In Manne’s fourth chapter, she talks about some of the social norms that women are subject to. She states that women are “obligated to give feminine-coded services to someone or other…” and that women are “prohibited from having or taking masculine-coded goods away from dominant men…” What parts of the last half of Le Roman de Silence fall under or break away from these norms?
Medieval Feminism
ENGL 361 and WGST 322 | Spring 2020 | Dr. Myra Seaman
As the Queen replaces King Evan’s letter with her own, she takes away his “masculine-coded good” of having control and the power of decisiveness. Perhaps more indirectly, however, the Queen’s actions take away the honor and nobility associated with several of the male characters in the story (King Evan, the King of France, and Silence). The loss of the metaphorical good honor is compared to the physical good of property (which is also coded as masculine). The King of France argues that “A man may lose his property and recover it” but there is “no way to retrieve honor lost” (lines 4665-4667). Therefore, the Queen’s actions not only take away honor from men but also prevent the recovery of honor. As a result of the Queen’s actions, she is portrayed as being “filled with violent rage” (line 5779) and “obsessed” (line 5657) and is ultimately villainized. This example therefore reiterates Manne’s theory that women are “prohibited” from taking away a man’s “masculine-coded goods.”
Based on Manne’s discussion of feminine-coded or masculine-coded services or goods, I feel that the interaction between Eufeme and Silence displays a feminine-coded service that Manne refers to. Eufeme uses her sexuality and her body as an appeal to Silence because, as a beautiful and youthful woman, she believes that giving her body to Silence is what he wants. In most scenarios, this tactic would work, as we see women using their bodies, sex and love as appeals towards men throughout history, however, Silence is not really a man and is not interested in what Eufeme is offering. “If he were interested in women, nothing could have prevented him from taking his pleasure with me just now. Either I will see him totally dishonored, completely destroyed, if I can manage it, or I will never know a moment’s peace.” As a result, Eufeme is insulted, confused, and upset that her attempt failed. I see this as a feminine-coded service since what Eufeme did is what is commonly seen when women feel that their only useful tactic in persuasion is her sexuality. When this does not work, Eufeme is mortified and immediately assumes there is something wrong with him because she did what she knew to do.
When Manne says “feminine-coded services,” I think of the roles women are expected to play in a patriarchal society. In “Roman de Silence,” we can see these norms being diverged from through Silence’s fulfillment of traditionally male roles despite learning that they are were born female. They choose to continue living as a man in order to secure their inheritance, but also because the acts that men usually perform, Silence was very good at. One thing I thought was somewhat subscribing to Manne’s notion of “feminine-coded services” was that when Silence’s “true nature” was revealed, they chose to completely leave behind all aspects of the life they had before in favor of becoming queen and living as a woman.
I think in Roman de Silence, some of these norms were broken as the Queen was very demanding of Silence, who, dressed as a man, was given ultimatum after ultimatum to sleep with the Queen or suffer consequences. I think the Queen demonstrates some flipped version of the qualities of Manne’s misogyny towards Silence. For instance, Eufeme is narcissistic, feeling deeply only for herself. She is also somewhat delusional, believing that all men would want her and that she is somewhat entitled to their love. She also responds to Silence’s deviation from the norm she expects with anger and violence, letting her love turn to hatred and plotting to destroy him. Eufeme polices Silence’s behavior with threats, verbal abuse (desexualization, demoralization), and physical abuse.
Manne’s observation that women are “prohibited from having or taking maculine- coded goods from dominant men” applies to Silence’s entire motivation to keeping her sex or “nature” a secret from the queen and the king. Silence’s main goal after learning who he is is to keep his hidden sex a secret so that he can inherit from his father. This observation from Manne drives the plot between silence and the queen. Silence has to keep up his appearance in order to maintain access to his masculine-coded goods.
The one line from Manne’s 4th chapter that stuck out to my in relation to Le Roman de Silence was on page 114. Manne writes that “the norm that women not compete for or deprive men of masculine-coded goods that he wants, cost him his manly pride, and so on, are further common sources of [misogyny]” (114). I thought her discussion on women and their relation to “masculine-coded goods” resembled much of the second half of Roman de Silence. There are many instances within the second half of the text that showcase Silence as being equal to the men around him despite being a woman in his nature. Similar to someone like Joan of Arc or Medb, Silence breaks free from social norms and shows that women can, in fact, compete and showcase themselves as equal to what men of the time would consider as their rights and “goods”. Silence broke the norms of gender roles even in the guise as a man.
I agree with my fellow classmates. I also think that Silence becoming the King’s wife at the end definitely falls under being “obligated to give feminine-coded services to someone or other…”. There were years where Silence was known as a man, with all the benefits that came with being a man, and the King was obviously never rushing to marry them. He believed Silence to be a him, but when Silence’s true sex was revealed, suddenly the King wanted to marry them, like he was of the belief that he is owed something by Silence being female. Regardless of their presentation and the way they were raised, and regardless of their successfully (and exceptionally) completing tasks they believed only males to be capable of, once the people were made aware of Silence being female, they pushed what they knew of Silence otherwise aside and demanded feminine-coded services from “her.” They all most likely realized that Silence was very unfamiliar with playing the role of the woman, because she never had. Still, Silence was forced to follow the norms of her bio sex because during this time, and most any other, if a baby is born female, then the world will demand services from her that follow a male-dominant, patriarchal social structure.
Similarly to what Reese said, I was struck by Silence’s final status. It seems so strange for King Evan to have appointed Silence as a queen. She had been raised as a boy, and would not be fit for a queenly role. I think that the King recognized that if he did not take “responsibility” for Silence’s feminine-coded services, then Silence would return to her family and not give her services to anyone (because she would not know how and not be made to by her parents). The narrator knew the story could not end with Silence withholding her services because that would give a misleading message to readers. The narrator gave Silence’s feminine-coded services to the King so they could have a place to go. This reading correlated really well to Manne’s analysis in chapter four because the ending does seem to be centered around being sure Silence’s good and services go SOMEWHERE. If Silence had permission to “waste” these, then that could be seen as an option for all women. Silence’s ending, which was seen as positive (she gets to be a queen!), maintains the readers’ concept of women.