Immaculate Forms (eBook)

With erudition and cool wit, Helen King anatomises three millennia of Western commentary from doctors, teachers and theologians about the female body

Fascinating and interesting

Delightful, timely and critical. If cognitive science has taught us anything, it's that our imagination of the future is built from our memories of the past. Helen King is here to give us some better material to build with. The history of women's bodies isn't nearly what you think it is, nor the history of "womanhood" itself

An impressive ... comprehensive and detailed historical account of the way in parts of women's bodies have been viewed, interpreted, and treated, by society, medicine, and the Church, and mainly by men. [Reaching] back into classical times and around the globe to other than Western civilisations, King has provided a great service in telling so many histories of the breasts, clitoris, hymen, and womb ... this book made me wince, squirm, smile and gasp in surprise and horror - it is not for the fainthearted.

Illuminating and scholarly ... [showing] again and again how men have charted women's bodies, examined and dissected those bodies, condemned those bodies ... King's thoughtful tome addresses how women - historically perceived as mysteries to themselves and those who would seem to know them - have been defined, and how their bodies by their very existence resist those definitions

An impressively widely read study, lightened along the way with illuminating trivia and King's gentle wit

Dr King expertly weaves science, history, and culture to illuminate history and educate about the most misunderstood parts of our bodies...Impeccably researched, thoroughly enjoyable, and filled with moments of surprise, this book will astound

With unrivaled expertise and a wealth of classical and contemporary detail, King weaves historical knowledge of medicine, anatomy, literature, art and religion into a narrative that surprises, informs, excites and frequently amuses

Chock-full of wonderful, strange and amazing stories, King's book is a vivid history of how women's bodies have been understood - and misunderstood - over the centuries