sex – Going Medieval

In praise of difficult histories, or, I saw Edward II at the RSC and it was so so so good

I was lucky enough to get to see a production of Christopher Marlow’s (1564 – 1593) Edward II at the Royal Shakespeare Company this week, and as with any good piece of art I come across, I have been thinking a lot about it since.

Edward II (1284-1327) is one of those historical figures that people don’t really know what to do with, but Marlowe in the sixteenth century decided to take him on, and wrote a startling and nuanced play about the man and his court.

On body count

I’m not really on twitter that much anymore because of all the generalised unpleasantness. I mostly go to let people know I have done something that they can go read, watch, or listen to, and then I scuttle away to fritter my time on other useless pursuits.

And yet, at times there is a post so ridiculous, so incredibly stupid, that it goes up like a bat signal for me specifically, and all my friends that are still on yell at me until I come look at it. The other day there was one such case, and I was pulled out of retirement to gaze upon it in horror.

Here it is:

On fake medieval devices – both torture and sexual

I have had one of those weeks where people keep showing me things in order to make me mad. And because I am a very simple person that has worked. If you show me some fake medieval nonsense, I am gonna get angry, ok? I’m like a wind up toy, except what winds me up is myths about the medieval period.

So, today I thought I would write a little bit about some of the fakes that I encountered this week and talk about why they were faked into existence in the first place. Sometimes the answer is “to invent a sort of nationalist pride”, more often it is “to be sexual but with a veneer of respectability”, and it is always “to make myself and others feel superior.” Let’s go on a journey, shall we?

On women’s anatomy and the power of paying attention

Pretend you are me – the nicest, cutest, sweetest person who deserves a relaxing little Sunday, where she just goofs and maybe reads a ghost book ever. Nice right? Well, I also will have to imagine it as well because unfortunately my Sunday was irrevocably disfigured by the rantings of an idiot on the internet, and I was forced to think about my job. Yes, that’s correct no one has suffered in the way that I do. Thank you for noticing. What can you do to help? Well you are going to have to look at this right here:

That’s not what sodomy is, but OK

[CW mention of a count of historical sexual violence – nothing graphic, but it is there. Be safe!]

My friends, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but sodomy is not just butt stuff. It is also – and this is crucial – not just gay stuff either. (OK. I love to tell you this.)

On Sex, Logic, and Being the Subject

This week in the godforsaken wasteland that is Twitter where I hang out for some reason (?), the public has been treated to the absolute gift that is a bunch of dudes insisting that women, in their experience do not like sex. No, they do not see this as linked to their person, and it is as fucking hilarious as you are imagining. WITNESS:

On “the way of carnal lust”, Joan of Leeds, and the difficulty of clerical celibacy

Loves, you may have had the pleasure of being alerted, in the Guardian (which is a SWERF and TERF-ridden rag of a paper, but hey-ho), to the important findings of Professor Sarah Rees Jones and her team at the University of York’s extremely important discovery of the story of Sister Joan of Leeds.

Joan of Leeds, in an OG proof of the fact that you cannot defeat a bad bitch (you just cannot do that), in that in the year of our Lord 1318 got Archbishop William Melton of York’s attention to the point that our boy had to write out a note…

To warn Joan of Leeds, lately nun of the house of St Clement by York, that she should return to her house…

Considering bad motherfuckers: Hildegard of Bingen and Janelle Monáe

I, like all the best people, have spent the last month or so being absolutely amazed that there was a time before Janelle Monáe’s ‘Dirty Computer’ existed, and that apparently there was music before now. It’s a lot to deal with, you know? Obviously, this album is important for a number of reasons, the most pressing of which is that it BANGS. However, it is also an amazing record of queerness and female auteurship in a male dominated society.

And of course, all of this is rather like the work of Hildegard of Bingen.

On Incels and Courtly Love

Because the world is a garbage place, unfortunately this week suddenly a few more people are aware of what Incels are, and that said Incels are capable of killing people because they are simultaneously incapable of getting play.

Now this is hugely upsetting, disappointing, and all-around disgusting. Also, like pretty much every disgusting thing about our society’s relationship to sex and love, we can trace its roots to the horrifying ideas of relationships and love enshrined in the concept of courtly love.

On Courtly Love, Sexual Coercion, and Killing Your Idols

Presumably, there will come a time when we will no longer need think pieces on how courtly love as a construct has poisoned romantic and sexual interactions – especially straight ones. Unfortunately, today is not that day, and we have learned once again, and to our sorrow, that our favs are problematic and our idols must be sacrificed. So, we’re gonna talk about it.

I am here to tell you that any time you hear about men being super pushy about sexual advances and not taking no for an answer, you can pretty much trace the enshrinement of said behaviour back to the OG problematic bin-fire, Andreas Capellanus.