It is the seat of female sexual pleasure, the passage for both the creation and the birth of humankind, and the channel for menstrual blood. Yet we know less about the vagina - its structure and function - than we do about any other organ of the human body. Why? THE STORY OF V explores how female genitalia have been conceived and misconceived over the centuries and today. A new look is long overdue. More than two millennia of misinformation has resulted in a western culture where we hold back from mentioning or showing the vagina; where this organ when seen publically is most commonly viewed as pornographic; and where, of all the organs of the human body, the vagina remains the most clouded in mystery, myth and biased, out-dated beliefs. In the past, medicine has misrepresented female sexual anatomy, reducing its remarkable complexities to the notion of a passive vessel. But, as this book shows, science is at last beginning to reveal the true structure and function of female genitalia, and the dynamic nature of the vagina's role in both sexual pleasure and reproduction. The result is nothing less than a vaginal revolution. With a wide-ranging perspective that takes in prehistoric art, ancient history, linguistics, mythology, evolutinary theory, reproductive biology and medicine, Catherine Blackledge unveils the hidden marvels of the female form.