book review: �_The Story of V: Opening Pandora's Box_

[pynchonoid]

Snatch squad 

Joanna Briscoe on The Story of V, a comprehensive
investigation into the history, culture and power of
female genitalia by Catherine Blackledge 

Saturday August 30, 2003
The Guardian 

The Story of V: Opening Pandora's Box
by Catherine Blackledge 
322pp, Weidenfeld, £18.99 

[...] 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. In our liberal era, we
think we're all frightfully frank, but the vagina
remains a far more taboo subject than we realise.
Indeed, what goes on down there is still
misrepresented or shrouded. There is still no term
equivalent to "willy" that is acceptable for use among
children. Fanny, pussy, snatch, cunt: the lexical
options only shoot further and further up the rudeness
scale. 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. As Blackledge writes, "For many men and women,
such cunt caricatures are coming to be seen as a
normal view of the vagina." If The Story of V does
anything, it drives home the fact that we're
stunningly vaginally ill-informed. 

[...] The crux of The Story of V is the role of the
"intelligent vagina". Blackledge gathers together a
body of evidence showing that the idea of the vagina
as a reproductive "passive vessel" is one of the
greatest scientific mistakes of all. In fact, it acts
as a sorter and screener of sperm via an obstacle
course of hairpin bends, chambers, and a finely
balanced acidic eco-system that bounces away the
weedier genetic specimens before they can get anywhere
near the egg. Orgasmic contractions then hasten the
selected sperms' journey. The vagina, therefore, is an
active participant in successful conception. [...] 

<http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,6121,1031856,00.html>

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