One Stroak of His Razour’
Tales of Self-Gelding in Early Modern England
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12210145 |
|---|---|
| Authors | ALANNA SKUSE (0000-0001-5034-9786, University of Reading, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 377-393 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social History of Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-631X • E-ISSN: 1477-4666 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/shm/hky100 |
| PMID | 32419738 |
| OpenAlex | W2900705961 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 1 |
This article examines stories of men who gelded themselves in early modern England. These events, it argues, were shaped and partly motivated by a culture in which castration was seen as both degrading and potentially empowering. Religious precedents such as that of Origen of Alexandria framed self-gelding as a foolhardy activity, but one which nevertheless indicated an impressive degree of mastery over the body and its urges. Meanwhile, judicial and popular contexts framed castration as a humiliating and emasculating ordeal. Instances of self-gelding in this period are rare but nonetheless illuminating. Relayed in medical texts and popular ballads, such actions typically occurred as a response to emotional distress. In particular, men gelded themselves as a means to express feelings of emasculation within heterosexual relationships, and to dramatically renounce their role in the libidinal economy
Aesthetics · Art · Ballad · Feeling · Literature · Period (music · Political science · Sociology · Trial by ordeal · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Psychology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Social Psychology
Um Estudo Comparado Da Institucionalização E Patologização Das Inscrições Corporais
Uma análise histórica anarquista das inscrições corporais na sociedade ocidental moderna
Creating and caring for castrates
Whoever Takes Her Up, Gives Her 50 Good Lashes, and Deliver Her to Me”
Pin-Swallowing and Self-Destruction in Early Modern British and Irish Supernatural Narratives
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |