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영어

One of the causes of misogyny in medieval Europe was a viewpoint of women as the daughters of Eve who seduced a man to be decadent. The negative ideas about women were formed into misogyny and maintained throughout the Middle Ages. Misogyny was more intensified among the religious men and the Church leaders around the twelfth century. Ironically, the cult of women also spread among medieval men in the same period and the objects of the cult of women were limited to the rich aristocratic and upper class women. Then how and why did misogyny and the cult of women ambivalently exist? Above all, the immediate reason for the ambiguous attitudes toward women in medieval Europe can be seen in the structural or institutional changes around the eleventh century. For instance, a lot of medieval men and women were estranged from inheritance and marriage by primogeniture. Medieval men's sexual desires were suppressed by a series of religious regulations such as the Gregorian reform. After the establishment of primogeniture, medieval men, segregated from inheritance of titles and lands, became priests and knights that composed a new rising class. The intensified misogyny as well as the cult of women was a by-product in the process of these medieval men to join the mainstream ruling class. Medieval men who wanted to rise as clergymen saw the religious women in rivalry for leadership through the eyes of distrust and aversion. The poor wandering knights eager for money and lands looked for rich heiresses to marry by admiring women with much adoration. Therefore, the double attitudes toward medieval women were a strategic difference between the priests and knights to rise in the world rather than a contradiction. In this process, it was women that were thoroughly estranged and discriminated from their communities. However, medieval women resisted in their own ways rather than helplessly succumb to the male dominance. Some women rejected traditional ways of living through marriage and childbearing by pursuing independent life. A number of women chose to become religious women by joining religious houses and the beguines, creating their new identities by showing their ardent faith. Women's religious fervor around the twelfth century was truly encouraged by the cult of Virgin Mary, but partly driven by their dissatisfaction with the religious and social systems ruled by men. The evidence of medieval women's resistance against male domination and their struggles with men for religious leadership can be found in that substantial number of women joined the Waldensians and Cathars that allowed them to preach. In fact, some of them preached as clergies. Some religious women even tried to prove their faith equal to that of men through their extreme asceticism like fasting. Medieval women also pursued economic independence by engaging in commerce and handicrafts, rendering aid to the poor in charity. Of course, it is hard to say that there existed feminists who worked for women's rights in a modern standard. However, it is certain that a lot of women struggled to give their own voice in a male dominated society, endeavoring to show their capabilities as an equal member of the Christianity