YouSaid · the spoken record

Polly Vernon

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54

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2025-08-12

most recent

2025-08-12

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1

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1. “And I didn't, for whatever reason, somebody at some point, I think it was because I read, Are You There, God, it's Me Margaret by Judy Bloom. I think that's why. I mean, presumably my mother brought it up. I don't know. And presumably we talked about it a bit at school, but it was the early issues that sits on light. We were talking that much about it. But there were two women, one roughly my own age, one considerably younger than me, and they had known nothing. They were both so angry. They were so angry. I think there is an incredible need for that knowledge and for everyone to read my book. Yeah, strangely. But yes, I do.”

   2025-08-12 · Intelligence Squared · How Well do we Understand the Female Body? With Polly Vernon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

2. “Oh, hell yeah. I mean, I really want as many people as possible to read this book. Of course, financially, commercially, I want that. But I think in terms of its use, it's... Opening up conversations and it making men feel much, much more comfortable with women and with talking to us about what we're experiencing. And I think it could be immensely useful, but I also, I think when I was writing it, you sort of assume that everybody is starting off with jumping off on the same knowledge level that you have. Since I've written it, since I started talking to my readers, of course, I've realized that's absolutely categorically not true. And some people know far more. But some women know far less. So, for example, I was with a lady of friends recently. Mine of them is Irish Catholic in her late 40s. The other one, Muslim Londoner 28, and they were both talking about how nobody had spoken to either of them about what their periods were before they started. Nothing. They knew nothing. They both thought they were dying, right?”

   2025-08-12 · Intelligence Squared · How Well do we Understand the Female Body? With Polly Vernon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

3. “check in point of every stage of women's lives what was going on with our bodies couldn't believe that didn't already exist but yeah my my real desire for it was that it was useful that it just gave people because i think we live in an age of misinformation right particularly around bodies and wellness and health so i wanted something that was definitive and reliable and useful and i think i felt like politics and ideologies can muddy that but there's no getting away from it with it and in the end i was completely fine with it”

   2025-08-12 · Intelligence Squared · How Well do we Understand the Female Body? With Polly Vernon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

4. “But that's lovely, I'm really glad that you read it like that. I really wanted it not to be an ideological book. I really wanted it not to be a political book. I wanted it to be as useful as is possible. And it sort of felt to me that sometimes ideologies and political make things less useful. However, it turns out you just can't talk about women's bodies without it becoming political. So I embrace that. I mean, my jumping off point was I know so little about my own body. And that's absurd. Let me see if I could find out. That was really, really it. When I first came up with the idea of a sort of started moving towards the idea of writing it, I couldn't believe it didn't already exist, I think, mainly, that there wasn't a book that was just a basic jump.”

   2025-08-12 · Intelligence Squared · How Well do we Understand the Female Body? With Polly Vernon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT