Sexuality in the middle ages

Tracing the history of sexuality in any historical period encounters two major problems. One is a problem of source material. The sexuality of a particular individual is a part of that individual’s subjective experience, which is often unrecoverable. Sexuality as a larger field, the set of larger meanings a given culture constructs around sexual behavior, only exists for us through texts and images created for purposes other than providing information to future scholars. The second problem involves categories. We inevitably think within the categories of our own culture. Where modern Western schemes of categorization put a great emphasis on the gender or age of one’s partner, medieval schemes put more emphasis on whether one played an active or passive role. “Active” and “passive” did not mean pursued and pursuer; a woman could be very aggressive, but was still considered the passive partner in intercourse because she was the one penetrated.