Spending the morning looking at images of medieval #sex, for an upcoming talk, where women are shown in their "traditional" role: as sexual aggressors. WITNESS:
(MS. Douce 195, f. 118, r.)
Shout out here to Hermaphroditus - the original proof that even in the west there have never been two sexes, but if two people are naked, and one is a woman, she'll probably try it on.
(BL Harley 4431 f. 132v.)
Check out how into it Mayor Memmo of Filippuccio's wife is. This is actually from a fresco, in the Palazzo Comunale di San Gimignano at Sienna.
Do I have a Czech example? Yes of course I do. Here we see bathhouse workers, who are likely sex workers, given the association of those two activities in Prague, and especially at Hampays brothel near the river.
(Národní Knihovna Praha, IV.B.24, fol. 78v.)
Girl, now?
(Biblioteca Nacional de España, Cod. Vitr. 24-3, f. 10v.)
Can I get a fuckin, uhhhh, cure for Original Sin?
(Eve talking to Christ the Apothecary. BNF Manuscrits occidentaux, FRANCAIS 1537 f.82v.)
Treat yourself to a flick through it, here: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv…)
I can GO ON, and may add more later, but I should probably get back to writing.
The point is that sexual expectations of women are constantly in flux. Don't buy the current evo-psych nonsense about how women aren't interested in sex, because we just decided that right now.
Ah - my Adam and Eve didn't come through. Look how Adam is making Eve do the talking. This is all her fault.
Jesus all, "Says right here you're a slut."
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