Dynamics Of Consensual Heterosex

Abstract

This chapter follows on from the last both in its attention to the narrative of Troilus and Criseyde and its exploration of the sadomasochistic dynamic that structures heterosexual sexual encounters. Examination of the masculine role in medieval (and modern) romance literature provides further evidence for the interpretation of heterosexual sexual encounters within our dominant cultural narratives. These, in turn, form the symbolic structures in which we live. One problem, outlined in the first chapter, concerns the difficulty of distinguishing heterosexual sex from rape without making the woman’s explicit consent the only pivot for the distinction. The difficulty is made acute by the overwhelming evidence that it is the woman’s “no” that materializes a sexual encounter within the cultural norms for heterosexuality. This dynamic requires the male romance hero to apply pressure, if not force, in the face of feminine resistance. Equally, however, notions of masculinity as revealed in medieval narratives, and in the fiction of our own time, appear unresolved in their attitudes toward heterosexual sexual expression and its role in the production of masculine identity.