Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA

Misogyny and theologizing rhetoric of feminine appearance in the Middle Ages: the ascetic testimony of De cultu feminarum by Tertullian

Misoginia e retórica teologizadora da aparência feminina na Idade Média: o depoimento ascético do De cultu feminarum, de Tertuliano

Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages

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The concern of the early centuries of Christianity about the appearance of women is a recurring theme in the so-called patristic literature, whose doctrine was based on a vision of theological and patriarchal jurisdiction committed to certain postures and attitudes tendentiously misogynistic that had seen the woman as prone ab origine to disguise and adulteration of her image created by God. In this primeval Christian perception of the female, Tertullian (c. 160-c. 225) stands out as an author of a moralist discourse strongly religious which submits female clothing and ornaments to precepts and prescriptions theologically constituted. This article proposes to discuss the main aspects of the rhetoric of this theological cosmetology which characterizes itself as ascetically misogynist in Tertullian.