Those with power, authority, or just brute strength have often done what they want throughout history. It does not make any of it right, in terms of present day attitudes, but they were not present day people either. They had to live within the situation or life that surrounded them, often without any power to do or say anything to change their situation. Perhaps it is best to read Chaucer through Chaucer's time and mores, showing how things have changed, and why this or that can be very offensive today, where it was not nearly so back then.