Surviving a Public Obsession: Reading the Female Body in Post-Reformation Legislation and Medicine

Heather Cowan

Jump to Content

Chapter 9 Surviving a Public Obsession: Reading the Female Body in Post-Reformation Legislation and Medicine

In: Reading the Reformations

Author:

Heather Cowan

Heather Cowan
Search for other papers by Heather Cowan in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 233–252

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004521247_011

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

In early modern England, the maternal experience was a public concern, and – through the symbiotic relationship of legal and medical discussions – the female reproductive body became a site of suspicion that required control. Framed by religious doctrine, women heard that their bodies were not theirs to control, yet experiences differed between married and unmarried women. For married women, control came in the form of fertility concerns, where medical literature discussed the female reproductive body openly, and where it became a source of anxiety if women struggled to reproduce. Unmarried women, however, were not applicable to these debates, as sexual activity – of course – was expected to remain inside of marriage.

In the wake of the Reformation, surveillance became an integral part of the maternal experience, and this chapter therefore explores how the reproductive body was transformed into a public spectacle via the control imposed through the legislation and medical literature which emerged from the religious transformations wrought on society by Protestants. The chapter outlines the social, legislative and medical debates surrounding the gendered and reproductive body, and how careful reading of these can reveal to us a number of the consequences of religious reform. The female reproductive body was unconsciously framed as a microcosm of the increasing political and religious tensions experienced within seventeenth-century society.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004521247/BP000013.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Reading the Reformations

Theologies, Cultures and Beliefs in an Age of Change

Series: St Andrews Studies in Reformation History

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004521247

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 15 Feb 2023

Subjects
- History
  - Early Modern History
  - Church History

Front Matter

Part 1 Reading the Instructive

Part 2 Reading the Communal

Part 3 Reading the Material

Part 4 Reading the Long Reformation

Back Matter

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	217	40	3
Full Text Views	30	1	0
PDF Views & Downloads	45	4	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 9 Surviving a Public Obsession: Reading the Female Body in Post-Reformation Legislation and Medicine

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Reading the Reformations

Theologies, Cultures and Beliefs in an Age of Change

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics