Before the Male Gaze: The Absence of the Female Body in Old Norse

Abstract

As perceived in the Western tradition, beauty has been a quality particularly associated with the bodies of women, although most often articulated by men who contemplated their beloveds’ visual attractiveness, signaling thereby their own emotional and sexual arousal. Although the Germanic parts of early medieval Europe eventually were engrossed in this articulation of the male gaze, the perceptions of beauty that originally obtained were less gender specific. Beauty was an important human asset, and scopophilia, the pleasure of beholding, is often attested, but in Old Norse society the gratification was derived from handsome men as well as beautiful women. For men, clothing supplemented their physical features whereas women’s fine clothing alone constituted their beauty. In a few other cases, however, female beauty was acknowledged, but again associated with clothing. The identification of female beauty with clothing rendered clothes as important markers of gender. The chapter shows that hair was the one natural feature of female beauty singled out for comment.