Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 9124
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Bullough , Vern L.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Sex in History: A Redux [the study of sexuality during the Middle Ages].
  • Source: Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West.  Edited by Jacqueline Murray and Konrad Eisenbichler.  University of Toronto Press, 1996.  Pages 3 - 22.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Bullough, Vern L., Historian (1928-) Historiography Homosexuality Sexuality
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: General
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: "Vern L. Bullough, a veteran in this area, provides reflections on a lifetime of research in his "Sex in History: A Redux." Bullough describes the silences and fears of his own career and academic milieu, in which it was clear from the start that it would have been professional suicide to concentrate openly on describing sexuality in the past. This article is most welcome, eventhough I would ask Bullough, as I would several other contributors: "Yes, I agree with you that people in the past had sex lives too. Sex is worth studying! But did these people express any connection between sexual acts and love, tenderness and feeling?" My fear is that our recent concentration on "Did they or didn't they?" means that we can ignore what people felt when they did -- or did not do -- the multitude of acts that today come under the heading of sexuality." From the review written by Brian McGuire of "Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West," "Medieval Review" (TMR ID: 96.12.11). [Reproduced by permission of the "Medieval Review."].
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Southern California
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1996.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0802007805