Is it OK to use 'vagina' to cover all the internal and external female sexual organs? 'Vulvagate' reminds us of a lost world of passages, gates and doors.
Category: sex
Hysteria from Hippocrates
(updated 20 September 2019 - and, thanks to Minji Lee of Rice University, a previous edit is available in Korean here) Please can we just get something out of the way once and for all? The disease of 'hysteria' was neither described nor named by Hippocrates. I know The Sun says it was, but it's… Continue reading Hysteria from Hippocrates
The speculum finally gets redesigned – by women
concerns about cold, clanking equipment used in gynaecological procedures go back a long way in history
Agnodice: reading the story
Agnodice, 'the first midwife'? Why this is a myth, and a powerful one at that.
Cleopatra and the vibrator powered by bees
One of the most far-fetched myths about ancient sexuality, repeated online but also in print, is that Cleopatra invented the vibrator. Some sites date this event to ‘circa 54 BC’ while others go for 45 BC: there’s nothing like a date to make a story look more convincing. Now, there’s obviously one little problem here:… Continue reading Cleopatra and the vibrator powered by bees
Mistaking histories 