Vagina by Naomi Wolf covered up by Apple iTunes

The title of Naomi Wolf's new book, which explores why the vagina is still thought of as "slightly shameful" even today, has been censored by Apple.

Apple's iTunes store has starred out part of the title of Wolf's new book Vagina, calling it instead V****a, and replacing the word throughout the book's description. So, according to Apple, Wolf's book is "an astonishing new work that radically changes how we think about, talk about and understand the v****a". The author, writes Apple, "looks back in history and show[s] us how the v****a was considered sacred for centuries until it began to be cast as a threat", and asks why "even now in an increasingly sexualised world, it is thought of as slightly shameful".

Amazon and Waterstones' online stores both allow the word to be seen in full. And unfortunately for Apple, a picture of Wolf's book jacket clearly displays the title on iTunes just centimetres to the left of the starred-out version.

Wolf herself was startled to hear about the censorship. "You won't believe it – I gather Apple is censoring Vagina: A New Biography on iTunes though expletives get through – think different?" she wrote on her Facebook page.

Readers were also shocked. "Are Apple worried that people are going to discover that 'lady parts' have a name?" wrote Kevin Hayes in a review of Vagina on Apple's online store. Another reader wondered why, "if it has radically changed the way we talk about something three billion people on the planet have, why is it that we can't even see the medical term for it in print?"

Wolf is not the only writer to have had her title censored by Apple: Eve Ensler's play has become The V****a Monologues on iTunes, and an "A to Z guide" becomes V is for V****a. The word is also starred out in the titles of numerous other books and songs, as is penis.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment before going to press.