Page 16 RAIN April/May 1983 ACCESS: BODY & SOCIETY FROM: PERIOD. A New View ofa Woman’s Body The Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 $8.95, 1981, 167 pp. In 1970 I saw my cervix for the first time. According to A New View of a Woman’s Body my reaction was similar to many other women. "Why haven’t I seen this before?!” This experience expresses the essence of the women’s health self-help movement which spawned this book. Starting in the early 1970’s women began to take women’s health care literally into their own hands. This started a movement based on the idea that women understanding their bodies would make them not only healthier but prouder and more self-confident women. The Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers has produced the Gray’s Anatomy of the self-help movement in this fully-illustrated guide. The book covers a broad range of topics from self-examination to birth control to menstrual extraction. The text is accompanied by detailed illustrations of female anatomy. It also includes color photographs of women’s sexual parts which illustrate a major point of the book—"celebrating the diversity and uniqueness of women’s bodies: at the same time joyously asserting our commonality.” The illustrations and photos are competent and apparently unique in the medical field. I wanted, however, a section of Betty Dobson’s artistic celebrations of women’s sexual organs to complement and lighten the clinical approach as the authors in New View used social commentary to complement the clinical text. The most in-depth section and probably the most groundbreaking is entitled '"The Clitoris: A Feminist Perspective.” This section describes in detail the anatomy of the clitoris and the physiology of orgasm. No, the clitoris is not just a little button, it is a complex org£in with legs stretching back along the vagina and numerous other parts which are all involved in our sexual response. This book is definitely written from a self-help perspective. I expected, but didn’t find, a cut out, fold on the dotted line speculum in the back! This approach, which in the book leads you very specifically through self- examination, masturbation and selfremedies is great for that "we can do it feeling.” Hopefully, it doesn’t turn off a woman who uses aspirin for cramps but who should use the valuable information in this book to communicate with her gynecologist to get that "I have a right to know feeling.” This book is worth picking up even if to just look at the pictures. —Beverly Stein Beverly Stein is a feminist and a socialist who is active as a lawyer and organizer in the Portland area. PERIOD. JoAnn Gardner-Loulan, Bonnie Lopez, and Marcia Quacken- bush Volcano Press 330 Ellis Street #518 San Francisco, CA 94102 $7.25 ppd., 1981, 88 pp. One of the best and possibly one of the worst things that can happen to a young teenage girl is getting her period, and some girls are more prepared than others. I’m preparing myself by reading Period. Period is an interesting, educational, fun-to-read book that discusses menstruation and the mental and physical changes related to it. In a pleasantly down-to-earth way, it talks about those changes and how to deal with them. It explains the parts of the body that deal with the menstrual cycle, and explains the cycle’s process. Ms. Gardner-Loulan, Ms. Lop>ez, and Ms. Quackenbush express opinions and share personal adolescent experiences throughout the book, accompanied by Ms. Quackenbush’s fresh, humorous illustrations. So whether you’ve had your period for days, weeks, months, years, or not at all, women of the world (men, too), read this book. And think about your period. —Darcy Cosper Darcy Cosper is the 13-year-old daughter of one ofRAIN’s editors. Ifyou have a children’s book you would like reviewed, send it to her do RAIN. Menopause: A Self Care Manual (Spanish edition available) Santa Fe Health Education Project P.O. Box 577 Santa Fe, NM 87501 $4.20, 1982, 52 pp. This concise, helpful little book grew out of four years of workshops in north-
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