ability to procreate. The grandiose image both generates anxiety for men and is used in the
attempt to fend off anxiety. (Ende et al. 170).
In Jurassic Park, womb envy is demonstrated by the park’s administration. Hammond and Wu
create life through bioengineering, artificially recreating the dinosaurs – for all intents and
purposes, their offspring. As Jurassic Park’s chief geneticist, Wu alone wields reproductive
abilities on Isla Nublar, while simultaneously exerting control over the dinosaurs’ own ability to
breed. This is a metaphorical appropriation of the womb; through artificial methods, Wu is
capable of breeding, which then he denies his female offspring. Within the park, only men have
the ability to procreate. When Malcolm originally asks if the dinosaurs can breed, Wu responds,
“We simply deny them that” – out of jealousy and privilege. This plot point is representative of
contemporary issues regarding reproductive rights in the United States, which are frequently
contested and largely determined by patriarchal power systems (Dixon-Mueller 14).
However, a major plot twist in the film is that the dinosaurs actually are capable of breeding,
revealed when Grant discovers a nest in the park. While Hammond acquired the dinosaurs’ base
DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes, Wu substituted gaps in their genomes with frog DNA.
However, the frog species selected by Wu were capable of sequential hermaphroditism
(Beukeboom and Perrin 17), allowing them to, as explained by Grant, “spontaneously change sex
… in a single-sex environment,” a trait then inherited by Jurassic Park’s dinosaurs. The fluid
sexuality displayed by the dinosaurs in fact compliments third-wave feminist perspectives on
sexuality, which are more inclusive than the second-wave by accounting for LGBT identities,
thereby challenging heteronormative sexuality (Snyder 179).
The presence of both sexes allows Isla Nublar’s dinosaur population to begin breeding.
Notably, paleontological research indicates that in many dinosaur species, the females were the
stronger sex, often growing much larger than the males. One such example of this phenomenon
is the Tyrannosaurus rex, by far the most famous and recognizable dinosaur species in popular
culture (Larson 124). Crichton himself accurately depicts the sexual dimorphism between
Tyrannosaurs in his 1995 novel The Lost World (156), a sequel to Jurassic Park. In both the
Jurassic Park novel and film, a fully-grown Tyrannosaurus is regarded as the park’s most
valuable attraction and serves as its official mascot. Although the Tyrannosaurus, like the rest of
the park’s dinosaurs, is female, it is popularly referred to as male by Jurassic Park’s
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