July 1, 2020
This personal and political guide examines why we've been led to ignore or be ashamed of a crucial anatomical structure. In her first book, journalist Enright, who grew up in Ireland and now lives in London, moves freely between her personal experience and the broader societal landscape while making sure to recognize those whose experiences are different from her own, including members of the transgender community. Early on, she makes it clear that she is discussing not just the vagina, but the vulva, which many women, and probably even more men, have trouble defining or precisely locating. According to one 2016 study, writes the author, "60 per cent of British women were unable to correctly identify the vulva." Sex education, she argues, is sorely lacking both at home and at school, in part because, to the extent that it's taught it all, far more attention is paid to male anatomy than to female, with a particular disregard of female sexual pleasure. She set out to remedy that situation with this book, moving briskly, thoroughly, and often amusingly through the topic in chapters with such titles as "The Orgasm, and Why Everything's Normal" and "The Clitoris, and How It's Ignored." Many will relate to Enright's candid descriptions of struggles with painful menstruation and infertility and with her fears about the onset of menopause. With sisterly authority, she opens up areas for discussion that have often been ignored. She pays particular attention to debunking anatomical misperceptions, as in a fascinating chapter on the hymen, which is not at all the "taut...film-like membrane" it's often assumed to be. Though the tone of the book is often light and lively, Enright doesn't shy away from justified outrage when she discusses female genital mutilation or the fact that women's pain is often disregarded by the medical community. Enlightening reading that debunks numerous myths about female anatomy.
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Starred review from July 1, 2020
Journalist Enright explores the systemic cultural, linguistic, and medical ways in which the vagina is ignored, minimized, and concealed in ways that prove detrimental to women's physical, psychological, sexual, and social well-being. Here, the author takes an expansive yet well-documented and carefully researched approach to disentangle myths and stereotypes from realities. Books such as Amanda Laird's Heavy Flow have looked at the subject, but this title considers sex education, symbolic structures (e.g., the hymen), the clitoris, orgasms, fertility and pregnancy, with a significant amount of time spent exploring theory and practice. Enright reminds readers that "we are denied facts about our own bodies because female bodies have been ignored and overlooked by science." She shares her efforts to overcome shame and embarrassment in order to learn more about her own body. In the process, she identifies her own biases, and presents information that shows us how much we have to learn (or unlearn) about the vagina. Interviews with doctors who have been misguided and women who have been misdiagnosed provide additional insight. VERDICT A necessary resource on an often-stigmatized subject, this book will appeal to anyone looking to learn more about the vagina and women's health.--Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 20, 2020
Irish journalist Enright dispels cultural taboos and breaks commonly held silences about women’s bodies and experiences in this galvanizing debut. In addition to offering basic information about the vagina and other physical structures of the female reproductive system, Enright also delves into such topics as menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause. Throughout, she highlights the power of self-knowledge and the danger of ignorance, dismantling such pervasive myths as the idea that bleeding during a first sexual experience is a reliable sign of virginity. Enright also shows how much still remains scientifically unknown or debated about women’s bodies, including the existence of the G-spot, the biology of the female orgasm, and the reasons for painful conditions such as vulvodynia and vaginismus. Her survey of how female genitalia are cut and altered in conformity with cultural practices includes an overview of customs in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as the history of clitoridectomy and women’s genital surgery in the U.S. and the U.K. Enright also incorporates her own experiences of sexual assault and fertility struggles, and includes the perspectives of trans and intersex people. The result is an illuminating, inclusive, and wide-ranging call for better education and more free and open discourse about the female body.