From antiquity through the late 1700s

From antiquity through the late 1700s, a one-sex model prevailed, with the female body being seen as a lesser version of the male. For example, reproductive organs were



 understood as basically the same, but men’s were on the outside, and women’s on the inside. By the late eighteenth century that older view was increasingly being replaced by a two-sex model that divided the world into male and female categories now seen in opposition to each other; difference, rather than sameness, reigned. Note another outcome of this historical shift: Women’s bodies were generally viewed as more problematic and unstable, that is, all kinds of things happened to them and were ascribed to them that didn’t happen to men. This insight is especially important as we delve deeper into the questions of women’s health and sexuality.

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