Ralph M. Leck. Vita Sexualis

German jurist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) is enjoying a renaissance of sorts among English-speaking scholars. His twelve works exploring same-sex love are now translated, and his name is asserted as a forerunner of homosexual rights. In his energetic book Vita Sexualis: Karl Ulrichs and the Origins of Sexual Science, Ralph M. Leck returns Ulrichs to his original struggle—against Prussian militarism, imperialism, and sexual politics—and argues for his place in a pantheon of “sexual modernists” (ix). What is sexual modernism? According to the author, it is an attitude that Ulrichs pioneered. To be a sexual modernist, one must first recognize that sexual variety is natural, and that nature and not culture should be the measure of morality. Secondly, a soupçon of humanity must be mixed into one’s research, to temper the scientific attitude with one of humane acceptance. Finally, one must work to make the general public aware of the variety of sexual desires and ways of being, so as to change unjust legal codes and damaging mores. Silence is not acceptable; action is necessary. Ulrichs is thus joined in this book by the Swiss reformer Heinrich Hössli, the British writer John Addington Symonds, and, in a more modern example, the American researcher Alfred Kinsey in this category of sexual modernism. The famous Berlin sex reform leader Magnus Hirschfeld is also mentioned as an example, although his story is not explored at length. Sexual modernism is a strain within sexology that Leck wishes to emphasize as committed to science yet equally dedicated to obtaining rights for sexual minorities; it is, as he describes it, the progressive wing of a scientific movement that began with Ulrichs.

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