Naomi Wolf: live webchat TODAY, Thursday 6 September, 12pm to 1pm

[RachelMumsnet]

Naomi Wolf is joining us for a live webchat on Thursday 6 September at 12 noon. Naomi's latest book, Vagina - A New Biography, has attracted major media attention this month and we're delighted she's joining us to tell us more about the book and answer your questions.

Described as 'exhilarating and groundbreaking', Vagina combines cultural history, physiology and personal memoir to explore the role of female desire and how it affects female identity, creativity and confidence.

Naomi Wolf is author of seven books including the bestseller, The Beauty Myth. She travels regularly to speak about gender equality and social justice. She lives in New York and is working towards a doctorate at New College, Oxford University.

Please post your question to Naomi in advance, or set the date in your diary to join us this Thursday at midday to chat to Naomi 'live'.

Low fat cream cheese
[helpfulvagina]

whilst the female insurer was here assessing water leak damage dh metaphorically stroked her for much more than 10 minutes. [cynical vagina]

That means you will now like me 10% more plus we won't have to argue about the quark thing.

Sorry, my vagina is being sarcastic.

I LOVE YOU ALL

Deep respect for the intelligent comments and questions asked by so many of you.

I cannot believe the trite, dismissive and plainly unintelligent responses from Wolfe. This reads like a parody. She has made herself look completely ridiculous, which is extraordinary.

Wolf gah

Oh look, Naomi Wolf's credibility as a commentator/authority on Assange allegations questioned again:

samtycke.nu/eng/2012/09/the-assange-case-naomi-wolf-errs-on-facts-and-basic-geography/

This morning I stroked myself for ten minutes and then my vagine did the cryptic crossword in seven!

Great link Chaya.

Seriously though, why is this so funny?

Why am I clutching my sides at the idea of my flaps pulling faces?

I've been actual lol'ing at the [vadgeemoticons] since yesterday. Am I 12?

[perplexedvagina]

That's good, Hully. If you only get clitoral orgasms you have to do the Quick Crossword, which is literal, mechanical, penile. Only the mystery of vaginal organism breaks your soul through to the mysterious metaphorical relalm of the cryptic.If Freud had realised that, he could have established his distinctions between different kinds of female orgasm much more easily, on the basis of women's crossword preferences.

My vagina prefers Suduko

We never taught Naomi the word 'fanjo' [sadvagina]

I DON'T MEAN ORGASM STROKES That is so rood!

Just ordinary forearms type ones.

Oh,well, think how quickly you could have done the crossword if you had done the rood strokes, tsk! Your brain isn't connected to your forearm, you know, not even a little bit, which is why men have never targeted women's forearms.

I hadn't realised Wolf's vagina was sad because it was out of touch with her spine. Apparently her discovery of the complicated neural pathways to women's genitalia prompted this book.

I don't know how many of you have felt shocked to discover your 'self' is more about your nervous system's physical & chemical configuration than you thought. It was a hell of a shock to me the first time. Perhaps like Wolf, too, I became obsessed with finding out more about it (in my case, about ovaries and hormones). My endocrinologist was helpful and encouraging; he felt that widespread ignorance about female biology causes needless problems ... and disempowerment. I've got to say that years on Mumsnet have convinced me he's right.

With caveats all over the place - particularly about neurobiology & neuropsychology, which are misunderstood by both sexes although they tend to impact more heavily on women - I think I can understand why she may have made flaky extrapolations from her freshly-learned science. And I'm not prepared to rubbish them without reading the book properly.

My vagina is currently standing defiant, hands on hips (trying not to think of anatomical equivalent), suggesting some other vaginas on here might be in denial of their own power! Take that any way you want it [smiling vagine]

You can probably work out all that stuff about self and neuroscience by dropping LSD though. There's no need to start bringing vaginas into it.

Acid must have moved on since my day I got that my feet are really pig's trotters and I can send my astral body zooming into outer space, but nothing about neurotransmitters ... ?

'LSD alters the action of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, triggering extreme changes in brain function.'

thanks to whoever called this a version of the equivalent 'she needs a good seeing to' thing - it is isn't it.

fancy language and spouted by an alleged feminist but awfully like misogynistic drivel in sheeps clothing.

Yes, Spaniel, but it doesn't afford insight into their workings, does it?

Though I suppose it might if you dropped the acid while listening to a colourful description of nerve systems, hormones and happy vaginas ...

GN, yes but I was referring to your post, where you said:

'I don't know how many of you have felt shocked to discover your 'self' is more about your nervous system's physical & chemical configuration than you thought.'

and LSD is a straight forward way of experiencing that by changing your nervous system you can temporarily experience a very different sense of self.

I thought it was a pretty harmless comment. Debating it is kind of off topic, so I won't, as it really was just meant as a passing remark.

[SpacedOutVagina]

Pubes

[rockinginthecornervagina]

Was it Greythorne?

(The 'Good Seeing To' allusionist)

Having not known much about Naomi Wolf beyond the initial hype about "The Beauty Myth" (because I am that old! ), I was interested to learn more given the recent publicity.

I am profoundly disturbed by the backwards step that this "feminist" (and I have put the word into italics deliberately) appears to be advocating: reducing females to the dictates of our "bits" deliberately using a word that I know she would hate We are more than that. We are the sum of our brains, our body, our relationships, our choices.

Saying that we are dictated to by how our fanjo reacts demeans us and give ammunition to those that try to claim that "poor women can't help it" or "need to be protected".

It is the other half of the coin that says that all men are controlled by their penises and are therefore to be feared as potential rapists.

Shame on her.