Gender from 0 AD - 1600
Gender was defined as an unchangeable attribute of a person for a long time: there were two genders, and those genders defined one's life and the opportunities one was given. Men were looked at to make advancements in society and provide for their family, while a woman's task was to care for the home and children. This was how gender was during the discovery of America, and many still look to religious works from centuries ago for answers to tough questions, some including gender. While these religions are still present today, the holy books can be used as evidence to show the traditions and beliefs from a different time. As a prominent religion, Christianity has always impacted gender; the Bible being the earliest influencer set the stage for stances on gender. Exploring these texts can reveal the reasoning behind gender roles and gender identity present yet in the 2000s. While most of these Old World ideologies have diminished with time, there are stereotypes that have lasted for centuries, even into our present day life. Here is a look at how gender was depicted in ancient texts.
Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer began writing this collection of short stories in 1387 and they were left unfinished when Chaucer died on October 25, 1400. The tales depict a journey to Canterbury by a group of travelers. This group tells each other stories on their journey to pass time.
Chaucer showed gender ideals through his writing. In his book, his own ideas about women and their roles, bled through to the story he was trying to tell. While his opinion seems close-minded, he represented the ideas that men believed at the time.
Chaucer's writing highlights three different women, two being nuns and one called "The Wife of Bath." The Wife of Bath pushes the gender stereotypes that were so relevant for so long. She is described as a strong, sexual woman and had 5 husbands at the time the story takes place. This pushes the gender stereotype because she is not reliant of a man. This, however, also enforces a stereotype that women must be controlled, while being carefully watched and protected. She seems to come across as a warning to men about what could happen if they were not strong, strict and powerful.
The Nuns highlight a stereotype for women's role in religion, but do not change any gender ideals, or stereotypes at the time.
Chaucer showed gender ideals through his writing. In his book, his own ideas about women and their roles, bled through to the story he was trying to tell. While his opinion seems close-minded, he represented the ideas that men believed at the time.
Chaucer's writing highlights three different women, two being nuns and one called "The Wife of Bath." The Wife of Bath pushes the gender stereotypes that were so relevant for so long. She is described as a strong, sexual woman and had 5 husbands at the time the story takes place. This pushes the gender stereotype because she is not reliant of a man. This, however, also enforces a stereotype that women must be controlled, while being carefully watched and protected. She seems to come across as a warning to men about what could happen if they were not strong, strict and powerful.
The Nuns highlight a stereotype for women's role in religion, but do not change any gender ideals, or stereotypes at the time.
Early Christianity
The Bible
In the earliest chapters of the Bible, Adam and Eve were both made in the image of God. However, there are different interpretations of the story: in Genesis chapter 1 God created both man and woman at the same time, equally. In Genesis chapter 2, God first sculpted man and then woman out of the man's ribs, therefore making the man dominant, as the woman becomes a descendant of him. These two different stories portray two very different ideas of the equality of gender and how God intended the role of gender to be factored into the lives of people today.
Roman Catholicism
The major rift between gender roles in the Roman Catholic Church is the role women are allowed to play; women are not allowed to be priests. Men hold the prestigious role in the Church and are called on to be priests, cardinals, bishops, and even popes. The highest role women have held to this day is a nun, and the very controversial debate as to how much they are allowed to contribute dates back to the earliest times of the Church. The issue was less prevalent in these early times, however, because the role of the women was never questioned by society; women were called to be the obedient care givers and followers of the Church. Anything that stepped out of this frame of womanhood was completely unheard of during this time period, and for any women that did defy these ideals were outcasted and shamed. Most women wanted to be obedient as it was seen as the righteous and honorable thing to do.
Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life."
During this time period, the role of women and men were implied, they were a general knowledge or social norm of the society so there wasn't a need for a written law or statement by the Church. As society progressed and new and more controversial gender conversation arose, the Catholic Church put their official stance into writing:
“Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.” “By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.” “The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit." |
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Early Islam
The Prophet Muhammad
In the beginning of Islam, as the Prophet Muhammad began to lay out the word of Allah, women were being treated as possessions of their husbands. They were thought only as sexual objects, and in local pagan society, it was the custom to bury unwanted female newborns. Under the Prophet Muhammad's law, later known as the Islamic Law, none of this was allowed. Islamic Law made the education of girls a sacred duty and even gave women the right to own property, as well as inherit it.
However, even as he proclaimed new rights for women, he also made laws that restricted them. These laws, recorded in The Quran, give daughters only half of a brother's inheritance, state that a woman's testimony in court is worth only half than that of a man's, that women are only allowed one spouse while men are permitted four, and that in order for a women to prove rape four men of "impeccable" character must witness the penetration. The amount of preaching that Muhammad did has not survived through the years. The Quran and the laws it advocates, however, have survived.
The worldly beliefs surrounding gender of this time were influenced by the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran's teachings, as well as the culture surrounding Islam. It was common for people of the time to look toward religion to guide them in their everyday practices. The leftovers from the stereotypes of the Old World have found their way into the current ideas surrounding gender.
However, even as he proclaimed new rights for women, he also made laws that restricted them. These laws, recorded in The Quran, give daughters only half of a brother's inheritance, state that a woman's testimony in court is worth only half than that of a man's, that women are only allowed one spouse while men are permitted four, and that in order for a women to prove rape four men of "impeccable" character must witness the penetration. The amount of preaching that Muhammad did has not survived through the years. The Quran and the laws it advocates, however, have survived.
The worldly beliefs surrounding gender of this time were influenced by the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran's teachings, as well as the culture surrounding Islam. It was common for people of the time to look toward religion to guide them in their everyday practices. The leftovers from the stereotypes of the Old World have found their way into the current ideas surrounding gender.
The Quran
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