What can a lecture on sex from the 18th century inform about contemporary sexuality education? 

One of the earliest accounts of sexuality education in formal education is provided by no less than the famous naturalist and botanist Carl von Linné (Linnaeus). In the lecture, Collegium Medicum - Om sättet att tillhopa gå [Regarding the way to come together] from the 1700s, Linnaeus allegedly provided a lively account on human sexuality. While sexual reproduction is necessary for all animals, Linnaeus distingued the human from other anthromoporfa species by the Greek motto Nosce te ipsum [know thyself] (Hoquet, 2014; Müller-Wille, 2014). Thereafter, he divided humankind into four racialized sub-groups. Over the course of 23 years and ten editions, Linneaus work and develop his classifications of man in Systema Naturae (1735-1758) and while his “races” sometimes shifted order, they remained (Linnaeus, 2023; Müller-Wille, 2014).

In this presentation I aim to address the normative force of sexuality education by engaging with Linnaeus lecture on human sexuality and reproduction and his racial account in Systema Naturae. Reading Linnaeus work in paralell with his lecture is key, for while his classifications in Systema Naturae are restrained, his lecture on sex offers vivacious explanations of the “natural” sexual constitution of the homo sapiens. To guide my readning, I ask how and what Linnaeus lecture on sexuality and human reproduction can inform about the “thyself” that the homo sapiens ought themselves to “know”?

Based on Müller-Wille (2014) epistemological understanding of “races” as mental tools, Linnaeus work and lecture are considered to be functional objects - anchoring points from which values, judgements, and consequences follows. I argue that Linnaeus sexuality education operates as a normative force as it provided a foundation for a particular biologization of the human body that naturalised distinction in both flesh and sensation. 

References

Hoquet, T. (2014). Biologization of Race and Racialization of the Human. Bernier, Buffon, Linnaeus. In N. Bancel, T. David, & D. R. D. Thomas (Eds.), The invention of race : scientific and popular representations. Routledge. 

Linnaeus, C. (2023). A General System of Nature. In G. G. Harpham (Ed.), Theories of Race. An Annotated Anthology of Essays on Race, 1684⁠–⁠1900. Geoffrey Galt Harpham. https://www.theoriesofrace.com/7 

Müller-Wille, S. (2014). Race and History: Comments from an Epistemological Point of View. Science, Technology & Human Values, 39(4), 597-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243913517759