The Quandary Over Plant Sex j 77 7
Despite isolated advances, however, the one- sex model remained the dominant paradigm
in medical textbooks of the Renaissance and Reformation periods.^16 In 1543, for example,
the Flemish anatomist Andrea Vesalius published an illustration of a vagina and uterus that
bears a striking resemblance to an internal penis (Figure 1.1).^17
According to Laqueur, the two- sex model for animals was “invented” some time in the
eighteenth century during the Enlightenment period. Laqueur uses the term “invented”
to indicate that the recognition of the distinct nature of the female reproductive system
was prompted as much by cultural and political factors as by scientific progress. During the
Enlightenment, with its emphasis on equality, reason, and science, many archaic notions
left over from the classical and medieval periods were tossed out, including the belief that
the female reproductive system was a defective version of the male’s. It had already become
clear during the seventeenth century that there were too many differences between the
male and female reproductive systems to be accounted for by the one- sex model. In theFigure 1.1 Vesalius’ rendering of Galen’s conception of the female
reproductive organs as an internal penis.
From De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543, plate 60). Source: Boston
Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.