Sodomy, Sex Work and Sex Toys in the Middle Ages with Dr. Eleanor Janega
In this episode, Hannah is joined by Dr Eleanor Janega, who is a historian specialising in sexuality, apocalyptic thought, society, propaganda, and the urban experience in the late medieval period. Eleanor discusses the origins of sex negative Christianity, and how people in medieval Europe perceived female sexuality, sodomy, sex work, and queer people. She and Hannah invent a gameshow called "what's the medieval deal with...", featuring the medieval deal with sexualising fruits, pubic hair, and oral sex, and finally Hannah and Eleanor discuss medieval conceptions of marriage and love, and medieval strap-ons and dildos!
Read the episode transcript here!
SHOW NOTES
What we chat about…
What and where is the Middle Ages?
How do we know what we know about sex in the Middle Ages?
The term Middle Ages being European-centric
Learning about sex in the Middle Ages from church penitentials
Dildos in the Middle Ages
Sex in diaries from the Middle Ages
Literacy rates in the Middle Ages
Sex as a commodity
Courtly love literature: the Middle Ages celebrity culture
What is cucking?
Marriage in the Middle Ages being more of a property and religious contract
What is sodomy?
Where did the sex negativity in Christianity come from?
St Augustine's quit lit
Medieval ideas of how conception works
The shift from thinking women are super horny all the time to thinking women are super prudish
Thinking that if men enjoy sex with their wives too much, it means they're probably gay
Medieval pubic hair trends (31:55)
What's the medieval deal with sexualising fruits? (33:50)
What's the medieval deal with sex work? (36:22)
Same sex relationships and behaviours in the Middle Ages (42:20)
What can we learn from what the medieval period was like about sex? Is there anything? (49:56)
USEFUL LINKS
Andreas Capellanus's De Amore
La Roman de la Rose
The Trotula
*affiliate links
MORE ABOUT DR ELEANOR JANEGA
Eleanor Janega (she/her)is a historian specialising in sexuality, apocalyptic thought, society, propaganda, and the urban experience in the late medieval period. Her first book for a general audience The Middle Ages: A Graphic Guide is out in June. She blogs at going-medieval.com and teaches at the London School of Economics.
CONNECT WITH US
*affiliate links