The Politics of Sex

[gotsnowgotslush]

The Politics of Sex


In the wake of the fourteenth-century plague, which killed over half of Italy’s populations, cities were faced with a crisis. To make matters worse, Italian men seemed uninterested in repopulating the peninsula, struck by a sin worse than death—same-sex attraction. Fifteenth-century preacher Bernardino of Siena railed that “even the Devil flees in horror at the sight of this sin.”

Italian cities responded by encouraging prostitution. In 1403, the government of Florence opened an office to promote prostitution in order to prevent the worse sin of sodomy. Venice legalized prostitution in 1358 and created a brothel district in the commercial heart of the city, the Rialto.

Illustration:
Cesare Vecellio’s “Public Whore” waves a flag and wears high-heeled chopines. (1598)

Prostitution was a reality of life in Renaissance Italy. But in spite of its legality, Renaissance Italians had a mixed opinion of the profession. The medieval church had declared prostitution a “necessary evil,” drawing on St. Augustine of Hippo’s proclamation that “If you do away with whores, the world will be consumed with lust.” Thomas Aquinas likewise declared in the thirteenth century that “If prostitution were to be suppressed, careless lusts would overthrow society.” Aquinas likened prostitution to a sewer in a palace—if you took it away, the building would overflow with pollution. Or, more specifically, “Take away prostitutes from the world and you will fill it with sodomy."

Prostitutes, then, served as receptacles of sin, protecting the rest of society from male lust. And, in particular, they kept male passions focused on women, rather than other men.


Renaissance prostitution was meant to channel male lust in appropriate directions, and as such, prostitution reinforced gender norms. Venice, for example, encouraged women to run brothels, because men relying on the earnings of prostitutes inverted normal gender relations. The city worried that men who lived off of women’s earnings would become dangerously lazy and fall into a life of crime. In an ironic twist, this attitude put a great deal of power in the hands of “matrons,” who were integrated into Venetian business at multiple levels.


https://dirtysexyhistory.com/2016/11/20/prostitution-in-renaissance-italy-the-necessary-evil/

 

[rae121452]

honey, i hate to break the news...it didn't work.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Have you ever wondered why Venice’s got a “Bosom Bridge” (Ponte delle Tette) and a “Bosom street” (Fondamenta delle Tette)? Well, times get tough for all businesses, at some point. And Venetian prostitutes had to find a solution to their crisis in the 16th century, since they had fierce competitors: men. And here’s where our mask turns out: the Gnaga.

Gnaga mask

The fact is, homosexuals found a loophole in Venice’s own laws, i.e. those concerning masks: no masked person could be arrested, since wearing a mask meant becoming a mask, turning into someone who was playing a role.



Some historical facts about the Gnaga mask


“Meow” is gnau in Venetian, and that’s where this mask got its name from. Maybe it’s related to the basket full of kittens Gnagas often carried with them, too. They used to act like women, thus they often pretended to be nannies, accompanied by other men dressed up as tati and tate (“boys” and “girls”), but their language was absolutely coarse.

The features of this Venetian half mask


This light-coloured papier-mâché mask covers only the upper part of the face, and its shape can resemble either a cat’s or a pig’s muzzle.


Gnagas had to look like women, they had to dress like women, too: their costume, indeed, is composed of ordinary women’s clothes. Some sort of drag queen, just to give you an idea of it.



How did prostitutes manage to recover from their crisis, you may be asking yourselves. Here’s the end of our story: in 1511, prostitutes made a plea to the bishop, Antonio Contarini, complaining about their lack of customers, due to the popularity of male prostitutes and homosexual encounters. In the hope of hindering such encounters, the government of Venice allowed prostitutes to lean out of their balconies half naked. Hence the architectural references to bosoms.



https://www.camacana.com/en-UK/the-gnaga.php

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Female prostitutes get permission to advertise services, by displaying their "wares."


"...at one point the Patriarch (i.e. Cardinal) of Venice was concerned for Venice’s morals because the male prostitutes were pulling more business than the female.

An ordinance was passed permitting female prostitutes to display themselves nude in the windows of their establishments, to entice customers and encourage general heterosexuality. The male prostitutes retaliated by appearing nude in the windows of their establishments wearing masks. Anything one does while wearing a mask is legally “play” so unless it’s a severe crime (like defacing a Madonna) it isn’t prosecuted.

You can keep your mask on

The Bauta

This shape makes it easy to breath and speak, and not too difficult to eat and drink, without removing the mask.

Anonymous

The Muta (mute) mask

So prevalent was the Muta that, in parts of the 17th and 18th centuries, if a lady dressed in the finery of the upper classes went out without one, it was considered a declaration that she was a courtesan.

https://www.exurbe.com/venice-ii-mask-culture/

Unmasked ?

It was forbidden to wear the mask during the periods that were not those of Carnival and in any places of worship, as weapons and group chattering were prohibited.

During these periods the use of masks was forbidden to prostitutes and men who frequented the brothels. This was due to the fact that the masks were often used to hide their identity and to carry on some dirty business or illegal relationship.


https://www.monicacesarato.com/blog/2011/01/14/the-venice-carnival-and-the-history-of-its-masks/

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Lilith (Lilitu) was an ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian fertility goddess. She was a mother goddess, a protector of children, a fierce warrior and an agricultural goddess. She was worshipped by people seeking to have good crops and many children.


She even had assistants. Like angels are to the Judeo-Christian god, Lilith had Mariliths: Six armed women with snake tails who were skilled gardeners and fabulous warriors at the same time. Mythology and stories about Lilith are not really well known however, because most of them have been obliterated by competing religions.


Judeo-Christianity has replaced the old mythology with a new mythology: Lilith as succubus.

No longer is she a goddess, but instead an immortal succubus, the mother of all succubi, a stealer of children and a seductress of men.

This anti-Lilith mythology is found in the combined mythology of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.


The modern Judeo-Christian religions all believe that there is only one god, and that this god is a HE. If we go back further into the origins of these religions, there is actually two gods: Jehovah (the male counterpart) and Yahweh (the female counterpart). The modern versions of these religions ignore Yahweh and favour only Jehovah. So historically "God" is both male and female, but the modern versions of these religions firmly believe that "God" is male.

The female version of the goddess Yahweh has basically been eradicated. All we have left is male dominated religions.

Lilith makes a very interesting deviation in Judeo-Christianity however. Instead of being a fertility goddess, who helps women conceive children, she has been transformed into a sexual miscreant.


In the ben-Sira (a) version Lilith makes a dramatic appearance, not as a succubus, but as the counterpart to Adam. Lilith and Adam were created together, both made out of clay, at the exact same time. Afterall, Yahweh/Jehovah created all the animals (male and female animals) at the same time, why shouldn't they create humans at the same time? In ben-Sira (b), a slightly different version, Adam is created first, and Lilith is created immediately afterwards. In ben-Sira (c), Lilith is made of mud instead of clay.

In whatever version you read, the story still finds a way to make women appear inferior.

http://www.lilithgallery.com/library/the_demonification_of_lilith.html