The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society
By Eleanor Janega
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 Stars
Absolutely loved this book! I have been out of undergrad and my medievalist studies for a little bit and my present grad studies on 20th century Germany is far and away from this topic so it was good to get back to it. I was also excited to delve into this particular topic because my summative 4th year seminar had been on "Love, Sex, and Death" in the Italian Renaissance and my own paper on Renaissance family planning--this book would have been a lovely secondary source for that undertaking had it been published a couple of years earlier. All this is to say, I was already familiar with much of what Janega touches on here but learned even more. Admittedly, I also felt a little bit vindicated in my own research and conclusions on the topic of women, femininity, fertility, and gender-roles of the Medieval and Renaissance period. Most importantly, Janega's writing is captivating, humorous, and accessible and I will always have praise for those able to impart history in a way that is accessible to non-historians without sacrificing content or even complexity.
-Alicia
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