The Feminist Lecture Program is excited to announce a brand new collaboration with the Vagina Museum! The same amazing online weekly feminist content you expect from us, now hosted by the world’s only bricks and mortar Vagina Museum!
CLASS DESCRIPTION
Join us as we welcome Dr Noam Yadin Evron to discuss some of the most mysterious little objects in history - Medieval Vulva Badges!
In the last 200 years, thousands of Medieval badges have been discovered along the rivers of England, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. These badges, dated to the period from the end of the 13th century till the end of the 15th century, were worn by pilgrims on their way to central worship sites. While many depict Christian images, several hundreds of them represent a different iconography: they show genitals in varied contexts and actions: vulvas dressed as pilgrims with a rosary and a walking stick, vulvas riding horses and climbing ladders, vulvas being adored by penises, penises growing in gardens, and more.
The function of the badges is not quite clear. The common assumption is that they served as a talisman against the Evil Eye, perhaps more specifically against the Black Plague which ravaged Europe and Asia in the late 13th century, killing hundreds of millions of people over three centuries. The Black Plague, which was believed by its contemporaries to have been transmitted by the Evil Eye’s gaze, was one of the most disastrous events in human history. The badges might also reflect some aspects of the reality of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage provided a different, liminal, space for people to temporarily exist in, where sexual and gender norms could be suspended.
In this class we will consider some of the questions arising from these badges - without necessarily providing clear answers. We will consider their iconography and its subversiveness, and what they might reveal about gender norms in this period, explore their wider context of the plague and medieval society, and what we might be able to take from them as contemporary viewers.
ABOUT OUR LECTURER
Noam Yadin Evron has recently received her PhD in Late Antique art. Her main areas of study are the formation of early Christian art, gender and sexuality in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the role of art and material culture in the formation of collective and individual identities.
Instagram: @noam.yadinevron
Website: https://www.noamyadinevron.com/
UPCOMING SESSIONS WITH THE FEMINIST LECTURE PROGRAM
Monday 4th March
Noam Yadin Evron
The Vulva's Pilgrimage: Myth and Meaning in Medieval Vulva Badges
Monday 11th March
Ruth Charnock and Karen Schaller
Witching the Institution: Academia and Feminist Witchcraft
Monday 18th March
Lucy Cade
Female Creatives and Spirit Photography in the 19th Century
Monday 25th March
Dr. Sheree Mack
The Women of the Black British Art Movement
Monday 1st April
Nina-Sophia Miralles
Vogue Magazine: Invention, Erasure, Perversity & Power
Monday 8th April
Camilla Baier, Lauren Clarke and Rachel Pronger
The Animation of Mary Blair: A Feminist’s Guide to Disney
Monday 15th April
Lauren Peters
Fashion Before Plus-Size: Bodies, Bias, and the Birth of an Industry
Monday 22nd April
Ama Josephine Budge Johnstone
Intimate Ecologies: a Black feminist erotics for interspecies un/worlding
Monday 29th April
Joanna Ebenstein
The Anatomical Venus
Monday 6th May
Amina Nugumanova and Elmira Ismukhamedova
Women in Central Asian art: Preservation of Collective Heritage and Decolonisation
Stay tuned in to be the first to hear about our Summer term!
RECORDING
A recording of the lecture will be sent out by The Feminist Lecture Program after the event finishes, within 2 hours of the end of the class. This email will also contain any resources/reading list the lecturer shares.
Please add hello@feministlectureprogram.com to your email contacts to ensure you receive the recording as expected.
Please note that the recording will expire 7 days after sending.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Everyone is welcome to join this Pay-What-You-Can class. We suggest a donation of £20, however, we understand that may not be possible for everybody. Please be honest and pay what you can afford so that we can continue to offer our sessions on a donation basis.
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And that's it!
We're really looking forward to you joining us.