Imperfect conceptions such as ‘moles’ and ‘monsters’ represented violations of the gender binary within reproduction. Midwifery treatises, in drawing upon humoral medicine, framed sexual difference and reproduction on the basis of and in order to maintain the binary, describing women as men’s inferior opposite. Since women’s primary role was childbearing, the politics of reproduction were inseparable from the binary, especially regarding fertility and fidelity. The gender binary refers to a system of classifying biologically sexed bodies as either masculine or feminine and prescribing particular characteristics, behaviours and responsibilities to each. Reproduction in early modern Europe (a period roughly dated to from the late 15 th to late 18 th centuries) was inherently bound to the gender binary. CW: Pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, misogyny, blood
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