ABSTRACT

The association of men’s dress and aesthetics with effeminacy has a literary tradition that stretches at least back to Classical antiquity. Craig Williams’ ground-breaking text, Roman Homosexuality, provides scores of ancient examples of writers reproaching men’s aesthetics. According to Williams, men’s aesthetics were invoked as part of accusations of effeminacy in what was consistently a reproach of men’s loss of dominion and self-mastery. The chapter analyzes the passages along with other textual examples of men’s aesthetics and dress to demonstrate that Castiglione is in effect not only making pronouncements about dress but, more importantly, is establishing a practice whereby men can redeem their masculinity through speaking about the effeminizing power of aesthetics. Castiglione’s Courtier has a distinct place within the normativization process of the militaristic masculine body as it is an early—possibly the earliest—example of sixteenth-century rhetoric of effeminacy, dress, and military defeat.