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Womanhood: The Bare Reality
100 women bare all in an empowering collection of photographs and interviews about Womanhood.
Vagina, vulva, lady garden, pussy, beaver, cunt, fanny… whatever you call it most women have no idea what’s ‘down there’. Culturally and personally, no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust, worship and desecration in the same way.
From smooth Barbie dolls to internet porn, girls and women grow up with a very narrow view of what they should look like, even though in reality there is an enormous range. Womanhood departs from the ‘ideal vagina’ and presents the gentle un-airbrushed truth, allowing us to understand and celebrate our diversity.
For the first time, 100 brave and beautiful women reveal their bodies and stories on their own terms, talking about how they feel about pleasure, sex, pain, trauma, birth, motherhood, menstruation, menopause, gender, sexuality and simply being a woman.
Vagina, vulva, lady garden, pussy, beaver, cunt, fanny… whatever you call it most women have no idea what’s ‘down there’. Culturally and personally, no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust, worship and desecration in the same way.
From smooth Barbie dolls to internet porn, girls and women grow up with a very narrow view of what they should look like, even though in reality there is an enormous range. Womanhood departs from the ‘ideal vagina’ and presents the gentle un-airbrushed truth, allowing us to understand and celebrate our diversity.
For the first time, 100 brave and beautiful women reveal their bodies and stories on their own terms, talking about how they feel about pleasure, sex, pain, trauma, birth, motherhood, menstruation, menopause, gender, sexuality and simply being a woman.
336 pages, Paperback
Published February 21, 2019
40 people are currently reading
456 people want to read
About the author
Laura Dodsworth
7 books61 followersLaura Dodsworth is an author, journalist, photographer and filmmaker and has been described as a ‘latter-day punchy Cassandra’ and a ‘Slayer of Taboos’. Her books Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their stories, Manhood: The Bare Reality and Womanhood: The Bare Reality have attracted worldwide media coverage and excellent reviews.
Laura and the creation of Womanhood were the subject of a documentary for Channel 4, 100 Vaginas, which received 5 star reviews and has been broadcast around the world.
Her latest book is A State of Fear: how the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Laura and the creation of Womanhood were the subject of a documentary for Channel 4, 100 Vaginas, which received 5 star reviews and has been broadcast around the world.
Her latest book is A State of Fear: how the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 2, 2019
You can watch my full review of this great book here: https://youtu.be/qvPzpshtOZA
If you don’t already know about this book; Laura Dodsworth is a photographer and for this project she has photographed and interviewed 100 women, and more specifically the focus point is their vaginas. This book has also been accompanied by the Channel 4 documentary ‘100 Vaginas’ which I thought was really good, the sort of healthy sex education we should be giving our children.
I have found this book excellent; it is beautiful, inspiring, important. In the introduction Dodsworth makes a really valid point that most straight women have never seen a vulva up close, in many ways we are more of a mystery to ourselves than anyone, at least physically.
This book is explicit in its physical examination of the vulvas of the women involved, but in a much more important way, it is just as explicit in its emotional examination of the women and their relationships with their vulvas in the interviews.
I loved hearing these women talk about their experiences, so personal, so honest, so much what it is to be a woman, it brought out a lot of love from me, every woman is amazing. There was huge variation in the women’s stories with one common theme, how much we carry with us that we keep hidden.
Some stories were heart-breaking, some were exhilarating, each was refreshingly honest. Life is so rich with emotion – highs and lows – and so much of it is tied up in the themes of these women’s stories; sex, birth, abuse, pleasure, fulfilment, loss.
The honesty of the women involved in this project really touched me. I want my daughter to read this book when she’s older, and my son. And my mother and my sisters, and everyone really. Every woman’s story was important and the texts were very well edited, from such a short excerpt, the reader could really feel a connection to each woman.
This book was not judgemental at all, the pictures and stories were told without any narrative opinion; there were lots of different women with different experiences and different opinions, none of them were pointed out as being right or wrong, they are just different, this is real life, we are all stumbling around in the dark trying to feel our way out to the light.
This book quickly became much less about the pictures and more about the women involved, and more about what it is to be a woman, and more about how our society treats women. Having said that, the pictures were still a very important aspect of the book.
This book certainly proves that vulvas don’t come in any standard shape, size or colour, and that’s amazingly reassuring for most women, there is no point in comparing, they are all different. It was also interesting to hear how differently women orgasm…
Dodsworth is a true artist, she has presented a thing of beauty which draws out emotion and makes the reader think deeply. This book is excellent in content, and beautifully done.
I am really glad I’ve read this book. I was impressed with the tv documentary, and I am even more impressed with the book. I really want to read Dodsworth’s first two books of this series, that’s breasts and penises if you don’t already know.
You can watch my full review of this great book here: https://youtu.be/qvPzpshtOZA
If you don’t already know about this book; Laura Dodsworth is a photographer and for this project she has photographed and interviewed 100 women, and more specifically the focus point is their vaginas. This book has also been accompanied by the Channel 4 documentary ‘100 Vaginas’ which I thought was really good, the sort of healthy sex education we should be giving our children.
I have found this book excellent; it is beautiful, inspiring, important. In the introduction Dodsworth makes a really valid point that most straight women have never seen a vulva up close, in many ways we are more of a mystery to ourselves than anyone, at least physically.
This book is explicit in its physical examination of the vulvas of the women involved, but in a much more important way, it is just as explicit in its emotional examination of the women and their relationships with their vulvas in the interviews.
I loved hearing these women talk about their experiences, so personal, so honest, so much what it is to be a woman, it brought out a lot of love from me, every woman is amazing. There was huge variation in the women’s stories with one common theme, how much we carry with us that we keep hidden.
Some stories were heart-breaking, some were exhilarating, each was refreshingly honest. Life is so rich with emotion – highs and lows – and so much of it is tied up in the themes of these women’s stories; sex, birth, abuse, pleasure, fulfilment, loss.
The honesty of the women involved in this project really touched me. I want my daughter to read this book when she’s older, and my son. And my mother and my sisters, and everyone really. Every woman’s story was important and the texts were very well edited, from such a short excerpt, the reader could really feel a connection to each woman.
This book was not judgemental at all, the pictures and stories were told without any narrative opinion; there were lots of different women with different experiences and different opinions, none of them were pointed out as being right or wrong, they are just different, this is real life, we are all stumbling around in the dark trying to feel our way out to the light.
This book quickly became much less about the pictures and more about the women involved, and more about what it is to be a woman, and more about how our society treats women. Having said that, the pictures were still a very important aspect of the book.
This book certainly proves that vulvas don’t come in any standard shape, size or colour, and that’s amazingly reassuring for most women, there is no point in comparing, they are all different. It was also interesting to hear how differently women orgasm…
Dodsworth is a true artist, she has presented a thing of beauty which draws out emotion and makes the reader think deeply. This book is excellent in content, and beautifully done.
I am really glad I’ve read this book. I was impressed with the tv documentary, and I am even more impressed with the book. I really want to read Dodsworth’s first two books of this series, that’s breasts and penises if you don’t already know.
You can watch my full review of this great book here: https://youtu.be/qvPzpshtOZA
April 26, 2021
Finally getting round to reading these all the way through. Definitely a 'read one at a time' kind of thing but a really great project.
May 23, 2019
A fascinating book that explores the relationship that 100 women have with their bodies and genitals. Despite coming from a range of backgrounds and ages, I was struck by the number of underlying commonalities and themes these women shared, alongside more individual, often upsetting, stories. Very thought-provoking, sensitive and well-presented.
January 5, 2021
Great stories about real women, told from their own perspective. Fascinating, brilliant!
February 3, 2021
Outstanding.
Will post more later when I have stopped crying.
Will post more later when I have stopped crying.
December 26, 2025
Recently a big question came forth in the ladies online community. “Do all women have curly bushes? Or do some also have straight bushes?”. As a young woman myself i obviously had to investigate and discussed this with my friends over a glass of wine. Our conclusion? We don’t know, but we know our vulva’s seem to be different from what we described. By sheer coincidence i read an article in the guardian the following day about this project. So I bought the book with the intention to look at the vulva’s and see which one mine looked the most similar to.
Well after having read the book I can tell you that I do not remember what a single photo looked like. I do remember the beautiful stories of women’s relationships with their bodies and love life. The book is not at all about what a perfect “pussy” looks like. It’s about how every woman, wether she has an outie, an innie, a curly bush, a straight bush, longer lips or shorter lips, has her own story to tell.
I definitely recommend this book to every woman. I believe it’s empowering and its message is so much deeper and more meaningful than what is shown in the photos.
Well after having read the book I can tell you that I do not remember what a single photo looked like. I do remember the beautiful stories of women’s relationships with their bodies and love life. The book is not at all about what a perfect “pussy” looks like. It’s about how every woman, wether she has an outie, an innie, a curly bush, a straight bush, longer lips or shorter lips, has her own story to tell.
I definitely recommend this book to every woman. I believe it’s empowering and its message is so much deeper and more meaningful than what is shown in the photos.
November 17, 2024
I cried a lot while reading this book.Its a very powerful book about people's perspective on female sexuality and being a woman. I really liked the diversity of the book (even tho as far as i know there were no disabled people among the participating women). It is also quite horrible to see that a lot of women going through absolute vile experiences relating sex and their own bodies. It was empowering to see how different but still similar each and every vulva is. Its very intimate to read someones thoughts about their own body while looking at their genitals and you definitely need to be in the right mood to look at them with the right mindset. Like I said I cried a lot but I also felt so deeply connected to some peoples stories and it really made me think about how you are never really alone in your struggles even if it seems like it. I am looking forward to read the other two additions of this series/artproject.
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September 23, 2020Knjiga za čitanje! I muškarci i žene!
Jednostavan stil, lagan, opušten, a opet tema koja je teška i "neprijatna".
No, ova knjiga mi je bila dosta, nisam zainteresovana čitati knjige koje su prije ove.
Takođe, prateći bibliovicu, bukblogerku iz Hrvatske, otkrila sam još naslova koji su prosvjetljujuće feminističke teme.
Jednostavan stil, lagan, opušten, a opet tema koja je teška i "neprijatna".
No, ova knjiga mi je bila dosta, nisam zainteresovana čitati knjige koje su prije ove.
Takođe, prateći bibliovicu, bukblogerku iz Hrvatske, otkrila sam još naslova koji su prosvjetljujuće feminističke teme.
April 25, 2021
Love Love Love
June 28, 2023
TW: transphobia
There is one piece written by a trans woman which, as a trans woman myself, comes across as extremely transphobic (I would say she has internalized transphobia).
There is one piece written by a trans woman which, as a trans woman myself, comes across as extremely transphobic (I would say she has internalized transphobia).
August 4, 2024
features images of one hundred brit gals, a mid-range image and then an up-close. they share their experiences of their secret garden.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews