Pollution， promiscuity and the Pox

Craft a response to one or more of these questions for your first discussion post.

What does Siena argue in this article? How effective is this argument?
How did early moderns rely on descriptions of and panics surrounding venereal disease to keep social order? How does Siena depict the relationship between “social danger” and “sexual danger”? What were some key sites of this danger in the early modern period?
What was Nicholas de Blegny’s theory and how did it shape ideas about venereal disease in the early modern era? Why were his ideas so popular during this period?
How did early moderns view the connection between venereal disease and the exploration of the New World? How did these descriptions reveal gender and racial stereotypes?
The discrepancy between the sexes about the presumed severity of sexual transgressions (i.e. infidelity, illegitimacy) is a centuries-old “double standard”. Identify and explain some of these opposing characteristics and how they have influenced Western thoughts about infidelity and the illegitimacy of heirs. How have these “double-standards” changed from the Renaissance and Early Modern periods?
Siena argues that “the moment pox was linked to sex it was also linked to women.” Describe the ways in which early moderns viewed the relationship between venereal disease and female sexuality. How were women (of various types) connected to the spread of venereal disease?