It figures that Christine de Pizan would spend a lot of The Book of the City of Ladies talking about men and masculinity, since men are the ones most responsible for giving women a horrible reputation in medieval society. If Christine de Pizan is going to make a strong case for women's goodness, she's going to have to delve into the male psyche and figure out some of the reasons why men would hold such grudges against women to begin with. And the deeper she digs, the more she finds.
Questions About Men and Masculinity
- Why do you think men were so hard on women in Christine de Pizan's time? Was it just the way things were, or did men have something specific to gain by it?
- What is de Pizan's general opinion of men like Mathéolus who write books about how horrible women are? Use specific evidence from the text to support your answer.
- How does de Pizan try to get her make readers to agree with her? What kinds of compromises does she make in her closing arguments? Why?
Chew on This
In The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan shows us that men who hate women usually have some personal baggage they need to sort out. So we shouldn't take their opinions too seriously.
In The Book of the City of Ladies, we learn that both men and women are capable of being good or bad, and it has nothing to do with their genders.