{"id":1476495,"date":"2024-07-10T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1476495"},"modified":"2024-07-10T16:25:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T20:25:00","slug":"harvard-class-on-byzantine-empire-to-study-trans-monks-and-genderless-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/harvard-class-on-byzantine-empire-to-study-trans-monks-and-genderless-angels\/1476495\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard Class On Byzantine Empire To Study “Trans Monks” And “Genderless Angels”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvard Class On Byzantine Empire To Study “Trans Monks” And “Genderless Angels”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

By Emma Dayton of CampusReform<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A Harvard University course this fall semester will study \u201ctrans monks,\u201d cross-dressing, \u201cgenderless angels,\u201d and intersectionality in the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire).\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The course, \u201cGender in Byzantium<\/a>,\u201d focuses \u201con the entire spectrum of binary and non-binary conceptualizations, representations and performances of gender in Byzantium<\/strong> by exploring textual and visual material alongside recent scholarship on gender and sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTopics for discussion include: normative concepts and representations of masculinity and femininity; asceticism and the gendered body; emotions and gender; same-sex desire and relationships (homosociality); cross-dressing (trans monks?); intersectionality (gender, race and class); authorial (cis- and trans-) gender performance; eunuchs (a \u2018third gender\u2019?); incorporeal\/genderless angels,\u201d the course description continues.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One course text, \u201cByzantine Intersectionality,\u201d\u00a0labels<\/a> the terms \u201ctransvestite\u201d and \u201ccross-dressing\u201d as \u201cproblematic.\u201d Referring to women who pretended to be male eunuchs in order to live as monks, the text adds: \u201c[S]cholars repeatedly have shied away from referring to these figures as \u2018transgender,\u2019 instead calling them \u2018transvestite nuns,\u2019 \u2018cross-dressing\u2019 saints, or women in \u2018disguise.\u2019 These pejorative terms, which are pervasive throughout the historiography, negate these subjects\u2019 identification as transgender persons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The text gives the example of Marinos, a woman\u2013whom the text consistently refers to as \u201che\u201d and \u201chim\u201d\u2013who snuck her way into a monastery and successfully passed herself off as a man in order to become a monk. The text also refers to her life as \u201ca typical narrative for a transgender monk.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another course text, \u201cWomen, Men, and Gender in Christianity,\u201d\u00a0<\/a>claims<\/a> that the Gospels \u201censhrine\u201d anti-Semitic rhetoric, and that \u201cGender has been an idea of considerable fluidity throughout history, and throughout Christian history as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[S]ociety in our current moment is struggling in very literal terms with gender ambiguity\u2014an ambiguity that has always been part of Christian rhetoric,\u201d the text continues.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Another text, \u201cByzantine Gender,\u201d\u00a0states<\/a>: \u201cThe stock [gender] roles do not seem to have been straightjackets but rather a wide repertoire of behaviours that people could mimic or embody in order to craft the responses others would have to them. . . . Gender, like much of social interaction, seems thus to have been highly performative.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harvard\u00a0offers<\/a> various other courses focusing on gender and sexuality, such as \u201cFeminism in the Age of Empire,\u201d \u201cGender & Sexuality in Korean Pop Culture,\u201d \u201cPsychology of the Gendered Body,\u201d and \u201cPower to the People: Black Power, Radial Feminism, and Gay Liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 07\/10\/2024 – 12:25<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/harvard-class-byzantine-empire-study-trans-monks-and-genderless-angels<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvard Class On Byzantine Empire To Study “Trans Monks” And “Genderless Angels” By Emma Dayton of CampusReform A Harvard University course this fall semester will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1476496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1476495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6c6r","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/07\/monk20teaser-N9Aidy.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1476495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1476496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1476495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1476495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1476495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}