Immaculate Forms
By
Helen King
Read by
Elaine Claxton
Release:
01/28/2025
Runtime:
15h 11m
Unabridged
Quantity:
In Immaculate Forms, Dr Helen King expertly weaves science, history, and culture to illuminate history and educate about the most misunderstood parts of our bodies. There is no better guide to trace the history of what we know and to make it relevant for us today. Never has medical history been more entertaining! Impeccably researched, thoroughly enjoyable, and filled with moments of surprise, this book will astound. Immaculate Forms is not just essential reading for those interested in science; it should be read by anyone interested in understanding how disinformation about women's bodies comes to be and how it can be exploited.
Dr. Jennifer Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible
The turbulent history of women’s bodies, from classical Greece to the modern day
Breasts, clitoris, hymen, and womb. Across history, these body parts have told women who they are and what they should do. Although knowledge of each part has changed through time, none of them tells a simple story. The way they work and in some cases even their existence have been debated. They can be seen as powerful or as disgusting, as relevant only to reproduction or as sources of sexual pleasure.
In Immaculate Forms, classicist and historian Helen King explores the symbiotic relationship between religion and medicine and their twinned history of gatekeeping over these key organs that have been used to define “woman,” illustrating how conceptions of women’s bodies have owed more to imagination and myth than to observation and science. Throughout history, the way we understand the body has always been debated, and it is still shaped by human intervention and read according to cultural interpretations.
Astute and engaging, Immaculate Forms is for everyone who has wondered what history has to say about today’s raging debates over the human body and who is “really” female.
Breasts, clitoris, hymen, and womb. Across history, these body parts have told women who they are and what they should do. Although knowledge of each part has changed through time, none of them tells a simple story. The way they work and in some cases even their existence have been debated. They can be seen as powerful or as disgusting, as relevant only to reproduction or as sources of sexual pleasure.
In Immaculate Forms, classicist and historian Helen King explores the symbiotic relationship between religion and medicine and their twinned history of gatekeeping over these key organs that have been used to define “woman,” illustrating how conceptions of women’s bodies have owed more to imagination and myth than to observation and science. Throughout history, the way we understand the body has always been debated, and it is still shaped by human intervention and read according to cultural interpretations.
Astute and engaging, Immaculate Forms is for everyone who has wondered what history has to say about today’s raging debates over the human body and who is “really” female.
Release:
2025-01-28
Runtime:
15h 11m
Format:
audio
Weight:
0.0 lb
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781668647899
Publisher:
Hachette Book Group
Praise