Margins Undefined: The flexibility of gender boundaries in the European Middle Ages

The boundaries of gender within the European Middle Ages are often viewed as rigid, constrictive, and impassable. However, upon adjusting the analytical framework to employ a trans and genderqueer lens it becomes apparent that medieval gender boundaries were in fact flexible, negotiable, and permeable. Through comparatively analysing dominant attitudes towards the spiritual transgression of gender boundaries found within monastic theology against the conceptualisation and treatment of lay transgender individuals and ‘deviant’ sexual behaviour, this essay argues that gender transgression was perceived differently within different contexts, experiencing more acceptance within religious environments than secular spaces. Bernard of Clairvaux’s series of exegetical sermons On the Song of Songs is analysed, illustrating how the transgression of gender boundaries could be venerated within ecclesiastical discourses when expressed within the framework of spiritual transcendence. The unique case of the fourteenth-century English sex worker John/Eleanor Rykener is examined in contrast, and the position of Rykener is reconceptualised through the lens of genderfluidity highlighting the flexibility and instability of gender boundaries within medieval Europe.