Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Medieval Sex,” a look at the reality of medieval sex and sexuality through the lens of comic literature, satire, and obscenity, with Larissa “Kat” Tracy, professor of medieval literature and author of several books on the Middle Ages.
Come to the Black Squirrel Club in Philadelphia’s Fishtown for a fascinating, rollicking look at how medieval people navigated sex in their time.
The speaker, Professor Kat Tracy, has appeared on Wondrium’s series Sex in the Middle Ages and the History Channel’s Dark Marvels, and has previously given excellent Profs and Pints talks on medieval torture and the pagan origins of late winter holidays.
This time out, Professor Tracy discusses how the sex lives of medieval people were framed by religious edicts and secular laws, how they skirted those restrictions, and found outlets in sexual humor and displays.
Medieval discussions of sex were most common in humorous literature that used satire, double entendres, obscenity, and dirty jokes, often to engage in political commentary or draw attention to bigger social issues. We’ll look at how great writers of that time found ways to discuss sex while escaping censure from the Catholic Church, and we’ll tackle the question of whether medieval society truly was more prudish than our own. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 4 pm. Talk starts at 4:30.)
Image: An illustration by Giovannino de' Grassi from the late 1300s.
