When I saw The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine by Dr. Jennifer Gunter offered on NetGalley, I jumped all over it. This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC. The book is available August 27. You should buy it or ask your library to buy many copies.
Dr. Jen Gunter is one of my favorite Twitter follows. She is smart, funny, and beacon of light in dark times. The Vagina Bible is exactly what I wanted it to be – informative, frank, and with a tl:dr box at the end of each chapter with the main points. This is a book that every household should have on their shelves, whether they have women in the home or not. Yes, I believe everyone should have a basic understanding of the vagina and vulva because the nonsense from men and boys about what women should be doing differently about their periods turns me into a rage monster at least once a month. Libraries and school libraries should have this book. I hope it goes through many editions and updates.
Gunter covers both basic information that we should all have about caring for the vagina, vulva, and associated reproductive system, and the nonsense inflicted on us by a variety of sources. She gets into why we don’t know as much about the vagina (patriarchy) and why so much of what passes for common knowledge is bullshit (patriarchy). I am 50, I am in perimenopause. I started menstruating a month before my 13th birthday. I’ve been menstruating for almost 38 years and I am constantly surprised at how little I know about my own body. I consider myself relatively well educated on my vagina, vulva, and reproductive system over all compared to many other women who are also not in health care. I learned a lot from this book. I had things I accepted as true debunked, and learned facts I had never known.
Patriarchy infused Western medicine has not been good to women and doesn’t seem to be getting better. I didn’t count the number of times Dr. Gunter says something like “X is not well understood” and then goes onto talk about the lack of sound scientific studies. I’d go back and count, but I don’t need the rage stroke that would likely induce. Alternative medicine is just as steeped in patriarchy, with some cultural fetishization thrown in (see jade eggs and “Japanese” tightening sticks). Anything about vaginal odor, taste, “cleaning,” or tightening is designed to make women ashamed of their bodies, waste our time and lighten our wallets.
Power and health are inseparably linked.
You can’t be an empowered patient and get the health outcomes you want with inaccurate information and half-truths. You also can’t be empowered when you are getting correct information but the person or source informing you is making you feel bad or is not listening to your concerns.
I’ve been attacked for coming out against the misinformation and disinformation that are presented to women as worthy of consideration. To me, the idea that women can take away what serves them from the morass of half-truths and lies about their bodies is the greatest perversion of choice. True choice—weighing your personal risk-benefit ratio and making a decision for your body based on that information—requires facts. And it is this quest to give women facts that keeps me up at night. It is why I keep fighting.