“In Spain, sweaty armpits were erotic”

2023-05-24 00:58:21

the historian Katherine Harvey he receives ABC in the morning in his own home, although via videoconference; a reminiscence of the pandemic. Give short, but effective answers; and he doesn’t blush once even though he spends over an hour discussing sexual practices in the Middle Ages. While raising her new essay in her hands –’The fires of lust’ (Aticus of books)– she destroys myths and raises realities about the intercourse of a millennium ago. She’s sick of hearing fallacies about chastity belts or seigneury rights. And more, when the time that she studies –from the 12th to the 16th century– she does not need exaggerations to attract the attention of the readers. It is enough for her to point out that “in Spain, sweaty armpits were erotic” to dazzle the public. And that’s just to whet your appetite…

-Was sex a taboo subject in the Middle Ages?

It was something similar to what happens today. There were very puritanical people, but others who were open about this issue. The Church, for its part, was quite strict when it came to establishing what was right and wrong. In the end, there was a wide range of opinions. The same thing happens in the sources: they navigate between modesty and clarity.

-What are the biggest sexual myths that still survive about the Middle Ages?

There is a great variety. The biggest myth is the one that affirms that the Church was directly opposed to sex. The reality is that it saw it as a certain taboo, but the institution understood that, for the majority of lay people, having it in marriage was perfect because it put sin under control and contributed to generating more Christians. After him there are many other engravings in popular culture; for example, the use of the chastity belt or the right of seigneur. Fallacies that have spread works such as ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ or ‘Braveheart‘. But I want to make it clear that they are lies devised in the modern era, they did not exist in antiquity.

I have to ask about both…

The derecho de seigneur was, presumably, the right that the feudal lord had to take the virginity of the bride when he married the first time. It is a myth etched in popular culture, but it has no basis in the sources. On the other hand, it is said that the chastity belt was an instrument that was used so that women did not have sexual relations when their husbands went to the crusades. Although, again, we have no examples of its existence in the original chronicles. The idea was born because of modern comedy films. Why has it worked so well? Because of that double vision that we have of the medievals: that of a puritanical society, but obsessed with intercourse.

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-How far did the restrictions of the Church go?

You could only have sex in marriage and only if it served for reproduction. In that case it was fine; in the rest, no. Masturbation, anal sex, homosexuality… There were also other restrictions that referred to when and where you could have sex. An example is that intercourse was not allowed in Holy Friday.

-Did the medievals marry young to be able to have sexual relations?

In reality, medieval society did not marry as young as we think; Or, at least, not in all of Europe. Although there was a big difference between the north and the south. In England, for example, they got married between the ages of twenty and twenty-five, something that doesn’t surprise us too much today. But this practice was not carried out in the youth because the idea of ​​consent was very important to them. An age of around twelve years for women and fourteen for women was established. It was also recognized that adolescents tended to be quite lustful, and the fact that they had a lot of sexual relations was counterintuitive. First of all, because of the medical problems that it could cause, but also because of the effects that this debauchery could have on their offspring.

– Is there any particularly disturbing sexual practice in the Middle Ages?

More than strange practices, I would say different ideas. It has always struck me how concerned they were about anal and oral sex. It is also surprising how common interfemoral sex was, so much so as to avoid conceiving children, as a homosexual practice. They thought it was a lesser sin than anal.

-Have you ever blushed reading or talking about some medieval sexual practice?

[Ríe] If I weren’t someone who tends to talk freely about this topic, I wouldn’t have done this book. I feel comfortable talking about sex. Although I think the public has been blushed by the lack of sexual connotation that the term ‘fuck’ had for the medievals. It was not offensive to them. They used it to name towns, people… For them it also meant hitting. The cover of the book has also made an impact…

-Let’s talk about the beauty canon. He affirms that, in Spain, men adored that women had wet armpits…

Right, wet armpits! Yes, they loved them. But it was one of the many features that the medievals adored. They also preferred small breasts because they considered that if women had big breasts, they were cool. And they preferred the meatier bellies because they understood that they were more fertile. For their part, women were obsessed with penis size.

-Were sexual practices in Spain different from those in the rest of Europe?

It had differences with respect to Europe. The first was related to interracial and interfaith sex. In Spain he was very concerned about the different confessions that existed in the Middle Ages. Another had to do with the sex of the clergy. From the 11th century they could not maintain relations, although Spain was one of the countries in which this rule was enforced with less force. In the peninsula the religious could live with women; it was allowed as long as they weren’t doing anything shady like hunting virgins or grotesquely chasing women.

-Monks who had long relationships with women?

Yes. There are examples of clergymen who had long-term relationships with women. Sometimes the Church fined them, but it was not excessive. In practice it was like paying a tax. Examples there are many. It is known that a monk had an affair with a courtesan named Ermesinda for many, many years.

-He speaks in his book about the punishments against crimes and the most murky sexual practices

There was a great variety. From the mild ones for those who had had sexual relations before marriage – a sermon in the Church – to the most severe. They varied a lot over time. In the 15th century there was much concern with homosexuality, for example, and the penalties could result in exile or execution. In the eighth century, in France, adulterers were stripped naked in public, had their genitals painted, and made to run through the streets of the city. That was a humiliation and marked them socially.

a Virgin and Child, a painting that used Agnès Sorel, lover of King Charles VII of France, as a model

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-How was prostitution viewed?

It didn’t surprise them. The Church understood that prostitutes were sinful souls that could be redeemed. There was a debate about the status of harlots. In the Middle Ages it was an illegal practice. Later, in the fourteenth century, there was a tendency to control it and confine women to red districts; thus, all the problems were in the same place. But medieval society realized that this did not work and the approach was abandoned.

-Was sex with a prostitute seen as less chaste than that which was carried out in the bosom of marriage?

What worried them was that relationships with people of other religions were maintained or that there were incestuous relationships. Always keeping in mind that, for them, political kinship was similar to sanguine in this sense. In the end, they considered prostitution to be a lesser evil; they understood that it was better to have sex with a prostitute than to disturb a married woman. For men like the Crusaders, who spent years away from home, to use this ‘service’ was not strange to medieval society.

-Has sex changed as much as we believe since the Middle Ages?

Obviously there are many attitudes that have changed, such as the religious vision related to sex. It has also evolved in terms of mentality. At that time it was thought that one rotten apple infected the rest of the barrel and that, therefore, certain deviant practices could not be allowed. Therefore, they considered sexuality something public. In the end, what has changed a lot is how we see sex, but not what we do within sex.