Bernau’s chapter states that the Wife of Bath’s Prologue entails “the same source being used to argue strikingly different perspectives.” The chapter ends by stating, “…medieval instances also reveal how such views [of antifeminism] were not only replicated and accepted, but also manipulated, mocked, undermined, and critiqued in their own time.” Do you think the Prologue contains both a challenge to misogynistic tropes while participating in misogynism or is one perspective stronger than the other? 

What did you think about the ending to Roman de Silence?

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? 

In Le Roman de Silence there are multiple accounts involving women, marriage, and the role of inheritance between the two. What is the significance of the inheritance in relation to gender roles and/or sexism?

In the chapter 3 of Manne’s book, she outlines the differences between sexism and misogyny. What moment in the first half of Roman de Silence do you feel there is an act of sexism? Of misogyny?

Carolyn Dinshaw makes a claim that “Gawain acts like a woman”, which can play into the “juxtaposition of those scenes in the bedroom and on the hunt” in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Why do you agree/disagree with her claim? Are there other instances other than the bedroom v. the hunt scenes that may be relevant? 

On page 213 and 214 of Dinshaw’s article, she compares Gawain to the dismembered and gutted female deer that is hunted on the first day. She writes that “this unlacing of the body is the poem’s visual representation of straight gender identity’s failing” (214). Are there any other instances throughout the poem in which heterosexual identity is compromised?

Mia asked about how the lady’s actions are interpreted and what they mean. What about Gawain’s response to her actions and what do they mean in regards to the overall theme of the story?

What do you make of the lady’s actions toward Gawain? What do you think they reveal about her or about how social conventions for women in this story are the same as ours/different than ours?

In Chapter 2, Manne talks about the ameliorative analysis of misogyny, with misogyny leading to social environments where women face hostility if they are thought to be guilty of violating patriarchal order. From what we’ve read so far, do you think women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are guilty of violating social order, or do they follow convention?