The Wonder Down Under: A User's Guide to the Vagina

The Wonder Down Under: A User's Guide to the Vagina

2017 • 304 pages

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Average rating3

15

I think it's important to know that this is a medical manual. It's written by two female medics and it shows - everything is about statistics and research, and that's okay, it contains relevant and useful info.
However one section that left a really bad aftertaste - side effects of hormonal contraception. This book presents itself as a feminist piece served to empower people with vaginas with knowledge and encourage them to not be ashamed of their experiences. And yet it tells the readers that side effects of contraception are basically dismissable, be glad you're not pregnant, and absolutely doubts and disvalidates any connection between hormonal contraception and mood swings/depression ending the speculation how whomever voiced their experience probably just thinks the mood changes are caused by the pills when it's something unrelated and they don't know. Silly women. Topped it all off, following a bunch of statistics, with the sentence “feelings are not facts” which to my liking echoes way too closely Ben Shapiro's carchphrase “Facts don't care about your feelings.”
Alsotries so hard to be progressive and inclusive, but often fails short. Mentions trans people, marks them as valid but then sticks to the labels like “female organs” and “female hormones” which was a bit disappointing. Pretty heterosexual even though sometimes the authors do remember queer women exist. Also occasional medical fatphobia. But a good purely medical scientific basis for vaginas & co.

February 5, 2021Report this review