I write (mostly) about the Middle
Ages. I spend weeks in archives,
hunched over Latin and Old French documents; I read books in strange languages printed
in 17
th century type.
That doesn’t mean I find all the information I need, but most of my
mistakes are only noticed by experts.
And yet, I am often told that my “women are too modern” or that quotes
from genuine medieval people are “too liberal.” How do I combat this?
I yell a lot. I would put footnotes in the mysteries
but my editor won’t let me. And I
post on my blog and others like this. Just for example, one of the most dearly held myths about the Middle
Ages is that women were put in chastity belts when their husbands or fathers
were off looting and raping.
OK, hey, those things must have
been real because many museums have them and everyone knows that until the 20th
century, women were just chattel.
WRONG-O.
Look at this picture I took from
the web that’s supposed to be a genuine article. You will note that there are holes for elimination. Too bad if it wasn’t in your size. I particularly wonder about the sharp
teeth at the back. A month in this
would result in a serious infection.
And what if one’s husband gave one a parting gift before setting
off? I don’t think anyone could
deliver a baby through that.
But the most important reason why
these didn’t exist is that women, particularly upper-class women, weren’t
chattel. They had rights, owned
their own property and spoke their own minds. They wouldn’t have allowed such behavior. Not to mention that anyone with a file
and a hairpin could get out in about five minutes.
So, logically, no one should
think that chastity belts ever existed.
People do because they don’t think logically and because the idea plays
into already established beliefs.
This doesn’t just happen to me
but to people in every line of work. But the good news is that the mystery
form is ideal for dispelling myths.
Many mystery authors use common assumptions as part of the plot, like G.
K. Chesterton making the postman the murderer because no one counts him as a
person. Charlotte MacLeod in THE
RECYCLED CITIZEN, took the idea of the old bag lady and turned it upside down,
making the other characters, and the readers, look at her in a new light. The work of solving the puzzle of who
did it, how and why, opens the reader to an acceptance of other ideas, ones
that might contradict common assumptions.
In my experience, many writers
have chosen to write mysteries set in their area of expertise, not because of
the adage “write what you know”, but to tell the world the real story.
