferior creatures prevailed, and thanks to the doctrine of original sin, women were regarded as oversexed. They were denied serious education and thus locked out of the "standard pedagogic system." Examining sermons, mystery plays, and troubadour songs, Janega shows the constant reinforcement of many of the stereotypes about women, and she pays close attention to the ancient and medieval standards of beauty, many of which persist to this day. Women's sexuality, menstruation, and childbearing caused male thinkers innumerable conundrums. Yet women were always out in the world laboring, essential to the medieval economy as farmers, brewers, seamstresses, laundresses, midwives, and teachers of children--though their work was regarded as less valuable than that of men. In the final chapter, "Why It Matters," the author challenges specious scientific studies in our own supposedly feminist era and emphasizes how many expectations of women about marriage and motherhood remain unchanged since the medieval era. A breezy, pertinent study that demonstrates how learning about social constructs is crucial to changing them. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
