Masculine old women or feminine old men? Rethinking gender and the ageing body in early modern English medicine

Bolissian, A. (2022) Masculine old women or feminine old men? Rethinking gender and the ageing body in early modern English medicine. Gender & History. ISSN 1468-0424 doi: 10.1111/1468-0424.12609

Abstract/Summary

Abstract: This article challenges the almost universal historiographical claim that women's bodies were thought to become increasingly masculine as they aged in early modern English medicine, especially after menopause. It is not surprising that this ‘masculinisation hypothesis’ has endured with very little critical appraisal, as there have been few in‐depth studies into medical conceptions of ageing womanhood. Drawing on c.140 English vernacular medical and popular health texts published between 1570 and 1730, this article interrogates and refutes key claims for the corporeal ‘manliness’ of old women. Instead, it argues that while medicine undoubtedly depicted old women and men as growing closer in bodily constitution as they aged, this generic ageing constitution had more ‘feminine’ corporeal attributes than ‘masculine’. Exploring references to ‘effeminated’ old men within medical books, it then questions the impact of these medical gender associations within wider cultural contexts.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/104743
Identification Number/DOI	10.1111/1468-0424.12609
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
Uncontrolled Keywords	Original Article
Publisher	Wiley
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