Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
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Record Number:
43595
Author(s)/Creator(s):
Hutchison , Emily J.,
Contributor(s):
Title:
Sex, Knowledge and ‘Women of Sin’ in the
Registre Criminel du Châtelet de Paris
(1389–92)
Source:
Gender and History 32, 1 ( 2020): Pages 131 - 148. Available with a subscription:
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12459
Description:
Article Type:
Journal Article
Subject
(See Also)
:
Courts of Law
Friendship
Prostitutes
Reputation
Sexual Violence
Sexuality
Award Note:
Feminae Article of the Month, March 2021
Geographic Area:
France
Century:
14
Primary Evidence:
Illustrations:
Table:
Abstract:
Using the
Registre criminel du Châtelet de Paris
(1389–1392), this article examines the interaction of different knowledges circulating about
filles de pechié
(women of sin) in late-medieval Paris: those of the court, the local community and within tightknit female groups. The assumptions the tribunal produced of sexually active women often relied on and mirrored the ideas their male peers held of them as public objects rather than full persons. Consequently, women of sin were at higher risk of sexual assault and murder, or torture and execution in the courts. However, the trials also indicate that a woman's local reputation did not necessarily suffer if she was sexually active, and that strong female circles produced their own knowledges about love, sex and desire. Women relied on these supports. While the objectification of sexually active women often violently affected their experiences in both the streets and the courts, the
Registre criminel
enables scholars to look beyond the tribunal's simplistic attempts to dichotomise female bodies into honest/dishonest. This article builds on current research on medieval sex and gender that illustrate the complex ways in which people were thinking about sexuality and producing
fama
at street level. [Reproduced from the journal page on the Wiley Online Library website:
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12459
]
Related Resources:
Author's Affiliation:
Mount Royal University, Canada
Conference Info:
- , -
Year of Publication:
2020.
Language:
English
ISSN/ISBN:
00161071 (print); 15275493 (online)