Femininity, the veil and shame in twelfth- and thirteenth-century ecclesiastical discourse

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This article explores the extent to which emotions were an element in the construction of gender in the writings of medieval theologians. It will explain firstly that although sensitivity was often associated with women, it did not become an important element of the distinction between the sexes until the thirteenth century. The motif of feminine sensitivity was sometimes even used to serve a gender-egalitarian reading of certain biblical passages, by considering femininity to be a constituent part of any human being. It will then focus in particular on a single emotion, namely verecundia (shame), which is often linked to the veil and therefore to the women who took it. This will make it possible to demonstrate how an “emotion” regularly attributed to men could also be construed as specifically feminine – as a symbol of the demure behaviour and submission that was expected of women, who had to accept the masculine mediation epitomized by the veil. At the same time, verecundia also opened a path to salvation and even to glory for women. Verecundia thus appeared to women as a path to glory through shame, which was defined both as an emotion and as a virtue.