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Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC

History magazine. Female anatomy and the ideas surrounding it, from breastfeeding to virginity,

can still cause contention today. From the original Pandora myth to intact Hyman's being used as evidence in courts of law,

Professor Helen King takes Lauren Good on a journey through the ever-changing cultural history of

women's bodies. Thanks so much for joining me today to discuss your new book, Immaculate Forms,

uncovering the history of Women's Bodies.

Firstly, Helen, what made you decide to write it?

Well, I've been working on the history of the female body for decades now,

and I'd never really put it all together into a book that was accessible for a general reader.

And I do want people to hear this because I think history is really exciting.

And I think it tells us things about our own bodies that we wouldn't have otherwise known.

So when I was asked to do this, I thought, how do I approach it? How do I even start the history

of the female body from like ancient Greeks to now? And it occurred to me the only way through

this was to do it by body parts, which of course is reductive because being a woman is a lot more than what your body parts are. But historically, I decided that were the four parts that really had been used most to think about what a woman is and what women can do. Because all of this is actually not just theoretical, it's actual.

So that was why I decided to do it with through the four parts.

So the four parts are breasts, clitoris, hymen and womb.

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