Visible Women: Female Sodomy in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Southern Netherlands (1400-1550)

Compared to the number of prosecutions for male sodomy, few cases of same-sex acts between women are known in early modern Europe. In the Southern Netherlands however, no less than 25 women were charged with this crime between c. 1400 and 1550, which means that nearly one out of ten accused sodomites in the region was a woman. Moreover, female sodomites were punished in the same way as their male counterparts. This article argues that the exceptional repression of female same-sex acts was the result of the relatively high level of liberty and visibility women enjoyed in the Southern Netherland... Mehr ...