The Clitoral Truth: The Secret World at Your Fingertips

Rating:
Summary: On the cutting edge of sexual liberation and knowledge
Review: A male friend with many shared interests recommended this book and I bought it reluctantly, expecting to find the same old tired refrains about unresponsive women and the equivalent of another Mars/Venus dichotomy. Instead, I am happy to say that THE CLITORAL TRUTH makes information about women's anatomy and responsiveness more comprehensible than most books that make the same claims. I was particularly happy to see that the author tackles the issues of G-Spots and female ejaculation by relying on women's experience instead of the academic doubts of male "experts" who seem to have very limited experience with women. The reality of a range of responses in women, depending on their beliefs, circumstances, and level of arousal, reminds us all that what we are TOLD we do is usually very different from what we KNOW we do. This is true whether we talk about female ejaculation, multiple orgasm, ability to self-pleasure to orgasm, or teach our partners what we want and like. Her list of resources, books, Internet sites, and workshops is wonderful.

This book is a terrific companion to Betty Dodson's SEX FOR ONE: THE JOY OF SELF-LOVING.

~~Joan Mazza, author of Dream Back Your Life; Dreaming Your Real Self; Who's Crazy Anyway; and Exploring Your Sexual Self (a guided journal).

Rating:
Summary: It works !!
Review: At least I can tell my wife that a finger will do it as explained in this pragmatic and wonderfully illustrated essay. Step by step instructions will guide you through the discovery of a well managed expectation. Good luck !

Rating:
Summary: A male bashing book with side comments about the clitoris
Review: I have been enlightened! I am going to buy this book and I'm also going to buy copies for every one of my friends. I am frustrated that I was not taught the proper anatomy of my clitoris in school, while we pored over every cell and curve of the male genitalia. I would have demaned a lot more of my lovers if this information was more commonly presented! My poor husband doesn't know what he's in for. ;)

I would give this book to my teen-age daughter (if I had one). I would use some of the information as teaching material for my sons (when they're older).

Rating:
Summary: Socio-political commentary or a review?
Review: I think the reader from Ibiza fails to understand the difference between editorial comment and book review. Did she in fact read the book, since her only substantive comment refers to Mary Jane Sherfey's out of print title? Those of us who have read this book have the right to express an opinion. Attacking those of us male for some perceived complicity in wrongs against women is stupid; if we're all boors why would we read such a book in the first place? No my complaint is that this book simply fails to deliver on it's promised coverage. Read the book through and then re-read the introduction and you will wonder if you somehow missed about a thousand pages or something.

I'm all for men and women reclaiming a knowledge and reverence for sexuality (male as well as female sexuality which our editorialist seems to fail to understand goes a bit beyond ejaculation). Unfortunately this book does little to encourage us to transcend to old battle of the sexes.

Rating:
Summary: Dr Ruth she's not.
Review: Suffice to say this book comes across as more than a bit harsh toward heterosexual males like myself, and thus it is difficult to give a truly unbiased review of it (or to formulate an unemotional opinion on it for that matter). But the bottomline is the book falls far short of it's promise. The author spends too much time and energy bashing all manner of feminist favorite targets, and too little truly attempting to create an equitable model of sexuality that both genders can embrace. In truth her repeated references to penis in vagina intercourse as the apogee of male sexual experience does little to advance the argument that maybe there is a better model of sexuality out there for all of us.

The book obviously does provide an extensive review of female genital anatomy; although, I found it ironic that after maligning all modern sex manuals as showing "cartoon genitals" for women, that the author chose a cartoonist (Fish) to provide the book illustrations. The real disappointment though is that there is very little is the way of detailed information about sexual practices. Ms Chalker may "mention" masturbation and outercourse but truth be told she does not "discuss" them in a fashion sufficient to educate the reader to any degree. As a case in point she repeatedly makes mention of women using vibrators to enhance their sexual pleasure, yet never does she describe their most appropriate application or model choice in the way Betty Dodson has. Similarly for many other "mentions", the reader must already understand the mechanics of the topic or be left to pursue further research. So it is really quite a stretch to describe this as a sex workshop in book form - it is not. It is as much as anything a book on sexual politics, which is fine, if only it had been marketed as such.

So I would caution the heterosexual male population to not be misled by the appealing nude female torso on the cover or the jacket notes suggesting this book is intended for a mainstream audience. Recognize this book for what it is and proceed at your own risk. Personally I found Felice Newman's "Whole Lesbian Sex Book" to be far more sex positive and inclusive, even though I am obviously not the intended audience in that case. Go figure!

Postscript (9/6/02)
Upon further review it would appear that this author has made a rather basic error in her purportedly updated anatomy - namely she classifies the clitoral body (or shaft) and crura (legs) as spongy tissue analogous to the male corpus spongiosum surrounding the urethra, and distinct from the corpus cavernosa that they are more obviously analogous to. She further identifies the vaginal bulbs as cavernosa when in fact they are spongy erectile tissue. While this may seem like a minor point to some, it certainly confuses the issue of male/female homology. Interestingly this was easily cleared up by a quick reference to the online version of Gray's Anatomy, which would seem to invalidate a very basic premise of the book, that the information on the clitoris is simply not available. While "marriage manuals" may indeed lack a good anatomical foundation, this information has not been "lost" by the medical community, and the tissue in question is clearly identified as erectile which would suggest a sexual function. So one is left to wonder whether this author is suffering from some sort of self-serving myopia when it comes to her interpretation of what the medical establishment knows and doesn't know.

Finally having now seen the original drawings from Suzann Gage's book, A New View of a Woman's Body, (in Betty Dodson's video Viva La Vulva) I can certainly say the diagrams in this book are truly poor, being as I indicated earlier, of cartoon quality. A shame Ms Chalker could not negotiate use of the original drawings from her friend and coworker, and had to rely instead on a longwinded reference to Ms Gage's work to give the vague impression they were included.

Rating:
Summary: As A Medical Book,Excellent--As A Sexual Manual,Horrible
Review: This book isn't about male bashing as one of the reviewers claims. I guess being male and reading about something that is unfortunately true, hurts. However, the author does cite a few cases where some men seek to do justice to this women's cause. Yes, women's anatomy and sexuality have been defined, suppressed, and downgraded by heteropatriarchy. I have never read a book as informative as this one. I feel proud for all of us women, because our genitals might look different,but they are very precious and they work just as well as men's. It is men who are always ridiculing and joking about women very disrespectfully. All they see is body parts and not a human being. The workshops in the last chapter aren't about lesbians. It is about reclaiming and discovering sexual pleasure. Some women have been sexually abused by men(brothers, uncles, fathers, boyfriends,etc) and they have had a traumatic experience. Some women have bee brought up by very conservative parents who repudiate women's right to sexual pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Hurray for women's right to sexual pleasure!
Review: This book isn't about male bashing as one of the reviewers claims. I guess being male and reading about something that is unfortunately true, hurts. However, the author does cite a few cases where some men seek to do justice to this women's cause. Yes, women's anatomy and sexuality have been defined, suppressed, and downgraded by heteropatriarchy. I have never read a book as informative as this one. I feel proud for all of us women, because our genitals might look different,but they are very precious and they work just as well as men's. It is men who are always ridiculing and joking about women very disrespectfully. All they see is body parts and not a human being. The workshops in the last chapter aren't about lesbians. It is about reclaiming and discovering sexual pleasure. Some women have been sexually abused by men(brothers, uncles, fathers, boyfriends,etc) and they have had a traumatic experience. Some women have bee brought up by very conservative parents who repudiate women's right to sexual pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Socio-political commentary or a review?
Review: This is quite an interesting book. Its central basis surrounds the clit but also describes it as the central pleasure point to pretty much everything else. It provides all the information necessary along with many anatomical and entertaining hand-sketched pictures, describing all the various muscles and functions and spots of the entire female genetalia. On this, I could not complain or ask for anything more.

Indeed, the author has done her homework in writing this book, but I say excessive in the title because of how the material is presented along with the many accompanying details. Many a page are filled with backround information on the "Adventure of the Clitoris!"(no, they don't actually word it like that in the book). Strongly written in the female perspective, although it doesn't demean usefulness for the male readers, it gives the history of the clitorus all the way back to greek times as well as various stories and such. Although it does give the book some color, ideas throughout this 200-page book are often revealed slowly. I believe the same effect could have been established with half the space.

The chapters, from female ejaculation to beyond intercourse, do cover quite a bit. I stand firmly by my 5-stars. Choose as you wish: Fulfilling/excessive, colorful/cumbersome, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book myself, though.