On Sep 14, 2007, at 1:03 AM, Zuzana Kraemerova wrote:
Heather: "In addition to the battle-for-the-pants genre, there are
other images
commonly circulated in the historic costuming community as evidence
for medieval women wearing underpants that -- when examined more
closely -- are using the underpants as a symbol or representation of
women cross-dressing as men. A typical example is an illustration
from an edition of Boccaccio's "Concerning Famous Women" (De Claris
Mulieribus) for the tale of Queen Semiramis who -- among other things
-- was notorious for having ruled disguised as a man."
Yes, this was one of the two pictures, someone pointed it out here
(http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/library/Semiramis.gif) as
well. So, one half is explained! I'm still waiting for the reply
from my friend to tell me where the other picture was from.
But your "gender battle" theory is very interesting, did you ever
write an article or anything like that about it? I'd long to get
some more detailed information:-)
I presented it as a paper at Kalamazoo several years ago. It will
eventually be available publicly in some form.
Heather
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