"In seven illuminating chapters, Wendy Kline lifts up the hidden history of the pelvic exam — an act we all endure but rarely stop to question. Exposed shows how this medical ritual has evolved over time, from a tool wielded by elite male doctors to a way for second-wave feminists to reconnect with their bodies and own their sexual health. In doing so, she digs up chapters gynecology would rather forget: the era of genital phrenology, the 'invention' of the speculum at the expense of enslaved Black women, and, most recently, and most recently, the use and abuse of the pelvic exam by those claiming medical authority. Yet time and time again, she smartly centers the patients and activists who dared to take pelvic knowledge into their own hands." - Rachel E. Gross, author of Vagina Obscura