A revealing, intimate and liberating study of female sexuality. It examines the vagina historically, anatomically, anthropologically and biologically, drawing on many sources including medical texts, myth, science fiction and fantasy, and feminist and lesbian literature, with illuminating critical observations. The book goes back to the Middle Ages, examines non-Western cultural practices, including clitoridectomy and virginity checks, tests Freud's theories on coitus, and deals at length with sexual desire, lovemaking and orgasm.