Category Archives: Women

Pedro Almodovar’s “La piel que habito”: Science and Technology as Postmodern Mediums

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I feel very lucky to have been able to spend the month of June in Spain, first in Madrid for nearly 3 weeks (with a day trip to Segovia), then in Santiago de Compostela for a few days during a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged art, femininity, film, gender, La piel que habito, madrid, medicine, Pedro Almodovar, postmodernism, prado, pseudoscience, Santiago de Compostela, science, technology, Titian, velazquez, Venus | 4 Comments

Breastfeeding in the Prado: Religious, Mythological, and Pagan Roots

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Don’t worry! This isn’t a too-much-information personal anecdote… just some observations I made regarding the very frequent and detailed depictions of breastfeeding in the artwork gracing the Prado’s walls. Having initially visited Madrid’s Museo del Prado in 2001 for my … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain, Women | Tagged art, breastfeeding, catholicism, madrid, maternity, motherhood, museo del prado, Rubens, Spain, spanish art, velazquez, virgin mary | 10 Comments

La Llorona: Incorporating Latino Studies into Hispanic Literature

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

If you grew up in the southwest United States, if you can claim Hispanic heritage, or if you’ve lived in a community with a distinct Hispanic population, you are likely quite familiar with the numerous legends of “La Llorona” (The … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Feminism, Literature, Pedagogy, US Southwest, Women | Tagged art, catholicism, children, femininity, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, gender ideology, infanticide, La llorona, La Malinche, La virgen de Guadalupe, language, Latino literature, latino studies, legends, literature, Mexico, motherhood, myth, pedagogy, Sandra Cisneros, teaching, teaching spanish, Virgin of Guadalupe | 11 Comments

The Morphing Body: Salvador Dalí’s Skulls and the Female Form

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’m currently working on an article that revolves around theories of corporeality and the body, so I’ve been reading a range of feminist interpretations of the subject: Elizabeth Grosz‘s challenge to mind/body dualism by way of the Moebius strip paradigm; … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Modernity, Spain, Surrealism, Women | Tagged 1950s, art, body, Dalí, femininity, gender, modernity, nudes, photography, Salvador Dali, sex, sexuality, STDs, surrealism, venereal disease, women, World War II | 23 Comments

Murderous Mothers and the Discourse of Infanticide

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

This post is admittedly a slightly odd compilation of images and ideas – It seems that over the past several months I’ve been researching or teaching about murderous mothers in literature, film, history, and popular culture: from the assassination of … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Women | Tagged art, Aurora Rodriguez, catholicism, children, culture, domesticity, Family Planning, Feminism, gender ideology, goya, infanticide, italy, La llorona, maternity, medical history, motherhood, Rubens, spanish art, women | 3 Comments

The Red Virgin: Motherhood and Power Dynamics

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

“I shall do as you request, and tell you everything about myself […] You may like me, but I am not alive.” –Hildegarte, played by Ivana Baquero in The Red Virgin “I will do as you ask and tell you … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Pedagogy, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Aurora Rodriguez, Birth Control, books, Eugenics, Family Planning, film, first-wave spanish feminism, Gregorio Marañon, Havelock Ellis, Hildegart Rodríguez, madrid, maternity, medical history, motherhood, pedagogy, Red Virgin, sexuality, Spain, teaching spanish, women | 7 Comments

Picasso on Maternity and Motherhood

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

A few weeks ago, students in my Hispanic Women’s Literature course turned in their first paper on Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa. Part of their assignment was to include an image with their essay. One student selected the following painting, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, art, art history, books, femininity, maternity, Mother and Child, mother-child relationship, motherhood, Pablo Picasso, picasso, Spain, spanish art, women | 9 Comments

Pretty Women Use Birth Control – my guest post at Nursing Clio

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’m very excited to have written a guest post for one of my favorite blogs, Nursing Clio. For this piece, I re-visited my very first blog post in which I critiqued, with a sort of “literary analysis” approach, the function … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Birth Control, Eugenics, Family Planning, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, Marañón, maternity, medical history, Nursing Clio, pseudoscience, Spain, spanish, women | 1 Comment

Exploring Female Identities in Carmen de Burgos’ “La rampa”

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

One of the first novels to spark my interest in early twentieth-century Spanish women’s literature was Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa (1917). As an urban novel, the narrative explores the effects of modernity not only on the residents of and … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Literature, Modernity, Pedagogy, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, art, books, Carmen de Burgos, city, culture, femininity, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, La rampa, literature, madrid, maternity, modernity, motherhood, pedagogy, Spain, spanish, spanish literature, teaching, teaching spanish, urban studies, women | 16 Comments

Sunday Morning Medicine

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

If you’re interested in the history of gender and medicine, check out the Nursing Clio blog. Written by several historians, the excellent articles tie historical scholarship to present-day political, social, and cultural issues surrounding gender and medicine (per mission statement). … Continue reading →