Author Bio

Sherry Velasco is Professor of Spanish at the University of Kentucky and the author of The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire, and Catalina de Erauso and Demons, Nausea and Resistance in the Autobiography of Isabel de Jesus (1611-1682).

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Main Description

Using the one-act comedy El parto de Juan Rana (John Frog Gives Birth) as a point of departure, Velasco argues that the figure of the pregnant man in early modern Spanish culture was not merely comic entertainment, but also served an important role as a physical representation of the anxieties about the changing roles of men and women at the time.

Men were increasingly taking over medical duties--especially surrounding childbirth--usually left to women and, as their medical knowledge increased, they became aware of bodies and behaviors--both male and female--that transgressed gender norms. The anxieties about men who acted in ways seen as increasingly womanly (from acting effeminately to participating in homosexual activity) played out in the character of pregnant Juan Rana.

Then, Velasco turns to Hollywood and asks if we might not use the lessons of Juan Rana to help explain why contemporary America is also fascinated by the idea of male pregnancy--think Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior--and our increasing anxiety over the changing face of masculinity in our own culture.

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Reviews

Dr. Velasco's book is an important study of this new masculinity phenomenon and the accompanying repression of women's role in the business of reproduction as seen in literature and society. Her study represents a timely addition to the study of the Early Modern Spanish period.
--Peter Edward Thompson, Queen's University

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This is a timely, relevant, and fascinating project. There are no other books similar to it in the field.
--Harry Velez Quinones, University of Puget Sound

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Sherry Velasco treats readers to a dizzying array of cultural products -- movies, plays, illuminations, law codes -- to explore the many ways and reasons people have fantasized about making men pregnant. This is a fascinating look at "womb envy" throughout time, hardly confining its analysis to early modern Spain.
--American Historical Review

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