What Readers Say | What Professionals Say

“This recent publication of this handsomely bound and lavishly illustrated volume represents an attempt to portray female genitalia as being of diverse shape, size, pigmentation and hirsuteness. In doing this, it provides useful education in a somewhat taboo area, as many women, both young and old, have little idea of the range of normal for anatomical variation for their labia minora and majora, and other parts of their external genitalia. This book illustrates with photographs, which are sensitively and imaginatively done, a variety of genital shapes and sizes, along with descriptions by their ‘owners’ attesting to the utility and normalness of their genitalia and their particular shape.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) has expressed concerns about the numbers of women undergoing cosmetic vaginal surgery, sometimes in the mistaken belief that their genitals are somehow abnormal. Books such as these can provide information on a range of normal, and reassurance for a woman that her anatomy is normal, and nothing to be ashamed of, or anything that would require surgical remediation, assuming that its functioning was normal.
The way that the book has been produced is to link the shape of genitalia with floral parallels, comparing genital shapes to other shapes in nature, emphasising their naturalness. For women, this may also help them in realising that, as flowers and fruit change shape as they grow and bloom, female genital shape may also change, often after life events such as puberty, vaginal birth or menopause.
More education in this area for woman is long overdue, and this book fills a niche in this regard.” — Dr Ted Weaver, Fellow, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

In Westernised societies, amidst other forms of female genital cosmetic surgery, the uptake of labia reduction surgery is especially on the increase. There is no reason to suppose that the labia minora have become larger or more prone to diseases in recent years. Neither is there any evidence that surgery is being carried out to address recognised pathology. Rather, there is every reason to believe that the increasing prevalence of surgery has something do with women and girls' increasing dissatisfaction with their genitalia. The hairless, smooth and tucked-in female genital appearance is being aggressively promoted. That many healthy women and girls believe their genitals to be 'abnormal' and require surgical 'correction' should come as no surprise. The infantilising aesthetic grossly distorts the reality of wide variations in adult female genital configurations -variations that are faithfully portrayed in the Book of Yonis. I hope that women and their partners and care providers will consult this resource for information and inspiration. –Dr Lih-Mei Liao, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, UK

"Thank you for sending me your very artistic book. I must say I did sympathise with the intent thereof and think you have produced a beautiful work which does indeed show the "natural" variation in terms of female genitalia. As I expressed in the press recently, I am most concerned about the potential impact of air brushed and "doctored" images of women generally and more particularly with respect to pornographic images which air brush genitalia and the impact on susceptible women who might construe these as somehow the "yardstick" to which they should also aim. The implications for people seeking genital surgery even at a young age are no doubt well known to you so I can only say that my belief is that government should legislate for any airbrushed or doctored images have a bi-line stating that they have been airbrushed.

I believe that your book does strike a good balance in terms of its artistic look and would be useful educationally to women in general and practitioners more specifically." - Professor David Jonathan Castle, Consultant Psychiatrist