Review
------
The broadest survey yet ....lively, thought-provoking,
and richly researched. * Naomi Wolf, author of Vagina: A New
Biography * Rees' book is the kind of work we need more of if we
are to challenge and reconfigure how we understand women and
sexuality in contemporary discourse. -- Shahidha Bari, Queen
Mary, University of London, UK * Times Higher Education *
Demonized, silenced and objectified, Rees deftly explores the
history of the vagina in culture. * Emerald Street * At last! A
book on the vagina that I feel privileged to endorse. This
careful literary and cultural history explores the vagina
primarily as a loaded cultural symbol. It critiques the numerous
ways in which the female sexual organs have had deleterious
meanings projected onto them by patriarchal society. A
magnificent achievement, Rees's study is as inful in its
analysis as it is comprehensive in its historical coverage. *
Lisa Downing, Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality,
University of Birmingham, UK. * This really wonderful book on the
cultural history of the vagina is scholarly and accessible,
entertaining and serious. It is stylish and packed with in;
it will be seized upon and devoured by the new feminists. The
Vagina bejazzles. I highly recommend it. * Sally R Munt,
Professor of Cultural and Gender Studies, University of Sussex *
"With Vagina, Rees is ing for something well beyond
`feminism.' To get there, she uses humor, numerous examples, and
careful explanation as she moves effortlessly through a variety
of historical periods and a wide genre of `art' to demonstrate
her point." -- Judy A. Hayden, Professor of English and Writing
and Director of the Women's Studies Program, University of Tampa,
USA. Analyses of representations of the vagina in art and culture
couple with feminist politics in this impassioned tract by
University of Chester lecturer Rees. * Publisher's Weekly * For
readers disappointed by Naomi Wolf's treatise on a similar topic
last year, this is the book you've been waiting for... This may
not be the definitive text on the vagina - Rees is clear that she
can't overturn centuries of embarrassment and taboo in a single
book - but it's an excellent place to start. -- Kaite Welsh * The
Independent on Sunday * It is my contention that you will know
quite instinctively if you are the target reader for a book
describing itself as a literary and cultural history of vaginas.
(Vaginae? Vaginodes?) How does this description of Judy Chicago's
art make you feel? "Each plate, a vulvar motif at its centre,
represents a woman's yearning for autonomy and re away
from patriarchy's eradications and constraints." If you found
that intriguing, rather than snigger-worthy or arcanely academic,
you will enjoy what's on offer here. There is a learned
digression on other words for vagina...and a survey of depictions
of female genitalia in folk tales, film, literature, art and
television... The examples are well chosen and engaging. -- Helen
Lewis * New Statesman * Rees is especially strong on the rapidly
evolving (and more in-your-face) artistic (or would-be artistic)
representation of the [vagina] in contemporary (Western, and even
here basically American and British) culture, both fringe and
more mainstream...Rees offers many interesting examples and the
odd tidbit[s] (Courbet's L'origine du monde comes from the
collection of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan!), and though she works
more by example than evaluation, there's a lot of useful
information here. -- M.A. Ortherfer * The Complete Review * The
Vagina is exactly what it purports to be: a literary and cultural
history of impressive breadth and frequently rewarding depth....
The Vagina remains an informative and considered book: it is a
resource, and a source of power. A polyphonic mixture of high and
low, it will engage the feminist philosopher at home with
Kristeva, as well as those comparably new to these ideas. The
Vagina is not, to borrow a term from Laurie Penny, the
`feminism-as-spectacle' that Wolf and many others who court the
mainstream gaze are so keen to offer us; rather it is feminist
writing of the best kind, that which comes from genuine
engagement and real political concern. -- Jane Cleasby * Review31
* Don't be fooled by the playful pink cover-this book is not for
the faint of heart. Ranging from Indian folktales of vagina
dentata to the surprising popularity of vaginas in postmodern
art, Rees' book is a whirlwind tour of the literary and cultural
history of the (and mis) of female genitalia.
Helpful parenthetical asides define the more esoteric academic
language. However, the casual reader may be discouraged by the
overwhelmingly dense nature of the information that is presented,
with regrettably minimal analysis. Still, the excellent citations
and quality of the information offered will appeal to scholarly
readers. Best for academic libraries. -- Rebecca Hayes * Booklist
*
About the Author
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Emma L.E. Rees is Senior Lecturer in the Department of
English at the University of Chester, UK.
