Let's Talk About: The Clitoris
The Clitoris is the only organ that exists in humans for the sole purpose of pleasure. It is a unique organ in the female body. I say female to refer to people who were born with a vulva, vagina, and uterus. A trans-woman who has had gender reassignment surgery can undergo Cliteroplasty, a surgery that creates a clitoris from existing tissue. These women can also have clitoral orgasms, however the structure of their clitoris will be different.
For the record, I can not find agreement on what the correct grammatical form of the plural clitoris is. I’ve chosen Clitorises, but Clitori and Clitorides are also used.
The clitoris has both internal and external structures. It can be located in the vulva just above the urethra, right near the top of the labia. The external structure is composed of the glans, made up of erectile tissue (similar to the male penis) and a protective covering sometimes called the “hood” which is like the male foreskin. It is extremely sensitive, containing around 8,000 nerve endings, about twice the number in the male penis. During arousal the clitoris can become engorged and erect. The internal structure extends into the body and reaches around four inches in length (about the same size as your average flaccid penis). The clitoris spreads around the urethra and vagina. There is a popular theory that the so called “G Spot” is actually the backside of the clitoris pressing into the vagina.
The history of the clitoris in the western world is a complicated one, mostly filled with men vilifying or erasing the clitoris from existence. I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Western history itself is filled with men erasing and vilifying women as a whole. The constant policing of women’s bodies and rejection of female pleasure is just one of the many ways that the Patriarchy keeps women in their place. Let’s examine a few specific instances that I think go a long way to informing the negative and incorrect ideas circulating about clitorises today.
The Malleus Maleficarum was a 16th century instructional guide for the finding, prosecuting, and murder of alleged “witches” published by a Catholic clergyman and was the second best selling book, right behind the bible, in the Christian world for almost 200 years. It was considered a legal document that could prove witchcraft and heresy, specifically in women. It is hard to say how many women died as a result of this book, but given the popularity of witch hunts up through the Renaissance and reformation, I believe it is safe to say that this was one of the most vile and murderous books in existence. The Malleus Maleficarum describes the clitoris as “The Devil’s Teat” because it becomes engorged during arousal and was considered a verification of a female’s involvement with the devil. Meaning that having a clitoris was damning evidence that you were in league with the devil and therefore guilty of witchcraft, a crime for which the punishment was death. A man wrote a book which meant that any female with a clitoris (Read: All females) could be lawfully murdered by the Catholic church. The church has never officially denounced the book or the practices it encouraged. If this doesn’t piss you off then I don’t know what will.
In 1545 a French author and anatomist dissected a clitoris for the first time in recorded Western History. He totally botched it, had no idea what he was looking at and didn’t even properly dissect what he had. Then he described the clitoris as “anatomically incorrect” and “fundamentally flawed” even going so far as to name it the “shameful member”. Which seems perfectly legitimate to me [/sarcasm] 15 years later an Italian surgeon claimed “discovery” of the clitoris, and called it the “The Love or Sweetness of Venus” and acknowledged its importance in female pleasure and arousal and also observed that the clitoris got harder when you touched it. Although he was more correct about the clitoris than his predecessors I still have to wonder what in the world would make an Italian doctor think he has the right to claim “discovery” of a part of the female anatomy that women and men have been taking advantage of since forever. Of course a little less than 100 years before him an Italian man claimed discovery of a continent that had millions of people already living on it so maybe discovery of shit people have known about since forever was just a thing that 15th and 16th century Italian men did.
The study of the clitoris continued, some what, for some time. Many anatomists disregard it altogether or have wildly incorrect ideas about what it is. There’s a common thread about the clitoris that started way back in 130 with a guy named Claudius Galen that says that every part of the male body must have a counterpart in the female. This isn’t entirely untrue, there are a lot of commonalities between the female clitoris and sexual anatomy and the male sexual anatomy. We’ll get into that later. In 1844 a German anatomist finally draws and publishes the internal structure of the clitoris. He’s not entirely correct on the internal structure, but he seems to be the first to acknowledge that it’s there.
Sigmund Freud was a late 19th century doctor and the father of psychoanalysis which was the beginning of modern psychiatry. Although many of his concepts and ideas have been widely discredited by modern science, some still persist in modern culture, such as the phrase “Anal-retentive”. Freud described the clitoral orgasm as “infantile” and “immature” and expressed an idea that once a female out grows her anger and disappointment about not being born with a penis her focus will move from clitoris to the vagina. I suppose that he believed that vaginal orgasms were more “grown up” than clitoral ones. This belief continued until 1966 when it was debunked by scientists Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, who said clitoral and vaginal orgasms are analogous.
In 1948 the 25th edition of Grey’s Anatomy was published and pointedly removed the clitoris from the female anatomy. No one is sure why the clitoris is omitted. It was present in the 24th edition and removed for the 25th, which means some effort was put into the clitoris’s removal. The image to the left is from the 24th edition.
It wasn’t until 1998 that someone finally published findings on the true size and structure of the clitoris. Helen O’Connell, an Australian urologist finally revealed that the clitoris is an organ rivaling the penis in size and has 2 to 3 times as many nerve endings as the male penis.
An estimated three quarters of women cannot orgasm from vaginal stimulation alone, they need some clitoral stimulation in order to get there. An article published in 2014 states that actually, 0 women can orgasm from vaginal stimulation alone and that the “G spot” is a myth. In fact the clitoris extends so far into the vagina that vaginal stimulation is clitoral stimulation, just on a different side of the clitoris.
(Trigger warning: Female Genital Manipulation, if this is something you can’t deal with right now, you might want to skip this next paragraph)
It is tempting to look at the history of mistreatment of the clitoris and breath a sigh of relief that those times are behind us. Unfortunately that’s not true. There are still places in this world where having a clitoris can be a death sentence. Female Genital Mutilation (also called female circumcision or FGM) is still practiced around the world. FGM is most commonly practiced in 28 African nations although it is becoming increasingly prevalent in Asia and some migrant communities in America and Europe. There are four types of Female Genital manipulation that can range from the removal of the clitoris to an infibulation in which the clitoris may or may not be removed, the vaginal opening is narrowed, and the labia are either sewn or adhered together leaving only small openings for urine and menstrual blood. This procedure can only be reversed through surgery or, more commonly, violently painful intercourse. These procedures are performed on girls as young as 3 years old up to the age of 15 and often considered a rite of passage into womanhood. The clitoris is seen as a “male” organ and therefore must be removed in order to be a real woman. These procedures are not often performed under sterile environments and frequently performed with razor blades, knives or scissors. Often there is no anesthetic, pain relief, or antibiotics. Hemorrhage, infection, and shock are all common side effects. Too many girls and young women die because of these procedures every year. If you are horrified by these practices I beg you visit the link I included at the end of 16 organizations and charities that are working to end this practice and to give them your support.
So why is this all important? Why should people care about what a clitoris is? Well, for the same reason that all sex ed is important. If you have a clitoris it is essential to understanding your body’s sexual function, you have a right to experience the pleasure your body is capable of. If not with a partner, then at least by yourself. How can you know what your body can do if you don’t know about the absolute powerhouse of sexual pleasure that you have? And even more than that, being educated about your own body is important. There was a recent study that showed that 29% of female college students couldn’t find the clitoris on a diagram of the vulva.
If you have sex with people who have a clitoris, you definitely want to learn everything you can about the clitoris. Ignoring one of the major nerve centers in the body, one that might very well be responsible for almost all orgasms would probably mean that you suck in bed. But here’s the great thing about being a person, once you know better, you can do better. If you are a person who has sex with people with a clitoris and you’ve ignored it or not known what to do with it, now is a great time to learn. How do you find out what your partner likes? Communication and experimentation.
Even if you don’t have a clitoris, and never have sexual contact with a person who does, it is still important to understand that this is a part of the human body. A natural, beautiful part of the body that is not shameful or wrong. Understanding each other makes us better humans and by understanding that the clitoris is a natural and beautiful part of the human body we can work together to end female genital mutilation.
Stay safe, You are worth protecting,
Erin
Resources for further reading on the Clitoris or “Cliteracy”:
If you read only one article, read through this project with Huffington post, it gave me so much useful information and a framework for this piece:
http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/cliteracy/history
Organizations working to end Female Genital Mutilation: