Transcript Slide 1
POPULAR CULTURE IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD -sexuality, marriage, terminology POPULAR CULTURE • locality, age, gender, religion, class. • ambiguous, complex, contradictory, divided, dynamic, fluid, fractured, gendered, hybrid, interacting, multiple, overlapping, plural, resistant, shared. SEXUALITY Women were often the focus of differing interpretations of sexuality and were physically considered to be ‘deviant’ males. SEX • • • • marriage sex sex marriage pregnant bride OK Meadows, ditches, hedges, stiles, barns, dairies, master’s house, woods, inns, alehouses, churchyards, woman’s home • • • • • • • Through friends Relatives As servants Sent letters Segregated in church Kissing, fondling, groping Unrequited love, romantic love, quarrels • Troubled courtships TERMINOLOGY • Sex as an act of war • Siege • Entered • • • • • • • • • Bang Beat Charge Grill Grind Hit Knock Mount Pierce • • • • • • • • • Poke Punch Ram Ride Stab Strike Stuff Thresh Thump MALE PENIS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Arrow Awl Blade Bolt Club Engine Flail Gun Hammer Hanger Instrument Knife Ladle Lance Loom Mast Maypole Oar • • Pestle Pistol • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Plough Pole Rod Rolling pin Rudder Shuttle Sickle Spade Stake Standard Sword Tool Truncheon Weapon Whip Yard FEMALE GENITALS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Box Cabinet Cage Castle Cave Cellar Chamber Corner Fishpond Fort Gap Gash Gate Glove Gulf Hive Mark Mouth Nick • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Oven Pit Port Pot Premises Pulpit Purse Quagmire Quiver Room Ruff Scabbard Shoe Slit Socket Trench Tub Well Wound • • • • • • Punching Whore Patriarchal Unruly Loose mouth Cuckold MARRIAGE • Economic and emotional • Guides and friends • Patient, loving, sweet, modest, quiet, obedient • No divorce • Twenties • 20-25% thirties • 3-4% women and 11-13% male under 20 • 25% never married ILLEGITIMACY • 30% illegitimate babies had already married fathers • Different types of illegitimacy • 20-25% brides pregnant RAPE • Sexual freedom and satisfaction for women • Rape hard to prove • Syphilis impacted on women’s sexuality ADULTERY • Sex outside marriage • Common in upper classes • Female adultery worse because it impacted on men • Married women could be adulterers while married men were just ‘fornicators’ HOMOSEXUALITY • Did occur but seen as a behaviour trait of an individual rather than that of a group • Did not impact upon a man’s masculinity PUNISHMENTS • Church courts – premarital sex and adultery • Secular courts – illegitimacy whipped WIDOWS AND SINGLE WOMEN • Unmarried women – suspect • Sexual predators • Women had to be ‘attached’ to a male relative to be acceptable Bibliography Reay, Barry. Popular Cultures in England 1550-1750, Longman, London, 1998.