cucumbers, 290
cuddling, 293
cultural meaning and representations of vagina, 125–84. See also naming the vagina
in ancient history, 125–30
in early Judeo-Christianity, 130–34
in Elizabethan Age, 134–40
in Islam, 241–43
in Modernism, 159–84
in Second Wave feminism, 176–82
in Victorianism, 141–57
cuniculus, 197–98
cunnilingus, 160, 198
cunt, 133, 135–36, 137, 195–98
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (Muscio), 184
“cuntini,” 199–200
Cupid’s Poisoned Arrow (Robinson), 223, 224
D
Dalai Lama, 8, 9
dancing, 292–93
dangerous men, 314–18
Dark Ages, 132–33
“date nights,” 282–83
date rape, 105, 151–52, 189
Dawkins, Richard, 317
decadence, 155
de Contrecoeur, Claude, 58–59
degenerative spinal disease, 16–17
Degler, Carl, 146
De Gourmont, Remy, 163
degradation, 142, 143, 183, 222, 226
dehabituation programs, 224–26
Delta of Venus (Nin), 78, 165–66
Demeter, 129
Democratic Republic of the Congo, 91–92
depression, 38, 57, 59, 107–10, 122
desensitization, 117–18, 217, 220, 221, 226–29, 254
desire, female, 5. See also arousal, female
epidemic of low, 80–84, 340n
in history and literature, 42, 129–31, 142, 151–55, 169, 171, 173–74, 175, 180, 183, 240
Pfaus’s rat study on, 64–67, 296, 326–27
desire, male, and aggression, 183, 226–27
detach response, 121
diaphragms, 163
Dinner Party, The (Chicago), 179
Dobson, Roger, 303–4
Dodson, Betty, 178, 237–38
Doidge, Norman, 223
Donne, John, 138–39
“Don’t You Feel My Leg” (song), 173–74
dopamine, 37, 55–62, 284–85
activation and, 29, 30, 55, 56–57, 59, 62, 223
pornography and, 219–20, 222–23
Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter, 161
dual heroes, 314–20
Dworkin, Andrea, 183, 212, 226
E
Eastern traditions. See Tantra; Taoism
Eberhardt, Isabelle, 55
Egerton, George, 155
Egypt
ancient mythology, 126–27, 197
Arab Spring, 200–201
Egyptiana, 162
Eisler, Riane, 125–26
ejaculation, female, 177, 180, 240, 250, 257, 280–82
ejaculation, male, 116, 218–20, 265, 322–25
“Elegy XIX” (Donne), 138–39
Eliot, George, 42, 45, 72, 152–53, 285
Eliot, T. S., 164
Elizabethan Age, 134–38, 206
Ellis, Havelock, 156
Emotional Intelligence (Goleman), 8, 301–2
endothelial NOS (eNOS), 191–93
Ensler, Eve, 183–84
environmental setting, for lovemaking, 277–83
episiotomy, 24
erectile dysfunction, 218–25, 227–28
erotica, 180, 229, 316
Victorian, 230–32
estrogen, 58, 322
Evans, Arthur, 126
Eve, 127
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (Reuben), 181–82
evolution, 31, 69, 273–74, 306–7, 311–12, 315–16, 317
existential despair, and vulvodynia, 107–15
expressive aphasia, 99
eye-to-eye gazing, 297–99
F
Facebook questionnaire, 51–52
Fanny Hill (Cleland), 143, 230
Farrow, Caroline, 201
Fear of Flying (Jong), 178–79
Female Brain, The (Brizendine), 277–78
Female Eunuch, The (Greer), 178
Femalia (Blank), 183
Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan), 176
feminism (feminists), 61, 125–26, 151, 176–82, 237–39. See also Second Wave feminism; specific feminists
Masters and Johnson and, 77
rape and, 89, 92–93
Feministing.com, 184
Ferrari, Nick, 196
fertility, 293–96
fertility figurines, 125–26
Few Figs from Thistles, A (Millay), 162
Fifty Shades of Grey (James), 316
“fight or flight” response, 34, 120–22, 302
Fish, Nancy, 107–14, 310
Fisher, Helen, 58, 69, 222, 273–74, 315–16, 317, 322, 357n
Flannery, Jane, 159
flowers, 277–83
foreplay, 35–36, 77–78, 240–41
Foucault, Michel, 141
Freud, Sigmund, 8, 89, 129, 156–57, 164, 169, 176–77
Friday, Nancy, 316
Friedan, Betty, 176
Frigidity in Woman (Stekels), 156–57
Fuller, Loie, 160–61, 180
Fullerton, Morton, 44–45, 63, 286–87
Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs (Acton), 144, 146
Futures Without Violence, 100
G
Galen, 130, 133
Gansler, Laura Leedy, 188
Garelick, Rhonda, 161
Gaskin, Ina May, 32
gaze (gazing), 297–99
gender differences, 69–71
ANS and, 34–35
dopamine and, 60–61
pelvic nerve and, 23–24, 114, 194–95
verbal processing and, 300
Geography of Thought, The (Nisbett), 206
Georgiadis, Janniko, 8, 30, 284–85, 288, 313
Germ, The (magazine), 154
Gilgamesh, 126
goal-oriented model of sex, 24, 35, 36, 79, 215
“Goblin Market” (Rossetti), 42–43, 285
Goddess, the, 6–10
addressing woman as, 312–14
reclaiming the, 329–33
Goddess Array, 75–76, 239, 272–328
ANS and, 28, 75, 215
being boring or scary, 314–20
dimming the lights and relaxing her, 277–83
ejaculation, 322–25
finding her “sacred spot,” 307–11
gazing into her eyes, 297–99
helping her go into an orgasmic trance state, 283–88
hugging and cuddling her, 289–97
ignoring at your own peril, 325–27
in literature, 165–66, 230–32
playing with her nipples, 320–21
“showers of stars,” 327–28
stroking her, 302–7
talking and listening to her, 299–302
telling her she’s beautiful, 311–14
valuing her and helping her, 273–76
Goddess Network, 272
goddess worship, in ancient history, 125–30
Golden Lotus, The, 208
Goldman, Emma, 42, 45, 46
Goldstein, Al, 232
Goleman, Daniel, 8, 9, 297–98, 301–2
Gone with the Wind (Mitchell), 315
“good” and “bad” vaginas, 141–43
good guys, 314–18
Good & Plenty candies, 290
Good Vibrations (San Francisco), 180
Gorzalka, Boris, 28, 34, 104
Gottman, John, 301–3
Grant, Linda, 201
Gravina, G. L., 309
Great Medicine of the Three Peaks, 241
Great Mother, The (Neumann), 128
Greece vacation, 329–33
Greeks, ancient, 129–30, 133
Greer, Germaine, 178, 183
Groneman, Carol, 148–49
G-spot, 78–79, 177, 307–11
envi
ronmental setting and, 280–82
Tantra and, 243, 249, 251, 257
gynecology, 143, 145–46
H
Halsted, William, 61
Hamlet (Shakespeare), 137–38
Han Dynasty, 206, 207, 208, 239–40
Hastini-Yoni, 207–8
hateful vagina, 131–40
Healing Painful Sex (Coady and Fish), 107–14, 310
Heartdaka.com, 257–58
Hefner, Hugh, 232
Hellerstein, Erna Olafson, 146–47
Hesiod, 128
Hewitt, Jennifer Love, 214
Hill, Anita, 188–89
Hinduism, 124, 128, 207–8. See also Tantra
hip-hop, 175
Hippocrates, 130, 133
History of Sexuality, The (Foucault), 141
Hite, Shere, The Hite Report, 2, 77, 78–79, 176–77, 216–17
Hoch, Zwi, 310
Holden, Lynn, 196
“hole,” 9, 164, 210
“hookup” culture, 216
Horney, Karen, 176
hospital birthing environments, 31–32
House of Mirth, The (Wharton), 44–45, 287
How to Do Things with Words (Austin), 187
hugs (hugging), 292–93
Human Sexual Response (Masters and Johnson), 38–39, 77, 78–79, 181
Hume, Leslie Parker, 146–47
Hunt, Matthew, 196
hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), 80–82
hypochondria, 97
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), 104
hypothalamus, 37, 288, 289
I
Ibrahim, Samira, 200–201
Ideal Marriage (van de Velde), 159–60
“If You See My Rooster” (song), 171–72
“I’ll Keep Sittin’ on It (If I Can’t Sell It)” (song), 174–75
impotence, and porn use, 218–25
Inanna, 126–27
“I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl” (song), 172–73
Inés of My Soul (Allende), 46
infertility, 295
interconnectedness, 5, 21, 47–48
Intercourse (Dworkin), 183
International Rescue Committee (IRC), 89–93
Islam, 241–43
J
James, E. L., 316
James, Lisa, 100
James, William, 7, 8
Jane Eyre (Brontë), 72, 285, 315, 317
Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Company, 188
Jethá, Cacilda, 2, 222
Johnson, Lil, 170–71
Johnson, Virginia, 38–39, 77, 78–79, 181
jokes (joking), 188–89, 205–6
Jong, Erica, 178–79, 183
Joy of Sex, The (Comfort), 177, 181–82
Judeo-Christianity, 127–28, 130–40
K
Kali, Devadatta, 125
Kalra, Sanjay, 63
Kent, Tami Lynn, 100, 101
Keyes, Marian, 214
King Lear (Shakespeare), 134–37
Kocur, Basil, 228–29
Koedt, Anne, 77–78, 177
Komisaruk, Barry R., 39, 67–68, 78, 115, 288, 328
Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, 155–56
Kwan Yin, 20
L
labiaplasty, 228–29
lactation, 31, 32–33, 62
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Lawrence), 164–65, 187
Laqueur, Thomas, 130, 139, 140
Laumann, Edward O., 81
Lawrence, D. H., 164–65
Leaves of Grass (Whitman), 162
Lee, Spike, 277
lesbian and bisexual women, 6, 69, 274–75
LeVay, Simon, 70
Leviticus, 131
Lewes, George, 45
Lewis-Hasteley, Helen, 201
“liberated” vagina, 159–84
in blues music, 168–76
self-defining vagina of the Second Wave, 176–82
transcendentalism vs. “just pussy,” 165–68
libertarianism, sexual, 181–82
libido, female, 56, 57, 59, 60, 81, 83, 233, 294, 295. See also arousal, female
Light, Kathleen, 303–4, 306
lighting, for lovemaking, 277–83
Lightwoman, Leora, 351n
Linden, David J., 58, 62
listening, 299–302
literary representations of the vagina. See cultural meaning and representations of vagina
lock hospitals, 150
lordosis, 49, 192, 326
loss of self, 44, 72–73, 283–88
Lousada, Mike, 204, 257–68, 307, 309
traumatized vagina and, 115–23, 194
yoni massage, 117–18, 122–23, 258–68, 271–72, 297
lovemaking
author’s spinal injury and, 13–15, 17–18, 20–21
behaviors and practices for. See Goddess Array
goal-oriented model of, 24, 35, 36, 79, 215
Lowell, Amy, 164
Lummaa, Virpi, 291
luteinizing hormones, 293–94
M
McCall, K. M., 58
McDowell, Ephraim, 145
McEwan, Ian, 13
MacKinnon, Catharine, 226
McMahon, Arthur Whittier, 43
Madonna, 329
Magon, Navneet, 63
Mah, K., 284–85, 354n
Male Brain, The (Brizendine), 300
Man Up, 92
Married Women’s Property Acts, 143
massage
sacred spot, 243–56, 278, 309
yoni, 115–18, 258–67, 271–72
Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff, 147
Masters, William H., 38–39, 77, 78–79, 181
masturbation, female, 68–69, 178
porn and, 226–29
Victorian era and, 144, 147–49
masturbation, male, and porn use, 217–21
“Mathilde” (Nin), 166
matriarchy, 125–26
Mayer, John, 215
meat, slang term for vagina, 210–12
medicalization, 141–42, 145–49
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Cleland), 143, 230
Memphis Minnie, 171–72
Meston, Cindy, 28, 34, 58, 102–3, 104, 203, 322, 324
Metamorphoses (Ovid), 129
midwifery, 32, 145–46
Miles, Rosalind, 126
Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 161–62, 180
Miller, Henry, 163–64, 164, 166–68, 209–10
Millett, Kate, 89, 187, 196
Minoans, 127
Misconceptions (Wolf), 24, 31–32, 33
Mishnah, 131
misophonia, 98
Mitchell, Margaret, 315
Modernism, 159–84
the blues vagina, 168–76
self-defining vagina of the Second Wave, 176–82
transcendentalism or “just pussy,” 165–68
monotheism, 127–28, 130–31
Morgan, Marabel, 177, 325
mouth of the cervix, 18, 67–68, 78
Ms. (magazine), 178
mucous membrane (mucosa), 23, 117
Muir, Caroline, 243, 249–56, 278
Muir, Charles, 116, 243–44, 249–50, 278
multisystem dysregulation, 190, 198, 203, 252
Muscio, Inga, 184
My Secret Garden (Friday), 316
Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm (Koedt), 77, 177
N
naming the vagina, 187–233. See also slang terms for the vagina
bad stress and, 190–94
hostile language and sexual harassment, 188–90, 194–202
joking and, 188–89, 205–6
pornography and, 215–33
nasal oxytocin sprays, 62
National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 99
Natural Philosophy of Love, The (De Gourmont), 163
Nelson, Kevin, 286
Netter, Frank, 15
Netter images
, 15–16, 23–24, 37
Neumann, Erich, 128
neural compression, 17–18, 20–21
neuronal NOS (nNOS), 191–93
New Woman, 146, 155, 157, 162, 164–65
New York (magazine), 218
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 182
Nin, Anaïs, 41–42, 78, 165–68, 209–10
nipples, 32, 34, 241, 257, 320–21
Nisbett, Richard E., 206
nitric oxide (NO), 191–93
norepinephrine, 58, 103, 113
North Country (movie), 188
nymphomania, 155–56
Nymphomania: A History (Groneman), 148–49
O
Obscene Publications Act, 143
Offen, Karen M., 146–47
O’Keeffe, Georgia, 41, 43, 45–46, 161, 180
onstage orgasm, 49–51
opioids, 8, 56, 60–61, 63–64
orgasm, female, 77–79, 283–88. See also clitoral orgasm; vaginal orgasm
aesthetic surroundings and, 278
ANS and, 27–31
confidence, creativity and, 47–48, 50–54
female disorders and, 80–82
feminist movement and, 176–80
finding her “sacred spot,” 307–11
Freud and, 156–57
neural wiring and, 14, 16, 18–20, 24–25
opioid release and, 8, 56, 60
sexual centers and, 67–73, 176–77
“showers of stars,” 327–28
yoni massage and, 117–18, 265–67
orgasm, male, 265, 285, 307
orgasmic trance state, 283–88
Othello (Shakespeare), 134–35
Ovid, 129
oxytocin, 32–33, 37–38, 58, 62–63, 257, 288, 306, 321
P
Padmini, 208
Partridge, Eric, 197
Parvati, 128
Pascal, Blaise, 9
passion, female. See desire, female
Pater, Walter, 162
Paul, Saint, 131–32
peacock feather, 155
Pear of Anguish, 134
pelvic nerve, 15–16, 22–25, 37–38
author’s compression, 13–18, 20–21
differences in female sexual response, 18–20, 25
male vs. female, 23–24, 114, 194–95
rape and, 94–98, 107–15
trauma and, 87–88, 106–9, 113–15
pelvic nerve disorders, 15–21
penis envy, 156
perception disorders, and rape, 94–98
Perfumed Garden of Cheikh Nefzoui, 242–43
perineum, 23, 24, 31, 78
Perry, John Delbert, 280–82
Persephone, 129, 268
pessaries, 149
Pfaus, Jim, 2, 57–58, 60, 64–67, 219, 228, 275, 283, 288, 315, 319, 326–27
pharmaceutical companies, 76–77
pheromones, male, 289–97
phobic postural sway, 95–98
physical appearance, telling her she’s beautiful, 311–14
pituitary gland, 37
Plato, 129–30
Playboy, 182, 233
Politics of Female Sexuality, The (Greer), 178
polyvagal theory, 120–21
Porges, Stephen, 120–21
Porn for Women (anthology), 312–13