Capacités et défaillances masculines: le corps des laïcs sous le regard des clercs (XIIIe–XIVe siècles)
In clerical discourse in the high Middle Ages – a discourse that shaped a male model for laity – masculine identity seemed to be in a continual struggle between extraordinary capacity and sinful failure. Exegesis suggested Adam before the original sin as a perfect model of masculinity, embodying the power of the spirit to master the body and sexual desires. Impotence, by contrast, was described as a defect of manhood in pastoral and penitential literature, as a lack of gender identity.