Staging Gender Norms, Sexual Harassment and Assault, and the Mujer Varonil

Abstract: The culture of rape and sexual harassment that permeates the Comedia has often been overlooked or even denied in critical studies. Characters and literary critics alike blame victims and excuse perpetrators. In comedias like Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna, Tirso de Molina’s Antona García, and Vélez de Guevara’s La serrana de la Vera, even mujeres varoniles (who, by definition, defy social expectations) succumb to harassment and sexual assault and internalize culturally constructed gender norms. This happens not only in the restoration of social order at a play’s end, but repeatedly in performance texts through movement, gesture, on- and offstage action, hair, makeup, tone of voice, and dialogue. These performance elements visually and verbally instruct women characters and spectators and delimit and control their talents, dreams, and potential contributions.