Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage

Follow along with author Rachel E. Gross on this journey into female anatomy. Much like a camera obscura reflects the world back in a dimmer and inverted manner, science has long done the same with the female body. Through a narrow focus on reproduction, science has failed to understand female anatomy holistically. Until recently, at least. Gross sets out to document the changes in the way that science looks at and understands female anatomy, taking the reader on a journey from Boston, Massachusetts to Melbourne, Australia, and talking to dozens of pioneering scientists along the way. Spurred on to new discoveries by the recent paradigm shift that recognizes that sex and gender are distinct and nonbinary, these scientists are making discoveries not just about female bodies, but about all bodies. By turns humorous and serious, scientific and accessible, Vagina Obscura is a testament to the power of knowledge and inquiry to reorient our view of the world.