Humility, Hysteria and the Female Body in the selected writings of Hildegard of Bingen and The Book of Margery Kempe Anonymous College

Like visions of God, the study of the role and importance of the female body stands at the forefront of lots of text written by mystical medieval women. As we discussed in class, Julian of Norwich’s sick body allowed her to have visions of God, which is what inspired Shewings, and Margery Kempe believed that chastising her body and abstaining from sex would bring her closer to God, which is why she tells her husband that she would let him be slain sooner than she would have sex with him when he asks. In each of their books, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Hildegard of Bingen each recount tales of men who oppressed them, attempted to control them, and doubted their Godliness. However, an overarching theme of these tales is that Medieval men did not have the ability or the desire to understand mystic women, so they were sometimes viewed as mad, ill, or foolish. These terms are synonymous with what would be described several centuries later as female hysteria, which is now believed to actually the manifestation of everything from panic disorders to drunkenness. Female hysteria has also become infamously known as a “dramatic medical metaphor for everything [about women] that men found mysterious or unmanageable” (Micale, 34)....