Claire Gilbert in Church Times:
THIS book made me, by turn, wince, squirm, smile wryly, and gasp in surprise and in horror. It is not for the fainthearted. King has produced a comprehensive and detailed historical account of the way in which four different parts of women’s bodies — breasts, clitoris, hymen, and womb — have been viewed, interpreted, and treated, by society, medicine, and the Church, and mainly by men. She reaches back into classical times and around the globe to other than Western civilisations.
Their stories turn out to be complex: binary definitions are entirely elusive. King observes that the transgender debates are not new, but “draw our attention back to how sex and gender identity have never really been clear” .
For example, the breast is both maternal and erotic and, it turns out, medical: women have breastfed the (adult male) sick to heal them, as well as to feed them. Children have been suckled not just by their own birth mothers but also by goats and donkeys, often directly from the teat of the animal. Puppies have been suckled by women to deal with an excess of milk. Some men’s breasts have produced milk.
More here.
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