Amazingly, female pleasure mystified the male sexperts of The Kama Sutra. They were learned in cunnilingus and eunuchs & women going down on each other. They gave handy advice on fleecing a rich guy. But, when it came to sex with a man, the sages opined that a woman’s orgasm, or “semen”, possibly fell from beginning to end of coitus. Maybe they were hinting that few women get off on vaginal penetration alone.

Meanwhile, thirteen or fourteen centuries later, at a pinnacle of Western culture, Macbeth is slain by “no man born of womb” – the murders of Shakespeare’s flawed hero are halted by a saviour cut from his dead mother by C-section.

Shakespeare, of course, wrote under a queen – a Virgin Queen who wielded absolute power.

This long, global history of hetero-normative gobbledegook and political bias is linked. Language, image and stories shape society. That’s why this summer, we’ve devoted two issues to cunty emissions from female, non-binary and queer thinkers, to push forward a feminine perspective.

In this issue, Eley Williams writes amorous postcards inspired by a word, ‘cyprine’, invented to describe the liquid secreted by female ejaculation by Wittig & Zeig in their ‘Lesbian peoples: material for a dictionary (1979)’. Minna Salami explains why, thanks to patriarchal repressions across the world, we barely understand eroticism. Hannah Marsh considers the history of the C-section to find a factual, rational way of facing her own ‘failure’ as a woman to give birth through the cunt.

Sharing our reimaginings and ever-changing physical experience pushes against mainstream fantasy and hopefully makes everyone feel a little more whole.

Let’s fit a fresh lens on the bodies from whence we all came – and while we’re at it, play with the power source. In this spirit, author and anthropological explorer Dr. Wednesday Martin goes undercover, researching vibrators. Amy White, a Tantric-trained healer, discusses sacred feminine and masculine sexuality. And our Resident DJ Caoimhe Lavelle unleashes her possibly most orgasmic dance mix yet. It includes our editorial team’s recent discovery of 1983 electro ‘Crack The Whip’ in a Manchester cake and record shop at 2 am (bringing together three favourite things, there), Prince, bisexual synth pop from Ania, Serge Gainsbourg and more.

Love on ya, my Juicy Ones,

Soma x

Soma Ghosh

Editor. Twitter @calcourtesan