soft, receptive and embracing
the centre of the yOniverse

There are a few excellent books that celebrate, display, describe and discuss the glorious yOni. We review them here and are delighted to be able to offer them for sale through the yOni bookstore.

"Femalia" edited by Joani Blank

"Outstanding! I thought the book was a triumph of the female anatomy. Never before have I experienced the grandness of the female genitalia without the "dirtiness" of porn connotation. Great work, Joani! As a photographer myself, what I wouldn't give to be a part of a project that educates women with their own bodies."

"You will find these images some of the most beautiful you've ever seen, or be shocked by them. This book is a magic mirror letting you know exactly how you feel about female genitalia. It's a perfect coffee table book." Annie Sprinkle

"The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler

"Down there?" says a composite character in "The Vagina Monologues," Eve Ensler's outrageous, engaging book based on her award-winning play of the same title. "I haven't been down there since 1953. No, it had nothing to do with [American President] Eisenhower."

Ensler, an American playwright and performance artist, wrote this series of hilarious, disturbing soliloquies to elevate and celebrate the vagina, a much mumbled-about, seldom-discussed body part that gets more derision than respect. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of women ages 6 to 76, she channels the cultural squeamishness that allows us to unflinchingly label arms and legs, but compels us to sink to a shamed whisper in the next breath.

Yet who should we blame for this? The very sound of the word, not just its meaning, works against it. Vagina, muses Ensler, sounds like "an infection at best, maybe a medical instrument: 'Hurry, Nurse, bring me the Vagina.'" In nimble efforts to get around this coldly clinical word, women--as well as men and, certainly, children--have lobbed some incredible euphemisms into play: "poopelu," "monkey box," "tamale," "split knish," "choochi snorcher," "Gladys Siegelman"--"Gladys Siegelman?"--and, of course, the old standby "down there."

Ensler swings from silly questions ("If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?") to serious statements. One of the most powerful monologues in the book is a string of jagged, contrapuntal verses stitched together from the memories of a Bosnian woman raped by soldiers. Other pieces treat their subject with fear, loathing, amazement, stunned pleasure, or loving, often embarrassing detail.

A book so intimate is bound to win enemies as well as friends. At times its wordplay is self-important and strident, and its journey echoes an earnest brand of feminist consciousness-raising that virtually lampoons itself. Yet Ensler's fervent mission doesn't deserve to be discounted. "Here's the place to release the myths, shame, and fear," she says. Though offensive to some, the tiny word she wields is marvelously freeing to others. By saying "vagina" over and over in these performance pieces, ignoring embarrassment and deflecting fury, she aims to smash the invisible wall separating women from what she eloquently terms their motors, their centers, their second hearts.

Review by Francesca Coltrera

The Yoni : Sacred Symbol of Female Creative Power
by Rufus C. Camphausen

Rufus Campenhausen traces the yOni motif from its first occurrence almost 30,000 years ago in Europe to its remains in today's cultures. From Tantric practices and yOni manifestations in nature and human endeavors to Eastern mythology, it packs in details about yOni art and spiritual sources.

For these and a selection of other excellent books
please visit the yOni bookstore

yOni now blogging at cliterallyspeaking.blogspot.com

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soft, receptive and embracing the centre of the yOniverse

soft, receptive and embracing
the centre of the yOniverse