Review | Everything you need to know about the vagina – book celebrates female sex organ ‘without even a whiff of shame’

The Wonder Down Under
by Nina Brochmann and Ellen Stokken Dahl (read by Abigail Hardiman)
Yellow Kite

4/5 stars

You won’t be disappointed by this book – even if you bought it thinking it was about Australia (ahem). Written by a pair of Norwegian medical students, The Wonder Down Under aims to educate women about their vaginas “without even a whiff of shame”.

The authors acknowledge that they had fallen victim to myths surrounding the female sex organs, and that those about the hymen are the most persistent. Admittedly, this reader found little she didn’t already know, although the section on aesthetic labioplasty confirmed more public information is necessary about this “trend”.

One fascinating factoid concerned men’s external genitalia, which are much like women’s. No way? Read the bit about the scrotum and you’ll have a new ice breaker at parties. Charmaine Chan