Why did medieval writers sometimes employ gender role reveals? a.) to explore the shifts in social dynamics resulting from disruptions to the traditional family structure. b.) to reassert the moral order around traditional gendered behaviors. c.) to be effective mouthpieces for civil and eccleslastical authorities on questions of gender. d.) to show the fortune and fate have no influences on gender roles.

The correct answer is B: to reassert the moral order around traditional family gendered behaviors.

In the middle ages or medieval period, restrictions placed on women produced a significant change. At the beginning of this period, women’s roles were imposed and women did not have much to do with their lives outside their homes. As this age went on, however, women gradually began to express more opinions, had a greater and more equal role in society and they became less confined in many aspects of their lives.  

The problem with the confined women and the unconfined women in the medieval period, as expressed in some literature of that time, was that the unconfined women were seen as dangerous for society. On the one hand, unconfined women transformed an older order of gendered behavior and, therefore, proved that she could take on the same responsibilities and think just like the male counterparts. However, on the other hand, women who follow the roles of wives and mothers generally appeared as confined. Although this word may carry the negative connotations of something being done against one’s will, the confined women of medieval literature appeared perfectly happy to live in such a role. Unlike the unconfined women, they were not dangerous and presented no threat to the male power structure. By presenting dual examples of each, medieval literature illustrated certain notions about the role of the medieval women and what their interactions with men should have been. By presenting such opposites, medieval literature is reassuring the moral order around the traditional gendered behavior and, mainly, the role of women as a good, confined and non-dangerous woman who followed such behavior.

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