Female Bodies, Immaculate Forms - A God Cast exploration with Prof Helen King.

The God Cast with Fr Alex Frost and Guests.

About Helen What makes a woman? How far do bodies set our gender? Immaculate Forms focuses on the history of the breasts, clitoris, hymen and womb. I've worked on the history of medicine and the body for many years, following a PhD thesis on ancient Greek concepts of menstruation. Since then, I've published on the reception of ancient medical ideas about the female body, menstruation and birth up to the nineteenth century. It still amazes me that ancient ideas about women survived for so long, despite changes elsewhere in how the body was understood. I've held research fellowships in Cambridge and Newcastle, worked for 8 years in Liverpool, and then for 14 years at the University of Reading. In 2011 I became Professor of Classical Studies at the Open University and I am now Professor Emerita there. I've been a visiting lecturer at Mount Allison University, University of Victoria BC, and University of Texas, as well as a Fellow at the Netherland Institute for Advanced Studies, and a Visiting Professor at the Peninsula Medical School, where I taught the history of dissection to medical students. 'Illuminating, thoughtful and scholarly' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Mind-blowing, fascinating stuff' BBC WOMAN'S HOUR 'Delightful, timely and critical' Cat Bohannon, author of Eve 'With unrivaled expertise and a wealth of classical and contemporary detail, the author weaves historical knowledge of medicine, anatomy, literature, art and religion into a narrative that surprises, informs, excites and frequently amuses' Adrian Thatcher, author of Vile Bodies Throughout history, religious scholars, medical men and - occasionally - women themselves, have moulded thought on what 'makes' a woman. She has been called the weaker sex, the fairer sex, the purer sex, among many other monikers. Often, she has been defined simply as 'Not A Man'. Today, we are more aware than ever of the complex relationship between our bodies and our identities. But contrary to what some may believe, what makes a woman is a question that has always been open-ended. Immaculate Forms examines all the ways in which medicine and religion have played a gate-keeping role over women's organs. It explores how the womb was seen as both the most miraculous organ in the body and as a sewer; uncovers breasts' legacies as maternal or sexual organs - or both; probes the mystery of the disappearing hymen, and asks, did the clitoris need to be discover