Analysis of Books about Gender and Sex Roles - Essay Example

? Review of Kathryn M. Ringrose, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003), xiv + 295 pp. The world is used to either male or female gender but what about a gender that can neither be described as male nor as female? Eunuchs have always had a phenomenal impact on the psyche of chroniclers past and present and they have either overwhelmed or vehemently repelled, almost in equal numbers, by the anatomically mutilated male body that represented a social anathema and the vastly unknown and undocumented vagaries of a life that does not fall within the well demarcated boundaries of gender. Eunuchs have had a hugely varied life with some of them being constrained to lead a life of hugely ridiculed servants while some others having the good luck of rising to the pinnacle of society in the form of military generals and highly respected court eunuchs. The book by Kathryn Ringrose presents an in-depth study of eunuchs as they were perceived in Byzantine culture that held sway for nearly a thousand years ‘…the founding of Constantinople in 324 to its capture by the Turks in 1453’ (p. 3). Most refreshingly, the author has not followed the standard historical procedure of adopting a chronological approach. Rather she has traced the condition of eunuchs through the entire period with special reference to all those that could achieve social status and glory. Another interesting feature of this book is that the author also clearly describes how the medical definitions and legal perspectives about eunuchs kept varying from one century to the other during the entire period of Byzantine civilization. The theoretical issues on gender construction in Byzantine Empire through the entire one thousand years have been discussed in great detail. These issues and discussions found their way into medical treatises, ecclesiastical tomes and hagiographies penned during that period. While clarifying that castration was never removal of penis but surgical removal of testicles, the author concludes that castration never robbed a man of his outward symbol of masculinity but prevented a man from procreation. Hence, the term eunuch often referred to a man who has never procreated (p. 14f). The church, therefore, often referred to a celibate monk as a eunuch, one who has not undergone surgical castration but spiritual castration in the sense that he has become devoid of any desire to procreate as his entire attention has been focused on Jesus Christ and God. In a sense such an explanation or understanding of the term eunuch possibly clarified to many the real meaning of what Jesus had hinted at when he said that some people convert themselves into eunuchs for greater glory of the kingdom of Heaven. However, there was a strict separation between those who could not procreate as they were biologically incapable to do so and those that opted not to procreate as a matter of choice. However, around eighth century, eunuchs began to be more readily accepted in higher echelons of society and this spilled over into religious domain too when churches began to allow eunuchs to occupy ‘…prominent religious positions’ (p. 118) with Germanos being one of the most famous eunuchs that went on to occupy very high position in the theological hierarchy. While the first part of the book deals with theoretical and conceptual issues of gender construction in Byzantine society the second deals with historical details of eunuchs who rose to occupy prominent social positions either as ministers or military generals. Ringrose has been very clear on two points: first is eunuchs within Byzantine kingdom formed a distinct ‘…third gender’ (p. 4), and, second is there is an inherent difficulty in accurately describing the lives of eunuchs as most of these accounts have been written by eunuchs themselves. 2. Sturges, Robert S. 2000. Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of Discourse. NewYork: St. Martin's. $45.00 hc. xxiv + 232 pp. Sturges attempts to study Chaucer’s Pardoner in a new light and argues, rather compellingly, that the Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales is essentially a polyvalent figure having emotions and thoughts that often contradict with each other. In the preface, Sturges engages in analyzing the prolonged debates in gender studies and makes clear his desire to project the Pardoner in a hitherto unknown light where the Pardoner embodies the characteristics of all three genders – masculine, feminine and neuter. Though Sturges opens his account by comparing the Pardoner with John Ball, the leader of the Peasant’s Revolt, he argues that the Pardoner’s body and singing style bore strong resemblance to the legend of Orpheus and by comparing Pardoner’s voice with that of a goat, Chaucer has tried to instill a tragic motif to the character as goat in Greek is “tragos” from where the word “tragedy’ has evolved. Sturges refers to numerous medical, legal and theological approaches of analyzing medieval texts in order to project in sharper focus the veiled reference to sodomy and concludes that sex is possibly a social and political construct, much like gender, and thus a lesbian being a woman engaging in same sex act with another woman has actually abolished the sexual barrier and categories and cannot therefore be called a woman at all. Pardoner, in that sense can also be called a lesbian (p. 58). In the fourth chapter of this book, Sturges uses the two veils of Pardoner – “vernycle” that he wears and the veil of Mary that he carries in his bag to analyze the social construction of masculinity and concludes that while the Pardoner’s masculinity is an unsatisfactory imitation the second veil is a form of sexual desire in which gratification is linked to an abnormal degree to a particular object. Coming back to the topic of singing, Sturges argues that more than the language it is the voice that echoes rebellion, sins and female sexuality (p. 94). The possibility that the Pardoner could be a natural eunuch or a character threatened with castration by the Host and his movement through relics has been analyzed by Sturges as the horror prevalent in medieval society about castration. Sturges argues that the rather debatable sexuality of the Pardoner, his erotic practices and his way of preaching that depended more on quality of voice and gesture rather than any specific words have been done with an intention of imparting a sense of ambiguity. This book is on a completely different plane from the previous book that deals with historical and theological position of eunuchs in Byzantine era. Sturges book on the other hand tries to investigate the extent of social and political impact on the determination of gender and immense possibilities that might be unlocked if for once the perceived boundaries between sexes are removed or are coalesced into a single body. 3. Magic, Body and Social Order: The Construction of Gender Through Women's Private Rituals in Traditional Finland. By Laura Stark-Arola. Studia Fennica Folkloristica, no. 5. Helsinki: SKS, 1998. 331 pp. B/W illus. 160 Finnmarks. ISBN 951-746-051-1 This is a book that views the topic of gender construction from a completely different perspective of women’s magical ritual texts that have been recorded between 1816 and 1966 predominantly in Karelia and Eastern Finland. The uniqueness of this book lies in Laura’s strict adherence to the topic and her refrain from veering into witchcraft and related themes of social implications of witchcraft and consequent social abhorrence about witches. This book concentrates on the magic rituals without doing much of sermonizing on the so-called evils and repercussions of performing witchcraft. So, those who would prefer a discourse of witches and there arcane and cabal impact on society might not be that much satisfied after going through this book. But that does not mean that the magical practices performed in Finland till a half century ago did not have any connection with witchcraft practiced in seventeenth century. Rather, there have been very strong connections between the activities of witches and the magic rituals performed till the second half of twentieth century. This book has graphic details of magical protection of cattle and other domesticated animals against the so-called ‘evil eye’ and also describes all forms of harmful magic directed towards perceived enemies by womenfolk, especially those resorted to by daughters in law against women members of husband’s family, especially the mother in law. This book also describes certain unique practices that have been carried forward since the seventeenth century as “shrinking the vagina” while going into reasonable details as how male humor had consistently mocked the seriousness of women’s magic. Laura however readily admits that her book is incomplete in the sense that no amount of text can actually recreate the feelings and the dedication the practitioners had towards this activity. Moreover, women did never form a homogenous group and there were marked differences in perspectives and perceptions between members belonging to different economic, social and professional classes. She, nonetheless, has been able to give a cogent summary of magic rituals that were practiced by women of a particular area during a particular time period by taking an inclusive approach. This presents the reader with an interesting opportunity for the reader to have an ringside view of how women thought of themselves and the society in general during that period in that particular geographic location. The basic difference of this book from the other two is that it does not delve into the possibilities of cross gender existence or the life of an individual belonging to the third gender. Rather, the author provides an interesting picture of how women perceived themselves in the social hierarchy and how they attempted to protect themselves from possible evils and also how they wrecked their vengeance on enemies without for once transgressing their socially demarcated gender boundaries or revolting against a patriarchal society. Read More