Sarah Shropshire

Sarah Shropshire, “What’s a guy to do?: Contraceptive responsibility, confronting masculinity and the history of vasectomy in Canada.”  CMBH 31(2) 2014: 161-82.

Shropshire offers an interesting reading of the history of contraception in Canada from the male perspective. At a time when paternity is constantly changing, vasectomy is gaining importance. The author provides a concise but illuminating history of vasectomy in Canada, tracing the evolution of the procedure and the discourse of masculinity developed around it. She also demonstrates the central role of the medical profession in the definition and delivery of service. This allows her to bring together different historiographies, most notably the history of medicine and gender.  In the end, she argues that despite increasing openness to the procedure, the discourse now used to convince men to get the procedure still replicates ages-old hegemonic masculinity typology.