Uppity Women of Medieval Times
Author: Vicki Leon
Reviewed by:  Alayne Alexandra Nyvern Nightwatcher
Recommended reading audience:
Age 13 and up.

In her book, Uppity Women of Medieval Times, Vicki Leon gives us a broad brush approach to the character of medieval women with a definitively modern vent. The biographies range from one paragraph to two pages long, each woman is given a brief enough write up for a busy mommy to be able to digest between changing diapers and feeding a hoard. 

Rather than grouping the women by time period, Leon has chosento group them by significance with evocative categories such as "The Joy of Sects - 31 Flavors of Religious Life" and "Axes to Grind, Places to Pillage."  The women themselves range from Europe to Asia, with a brief encounter in Meso-America.

Anyone reading the book with an in depth knowledge of any of these remarkable ladies will feel cheated in terms of content and gloss, however the over effect of the book is enlightening in that it allows the reader a window into a world of individualism that is not met in many of the course studies of the middle ages/renaissance period.

While finding it to be enjoyable reading, the book lacked enough depth to be a wholly scholarly endeavor on the author's part.  It also lacked enough wit to be truly humorous, and contented itself with being something between the two.

Many of the analogies made by Ms Leon are extremely topical and will most likely not stand the test of time:

"...until the whole thing resembled the O.J. Simpson trial."

She is also given to describing these strong women in masculine terms rather than promulgating a sense that they could behave in such ways with out needing to be defined by men's rules:

"...sixth-century Queens... carried on a forty-year grudge match with enough testosterone to awe even the Serbs and Croats." 

The SCA reader may best appreciate Uppity Women of the Middle Ages as the starting point for additional research, as it includes an fine bibliography, and is indexed.  It can also be used as a source for finding and documenting Names.

The book is published by Conari Press, 2550 Ninth Street, Suite 101, Berkeley, CA 94710, in soft cover for $14.95.All images, graphics and text protected under copyright laws.

For permission to use any images, graphics or text for any purpose contact:
editor and artist





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