What Does the (Medieval) Fox Say?

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            In popular culture, the term “she’s a fox” is commonly used to describe a woman who is very beautiful. However, with the medieval connotation behind foxes, what does this say about women? A woman who is foxy can be seen as someone who is sly in her ways and although gorgeous, is untrustworthy. Contrastingly, older men are often described as a “silver fox.”

            The fox, especially in medieval times, was known to be a cunning and deceitful creature. It would roll in red mud in order to trick it’s prey into thinking it was dead and covered in blood, only then to attack and eat them. Classified as a beast, the fox was a devious animal that would never run in a straight line. In medieval literature it is seen as an allegory for the devil. 

          The fox was often depicted as stealing chickens from the peasants and yet was also a common animal to be hunted by the nobility. Under Reynard the Fox, a medieval Europe’s trickster figure that was featured in a serious of beast epics, the fox had opposing roles of being hunter and hunted.  He was always getting into trouble but was able to talk his way out of it. Reynard the Fox alternates between tricking his victims and running away from them. This opposed image of the fox as hunter and hunted further added to it’s similarities to the devil, being threatening and threatened.

            In using the term “silver” when describing men, the notion of foxes rolling in blood is dismissed. Women’s blood, in medieval texts, was seen as polluting. Menstruating women were seen as unclean and the church taught how menstruation was a curse from God as a result of Eve’s temptation. In referring to a woman as a fox suggests that although she is attractive and sexy, she is cunning in her ways and tricks her preys with her “red” color.    

       

        Men, as previously mentioned, are silver foxes. They lack the connotation of blood or the impurity it implies. Medieval men feared menstrual blood for it’s corrosive capabilities and representation of female power. One particular belief was that it, menstrual blood, could damage the penis on contact. Although men could be seen as crafty and sly, they do so without becoming impure. Furthermore, a silver fox is used to describe older men. A man that may be deceitful, but since he is older, now has wisdom and knowledge to better his previous ways.          

   

            To be “foxy” means to have a certain sex appeal. Yet to be a vixen, the word for a female fox, tends to imply that the woman in question has a few controversial, albeit nasty, qualities. To say that “she’s a fox” brings about a meaning that questions a woman’s motives. She may be beautiful , but she is also polluted, devious, and cunning in her ways. She is not like the male counterpart, silver fox, whom has matured in his ways and is now a good-looking, older gentleman. The silver fox is not polluted for he lacks the color red in his description and is therefore free of the blood. The medieval belief about a fox being the devil and never running in a straight line may no longer prevail in popular culture. However, the underlying connotation of the “sly fox” and medieval notions of women and blood are still muddled in their references on what the fox says about people.

           

           

Medieval Cleanliness and How it Relates to Present Day Women.

We've read in our class about women and their dirtiness. In stories such as 'The Prioresses Tale", we see allusions of the Virgin Mary going into filth in order to save people, which leads to equating her, and all women, to being unclean. Or the equation of a slit throat being akin to a vagina, which is dirty in that it's bloody and defiled. This also plays a part in "The Child Slain By Jews", where the Virgin Mary sticks a lily, which is a sign of purity, into a slain boy's throat wound, thusly purifying the wound and in a round-about way the vagina. We've had discussions in class relating to women's bodies, and how the womb was seen as waste, and that to come from a womb, or worse, to have one, meant have a coat of grime on ones' self that can never be washed off. Unless you are the Virgin Mary, who is sometimes seen as above these notions of grime, no woman can seem to come above these stereotypes. Even Mary herself doesn't sometimes, as seen with the name play of Maria being Har'ia (shit). As such, there is an insecurity that women are lesser, and not clean, due to their bodies, a notion that has not faded in modern times.

I want to equate this to modern day media messages regarding menstruation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpypeLL1dAs

In this ad, we see an emphasis of purity, and cleanliness, as well as femininity. It's seen as the complete opposite of medieval literature and attitudes where women are seen as dirty and not fit to be touched either during or because of menstruation. However, much like one could view medieval attitudes as an unease of women having any sort of control, I would view these commercials as a sort of discontent with women's bodies, and overcompensation. Because periods are still viewed as dirty, advertisers feel the need to market their products as super feminine and clean. This doesn't erase medieval thinking, but instead draws on it, because women are still seen as unclean. If we weren't, we wouldn't have to be sold to these products based on how clean they make us feel.

(http://www.always.com/en-us/product/wipes/sanitary-wipes.aspx)

Also, by selling products such as these Always Feminine Wipes, which imply that periods are shameful and disgusting, and that we must be clean at all times. It's not good enough unless we go the extra mile and by unnecessary products. Marketing feeds on the societal insecurity that is women's bodies, and uses the shame associated with a fear of uncleanliness in order to make money. The need to control women, and to make them feel lesser, is stuck in society, and is a completely medieval concept.

While men may also experience this shame with their bodies and uncleanliness, as seen by the current trend of circumcising baby boys due to supposed attitudes towards cleanliness, it's not the same at all. First off, the act of circumcision in non-Jewish or Muslim men is not a medieval action, and is more of the opposite. It also doesn't control the way men are treated in society, and men are not usually shunned due to their penis. The hysteria is still somewhat there, but it is opposite and lesser, whereas women, even today, still cannot seem to get clean.