Making Mary Visible


A taste of the argument to come in my forthcoming book. Read on...

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Medieval History 101: The Unauthorized Version

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Welcome to my Random Laypersons! Welcome to the VFM, welcome to the Dread Ilk, welcome to the Reprehensibles, welcome to the Unauthorized, and welcome to the Bears!

This is the History Course you have been waiting for! 
Or, rather, it will be, as soon as I get some feedback from you.

I was greatly encouraged when Vox asked you the other night about whether you would be interested in such a course and so many of you said, “Yes—as long as it is real history!”
As Fencing Bear would put it, “Three cheers!” 
We are thinking about having a video a week, starting this summer. 
The first question that I have is about format. What kind of format would make for a good course online? 
What I do not want is to have these videos simply be lectures, the canonical professor-talks-while-the-students-doze lectures you get in the movies before the professor starts encouraging the students to stand on their desks.  
I want, in fact, to make them real—in the sense of the kinds of discussion I would give my…
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Talking Points: Three Cheers for White Men

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1. When white women (see Marie de France and Eleanor of Aquitaine) invented chivalry and courtly love, white men agreed that it was better for knights to spend their time protecting women rather than raping them, and even agreed to write songs for them rather than expecting them to want to have sex with them without being forced.

2. When white men who were celibate (see the canon lawyers and theologians of the twelfth century and thereafter) argued that marriage was a sacrament valid only if both the man and the woman consented, white men exerted themselves to become good husbands rather than expecting women to live as their slaves.

3. When white women (see Christine de Pizan, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the suffragettes) invented feminism, white men supported them (see John Stuart Mill) and even went so far as to vote (because only men could vote at the time) to let them vote, not to mention hiring them as workers and supporting their education.

And before you start telling me about all…
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Safe Spaces vs. Sacred Spaces and the Purpose of University Education

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“Our students are going mad. We’ve brought them into a place where we systematically expose them to the terrors of existence,” so says Prof. Rachel Fulton Brown of the University of Chicago in this public presentation which took place in London, Ontario on May 3rd, 2019. Prof. Fulton Brown makes the claim that many students do not fully comprehend that the purpose of a University is not to provide a ‘safe space’ for them to hide away from any idea which might make them feel offended but to provide a ‘sacred’ place for them to ponder the more substantive questions in life – a place to answer not just the questions of What and How but the more important question of Why. —JustRightMedia Bonus: I tell the story of how I met Milo! And I answer some tough questions.
Talk based on “Safe Spaces vs. Sacred Spaces,” September 29, 2016; and “A few words of advice to Trigglypuff—and her teachers,” September 30, 2016.

For my continuing adventures as a conservative in academia, see MedievalGate.

For m…
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How to Signal You Are Not a White Supremacist

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READ FIRST: Why Dorothy Kim Hates Me, The Color of the House of the Lord

It’s back to class for those of us who teach in medieval studies, and my medievalist colleague Dorothy Kim, Assistant Professor of English at Vassar College (pictured in 2014), wants to make sure you understand the stakes.
The medieval western European Christian past is being weaponized by white supremacist/white nationalist/KKK/nazi extremist groups who also frequently happen to be college students.  That does sound bad. But, wait, it gets worse!
Don’t think western European medieval studies is exceptional.... ISIS/ISIL also weaponizes the idea of the pure medieval Islamic past in their recruiting rhetoric for young male Muslims. If the medieval past (globally) is being weaponized for the aims of extreme, violent supremacist groups, what are you doing, medievalists, in your classrooms? Because you are the authorities teaching medieval subjects in the classroom, you are, in fact, ideological arms dealers. So, are…
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