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Product Identifiers

PublisherBasic Books

ISBN-101541606531

ISBN-139781541606531

eBay Product ID (ePID)21067514498

Product Key Features

Book TitleImmaculate Forms : a History of the Female Body in Four Parts

Number of Pages480 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicWomen, Ancient / Greece, Sociology / General, Women's Studies

Publication Year2025

IllustratorYes

GenreSocial Science, History

AuthorHelen King

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.6 in

Item Weight24.9 Oz

Item Length9.6 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2024-028283

Reviews"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."-- Cat Bohannon, author of Eve, "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, "An impressively widely read study of four parts of the female anatomy often (and sometimes incorrectly) considered to be uniquely female, and the way our conception of them has changed throughout history, from medical treatises to agony aunt columns. It is lightened along the way with illuminating trivia - Mary Wollstonecraft breastfed puppies on her deathbed - and King's gentle wit."-- New Statesman, "King is meticulous and prolific. She has written with equal erudition and care about the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. She brings this range and expertise to Immaculate Forms - plus more than a little humor... Immaculate Forms is a masterful achievement born from an impressive and influential career."-- Science Magazine, " Immaculate Forms is also a work of immaculate writing. With unrivaled expertise and a wealth of classical and contemporary detail, the author weaves historical knowledge of medicine, anatomy, literature, art and religion into a narrative that surprises, informs, excites and frequently amuses. Essential reading for busting prejudice and myth about women and their bodies."-- Adrian Thatcher, author of Vile Bodies, "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, mainly by men... impressive research."-- Church Times, "With erudition and cool wit, Helen King anatomises three millennia of Western commentary from doctors, teachers and theologians about the female body. Males have tended to do most of the talking; now readers across the gender spectrum can find surprises and illuminations in this entertainingly comprehensive survey of what past generations knew, thought they knew, and often got wildly wrong."-- Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of A History of Christianity, "Helen King's Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women's Bodies draws on a wealth of material to support a richly nuanced and absorbing exploration of women's unique anatomy." -- Times Literary Supplement, "By denaturalizing our own unexamined beliefs about bodies, King renders our own bodies unfamiliar, revealing them to be, at least in part, chimerical. Her assertion works like a magic trick, or a turn in a poem that recontextualizes everything that precedes it. ...King contends that understanding the changing nature of historical ideas about bodies, gender, and sex presents us with opportunities to challenge and expand our own."-- American Scholar

Synopsis"Never has medical history been more entertaining" (Dr Jennifer Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible ) than in this turbulent history of women's bodies from classical Greece to the modern age 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.

LC Classification NumberHM636.K57 2025