Gender Roles In Medieval Music

When a Maryland bride presented her father with a certificate declaring her virgin purity, and proceeded to post the images over social media, she was met with both admiration and repugnance. Brelyn Bowman had made a promise with her father and God when she was thirteen years old that she would not have sex until she was married, and only with her husband. Fast forward to her wedding day and Brelyn poses for a picture with her father holding a certificate certified by a physician saying her hymen was still intact. Posting the images to social media sparked outrage as people began condemning her for valuing her intact hymen and virginity above all else. People were posting comments which articulated that she should not even feel the need to make such a promise, much less present her father an official certificate to prove her virginity. People were also …show more content…
No matter the steps taken towards gender equality, issues always tend to reveal that true equality has not been acquired. In the early musical eras, such as the Medieval and Renaissance, societal equality among the genders is not the primary obstacle women face in music. Rather, the gender roles society expects women to fill, and women often strive to fill, restrict the advancement of women. In the case of the modern purity certificate, one of the biggest arguments is that the whole ordeal seems very medieval. In medieval times, women were expected to be “pure”, an ideal determined by the state of a women’s virginity. Once wed, it was expected women would not sleep with another man, but the same principle did not necessarily apply to men. Likewise, in the case of Brelyn, a woman presents herself as a “pure” virgin, and the man has no obligation to do so. Of course the reasoning behind this modern case is purely personal, but it does resemble the practices of medieval times, a time in which women were very much inferior (though arguably equal) to