Michel de Montaigne Essays

Michel de Montaigne Essays Michel de Montaigne Essay Michel de Montaigne Essay Throughout his career working as a philosopher, Montages writing developed into something more personal. His works began to examine the world through his own perspective, particularly, in his three books, the Essays, written between the periods of 1570- 1592. The word, assai in French means trial or attempt. Thus, Montages writing attempted to explore his personal thoughts in order to explain the nature of the human mind and body. It is through his intellectual thought process of looking within the self that he is considered the father of Modern Skepticism. In Book 1, Chapter 21 of his Essays, Imitation recalls the tale of Marie/ German, a female who grew a penis. The story of Marie/German challenges the readers mind in identifying the absolute division between what categorizes someone as male and female. The Oxford English Dictionary defines sex as different to gender. In the sense, sex tends to refer to biological differences, while Gender refers to cultural and socially constructed roles, behaviors and activities. 1 However, Imitation challenges societies presupposed definitions between sex and gender. In the case of Marie/ German, Imitation defines hermaphrodite by suggesting that the imagination results in the transformation into the opposite gender. In other words, a woman can become a man by fixating on forms of masculinity. Therefore to Imitation, sex and gender is generated through the mind; the power of imagination and desire affirms how gender was understood as a state of mind throughout the Renaissance. In the Essays Imitation recalls the story of Marie/German while traveling through Vitro-IEEE-Franà §ois, France. He explains, I was able to see a man to whom the Bishop of Sessions had even the name of German at his confirmation: until the age of twenty-two he had been known by sight to all the townsfolk as a girl named Marie. He was then an old man with a full beard; he remained unmarried. He said that he had been straining to jump when his male organs appeared. It is not surprising tat this sort Of occurrence happens frequently. For if the imagination does have any power in such matters, in so girls it dwells so constantly and so forcefully on sex that it can Ore easily make that male organ a part of their bodies. 2 The story of Marie/German describes a girl who had reached puberty, and while jumping over a ditch she suddenly found that she had possessed a penis. 3 When Marie told her mother what had happened to her they consult surgeons and doctors to analyze her transformation. 4 The doctors and surgeons agreed that Marie had become a boy. So, she was brought to the towns local bishop where she was given a new male name, German. Galenas work, On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body, reflects the transformation of Marie/German from a girl to a boy. The physician single sex theory explains that women have as much hidden inside the body as men have exposed on the outside of their bodies-5 For this reason, Galenas theory further suggests that due to the lack of bodily heat, the female is less perfect than the male. Moreover, he explains that the animal (male) that contains more bodily heat more active and as a result more perfect. 6 Therefore, the reason why the female retains an inverted version of the male organs inside her body is because she is colder. However, due to the physical movement of Marie jumping across the ditch, the jumping produced excesses heat resulting in the transformation from girl to boy. Richard L. Regression explains hat the same sex theory is based on a physiological difference of sex determined through the location of the genitals. 7 However, Galenas single sex theory is also culturally motivated; the conception of the location of genitals On the body reflects a hierarchy Of gender differences between sexes-8 Ambrose Par explains this hierarchy by suggesting that sex-change is possible for a woman to become a man, it was not possible for a man to be a woman. Nature always tends towards that which was most perfect, and it is male that is most perfect. 9 It is for this reason that men are more perfect Han females. Furthermore, Par insists that women should be excused for trying to be men because they are just aspiring to reach absolute perfection, which is to become male. In Montages account of Marie/German gender is a state of mind; a state of mind that through imagination a sex change can occur. So, when Marie acted like a boy by jumping across the ditch her body punished her through the growth of the male organ. In this way, sex change is a consequence of thinking differently by imagining yourself as the opposite sex. Therefore, Montages idea of hermaphrodite and sex change is pendent upon the ways in which society codes gender roles-10 Thus, Marie/ German functions as an example of how sex is an agent to societal and cultural ideals. Montages story of Marie/German links imagination to gender. Specifically, imagination is a bridge between the mind and the body; it gives the mind awareness of the physical world, generating a perspective. 1 Therefore, gender is formative, especially in the case of Marie/German, because in order to become a male Marie had to act like a boy. Judith Butler explores the subject of gender as formative in her article, Bodily Inscriptions, Formative Subversion. Specifically, Butler challenges the progress of gender performance as an affect of gender identity. She believes that sex is a social construct, and gender is determined through the perception of the body. 12 Therefore, the idea of performance in gender is based on actions. Actions construct gender for the reason that gender is something that does not come naturally; rather, it is culturally imposed. Accordingly, Marie/Germans knowledge of what it meant to be male is what affects her transformation into a man. It is through the force of her manly imagination that Marie/German suffers the repercussions of growing a penis. Therefore, sexual transformation is linked to the mind; it is the performance of acting in a way that applies to a specific gender that links the mind to the body, creating actions and behaviors that suit cultural norms. This is why Marie/Germans imagination resulted in a consequential bodily change. Anatomical changes cannot only occur in acting like a boy but also in the mind through a state of desire. In the case of Marie/German, Imitation suggests that the tale is essentially a male trapped in a female?s body. He proposes hat the only way to control the other within the body is to give, in this case a woman, a penis as a way to regulate their desire and thereby obliterate discrepancy between gender and sex. 13 Therefore, desire in this case, is a force to imagination. For without the feeling of desire we cannot imagine. In Pargs version of Marie/German, he suggests that the females imagination is generated through the desires to produce monstrous offspring. However, this draws away from the idea of imagination entirely. On the other hand, Montages case of the hermaphrodite is strictly concerned with the tension twine the physical reality of the female body and her desire to be a man. Thus, women are moved by the their desires. It was Marie/Germans desire to become a male that resulted in her vigorous jump over the ditch and her transformation into a male. Michel De Montages story of Marie/ German explains that acting like a boy could produce anatomical changes throughout the Renaissance. It is through desire, imagination and ultimately performance that forces anatomical changes to the body. For Marie to think and act like a boy at such a young age, she transformed her body and grew a penis. Marie/ Germans case is an example of how hermaphrodite is still considered an ambiguous gender. This ambiguity is problematic because it is society that needs people to be gendered. Therefore, gender is an identity that is constructed in time.