The Body: It was Freud who posed the question, "What do women want?" as though the subject was by its nature a mystery, an investigation doomed to fail, writes Katie Donovan.
We know now, of course, that women want equal rights, and they have won many of these in the courts. But what about sex? While one hopes that liberated young women are having a great time on their own terms, real life is not always like an episode of Sex and the City. Bloated porn and movie industries depict male sexual fantasies, helping to perpetuate the myth that sex is about the male achieving orgasm (it is still assumed that some women will never have an orgasm, but sure, if they can keep their man satisfied isn't that the main thing?) Meanwhile, women are having bits of their bodies surgically removed or waxed off, at vast expense, and discomfort. Is this what women want?
Catherine Blackledge, a scientist in her 30s, had an ambivalent view of her vagina. Yes, it signified the potential for pleasure and childbirth, but it also meant being treated like a second-class citizen. And there was a lingering taint of shame. After all, the worst possible curse word in the English language is c**t. This word, Blackledge reminds us, probably derives from a global word for women (Kunthi is both a Sanskrit term for the vagina, and the name of an ancient Indian mother goddess).
Her decision to view the vagina in a more satisfying, empowering way was the catalyst for this book. What she wanted (listen up, Mr Freud) was to be able to celebrate her sexuality, to view her genitalia as powerful, intricate and intelligent, capable and deserving of immense pleasure and appreciation.
Her quest moves from the mythic to the scientific, presented in a lively, accessible style, occasionally corroborating her research with personal experience. This well-researched, convincingly argued book goes a long way towards righting the lack, in her words of "clear, accurate and consistent information" about female genitalia.
Unexpected connections, often signalled in folklore, are given a scientific explanation, such as the link between the nose and the sexual organs. The animal world proves an educational and entertaining link: females from macaques to rats have powerful orgasms, dolphins will stimulate themselves with rubber balls, hyenas give birth through the clitoris, and Asian elephants will scent their urine in a special way when they are in the mood.
I have long been interested in sheela-na-gigs, interpreting them as protective emblems carved on medieval stone buildings by stonemasons who believed in the power of female sexual energy to ward off evil. Blackledge, who is of the same opinion, traces the evolution of the sheela from Egypt to the Polynesian islands, with the age-old gesture of a woman raising her skirt to reveal her naked genitals. This was believed to calm the elements, drive off devils, increase crop yields and resolve battles between men. She quotes an account, printed in The Irish Times, of an Irish woman whose lifted skirt drove off an unruly mob bent on attacking her menfolk - this happened less than 100 years ago. In parts of Africa, the practice of vaginal display en masse as a form of female protest was still used to great effect as late as the 1950s.
Artistic renditions of such displays have been found in places as diverse as Syria, Milan, Equador and Indonesia. There are also many Paelaeolithic carvings of vulvas in France. All pointing to an early veneration of female fertility, says Blackledge, one that persists in parts of India, China (and even at the Kaaba at Mecca), but has disappeared from Western life, largely thanks to the Christian blame and shame tradition.
Western medicine fed into the assumption that women were inferior versions of men (even before Christianity, Aristotle had termed the female "a mutilated male"). Vesalius, the founding father of anatomy - who did dissect female bodies - claimed the vagina was an inverted penis. The notion that the clitoris is an undersized penis dies hard - in spite of extensive research aired in 1998 (which included the finding that the clitoris is twice as large and more deeply embedded than previously thought).
Meanwhile, the Christian preference for denying women's sexual appetite led to the practice in 19th-century Britain of cutting off the clitoris (in the US, the cornflake king J.H. Kellogg advocated pouring "pure carbolic acid to the clitoris").
Prior to the 19th century, women's sexual desires were respected and appreciated, because it was assumed that unless a woman had an orgasm, conception could not take place. Pleasuring the woman was of paramount importance. Even when it was discovered that conception could occur without female orgasm, a woman's need for orgasms as part of staying healthy was still acknowledged in a way that fattened doctors' wallets. Single women who were diagnosed as "hysterical" paid physicians to massage them until they climaxed, sometimes on a weekly basis, for the good of their health. In the early 20th century, newspaper advertisements for vibrators appeared alongside ads for egg-beaters and fans.
Blackledge argues that the clitoris did not develop simply as a pleasure toy, divorced from conception. The early ideas about female orgasm being essential for the future of a species were not so offbeam. Smooth entry for the male is dependent on female receptivity, guaranteed if his foreplay excites her. A female rabbit hasn't the slightest interest in intercourse unless the male provides up to 70 rhythmic constant thrusts against her vulva. Female fruitflies like to be sung to first. The contractions and suction effect of orgasm then give sperm the greatest chance of getting to the egg, meaning that the male who gives the most pleasure has the best chance of fathering offspring. Even during the artificial insemination of cows, conception is much more likely to occur if the animal is genitally stimulated.
Scientific research into female sexuality has been minimal until recently, but new findings suggest both men and women possess a form of the prostate and the clitoris ("the precious wishbone of flesh"), and both are capable of ejaculating during intercourse. Recent research also confirms the ancient belief that women are capable of experiencing greater sexual pleasure than men (in one clinical trial, a woman was able to have 134 orgasms in one hour, while the most a man could achieve in the same period was 16). Far from being a passive vessel in which the sperm makes all the moves, it is now realised that the vagina also plays a vital role in selecting the healthiest and most genetically compatible sperm to fertilise its ova. This is an empowering and enlightening book for women, using science to anchor and expand on folkloric legacy in a way that encourages women to view their genitals as many- splendoured organs, truly named by the East: "doorway of life"; "open peony blossom"; "palace of delight".
Katie Donovan is a poet and Amatsu practitioner (a form of Japanese osteopathy)
The Story of V. By Catherine Blackledge. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 322 pp, £18.99