Virtuous Femininity

[Jasmine]

My final paper will focus on the question of what constitutes "virtuous femininity" as seen through the perspective of William of Malmesbury in the two books we read as a class, the Gesta Regum Anglora and Gesta Pontificum Anglorum. It is obvious that women are limited in their practice of piety by their gender. The life-path carved out for the typical woman in the Church then is the same as it often is today: grow up, get married, have [lots of] children and display your love for God through submission (read: obedience) to husband and homemaking. With the exception of joining a convent, we should expect that these women would fit the typical profile in order to be considered pious and virtuous. Upon further inspection, however, our paradigm is challenged as we encounter women -- powerful women! -- such as Ethelfled and Ethelburga, who defy our spiritual stereotypes and by their actions distinguish themselves from other women of their time. Yet, even by our standards today, their behavior may seem more than a little odd and even disdainful! What is even more interesting, shocking even, is that our dear William himself upholds them as models of womanly virtue by the very act of recording their stories in detail for our inspiration. 

Were they less feminine (i.e. more masculine) because they exhibited such power and passion for Christ,  (typically attributes associated with the male gender), that it resulted in their defiance of men and particularly husbands? Can a woman be virtuous if she does not stay in "her place"? (And by "her place" I mean both a physical space, e.g. her home, and a cultural/societal space, e.g. subordination and inferiority to men.) I will propose that the answers to these questions are "no" and "yes" respectively. I will draw my conclusions based on the medieval church's perspective on sex and chastity. In addition, I propose that William is following in the same vein as Dr. Luke in The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles by raising the standard for a woman in Christ living under the Age of Grace and in the light of Pentecost.