Professor Greta LaFleur’s lecture, “Toward an Environmental Theory of Early Sexuality” was very enlightening because it explores the history of sex and how the meaning of it has changed throughout history and how it relates to the environment.
Towards the beginning of Professor LaFleur’s lecture, she explains and breaks down Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae. This book is one of the major works written by Carl Linnaeus and in the book, he attempts to describe and understand the natural world as a reflection of the logic of God’s creation. His sexual system, where species with the same number of stamens were treated in the same group. For humans, this is broken up into four categories: Americanus, Europaues, Asiaticus, and Afer. Each of these having their own personality type to match their physical description. Americanus is described as reddish, choleric, erect and behaves obstinate, merry, free. Europaues is described as white, sanguine, muscular and behaves gentle, acute, inventive. Asiaticus is described as sallow, melancholy, stiff and behaves severe, haughty, avaricious. Lastly Afer is described as Black, phlegmatic, relaxed and behaves like women without shame. I found these descriptions very easy because these ideas still persist to this day. In our culture, today white women are seen as these gentle beings full of purity and in need of protection. While on the other hand Black women are seen as sexual objects that act, who behave in ways that are portrayed as provocative. This ideology is very apparent in media when analyzing the different portrayal of Black and white women in cinema. It is interesting to me how Greta LaFleur explores how these stereotypes began so long ago but are still upheld even till this day. She even explains the sexual politics of racial difference and why one group is shamed for their sensuality.
During Professor Greta LaFleur’s lecture, she also explains some work done on sexual theory. The first being Humoral Theory which understood the human form as a “porous envelope” that was deeply vulnerable. The second theory being Climate Theory, which is the idea that particular bodily arrangements and types, particular characters, and particular qualities were endemic to (and perhaps produced by) the relative hear or cool of different regions. She goes more in depth with the second theory and gives examples of the phenomenon in a modern context. The first example was cuffing season, which is when people get in relationships during the colder months and then break up during the hotter months. The second example was the Geography of Questionably Sexual Decisions which basically states that in a different place people vary in the sexual choices they make. I found both of these concepts really interesting because it connects how some of our sexual decisions are products of the environment around us.
During the questions and answers portion of the discussion, someone in the audience asked if Professor LaFleur could expand on how the environment and things like macrogeographic could have a certain effect on people. She explained how things like architecture or state location could alter the way citizens view sex and sexuality. I found this to be really interesting. For the most part, I believe it because phrases like “What happens in Vegas, stay in Vegas exists”, but I’m curious as to the extent of influence the environment has.