Inga Muscio's Book

So a while back I did a post about my hair, in which I included a picture of my desk.

And on said desk, there was a book. (E-I-E-I-O.)

An anonymous commenter suggested that I blur out the title of the book, as the title is a word sometimes used as a vulgarity against the female anatomy.

Instead, I pulled the post until I had time to write more thoroughly about Inga Muscio's book, and why it occupies such a prominent spot on my desk, and why I don't want to blur it.

The book is titled Cunt. My sister gave it to me about four years ago. Since then, I have loaned it to a number of women, and, luckily, always got it returned. When I lived with Ms. Ginny and our two other (female) roommates, it sat on our coffee table, and people who came to the house would pick it up and look into it.

Cunt is a book about women's health, much like Our Bodies, Ourselves but considerably smaller and snarkier. It focuses on what some might call "natural" methods of promoting health/preventing disease (not to mention pregnancy and STDs); it was in this book where I first read about sea sponges, the Keeper, and cloth pads.

It also includes sections on sexuality and gender and feminism, and on the long and convoluted history of the word that makes up its title. (It's fairly common knowledge that the word cunt derives from the word country, and was once a term of great respect; but Muscio takes us a bit further than that, through 250 years of linguistical fun. )

If you're interested in learning more, here's where to click. I'd offer to loan you my copy, but it would probably be less expensive for you to purchase your own (because I would totally make you pay for shipping ^__^), and even less expensive to read it at the library or at a bookstore.

At any rate, I wanted to explain the book, and so I did. It's a great book, and I'm glad to show it off. ^__^