Lets Talk About Women

Discuss the role of gender and gender symbolism in processes of stigmatization of deviant groups. Can you identify examples of misogyny in the rhetoric of stigmatization?

So far I really haven't mentioned women in the process of stigmatization. There were only minor examples that included prostitutes. However, women were also victim to stigmatization in European Medieval society. Prostitutes and Jewish women were among the most stigmatized, but women from other social levels were often victimized by discrimination of chauvinism.

The first group to be given stigma symbols were the Prostitutes. They were the marginalized and stigmatized group. The Fourth Lateral Council in 1215 passed sumptuary laws that controlled what groups in society were allowed to wear. Prostitutes were required to wear color bands in their hair or on their clothing. Later they were also forced to wear over the top aristocratic lookalike clothing. In addition, like Jews Prostitutes had sanitary stigma placed on them.

Jewish women, like men also received stigma symbols to distinguish them from normal society. Jewish women were the only in society who wore earnings. Thus, earnings became a stigma symbol assigned to them. However, Prostitutes also wore earrings. Thus, Jewish women were often compared with prostitutes. In the end, by the 16^th century this stigma symbol fell out of use, as earring became used by aristocratic women as well.

Women in Medieval Europe did experience other examples of misogyny. In the stigmatization of Lepers, it was believed that women could be considered lepers without showing any physical signs of the disease. Also, there was a belief that Jewish men menstruated. This was based on Greek studies of the human body. It was believed that women had a different balance of the 4 humors. Thus, they were more cold and wet and menstruated. The claim that Jewish men menstruated and thus where inferior was a rhetoric against women ans sexuality as much as it was an insult to Jewish men.