骑在马背上的骑士到达一座城堡，出自中世纪法国叙事文本《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》. 一种解读文本的新方法表明，600年前的性别认同和今天一样复杂, according to a Penn State researcher.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. 性别和性别认同似乎是最近的热门话题, but societies have discussed the subjects for centuries. 一种解读中世纪法国叙事文本的新方法表明，600年前的性别认同和今天一样复杂, according to a Penn State researcher.
“Gender 多样性 is not a new concept,” said Brooke Findley, associate professor of French and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Penn State 阿尔图纳, who authored the study. “The understanding that gender is different from biological sex, and that it doesn’t always fit easily into a binary, 在人类历史上跨越不同的文化和时期与我们同在吗. 在不同的历史时期，性别看起来与我们预期的不同. 我们必须记住，我们目前对性别的假设在中世纪的背景下并不一定成立.”
In the current study, published in Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality芬德利研究了15世纪法国浪漫小说《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》中的角色“钢铁之心”(钢铁之心).这部作品同时使用了阳性和阴性代词来指代角色, 以及《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》在试图向他人解释性别时遇到的困难, 建议这个角色最好被理解为不容易适应男女性别二元. 这个角色努力定义自己的性别，并让自己的性别被其他人接受，这与今天LGBTQ+社区所面临的挑战很相似, according to Findley.
“尤其是现在，当我们看到美国有很多反跨性别立法时.S., 我认为有时候人们会想当然地认为变性人是一件新鲜事, or that it’s a fad,芬德利说. “In fact, trans and nonbinary people have existed throughout history. The stories are everywhere once you start looking for them.”
中世纪学者用“罗曼史”一词来描述用普通语言写成的、供大众消费的世俗叙事, Findley解释. Although composed in French, likely in the area of modern-day Burgundy, 长达六卷的浪漫小说《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》取材于凯尔特神话，故事发生在亚瑟王时代之前的不列颠.
The Golden Knight meeting a beast of many colors, from "Perceforest."
In the section of the romance that Findley examined, 《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》最初讲述的是一个名叫neronsamus的宫廷少女爱上了金骑士. 但是，当neronsamus被她嫉妒的未婚夫绑架并被他的妹妹殴打时，这对恋人分开了. After feigning death to escape torture, Neronés undergoes a symbolic rebirth, dyes their skin a darker color — which, 当时, 被认为是一种男性特质——并采用了钢铁之心的角色. 这个角色最终成为了金骑士的侍从，金骑士不认识他们. 钢铁之心, seemingly reluctant to return to their identity as Neronés, struggles to explain who they are to their former lover. 这对夫妇最终遇到了仙女女王，她迫使钢铁之心重新以女人的身份生活.
Findley, who previously wrote about 钢铁之心 as a cross-dressing woman, 重新检查了当前研究的文本，没有假设角色是女性.
芬德利说:“这是一个很好的例子，说明我们需要摆脱对性别的假设。. “I assumed this character was a woman, 但现在, looking more closely at what the text is actually telling us, I think I was wrong to do so.”
The researcher noted that after the character becomes 钢铁之心, the romance uses both “he” and “she” pronouns to refer to the character, at times using both in the same sentence.
“French is a very gendered language,芬德利说. “You can see gender markers everywhere, not only in pronouns but in adjectives and certain verb forms. When you look closely at this particular text, you find very deliberate, systematic pronoun mixing used for 钢铁之心. 这是《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》没有为其他角色做的事情, 这在当时的其他文本中似乎也很不寻常. When 钢铁之心 is with their love interest the Golden Knight, there’s actually more pronoun mixing than in other scenes. 这引出了一个问题:我们是在玩酷儿恋爱的可能性吗?”
与代词混合一样复杂的是角色试图解释自己的身份, 指出Findley. 这个角色首先试图在一系列梦境中向金骑士描述自己的身份，在这些梦境中，钢铁之心同时以男人和女人的身份出现. 晚些时候, when asked by the Fairy Queen whether they are a man or a woman, 《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》拒绝回答，而是要求女王“听听(他们的)故事”，并长篇大论地讲述他们的历史, narrative poem set to music.
“《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》似乎想表达的是，性别是一个故事, not a simple one but one that’s metaphorical and complex, and that maybe nobody will understand,芬德利说. “女王, 另一方面, 是性别规范的执行者，并通过让他们穿成女人的样子，将性别认同强加给钢铁之心.”
Shortly after forcing 钢铁之心 to dress as a woman, 女王让金骑士在没有钢铁之心的情况下进行更多的冒险, 说Findley.
“这段罗曼史让我们想知道，这对恋人对女王定义《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》的性别是什么感觉,芬德利说. “尽管在故事的结尾，女王恢复了性别‘秩序’, 言下之意是，这不是《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》或《十大网投平台信誉排行榜》想要的结局. It’s not a happy ending. 这个故事告诉我们，人们试图控制或限制性别多样性, or being frightened by different expressions of gender identity, isn’t unique to the current moment. 通过不加假设地研究历史资料，我们能够看到过去人们对性别多样性的看法, 性别一直比我们所认为的更奇怪、更复杂.”
