Cappellanus, more formally known as Andreas Cappellanus was a writer from the Middle Ages. He was a chaplain and French author, his most well-known work is titled “The Art Of Courtly Love.” You might be asking why this dude from the Middle Ages is even relevant to today, and his contribution to literature helped to shape the way society views women circa 2018.

Cappellanus was an all-around problematic dude when it came to his writing. His book basically lays out what we would consider today to be rape culture. He also has a tendency to refer to women in a way which places them in a subordinate position in society and relationships.

In his book, if you ever choose to read the whole thing, you might find that some of the things he says are relevant to the way in which women are looked at in society. I’d like to point out a chapter that always stands out to me whenever I go back and read it, titled “The Easy Attainment Of One’s Object” (the object being a woman). When I first read his book this made me really livid.

The chapter overall basically says that if a woman who a man desires too easily shows emotion or any interest in the man then she is not worth it because it means she’s easy. I actually had to stop reading for a few minutes to gather myself and not be as angry. In those few minutes, I realized something that changed the way I look at the way women are treated in society today.

Not only do women get objectified daily, which Cappellanus lays the foundation for in his chapter title, but women being objectified is still a norm. Women constantly are seen as trophies or prizes to win. I think this is important to point out because the concept of objectification is not something that is new and has only come into relevance recently, but that it was always relevant to point out that it is a problem that happens.

Another chapter of this book that really makes me quite angry to read is chapter 21, also known as the chapter which discusses why jealousy should be okay. Newsflash, it’s not! Cappellanus basically says that in order to have a relationship that actually works, jealousy must be involved. Jealousy creates paranoia and can lead to emotional abuse which is definitely not okay.

These two chapters of the book are only a small part of the problematic things the text pursues. Reading the whole book you’ll be able to see that one of the main overtones that Cappellanus states (multiple times) is that when a woman says no, it is still alright to pursue her.

This is what is known today as “rape culture,” and this is something that has surrounded the media for the past six months in the form of the #MeToo movement. Cappellanus basically justifies the actions of all the accused by stating they were only pursuing those who were not easily attainable.

What his writings do are highly problematic because they feed into the idea that it is completely okay for men to go after what they want without limitation. This is something that I see every day, living on a college campus has shown me that even when you explicitly state that you do not want to even talk to a guy who is pursuing you, they will persist.

Obviously, 2018 is very different compared to the Middle Ages, but the parallels that can be seen between the two time periods in relation to how women are seen is chilling. You would think that there would be a lot of change in how rape is treated between the two time periods. The reality is that today 994 out of 1000 rapists walk free, which means that around 1% of rapists get incarcerated, in medieval times 6% of rapists were charged and locked up.

Those figures are not far off from each other, and it shows that society has a long way to go in terms of the way that women are viewed.