November 21, 2004
One Sex
turn inward, so to speak, and fold double the man’s,
and you will find the same in both in every respect"- Galen
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"From this perspective male and female genitals are not essentially different in kind but merely located in different places, one inside and one outside, each possessing identical elements.
In Galen’s model each element of the generative system is common to both women and men, a mirror image of each other. The vagina an interior penis, labia as foreskin, uterus as scrotum, ovaries as testicles. Galen uses the same term to describe each element ie "orcheis" which refers to what we would term separately the ovaries and testes. Until the late 17th century it is often impossible to determine from medical texts which part of the female anatomy a particular term refers. The language of the "one-sex" universe constrains the conceptualisation of our modern notions of absolute sexual differentiation... Even the words used when referring to female organs ultimately refer to male organs. Terms which emerged in the eighteenth century which refer specifically to female organs (vagina, uterus, vulva, labia & clitoris) do not have their renaissance and ancient equivalents.
-from Sexuality & Modernity The Pre-Modern European Concepts of Sexual Difference an Isis Creation
Posted by Cieciel at November 21, 2004 03:05 AM