Vagina: A New Biography

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Overview

An astonishing work of cutting-edge science and cultural history that radically reframes how we understand the vagina—and consequently, how we understand women—from one of our most respected cultural critics and thinkers, Naomi Wolf, author of the modern classic The Beauty Myth.

When an unexpected medical crisis sends Naomi Wolf on a deeply personal journey to tease out the intersections between sexuality and creativity, she discovers, much to her own astonishment, an increasing body of scientific evidence that suggests that the vagina is not merely flesh, but an intrinsic component of the female brain—and thus has a fundamental connection to female consciousness itself.

Utterly enthralling and totally fascinating, Vagina: A New Biography draws on this set of insights about "the mind-vagina connection" to reveal new information about what women really need, and considers what a sexual relationship—and a relationship to the self—transformed by these insights could look like.

Exhilarating and groundbreaking, Vagina: A New Biography combines rigorous science, explained for lay readers, with cultural history and deeply personal considerations of the role of female desire in female identity, creativity, and confidence, from interviewees of all walks of life. Heralded by Publishers Weekly as one of the best science books of the year, it is a provocative and deeply engaging book that elucidates the ties between a woman's experience of her vagina and her sense of self; her impulses, dreams, and courage; and her role in love and in society in completely new and revelatory ways sure to provoke impassioned conversation.

A brilliant and nuanced synthesis of physiology, history, and cultural criticism, Vagina: A New Biography explores the physical, political, and spiritual implications of this startling series of new scientific breakthroughs for women and for society as a whole, from a writer whose conviction and keen intelligence have propelled her works to the tops of bestseller lists, and firmly into the realms of modern classics.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

The latest from bestselling feminist author Wolf (The Beauty Myth) begins with her “traumatic loss” of the “experience of sex as being incredibly emotionally meaningful.” Although still orgasmic, the depressed Wolf reaches out to her gynecologist, who diagnoses her with a damaged pelvic nerve. Corrective surgery, which includes having a 17-inch metal plate implanted in her back, happily restores her ecstatic orgasms and creative powers, and inspires this investigation. Defining the vagina as “the entire female sex organ, from labia to clitoris to cervix,” Wolf investigates the science of female sexuality, including new findings showing a powerful connection between the vagina and brain. Citing history, science, Tantra, and her own online questionnaires, Wolf concludes that the vagina is “the delivery system for the states of mind that we call confidence, liberation, self-realization, and even mysticism in women.” Neither scientist, sociologist, sex-educator, physiologist, nor psychologist herself, reporter Wolf draws liberally and uncritically from work in those fields. Her study of Western science is amplified by her own startling “Tantric explorations.” She offers “points of exploration” for pleasuring a woman, which she calls the “Goddess Array,” a series of surprisingly mundane suggestions: bring her flowers; dim the lights; relax her; hug her; cuddle her; take her slow dancing. Her last words call up the chant of teenage girls, at a high school assembly in Manhattan: “ ‘Vagina vagina vagina.’” Indeed. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman, Inc. (Sept.)

Library Journal

The familiar exhortation for women to overcome physical shame forms a major part of Wolf's absorbing book. What is startling is her framing of the material in terms of little-known medical facts that upend conventional ideas of sexual satisfaction and its effect on women's creativity. Wolf (The Beauty Myth) starts with the diminishment of her previously reliable sexual response. An offhand remark from a gynecologist shocked Wolf. He mentioned that different types and intensities of female orgasm are neither markers of sexual maturity nor of how well a woman has rejected male dominance, etc. Rather they point to variations in neural wiring, which Wolf embraces as a "much less mysterious and value-laden message about female sexuality." This epiphany sets the author on a tour of social, historical, literary, musical, and (mainly heterosexual) intimate-partnership views of women's sexual existences. Readers may cringe at discussions of Tantric sex and of the Goddess Array, and will be surprised at the lack of focus on giving birth. They will, however, appreciate the investigation of topics as disparate as why rape is frequently a weapon of war and why porn addiction is so common and sexually disabling. VERDICT A must for men and women, this triumph in accessible science and absorbing memoir belongs in public libraries as well as in academic collections serving history, sociology, women's studies, and medical programs.—Henrietta Thornton-Verma, Library Journal and School Library Journal

Library Journal

Looking into the relationship between sex and creativity, Wolf discovered a wealth of evidence showing that the vagina is not just flesh but intimately bound to the female brain and hence female consciousness, which has made the historical control of the female body crippling in every sense. Wolf is always provocative and always a best seller. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Kirkus Reviews

Cultural commentator Wolf (Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, 2008, etc.) explores the effect of new neurobiological discoveries on our understanding of female sexuality. When the author began noticing her own distressingly diminished sexual response at age 46, she visited a gynecologist, who diagnosed her with an impacted pelvic nerve. Since this nerve connects women's genitalia to their brains, any damage to it can lead to sexual dysfunction or pain. After recovering from surgery and regaining sexual pleasure, Wolf set out to document the mind-body link with the goal of informing women of the crucial role that neurology plays not only in their sex lives, but also in fostering their creativity and sense of well-being. The author undoubtedly has good intentions, but her propensity to seek out research that mirrors her own beliefs too often reduces the wide scope of female sexuality to a one-size-fits-all approach. Wolf also frequently uses New Age terms like "Goddess Array" to describe the sexual techniques she claims all women crave, and she falls victim to tantric sexual healers whom skeptical readers will regard as mere charlatans. Wolf's tendency to ascribe independent consciousness to the vagina as an alternately traumatized, depressed and sacred site further stretches her credibility. However, the author takes a more measured approach in the second section, a fascinating history of the way that various cultures have viewed the vagina throughout history. Even here, though, she emphasizes the belief that many ancient societies worshiped the vagina, despite the fact that anthropologists have largely debunked this theory. The author also cites informal polls and questionnaires on her Facebook page as evidence for her hypotheses. An unwieldy attempt to graft science onto a personal memoir/sexual-advice manual.

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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061989162
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 9/11/2012
Pages: 381
Sales rank: 86,852
Product dimensions: 9.00 (w) x 6.40 (h) x 1.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Naomi Wolf is the author of Promiscuitties and Fire With Fire, and her essays have appeared in The New Republic, Esquire, Ms., The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She holds a degree from Yale University and New College, Oxford University, and lives in New York City.

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Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Does the Vagina Have a Consciousness?

1 Meet Tour Incredible Pelvic Nerve 13

2 Your Dreamy Autonomic Nervous System 27

3 Confidence, Creativity, and the Sense of Interconnectedness 41

4 Dopamine, Opioids, and Oxytocin 55

5 What We "Know" About Female Sexuality Is Out of Date 75

2 History: Conquest and Control

6 The Traumatized Vagina 87

7 The Vagina Began as Sacred 125

8 The Victorian Vagina: Medicalization and Subjugation 141

9 Modernism: The "Liberated" Vagina 159

3 Who Names the Vagina?

10 "The Worst Word There Is" 187

11 How Funny Was That? 203

12 The Pornographic Vagina 215

4 The Goddess Array

13 "The Beloved Is Me" 237

14 Radical Pleasure, Radical Awakening: The Vagina as Liberator 271

Conclusion / Reclaiming the Goddess 329

Notes 335

Selected Bibliography 361

Index 367

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Vagina: A New Biography

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Available on NOOK devices and apps Nook Devices NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet NOOK NOOK Color NOOK Tablet Tablet/Phone NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet NOOK for iOS NOOK for Android NOOK Kids for iPad PC/Mac NOOK for Windows 8 NOOK Study NOOK for Web

All Available Formats & Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

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