Phallocentric Perception of Women

In this essay, we show that medieval authors' perspectives on same-sex relationships among women are highly selective. Taking into account a large variety of sources, such as court records, authors’ opinions, penitentials, and monastic customs, we show that in medieval texts carnal relationships between women are generally perceived as an act requiring symbolic presence of a male partner (most often marked by the use of dildo), so that one woman can play the role of the man. It seems to have been unimaginable for the authors that women could give pleasure to each other without a male element. We conclude that, the authors either ignored or decided to leave out of consideration non-penetrative sexual practices between women, although these were well-known and discussed in the Islamic world at the same time. Yet, this is less astonishing than it might seem, because the perception of sexual practice in general was focused on penetrative “doing unto others”.