Tee Corinne's Cunt Coloring Book rocks my world every bit as much as Inga Muscio's Third-Wave feminism for Second Wavers womanifesto, Cunt. There's no relation between the two that I know of, but comparison between them is high praise all around. The Cunt Coloring Book is a collection of line drawings of women's genitals, originally intended for use in sex education classes, much like anatomy coloring books are used for educational purposes. The artist writes in her foreword, "I wanted the drawings to be lovely and informative, to give pleasure and affirmation." The 42 pussies depicted on its pages are all of these things and more.
More excerpts from Tee Corinne's foreword:
I organized the drawings into a coloring book because a major way we learn to understand the world, as children, is by coloring. As adults many of us still need to learn about our external sexual anatomy. Coloring is a way for the child in each of us to revision and reclaim this portion of our bodies from which we have been estranged.
The Cunt Coloring Book, published in 1975, was immediately and wildly popular, although many people complained about the "awful" title. Three printings later, in 1981, the title was changed to Labiaflowers and the book virtually died. So much for euphemisms.
First published in 1975 by Last Gasp of San Francisco (www.lastgasp.com), the 1988 revised edition has been through seven printings as of January 2001. The foreword and Martha Shelley's "In the Beginning" are translated into French, Spanish, and German, as are the labels on the first drawing, which point out the mons veneris, the shaft, hood, and head of the clitoris, the inner and outer labia, urethra, vestibule, vaginal opening, perineum, and anus.
All of the drawings in this book are simple and beautiful. They vary in their degrees of abstractness (i.e. some of them look more like Georgia O'Keeffe paintings than others). Some include hands parting vaginal lips; these displays of women's confident, intimate familiarity with their cunts makes me grin through the glee of owning an entire bookful of pussy.
I haven't started coloring my Cunt Coloring Book yet, because I want to make clean copies of its contents for future use. I envision all the cool kids getting beautifully colored cunt valentines next year...
Special thanks to liminal, who gave me my copy of this book.
Cunt Coloring Book (revised) copyright 1988 by Tee A. Corinne. Published by Last Gasp of San Francisco, ISBN 0-86719-371-9
2001.11.22 at 00:01 Apatrix says Well-presented on a truly original topic. :)
2001.11.22 at 00:04 Apatrix says You know you've just created an E2 classic, don't you?
2002.10.04 at 17:39 WickerNipple says re Cunt Coloring Book: buuuuut...! I'm a cool kid and I didn't get a beautifully colored cunt for valentine's day!
My sincerest apologies go out to everyone who didn't get a valentine: I am a lazy slob and have a million excuses why this project never got off the ground.