Society, family, and gender

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-193
Author(s):  
Catherine Kovesi
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Sexual Differences ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Community Relationships

A shared understanding of Christianity as the foundation of society in this life and in the next; a predominant acceptance of classical Greek texts for understandings of the human body and of sexual differences between men and women; an overwhelming dependence on patriarchal structures with implications for constructions and experiences of masculinity and femininity; and an ideal of family and of community relationships (whether secular or religious) from which no individual could readily claim isolation were touchstones throughout late medieval Europe against which normative values were constructed. Marginalized and often persecuted groups, such as Jews, sodomites, or heretics, were understood and defined against this normative backdrop. That said, by the end of the period increasing political and legal consolidation of societal structures led to their interrogation by those whom these same structures excluded or constrained. The result is an image of surprising fluidity and change in society, family, and gender.

Choosing Death? Experiences of Martyrdom in Late Medieval Europe

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 153-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miri Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Moral Justification ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Radical Movements

Probably one of the most emotive words in our ethical and religious languages, ‘martyrdom’ poses the historian with a complex array of powerful images and awesome actions. Its very naturalness, as a grounding moment through which religions and radical movements are substantiated and made public, raises serious problems of perspective, empathy, judgement: studying martyrdom brings us in touch with some of the most admirable and some of the most repugnant and saddening aspects in human behaviour. Religions, parties, and nations claim martyrs as unambiguous signs of virtue, truth, and moral justification, and thus render martyrdom seemingly obvious. Painful, yes, but admirable; chilling, but satisfying, since in it men and women turn into gods, become myth-makers, and lend legitimation to whoever may claim them. So martyrdom—its discussion, definition, the claim to its virtue and beauty—is always open to appropriation, to competition, to contestation.

scholarly journals Hagiography as Source: Gender and Conversion Narratives in The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
Anna Redhair Wells
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Conversion Narratives ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Prior Relationship ◽  
Ethiopian Church

Drawing on the work of Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, this essay proposes utilizing hagiographies from the The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church, a fifteenth-century Ethiopian collection of saints’ lives, to explore various aspects of conversion. Other scholars employ a similar approach when analyzing hagiographical literature found in medieval Europe. While acknowledging that these texts do not provide details about the historical experience of conversion, they can assist scholars in understanding the conception of conversion in the imagination of the culture that created them. This essay specifically focuses on the role of women in conversion throughout the text and argues that, although men and women were almost equally represented as agents of conversion, a closer examination reveals that their participation remained gendered. Women more frequently converted someone with whom they had a prior relationship, especially a member of their familial network. Significantly, these observations mirror the patterns uncovered by contemporary scholars such as Dana Robert, who notes how women contributed to the spread of Christianity primarily through human relationships. By integrating these representations of conversion from late medieval Ethiopia, scholarship will gain a more robust picture of conversion in Africa more broadly and widen its understanding of world Christianity.

Measuring Adulthood: Adolescence and Gender in Renaissance Venice

1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Chojnacki
Keyword(s):  
Late Medieval ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Age At Marriage ◽  
And Gender

The perscriptive threshold of adulthood among late-medieval Venetian patricians appears very different for men and for women, centering on social (i.e., public) puberty as the gauge of male adulthood, physiological (i.e., childbearing) puberty that of female. Yet in practice men did not inevitably achieve the normative patriarchal outcome of a graduated, formalized adolescence; nor did adolescence end for all women with teenaged marriage and motherhood. Non-patriarchal male adulthoods and the graduated phases of the uxorial cycle for women modify the impression of sharp gender contrast that results from viewing age at marriage as the pivot of adulthood. Graduated adulthood in both sexes gave men and women alike the possibility of varied adult identities, responding to a range of choice and circumstance.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THE MULTIFACTORIAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF GENDER CHARACTERISTICS

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Aube ◽  
Hilary Norcliffe ◽  
Richard Koestner
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
Gender Characteristics ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Multifactorial Approach ◽  
Role Behaviors

Two studies examined the relation of gender-related physical characteristics (such as a deep voice or broad shoulders) to other aspects of gender. The first study used an open-ended survey to identify physical characteristics and mannerisms that are associated with judgements of masculinity and femininity in men and women. In a second study, subjects' gender-related physical attributes and mannerisms were coded during a five minute videotaped interaction and related to other aspects of gender such as personality traits, interests and role behaviors, gender identity, and gender adequacy. The results showed that gender-related physical attributes were consistently associated with other gender characteristics for men but not women. The studies suggest that physical characteristics and mannerisms should be included as an important component in the emerging multifactorial conception of gender identity.

Gender characteristic attribution; masculinity and femininity in men and women

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua K. Digerness ◽  
Benjamin Berlin ◽  
Todd Baird ◽  
Azenett Garza
Keyword(s):  
Men And Women ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Gender Characteristic

The Relationship between Body Image and Exercise Adherence in Fitness Centre Exercising Sample

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (80) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasa Jankauskienė ◽  
Brigita Miežienė
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Exercise Adherence ◽  
Physical Activity Promotion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Physique Anxiety ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Activity Promotion ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Body Self ◽  
The Relationship

Research background and hypothesis. The analysis of factors which might infl uence exercise adherence is important issue for physical activity promotion. Studies show that exercisers’ body image is important factor associated with well being, exercise motivation and specifi c exercise–related behaviour.Research aim was is to examine the relationship between exercise adherence, body image and social physique anxiety in a sample of fi tness centre participants. Research methods. Members of fi tness centres (n = 217, 66 of them were women) provided their answers on exercise experience, in three subscales (appearance evaluation, appearance orientation and overweight preoccupation) of The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ-AS; Brown et al., 1990) and Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS; Hart et al., 1989). Mean age of the sample was 29.02 (9.85) years (range = 18–68 years).Research results. Women demonstrated higher appearance orientation, overweight preoccupation and social physique anxiety compared to men. However, we observed no signifi cant differences in appearance evaluation, appearance orientation and overweight preoccupation in the groups of different exercise experience of men and women. When overweight respondents (≥ 25 kg / m²) were excluded from the analysis, there were no statistically signifi cant differences observed in body image and social physique anxiety in exercise experience groups of men and women. Exercising longer than 6 years signifi cantly predicted overweight preoccupation [95% CI: 1.25–16.94] controlled by age and gender. Discussion and conclusions. Exercising men demonstrated more positive body image and lower social physique anxiety compared to women, except for appearance evaluation. There were observed no body image and social physique relationships with exercise adherence observed in the sample of fi tness centre participants, however, exercise experience longer than 6 years predicted overweight preoccupation.Keywords: body image concerns, exercise experience, self-presentation.

Who’s holding up the sky? On Rymba, a novel by A. Bushkovsky

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-158
Author(s):  
A. V. Zhuchkova
Keyword(s):  
Gender Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Flood Zone ◽  
The Social ◽  
Russian North ◽  
And Gender

The article deals with A. Bushkovsky’s novel Rymba that goes beyond the topics typical of Russian North prose. Rather than limiting himself to admiring nature and Russian character, the author portrays the northern Russian village of Rymba in the larger context of the country’s mentality, history, mythology, and gender politics. In the novel, myth clashes with reality, history with the present day, and an individual with the state. The critic draws a comparison between the novel and the traditions of village prose and Russian North prose. In particular, Bushkovsky’s Rymba is discussed alongside V. Rasputin’s Farewell to Matyora [ Proshchanie s Matyoroy ] and R. Senchin’s The Flood Zone [ Zona zatopleniya ]. The novel’s central question is: what keeps the Russian world afloat? Depicting the Christian faith as such a bulwark, Bushkovsky links atheism with the social and spiritual roles played by contemporary men and women. The critic argues, however, that the reliance on Christianity in the novel verges on an affectation. The book’s main symbol is a drowning hawk: it perishes despite people’s efforts to save it.

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