Download or read book Common Women written by Ruth Mazo Karras and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998-04-23 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a sensitive use of a wide variety of imaginative and didactic texts, Ruth Karras shows that while prostitutes as individuals were marginalized within medieval culture, prostitution as an institution was central to the medieval understanding of what it meant to be a woman. This important work will be of interest to scholars and students of history, women's studies, and the history of sexuality.