Sex, Gender and the Body Flashcards
Characteristics of Sanguine:
hot, wet prone to optimism, blood, spring, air
Characteristics of Phlegmatic:
cold, wet prone to apathy, phlegm, winter, water
Characteristics of Melancholic:
cold, dry prone to sadness, black bile, autumn, earth
Characteristics of Chloric:
hot, dry prone to anger, yellow bile, summer, fire
What were the 4 Body humours?
Yellow bile,
Phlegm,
Black bile,
Blood
What was the humoral theory?
Ideas followed by medicine studies in Medieval and Renaissance Early Modern period
Concerns of the humoral theory:
Too much of one element could cause disease – need a perfect balance of all elements
What were ‘naturals’?
Natural things such as predisposition (what was inherited), age, environmental conditions, corruption of the basic elements, astrological conditions, gender, contributed to a person’s humoral contribution, all bodies unique
What were ‘non-naturals’?
Lifestyle (how much rest, sleep, exercise, food) a person may have
Physical body affected emotional health
Female Body:
Viewed in a negative sense – women were ‘failed males’
Deviation from the male body
Women’s body cold and wet – sign of their weakness
Binary opposite of the male body
Women seen as a deviation – product of weaker left testicle
Male Body:
Man, hotter and dryer than women
Galen viewed male body as superior to female as due to nature it was stronger
Men product of stronger right testicle – thus they were the stronger gender
Reproductive organ external as subjected to more heat
‘One sex model’:
Idea that due to women having less heat they have internal reproductive system
More lustful due to desire for the greater perfected gender
Women had a menstrual cycle as had internal reproductive system = failed man
Challenges to the ‘One sex model’:
Arguably there is a clear distinction between the models of the gender thus simply not ‘one sex model’
What were the 4 elements?
Fire,
Water,
Earth,
Air
Physicians:
Balance the elements – too much of one element add more of the other
Ill associated with a blockage – natural approach to bodily emissions as seen as part of the healing process
Body depicted to be made up of fluids
Key Historians to remember:
Ulinka Rublack
Lyndal Roper
Galen =
Viewed male body as superior to female as due to nature it was stronger
Gender and Religion:
15th/16th century – Adam + Eve represented the biblical story of the fall
Eve responsible for the fall – due to her weaknesses
Eve created second = symbolic that Eve represented a second-class citizen
Eve responsible for original sin – tempting Adam to eat the apple
Virgin Mary – saves the image of women
Marriage and motherhood represents hat women should inspire to
Patriarchal society – inheritance would follow the male line
Legal status of women equivalents of minors
Post reformation period = emphasis on the family and motherhood – particularly in Protestant religion who believed chastity was impossible thus marriage made it legitimate
Protestantism and women – Luther believed women were born to be wives and mothers
Women ruling over men:
Social class shaped one’s experience of gender
Large family associated with power and prestige
Women and Work:
Brewing and manufacturing jobs dominated by women
Skilled labour taken over by men
Women continued to work yet work was unrecorded
Often women worked all there lives