![]() And the full-colour crotch shots that illustrate the book are undeniable shockers, entirely divorced from the images peddled by top-shelf publications that promote a world of trimmed labia and shaven havens in which women resemble pre-pubescent girls. Fanny, pussy, snatch, cunt: the lexical options only shoot further and further up the rudeness scale. There is still no term equivalent to "willy" that is acceptable for use among children. Indeed, what goes on down there is still misrepresented or shrouded. In our liberal era, we think we're all frightfully frank, but the vagina remains a far more taboo subject than we realise. ![]() ![]() ![]() The vagina has been explored by gynaecologists, sexologists and pornographers, but rarely, if ever, has its every cultural, historical, anthropological and anatomical facet been probed with such exhaustive - and exhausting - dedication. Of course, Catherine Blackledge is here to show us otherwise, and The Story of V is a mind-boggling smorgasbord of fanny facts, some of which we really, really didn't need to know. Phallic references and penis jokes litter daily discourse, whereas vulval imagery is seemingly limited to pornography and dated lesbian-feminist jewellery, with the odd Georgia O'Keeffe and amusing ancient artefact thrown in. The problem, of course, is that the vagina is a culturally obscure little organ. ![]()
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