Ms. Kempe If You're Nasty

Since Isabella from Measure for Measure got brought up in class today, I've been thinking about it and I'm wondering more about the accusation that Margery is a "strumpet."

Isabella, some argue, is the most sexualized character in the text by her own power. Aside from the fact that sexuality if often placed on her (Angelo, the Duke, Claudia...there isn't a man in that play who isn't pressing some form of sexual discourse on her), Isabella herself is a physical character. Her description alone of how far she's going to go to be nonsexual is probably one of the most sexually charged descriptions in the play.

As much for my poor brother as myself:
That is, were I under the terms of death,
The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield
My body up to shame.
(i.iv)

Impressions of whips? Strip myself to a bed? What kind of asexuality are we dealing with here?

I think, however, a pronounced celibacy, like Isabella's screaming in the street or Margery's white robes, is a highly sexual state of being and Margery, like Isabella, is much more sexual than we think. It is, in fact, announcing your sexual status with every step that you take. It is constantly having your thoughts on your own chastity, which is, in fact a sexual state of being. Announced sexuality, putting yourself right into a field of vision, is more of her elective Othering.

Her main issue, when she runs into people who don't know how to take the white robes, is her sexuality. And the treatment she receives on page 83-85 sounds a whole lot like "Well, if you weren't wearing that skirt, this wouldn't have happened." It is an accusation that a woman is not only aware of her own sexuality, but bringing everyone else's attention to it, as well.

In fact, I'd go so far as to backtrack and say that the fear for the wives is not because they'd be shaking up the status quo by leaving the sexual economy, but instead that the wives would be more sexualized by entering a state of being that is, in fact, completely centered on sexuality and announcing that sexuality to anyone with eyes.

That also makes the accusation of strumpet...ness that much more accurate. If a strumpet is a prostitute, one who's business is sex, then Margery is a strumpet. More modern interpretations of prostitution as the site of revolution (the short story is that prostitution and sex work show heterosexual normatively for the sham that it is. If you can pay a woman, regardless of her sexuality, to perform heterosexuality with you, how "natural" can that be?) then Ms. Kempe is definitely a strumpet.

"And now I know how Joan of Arc felt"

No, this isn't a post about The Smiths song, but instead a comparison between Joan of Arc and Margery Kempe. While reading the text, I was struck by the similarities and difference between the two women who lived around the same time period in Medieval Europe. Though Margery is a fictional character and Joan is not, their lives are quite analogous and quite dissimilar.

Margery's dress is an issue several times throughout the text. Her desire, or rather God's will, to have her dress in virginal white is contrary to her position in society. As we've noted at other times in the course, one's dress was very important in Medieval society because it depicted social status. In this text, we see dress in a slightly different way. It is clear from the text, that Margery is certainly not a virgin. She has fourteen children with her husband. Although she rebukes and is revolted by his sexual desires, she still has lustful thoughts about herself and God. During her inquest, the Archbishop asks, "Why go you in white? Are you a maiden?" She, kneeling on her knees before him, said, "No, sir, I am no maiden; I am a wife" (p.91). There is something unnatural in Margery being clothed in all white. One sees the same thing when studying the trials of Joan of Arc. The charge brought against her, wearing men's clothes, is ultimately one of the charges in which she is burnt at the stake for. The Church regards Joan's choice of dress similar to that of Margery's. Dressing in such a way is unnatural. Yet, it is even more so, something that is against the Church, which in turn causes a person to be a danger to the Church and society as a whole. Not dressing in one's normal dress and being a well known figure is a threat to society because it could cause other women to veer off the normal course and wear such dress.

Secondly, both women claim to hear the voices of higher beings. For Joan this is also a cause for her demise, as she is deemed a heretic. Margery, however, is both praised and damned for her spiritual beliefs. For instance, when she arrives in Rome at the hospice of Saint Thomas of Canterbury the text states, "and there was she houseled every Sunday with greet weeping, violent sobbing, and loud crying and was highly beloved of the master of the hospice and by all his brother" (p.59). A few lines later the text describes a priest in the hospice who despises Margery, it states "he spoke so evilly of this creature and slandered so her name in the hospice that through his evil language she was put out of the hospice so that she might no longer be shriven nor houseled therein" (p.59). It is also interesting to note that most places Margery goes, clergy seek her out as being the woman who hears the voice of God. Moreover, in places where she is thrown out of, it is more for her absurd weeping and wailing and not her belief that she hears God.

Margery and something Monstrous

It's with a heavy heart that I post my last blog. I do not have any original points to add about Margery, but I did wanted to share a story.

Several months ago, I attended the SEMA conference and sat in on the session called Gender in the Middle Ages. A graduate student presented a paper on Margery Kempe cleverly titled, "'I Am Woman, Hear Me Wail': Discussing How Gender Affects the Authorship of Margery Kempe." Her paper basically noted Margery's defiance to the "male-dominated clergy" by her extreme actions. During discussion, the presenter explained that Margery's only term for herself was "creature." Margery acquired an nonsexual persona in the story instead of fighting against the male dominated clergy with her femininity. This statement really resonated in me. I hadn't realized that instead of using her sex, Margery loses her sex for humility and possibly, the ability to act within a category that does not have limits-that of a creature.

Well, in honor of this class, I wanted to leave this post with a video that shows a monster and an other. It has been a pleasure!