Due to a terrible misreading of a hashtag, we prepared something to post tomorrow, then realised it was wrong.
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Galen believed that the genital and reproductive organs were much the same in either sex, but went inside if they were cold during gestation, and stuck out if they were sufficiently warm during gestation.
This meant that Galen correctly identified the ovaries as homologous to the testes. However, he believed the vagina was homologous to the penis, and that the uterus itself was an internal scrotum. Which it very much isn't.
So where does the clitoris - the organ which is *actually* homologous to the penis - factor in? Galen ultimately didn't have very much to say about it. He only mentions it once, in the context of the rest of the vulva.
According to Galen, the function of the labia minora, labia majora and clitoris is... insulation. These structures exist to keep the uterus cosy and warm.
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So where does the clitoris - the organ which is *actually* homologous to the penis - factor in? Galen ultimately didn't have very much to say about it. He only mentions it once, in the context of the rest of the vulva.
According to Galen, the function of the labia minora, labia majora and clitoris is... insulation. These structures exist to keep the uterus cosy and warm.
And while Galen was a dissenting voice in a prevailing belief that the uterus could up sticks and move around the body, causing all sorts of illnesses in women, he wasn't quite right about this, either. He instead believed that all these horrid diseases affecting women such as feeling sad or having a headache were in fact caused by stuff getting into the uterus. He was a proponent of various steaming practices to cleanse the uterus of these contaminants.
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Galen believed that the genital and reproductive organs were much the same in either sex, but went inside if they were cold during gestation, and stuck out if they were sufficiently warm during gestation.
This meant that Galen correctly identified the ovaries as homologous to the testes. However, he believed the vagina was homologous to the penis, and that the uterus itself was an internal scrotum. Which it very much isn't.
@vagina_museum
thanks, i'm hearing internal scrotum to the tune of personal jesus by depeche mode now. -
So where does the clitoris - the organ which is *actually* homologous to the penis - factor in? Galen ultimately didn't have very much to say about it. He only mentions it once, in the context of the rest of the vulva.
According to Galen, the function of the labia minora, labia majora and clitoris is... insulation. These structures exist to keep the uterus cosy and warm.
@vagina_museum
Well there's nothing actually _wrong_ with wanting to be cosy and warm
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And while Galen was a dissenting voice in a prevailing belief that the uterus could up sticks and move around the body, causing all sorts of illnesses in women, he wasn't quite right about this, either. He instead believed that all these horrid diseases affecting women such as feeling sad or having a headache were in fact caused by stuff getting into the uterus. He was a proponent of various steaming practices to cleanse the uterus of these contaminants.
The thing about Galen was he wasn't just some dude who wrote weird shit two millennia ago. His comprehensive writings on medicine were practically a bible for physicians, for most of those two millennia. This left a lasting influence, some of which hangs around in cultural beliefs.
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Galen, like many physicians of his time, believed that heat of the body influenced the sex of any resulting offspring. While that's true for some animals, notably crocodiles, it is not pertinent to humans. Galen applied this to humans, nevertheless.
@vagina_museum the jordan peterson of his day
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The thing about Galen was he wasn't just some dude who wrote weird shit two millennia ago. His comprehensive writings on medicine were practically a bible for physicians, for most of those two millennia. This left a lasting influence, some of which hangs around in cultural beliefs.
Galen's belief that the clitoris was not a particularly relevant organ meant that this amazing body part has been largely ignored or sometimes pathologised. Galen's beliefs about the uterus led to dismissal of ill health in women being largely put down to something about your womb being wrong. And Galen's attitude towards sex differentiation implies that not bearing sons is somehow wholly the fault of the woman.
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Galen's belief that the clitoris was not a particularly relevant organ meant that this amazing body part has been largely ignored or sometimes pathologised. Galen's beliefs about the uterus led to dismissal of ill health in women being largely put down to something about your womb being wrong. And Galen's attitude towards sex differentiation implies that not bearing sons is somehow wholly the fault of the woman.
So happy #GalenTines Day. Now you have a name to blame for instigating myths and misconceptions about the gynaecological anatomy which persisted for millennia!
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So happy #GalenTines Day. Now you have a name to blame for instigating myths and misconceptions about the gynaecological anatomy which persisted for millennia!
@vagina_museum this is one of those "like but not really" threads. As always, stupendously informative but also FFS. And, speaking as one - men!
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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
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So happy #GalenTines Day. Now you have a name to blame for instigating myths and misconceptions about the gynaecological anatomy which persisted for millennia!
@vagina_museum I think human dissection was banned, or at least severely frowned upon, at the time, so he likely wouldn't have had the chance to perform detailed internal anatomy investigations.
I also think it's even more damning of the centuries of physicians who followed him that they took his writings as gospel and so much went unchallenged for so long.
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@vagina_museum
thanks, i'm hearing internal scrotum to the tune of personal jesus by depeche mode now.@floppyplopper @vagina_museum great now I am too
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@floppyplopper @vagina_museum great now I am too
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Galen screwed up anatomy for a millennium by basing his descriptions of some internal organs on a dog. (We think)
full marks for uterus not touring the body and existance of the clitoris, though.
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So happy #GalenTines Day. Now you have a name to blame for instigating myths and misconceptions about the gynaecological anatomy which persisted for millennia!
@vagina_museum What I like about you is the fact that all this stuff, that has been talked about in some way or another among feminist women, now hits the world of men. There seem to be quite some of them following you. That's great. You have to have knowledge in order to understand what a woman's life is like what our history is and what a female body experiences. It has been shut out of common knowledge for too long.I have a feeling there are quite some revelations in this, for most men.
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So happy #GalenTines Day. Now you have a name to blame for instigating myths and misconceptions about the gynaecological anatomy which persisted for millennia!
@vagina_museum Internal Scrotum would make a great band name BTW
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@vagina_museum I think human dissection was banned, or at least severely frowned upon, at the time, so he likely wouldn't have had the chance to perform detailed internal anatomy investigations.
I also think it's even more damning of the centuries of physicians who followed him that they took his writings as gospel and so much went unchallenged for so long.
@theplaguedoc @vagina_museum Well, the empirical method was not around in Europe for over thousand years, so the books of ancient authorities were the most reliable kind of knowledge available. The model for knowing things itself was taken from the gospel. Empirical methods were preserved in the arab world, resulting in knowledge transfer from muslims to christians about that towards the late middle ages.
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Due to a terrible misreading of a hashtag, we prepared something to post tomorrow, then realised it was wrong. So today, let's celebrate #GalenTines Day. Here's some stuff Galen of Pergamon had to say about the gynaecological anatomy which influenced physicians for over a millennium...
@vagina_museum seriously, you are the absolute best.
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@vagina_museum I think human dissection was banned, or at least severely frowned upon, at the time, so he likely wouldn't have had the chance to perform detailed internal anatomy investigations.
I also think it's even more damning of the centuries of physicians who followed him that they took his writings as gospel and so much went unchallenged for so long.
So he guessed, people know he guessed, and despite the ability to do deeper research themselves they decided "nah, this guy seems pretty confident"?
Is that your argument? -
@vagina_museum the jordan peterson of his day
Honestly I was expecting it to be much, much worse. I may be... kinda' jaded these days.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
