Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 143. Manup.

Gender in the Middle Ages. This show is free and independent due to member support.

And as thanks for helping keep the community going, I offer members only content such as

extra episodes and rough transcripts. If you're interested in supporting the show and helping

us out, you can do so over the British History Podcast.com. And thank you very much to Andrew,

Caitlin, and Joshua for contributing already. You know, oftentimes the way the Middle Ages are

presented are as an era where everyone was lily white and a time where men were men and women

were women, you know, a time of hypermasculinity where all the guys were muscle bound warriors with

big bushy beards and a bone structure that makes them look like extras from clan of the cave

bear. But just like everything else that pop culture has taught us about the Middle Ages,

including the commonly used monarcher, the Dark Ages, it was more complex than that. King

Osview didn't have access to a special masculinity gene that's been lost a time. There were cultural

pressures at play that led to some of the themes, but not everyone fit the mold. People are

people and our antiquated view of England is exactly that, antiquated. So it really should

be corrected, and we're going to start doing that with this episode. Now, before we get going,

I'd like to point a few things out. First, we're going to be drawing from many centuries and

stitching them together as best as we can. The reason for that is because the available data on a

niche area such as this tends to be scattered across time and space, at least until we got better

at recording things. So please forgive me for rapidly jumping through time like a malfunctioning

Tartus. Second, everything I'm going to be saying here has been researched, and is either a direct

quote or a paraphrasing of scholars that specialize on social life in this era. In other episodes,

sometimes I'll muse out loud on what I think is going on, and I try and be very clear when I do

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