October 13, 2014 • 43 mins
The clitoris has been one of the most misunderstood and maligned female features in medical history. Cristen and Caroline uncover the incredible geography of clitoral complex and why it took so long for doctors to figure it out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom never told you From how supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen
and I'm Caroline, and we are going to talk all
about the Clitteriest today. Ladies and gentlemen. Everything you never
knew that you wanted to know about the clitterest will
(00:25):
be revealed in this podcast. That's right, in a safe
for work format. Very safe for work. Yeah, Caroline and
I learned lots of stuff along the way, and I
think it's important for everybody to learn more about the clitterests. Which,
by the way, can we just start off with one
fascinating fact please? The clitterest itself, just just the visible
(00:49):
part of it, outside of our bodies, contains eight thousand
nerve endings. That's more than twice on the head of
a penis, guys, not to not to make you jealous,
but not to tout our own horn. I feel like
this podcast is going to be full of euphemisms. It
might be. It might be, but let's uh, we we
(01:12):
got a long way to go before we get up
to those eight thousand nerve endings. Let's go back in time,
Caroline showing do Yeah, we we first want to talk
about where this word came from, what does it mean,
And it actually didn't originate until the seventeenth century, which
is interesting. This word has not been around forever, but
it was coined from the Late Greek word clay torus.
(01:36):
And I assume that we will get some correction letters
if we mispronounced the following Greek words that we're about
to say, because you might not know this, but I
am not Greek, yes, and nor am I Caroline uh.
And that's clear us with a K. And there's a
word clayenne in Greek which means to sheath, also to shut,
(01:56):
so something it might come from that because of the
reference to the clitterest being covered by the laby a menorah.
And then there's also though a related Greek noun form police,
which has a meaning of a key, latch or hook
to close a door. And then there's another Greek word
that it could come from that is a variant of
(02:17):
the word meaning side of a hill. It's related to
the verb to slope, from the same root word as
climax I Carol, I think that one is my favorite,
although there are some ancient medical sources that also say
that there is a Greek verb clyde ri izing that
means to touch or to the late lasciviously, to tickle. Well, Kristen,
(02:42):
speaking of tickling, the Germans have my favorite slang word
for the clitterest, which is the kitzler, which means the tickler. Yes, indeed, yeah,
and even just the slang clit originated in the nineteen fifties,
although I have a feeling that whoever was in the
nineteen fifties saying the word clit was probably just scandalizing
(03:07):
everyone so scandalous. So there there's a little background on
the word clitterest, why we call it the clitterest. But
let's go back in time as well and cover some
CLIs story. How did we even figure out what this
clitterest is all about? I mean, obviously women were probably
figuring out what this clitterest was all about for a
(03:28):
long time, but women weren't exactly prominent members of the
medical field until more recent history. So let's start in
fifteen fifty nine with one of my favorite characters in
this episode, an Italian anatomist, Realdo Colombo. Yeah, so of
(03:49):
course a man would claim to have discovered the clitter
lit and I like that his last name is Colombo
Kristen because if his name were in English texts around
that time, it would have been Umbus. And so I
just liked the idea of the parallel between like Christopher
Columbus claiming to have discovered the New World when really
there were already people there, and then you have Rialdo
(04:10):
Columbus claiming to have discovered the clitterus when plenty of
women were already. There's the Christopher Columbus of the glitters
Clistopher Columbus. God, I wish we had art to accompany
this episode of these explorers and these scientists. But anyway,
so yeah, he's this anatomist who says that he discovered it,
(04:30):
and there were some researchers at a New Zealand university
who were like, no, it was already quite known to Greek,
Persian and Arabic writers on medicine and surgery all about,
albeit with misconceptions about its function, which I also think
is funny because it's like, why are we talking about
a body part in terms of who knew it first.
(04:51):
But that's not to say that Columbo slash Columbus didn't
actually make some sort of contribution to the understanding of
what it was. Yeah, he it wasn't anatomist, and he
did provide these really detailed drawings based on human dissection
of the clitterests, and he was one of the first
to describe its physiological properties. And although he did think
(05:16):
that it produced a type of female sperm, and he did,
he wasn't really a big fan of the clitterest. He
called it the more venerous, meaning like the mound of love.
So he was also very much focused on the pleasurable
aspects of the clitterest. So although Colombo did mistakenly claim
(05:40):
that he was the first one there, at least he
liked it. Yes, not everybody can say that he liked it,
but I mean, I think his whole person well, he
was far from the only person who thought or positive
that the clators produced some type of female sperm or
or played some role in procreation. Um, But I think
he's unique in the fact that he also really dug it. Yeah,
(06:02):
other other medical or scientific writers at the time we're like, well,
we think that it could produce spiram and contribute to procreation,
but we don't like it. Well, if you go way
back before Colombo to say Aristotle, they I mean he
wasn't really talking all that much about the clitterest, but really,
(06:23):
this is when you have the idea of women being
just mutilated. Men are clitterist. Is really just a vestige
of what should be a penis. Yeah, it makes me
think of that song from a Little Mermaid, Poor unfortunate Souls,
Like that's kind of how Aristotle and Hippocrates saw women.
So yeah, Aristotle just thought that there were adverse uterine
(06:46):
conditions that basically turned what should have become a beautiful,
functional penis into an underdeveloped and sterile stump of a clitterest.
And Hippocrates, the old Greek father of medicine, disc drived
women's genitalia on the whole is just our shameful parts,
So thanks a lot, And he acknowledged that the clitterest existed,
(07:09):
but he just thought it was a random protrusion. He
referred to it as the colamela or the uvula, possibly
because it resembles the uvula in our throats, a little
punching bag and you see if you open open your mouth.
Well obviously, I mean, the uvula definitely doesn't contribute to
(07:30):
sex or procreation, so why would this tiny protrusion have
anything to do with it either. Um. Greek physician Serranos
of Ephesus also does acknowledge the clitterest exists. Um. He
has a different description for it, other than the shameful parts,
thank god. Uh. He says, this small formation is called
(07:51):
the nymph because it is hidden underneath the laby is,
such as young brides under their veil. Well, isn't that precious,
so precious little nymph? Yes? But I think it should
be noted though, that while these guys, essentially we're seeing
women as sort of the mutilated men we we should
we we could have had gorgeous penises, but instead we
(08:12):
ended up with gining nymph siding under veils. Because it
wasn't until in fact, the eighteenth century the European scientists
started seeing men and women as distinct sexes. This was
really just the line of thought that like, Okay, we
have a guy here, so we're going to figure out
women based on what she doesn't have, based on his body.
(08:36):
But then, I mean, things also got pretty intense in
the Middle Ages, understandably because it is the Middle Ages, right,
A lot of superstition flying around, and you know, despite
the relative and and minor advances and understanding what this
nymph is. During the preceding centuries, the physicians in the
(08:56):
Middle Ages relied more on fear and superstition. Uh. They
did also think that it was responsible for creating female sperm.
But in fourteen eighties six, the Malleus Maleficarum, which was
a guide to finding and detecting witches, called the clitterest
quote the Devil's teet through which the devil sucked out
(09:18):
his victim's soul. So, yeah, we are women are just
no matter what we do, just being aligned with witchcraft
and evil and the devil's teet. I don't even I
When I read that, Caroline, and preparing for this episode,
I just had to stop for a moment because the
images coming to my mind were quite intense. But moving
(09:40):
out of the Middle Ages and into the nineteenth century,
we were in one of the history books that we
read focusing on the history of the Clitterest the author wrote,
the nineteenth century really should have been the clitterests century,
and that the clitterest century. I'm not making it up.
(10:00):
That is a direct quote. Because in eighteen forty four
we have this German guy G. L co Belt draw
a detailed clitter lists not just the external clitteriest but
also the internal structure of well as well, which included
the erectile tissues that we'll talk about more in a
little bit. And this was probably the very first accurate
(10:25):
depiction of what the clitterests in total looks like. But
it turns out that the nineteenth century and moving into
the Victorian era was not such a great time for
the clitter is well. I mean, you also had to
grapple with the general fear that people had about women
in general, specifically and especially women's sexuality, because God forbid
(10:45):
a woman actually want, crave, or enjoy any type of
sexual behavior. So it was also kind of just assumed
that in general women were passionless, they didn't have a
sex drive, they were just basically sperm vessels, um, and
that if a woman did have a sex drive, she
was considered hysterical and she'd't have to go to see
(11:07):
a doctor and get treatment, and that treatment was a vibrator. Yeah,
the the vibrator technology started to take off in the
eighteen fifties and in extreme cases of nymphamania, wherein you
have a woman who actually enjoys sex and might even masturbate.
From time to time, you would have doctors cauterizing or
(11:30):
removing the clitterest entirely. There were a lot of methods
out there for curing in quotes, hysteria through clitter ectomys. Yeah,
I mean, I think that's such a scary but very
clear illustration of how women's sexuality was viewed. The fact
that it's like it's so abnormal for a woman to
(11:51):
like or want sex that it's like if she does, oh,
we better take off the parts that make or enjoy
it well. And there are still there's still clar ectomies
that are going on as well in different parts of
the world. You hear about this when people talk about
female genital mutilation or female circumcision. This was also we
we we usually today probably in the US, think about
(12:13):
it happening in far away countries such as Sadan, but
this was happening also in Victorian era America, right. But
during this period some people were all about the clatorus.
They understood that it served a great purpose. In eighteen
fifty two, for instance, Dr Jules Guio wrote a book
about sexuality that wasn't actually published until eighteen eighty eight,
(12:35):
ten years after his death because it was so scandalous,
and he wrote that there exists an immense number of ignorant, egoistic,
brutal men who do not bother to study the instrument
that God has entrusted to them well. And one of
those arguably egoistic and brutal men was likely Dr Isaac
(12:56):
Baker Brown, who was president of the Medical Society of
London in the eighteen sixties, and in eighteen sixty five
he published what became a widely circulated medical book that
put forth his ideas for curing insanity, epilepsy, hysteria, and
(13:16):
catalepsy all through clitter ectomys. Yeah, and it's interesting to
to read about people's views from this time period because
we have Dr Pierre Garnier in one who was definitely
not a fan uh and didn't believe that the clitter
is could or should contribute to any type of like
(13:39):
sex life between people or solo sex lives at that
He said that to claim that this minuscule apparatus, which
is most often an insensitive little button, so long as
it has not been touched or artificially manipulated, is the
most active erogenous center is to implicitly accuse all girls
(14:00):
of once having resorted to masturbation or of one day
becoming debauched. So I mean, right there, you have this
doctor who's basically saying, like the fact that you were
even insinuating that it is part of sex, part of
sexual activity can make someone enjoy sex. That's implying that
our beautiful, fragile, angelic nymph like women that they're debauched. Well,
(14:25):
it's telling to that that quote came in eighteen ninety one,
which is a few years after something really important happened
in the history the medical history of the clitterest, because
in eighteen eighty four, doctors were able to see procreation
the sperm fertilizing the egg on a microscopic level for
(14:48):
the very first time, and they realized that, Okay, there
is no such thing as female sperm. Like the lubricant
in a woman's vaginal a canal has nothing to do
really with uh, it doesn't have any kind of fertilizing qualities,
and it doesn't come from the clitterest. And oh my god,
(15:10):
the clitterest has absolutely nothing actively to do with reproduction.
So why should we even care about it? Well, why
should we care about it, but also, oh god, you
mean women have something on their bodies that is just
for sexual pleasures exactly. And so not only did they
(15:32):
demonize it because that means if you're messing around with
your clitterest, that is because it gives you sexual pleasure.
Therefore you are debauched, as Guarnier wrote, and then also
medically they were like, oh well, we don't really even
need to study it because it is it's useless. It's
like the appendix of the vagina. Thank god, it can't
(15:55):
explode um ideas about women's sexuality there. It's not like
they were so much better. When we get into the
twentieth century um around World War One, there was this
case of a dancer named maud Allen who was essentially
attacked for existing outside social norms sexual norms, and of
(16:15):
course by that I just mean you know, she had
sexuality and danced. She was an exotic dancer who attracted
a lot of attention because during this period that was
very scandalous. It also so happened that she was a lesbian,
and this sensational libel trial in Britain exploded around maud
(16:36):
Allen when she brought a libel suit against this guy
named Noel Pemberton Billing, who was an editor of a
right wing journal, The Imperialist, and the Imperialist was claiming
that there was this black book of forty seven thousand
(16:57):
World War One British turn coats who had been turned
gay by the Germans. And since maud Allen was a
lesbian and was also performing in Oscar Wilde salam Ay,
there was this item in The Imperialist about if you
went to see maud Allen, dancer highly erotic at the time,
(17:20):
dances in this production of salom A, that you would
be among some of those British turncoats. And he headlined
this little news item, the cult of the clitteris yeah,
which is funny to see this anxiety, the steep deep
anxiety which I get. Social norms, gender norms, wore all
of this good stuff going on. It's quite a melting
(17:42):
pot of of you know, all these things getting stirred up.
But she, maud Allen, was so popular that they had
to continue adding shows. And she was so popular, and
not just with gentlemen who were coming to watch her
dance in such a seductive fashion, I mean women, socialites,
others were bringing their daughters to see this woman perform
(18:02):
with their own set of binoculars to further examine her dances. So,
I mean that's got to be anxiety inducing for a
guy like Pemberton Billing who you know, he's like, oh
my gosh, society is changing, women are going to see
women dance. Well, it's interesting too that in this five
day trial that ensues a lot of Britain's didn't even
(18:27):
know what clitterists meant, right, because he assumed that when
he made that headline, the Cult of the clitterest, and
he was right, you know, not a lot of people
would know what it meant. But if you did know
what clitterists meant, then that meant he would deviant, right,
And so Billings actually cited Alan's familiarity with the term
clitterests as evidence that she was a deviant. He said
(18:51):
that it's an organ that, when unduly excited, possessed the
most dreadful influence on any woman. And so just this
combination in his mind of her being a as being
an exotic dancer and someone with knowledge of such an
esoteric term as glitterest, she's got to be a sexual
deviant and she's got to be somehow in cahoots with
the Germans. Well, and if we step back a little
(19:13):
bit to nineteen o five, we have Sigmund Freud coming
in dealing yet another blow to the clitter ist, because
this is when he puts forth the idea that if
you are a woman who is having clitteral as opposed
to vaginal orgasms, then that means that you are not developed,
(19:39):
that you're like stuck in adolescence. Yeah. He was one
of many physicians and clinicians and psychologists who didn't deny
the existence of the clitteral orgasm, but said that that
is something that adolescence do children do adult mature women
only have vaginal or jasms, and um, a woman who
(20:02):
could not orgasm through vaginal intercourse was obviously frigid. And
that frigid was a term. It wasn't just like an
insult thrown around. I mean that was a term used
to describe a whole slew of women. Yeah. And there
is a paper that we were looking at called Waking
Sleeping Beauty, the pre Marital Pelvic Exam and Heterosexuality during
(20:24):
the Cold War, and it talked a lot about how
doctors at this time, I mean leading all the way
up to you know, and during the Cold War, as
the title of the paper implies, vaginal orgasms were considered
to be the hallmark in the bedroom of a stable
marriage and thus of a secure community. Yeah. So more,
(20:47):
you know, just more norms, norms everywhere, Kristen. So, now
that we are into the Cold War, by way of
this paper that Kristen decided, we obviously have to bring
up famed sex researcher Alfred Kinzie, who in nineteen fifty
three publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, in which
he dismissed the vaginal orgasm and pointed to the clitterest
(21:10):
as the source of pleasure. He wrote that the vagina
walls are quite insensitive to the great majority of females.
There's no evidence that the vagina is ever the sole
source of arousal, or even the primary source of erotic
arousal in any female, which is groundbreaking. Yeah, and then
Masters of Sex fans might be aware of William Masters
(21:32):
and Virginia Johnson's research that happens in the mid to
late nineteen sixties. And it's in sixties six that they
published their work on the phases of sexual stimulation, and
they observed that both vaginal and clitteral orgasms had the
same stages of physical response, and argued that clteral stimulation
(21:53):
was the primary source of both kinds of orgasms. So finally, finally,
we have people saying, you know what, the clitteriest is
not so bad. In fact, it is in many ways good.
It isn't many ways good. And then two years later,
(22:14):
in nineteen sixty eight, radical feminist and Coat writes the
myth of the vaginal orgasm and say what right was
it mean? Caroline? She basically attacked as fraudulent the idea
that women could only orgasm through vaginal intercourse. She said
that the idea that idea created psychological problems for women,
(22:38):
and it served as a critique of heterosexuality in general.
And she said that sex had been defined for so
long from purely a male fellow centric perspective. And it's
not that she's necessarily wrong, but I think Masters and
Johnson were way more on the nose as far as
how orgasms work, because so is writing that, you know,
(23:01):
the vaginal orgasm is a total myth that never happens,
whereas before people like Freud were saying vaginal orgasms are
the only way to go when in reality, if we
start talking about anatomy, which we will hear in a second,
there's a whole beautiful, complicated, wonderful internal c literal structure
that is stimulated by a vaginal intercourse. So it's really
(23:25):
not either or, and you, guys, we don't have to
fight about it. We don't have to fight about it.
But I will say that it is worth considering. And
I think that this is a lot of what codes
theory is getting at in terms of the fellow centrism
that for so long and even today, just the word sex.
When you think of sex, it is implied that it
is a penis going into a vagina. And so, in
(23:48):
say Freudian terms, in order for a woman to be
you know, healthy and adjusted in the correct psychoanalytic phase
or whatever of her adulthood, that requires her achieving orgasm
through vaginal penetration with a penis with a penis. So
then things are coming around to say, oh, well, penis
(24:11):
not necessarily required, but there are, like Caroline said, there
is a lot more to it on the inside, which
we're going to talk about in glorious, glorious detail. When
we come right back from a quick break. All right,
(24:31):
So Kristen and I hinted at the well, didn't hand
We told you flat out that there is there's a
fabulous internal structure going on with your clitterest. And you know,
I my my whole attitude reading about this, the history
of of the study of the clitterest, in the in
the history of the science of it, I just I'm
(24:52):
like this, this poor this poor body part. It gets
no attention. And it's really not until the late twentieth
century that people even start going should should we look
inside there? Should we? Should we figure out what's going
on up in there? Because it turns out that all
we see on the outside with the hood and the glands,
(25:15):
that's gland. Not gland with a d is, but the
tip of an iceberg inside of us. Although iceberg might
not be iceberg kind of lens itself to fridgid, so
that might not be the best analogy. It's the tip
of something fabulous about that, that's right. So in the
(25:38):
nineteen nineties, researchers performed an mri I that revealed a
very elaborate structure to the clearest most of which is internal.
Andrologist Helen O'Connell described the quote clteral complex, the important
internal clteral structures and their dimensions in a groundbreaking Journal
of Urology paper. And it should be noted too that
(26:01):
there had already been m r s of the internal
structures of penises that had been done in the seventies. Finally,
O'Connell's like, oh, can we please apply the same technology
to look inside the vaginal structures to see what's in there? Because,
oh surprise, there's all of this stuff. Yeah. And in
(26:24):
a two thousand five paper, O'Connell criticized typical textbook descriptions
and illustrations, saying that there is no way that you
can give an accurate portrayal of all of the amazing
things that are going inside going on inside a woman
in their clural structures by just showing a single plane.
You know, you've seen this in textbooks. It's just like
(26:44):
the side cut of like here's the uterism, here in
the oraason, there's the vagina in the butthole. But there's
I mean, there's a whole like amazing sculptural structure going
on inside us. Who knew? And to give you an
idea of the scope of this clitteral complex of Caroline
and I are about to jump out of our seats
with excitement discussing it contains at least eighteen distinct interacting
(27:09):
functional parts comprised of muscular, erectile, and sensitive tissues. And
this is what in eight eight four g l Co
Belt had drawn. But it took from then until the
late nineties, in the early two thousands for us to
(27:30):
come back around to it and really give it its
due right. And adding to this modern science of the
clitter ist, in two thousand nine, surgeons O'Dell Boissan and
Pierre full Days produced the first complete three dimensional scenography
of a stimulated clitters Because this is important too, because
there's different stages of our genitalia, if we are aroused
(27:53):
or not, or having intercourse or not. Things don't always
look the same in one stage or another. So they
actually did this research over a couple of years without
any major funding. So that should tell you about how
people view the clitter lists and women's sexuality and genitalia
today as well. Any who, They were actually going in
search of this g spot you might have heard of,
(28:15):
and they ended up just finding all of this other
beautiful stuff. During the search. Yeah, and it turns out,
based on what we now know about the structure of
the clitteral complex, which will go into more detail in
just a second, but the g spot might simply be
where the anterior vaginal wall makes contact with the internal
(28:38):
clitter lists. It's not necessarily this magical spot one spot,
and and and and that's it, sort of in that
two dimensional way that we often think of, but rather
it's the convergence of all of this stuff. I wish
I had a more elegant word than stuff to describe
it going on inside of us. Yeah, so let's talk
(29:00):
a little bit about that stuff. So we have the
glands s glands s, which is what you see on
the outside. It's what people call a button, but which
is really like an iceberg, but not an iceberg because
we're not frigid. It's our little hill. It's our little hill.
That's right, the ticula. But so okay, here's here's basically
a rundown. We're going to do our best to describe
(29:21):
this with words, but I recommend that you look it
up for an image. Go to stuff Mom Never Told
You dot com. There is a blog post up called
a Brief History of the clitterest and it contains a
picture of exactly what we're talking about, and it is
safe for work, so excellent. Yes, Well, because the structure
kind of looks like an awesome little inner tube with
some shoots coming off of it that's around the vaginal canal.
(29:43):
It reminds me of an airplane neck pillow. Perfect when
you blow it up. Yeah, it's inflatable. Yeah. So the glands,
which is what you see on the outside, is attached
to that internal structure which we're just crazy about. And
internal structure is made up of two corpora cavernosa, which
(30:04):
is a rectile tissue that encircles the vaginal canal. The
corpora cavernosa then splits to form to what are called crura,
or it's more erectile tissue that forms a wishbone shape,
and at rest they point toward woman's thighs and when
erect they stretch back toward the spine. And then near
(30:27):
each of the crura on either side of the vaginal
opening are the clitteral vestibules and they're actually up under
the labia majora, so inside the labia majora, and when engorged,
they cause the vulva to expand outward. Yeah, And so
you know, this is all a bunch of erectile tissue
(30:49):
that does swell when you get aroused, and that basically
cuffs the vagina so that a vaginal orgasm is more
like an internal clitteral orgasm them. And then we can
all join hands and be friends and no longer debate
a clitteral orgasm versus a vaginal one, because they're all
sort of different types of the same thing. It's just
(31:11):
different methods to stimulate the same structure. And I do
really like how this wrapping around of the structure is
often described when it becomes engorged as it giving us
a hug. And what a hug, A very giving hug,
such a hug. I love that and a lot of
(31:32):
people there are a lot of artists, activists, people out
there talking about the clitterists and women's genitalia in general
to sort of bring awareness that hey, we're sexual beings
to your genitals, aren't gross, Get in touch with your sexuality,
and that the whole reason behind this push to sort
of make more women aware of their anatomy is that
(31:54):
so many women report having trouble orgasm NG. Yeah, about
one in three women and an average has trouble reaching
orgasm with a partner. About one intent has never reached orgasm,
whether alone or with a partner. And what often makes
it a challenge is this shame often associated with our
(32:15):
bodies and with our genitals. There are women that I
have known, in fact, who are adults who have never masturbated. Um.
There are women who have never looked at their own vaginas,
or they looked once and they were so weirded out
by what they saw because they didn't know what to expect,
or it didn't look like what they saw in pornography
(32:36):
that they assumed that it is wrong and it's not
the way it's supposed to look, and that's that's not
the case at all. Right. There was a study study
in the Psychology of Women quarterly that looked at undergrad
college women's attitudes towards their bodies and their genitals that
found that greater dissatisfaction with genital appearance was associated with
(33:00):
things like higher genital image, self consciousness during physical intimacy,
which in turn was associated with lower sexual self esteem,
sexual satisfaction, and motivation to avoid risky sexual behavior. So basically,
if you think that this important part of yourself is awful, ugly, dirty, shameful,
or you're afraid of it, then how can you possibly
(33:21):
enjoy sex? And not surprisingly, the researchers concluded that there
is a strong relationship between in enhancing the satisfaction with
the natural appearance of genitalia, with the development of a
healthy self concept and long term benefits of sexual safety
(33:43):
and satisfaction, because a lot of times when that sort
of insecurity over your genitalia happens or you don't think
it looks right like usually tends to affect you in
the bedroom in the sense of putting the their person's
sexual needs and desires over your own. And so, not surprisingly,
(34:07):
the researchers and in concluded that if you enhance that satisfaction,
if women are more comfortable and accepting of what their
vaginas and volvas and clitterestas look like, then it usually
relates to a more satisfying sex life and also just
a healthier sexual self esteem. Right exactly. And one person
(34:30):
who's pushing what she calls cultural c literacy is Susan
Ekberg Spirits, who wrote a paper in for the Berkeley
Journal of Gender Law and Justice, and she talks about
how cultural cliteracy is this thing that denotes what an
adequately educated person should know about the clitterest, which we
hope we're contributing to right now. But she talks about
(34:52):
how the clitterest is quote a despised body part because
it is an obdurate reminder of women's independence and power
and supports women's liberation. And she talks about how society's
shape versions of what is proper adult sexuality conforming with
values that exist in that society, and she says, quote, unfortunately,
(35:13):
for women, Western culture equates being human with being male. Accordingly,
Western culture considers sex proper when it is confined to
actions needed to produce children. Yeah, And I mean, I
just think that there is a basic gap and understanding,
I mean, clearly, as we've talked about in this podcast
between simply how female sexual pleasure even works and how
(35:37):
girls are educated in that regard versus boys, and how
a lot of times our concept of what sex is
and what sexual pleasure is usually is based around the
model of vaginal intercourse. Not that there's anything wrong with
vaginal intercourse, it's just also important for girls and women
(35:59):
to under stan that we have this part of our
bodies that has, like you said, nothing to do with
reproduction whatsoever. It is there purely to facilitate pleasure and
that's nothing to be ashamed of. And being curious about
it is nothing to be ashamed of, and exploring it
is nothing to be ashamed of either. And if you
(36:20):
want to check out the ways that maybe other women
are trying to raise cultural cliteracy awareness, uh, you should
check out New York artist Sophia Wallace who in launched
a multimedia project called Cliteracy and it includes all sorts
of art installations and even a clip rodeo where you
(36:41):
can ride like like a bucking bull at some sort
of honky tonk bar, you can ride a giant golden
clitteris yeah, And so I do wonder if anybody's actually
seen that, like gone to it and participated in this
art movement to ride the glitter to the well. And also,
I mean that looking at that, this might sound crass,
(37:03):
thinking of, oh we writing the clitter is what what
of that? But the sculpture that she created for this,
of that engorged internal structure will give you a sense
of the extent of the size of it as well. Um,
I mean I mean, it's not the the external glands
is so diminutive compared to it's a nymph. Yeah, it
(37:26):
is rather a nymph compared to the powerhouse that is
inside of us. So, I mean, if we sound like
we're super high on clitter clitter list knowledge, we are
because it's incredible to learn about these things inside of
us that really it's taken us this long to really
(37:48):
begin to figure out. Right, Well, I feel like there's
just such a general societal fear of and always has been,
of women's sexuality and and independent sexuality and a desire
to want to have sex and enjoy it um. And
I feel like that is definitely contributed to sort of
men being afraid of learning more or knowing more or
(38:11):
caring about women's both both their physical structures and their
their sexual excitement. But it's also contributed to plenty of
women being afraid to learn more about it. And so
I definitely I'm glad we could talk about it. Yeah,
And I just wanted to add one final note about
that surgeon Peerful Days that we mentioned who in two
(38:31):
thousand nine, along with his research partner Odeal Bissan, producer's
first three d ultrasounds of the clitterest. He pioneered a
surgery using this research to treat women who had undergone
female genital circumcision, and by understanding this internal structure of
(38:54):
the clitterest, he's been able to perform more than three
thousand restorative surgeries to give these patients back sexual pleasure
that had been taken from them through the clitter ectomys
or other kinds of female circumcision techniques. So it's it's
it's about female pleasure and us knowing more about our bodies.
(39:18):
But it's also about this kind of healing as well,
very real physical healing for women around the world too.
So with that, let us know your thoughts. I'm curious
to know what people are thinking. Do you love your clitterests? Guys,
what do you think about the clitterests. There were a
lot of letters that we ran across in the process
(39:39):
of researching this too, from guys asking sex educators about
how to find the clitterest when what do you do?
And that's not a question that you should be ashamed of.
That's a great question for a straight guy to want
to know about his female partner. So and and also
side note to um when it comes to statistics about
(39:59):
women reaching orgasm. There was a recent study that found
that lesbians tend to achieve orgasm more regularly than straight women,
possibly because women might be a little more acquainted. Imagine that.
So with that, I have finally no more final thoughts.
Email us mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com.
(40:21):
You can also tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast and
messages on Facebook, and we have a couple of messages
to share with you right now. So we've got a
couple of letters here in response to our episode Mama's Boys.
This one is from Alex and she writes, I thought
(40:43):
I would chime in with some comments spout dating someone
who is very close to their mother as someone who's
friends with his parents. I understand and support being close
to your parents. However, there does come a point where
it goes too far. My best example of this going
too far would be after we had been dating for
well over a year. At this point, he was still
(41:04):
spending more of his free time and weekends with his
mother than he was with me. Yes, I know, great relationship.
So this one week, he was only going to be
free for one night on Friday, so after getting off
work four hours late, he finally makes it to my house.
Not more than five minutes after getting there, he gets
a call from his mother, so going into another room
(41:25):
to talk to her for fifteen minutes, he comes out
and says he has to go to his mom's house. Concerned.
I asked, what's wrong this being the one night we
will see each other for a week. Apparently his mother
had a bad date and his feeling insecure. I could
probably dredge up more stories on the same threat as
this one, but this is definitely a gem of a story,
(41:46):
especially since it hits both of your request for stories
about dating Mama's boys, bad stories about dating Mama's boys
and the stereotypical game Mama's Boys. Definitely enjoying the podcast
and keep up the good work, so thanks. I'll all right,
I have a letter here from Rachel. She says, my
primary partner, I'm polyamorous, is definitely a mama's boy, and
(42:09):
even though his mom and I don't really see eye
to eye, I'm really glad for his less macho leanings.
My partner's mom fled Europe to get away from his
dad and raise my partner and his brother as a
single mom and immigrant, as should be expected. Both my
partner and his brother have a lot of love and
respect for their mom. One thing I found to be
much more present in my partner and his brother is
(42:31):
a willingness to listen to women and an openness to femininity.
And they both tend to date strong willed women, which
is a part of why I butt heads with my
mother and thin she calls her anyway. I've never had
my partner's relationship with his mom get in the way
of his relationship with me, but his dad being back
in the picture has caused a little drama because his
(42:54):
dad doesn't appreciate the avoidance of machismo as much as
everyone else does. Of Course, true to form, my mother
and sin has managed to keep her husband in line,
and that makes me cackle a bit. So thanks Rachel,
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(43:14):
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Welcome to stuff Mom never told you From how supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen
and I'm Caroline, and we are going to talk all
about the Clitteriest today. Ladies and gentlemen. Everything you never
knew that you wanted to know about the clitterest will
(00:25):
be revealed in this podcast. That's right, in a safe
for work format. Very safe for work. Yeah, Caroline and
I learned lots of stuff along the way, and I
think it's important for everybody to learn more about the clitterests. Which,
by the way, can we just start off with one
fascinating fact please? The clitterest itself, just just the visible
(00:49):
part of it, outside of our bodies, contains eight thousand
nerve endings. That's more than twice on the head of
a penis, guys, not to not to make you jealous,
but not to tout our own horn. I feel like
this podcast is going to be full of euphemisms. It
might be. It might be, but let's uh, we we
(01:12):
got a long way to go before we get up
to those eight thousand nerve endings. Let's go back in time,
Caroline showing do Yeah, we we first want to talk
about where this word came from, what does it mean,
And it actually didn't originate until the seventeenth century, which
is interesting. This word has not been around forever, but
it was coined from the Late Greek word clay torus.
(01:36):
And I assume that we will get some correction letters
if we mispronounced the following Greek words that we're about
to say, because you might not know this, but I
am not Greek, yes, and nor am I Caroline uh.
And that's clear us with a K. And there's a
word clayenne in Greek which means to sheath, also to shut,
(01:56):
so something it might come from that because of the
reference to the clitterest being covered by the laby a menorah.
And then there's also though a related Greek noun form police,
which has a meaning of a key, latch or hook
to close a door. And then there's another Greek word
that it could come from that is a variant of
(02:17):
the word meaning side of a hill. It's related to
the verb to slope, from the same root word as
climax I Carol, I think that one is my favorite,
although there are some ancient medical sources that also say
that there is a Greek verb clyde ri izing that
means to touch or to the late lasciviously, to tickle. Well, Kristen,
(02:42):
speaking of tickling, the Germans have my favorite slang word
for the clitterest, which is the kitzler, which means the tickler. Yes, indeed, yeah,
and even just the slang clit originated in the nineteen fifties,
although I have a feeling that whoever was in the
nineteen fifties saying the word clit was probably just scandalizing
(03:07):
everyone so scandalous. So there there's a little background on
the word clitterest, why we call it the clitterest. But
let's go back in time as well and cover some
CLIs story. How did we even figure out what this
clitterest is all about? I mean, obviously women were probably
figuring out what this clitterest was all about for a
(03:28):
long time, but women weren't exactly prominent members of the
medical field until more recent history. So let's start in
fifteen fifty nine with one of my favorite characters in
this episode, an Italian anatomist, Realdo Colombo. Yeah, so of
(03:49):
course a man would claim to have discovered the clitter
lit and I like that his last name is Colombo
Kristen because if his name were in English texts around
that time, it would have been Umbus. And so I
just liked the idea of the parallel between like Christopher
Columbus claiming to have discovered the New World when really
there were already people there, and then you have Rialdo
(04:10):
Columbus claiming to have discovered the clitterus when plenty of
women were already. There's the Christopher Columbus of the glitters
Clistopher Columbus. God, I wish we had art to accompany
this episode of these explorers and these scientists. But anyway,
so yeah, he's this anatomist who says that he discovered it,
(04:30):
and there were some researchers at a New Zealand university
who were like, no, it was already quite known to Greek,
Persian and Arabic writers on medicine and surgery all about,
albeit with misconceptions about its function, which I also think
is funny because it's like, why are we talking about
a body part in terms of who knew it first.
(04:51):
But that's not to say that Columbo slash Columbus didn't
actually make some sort of contribution to the understanding of
what it was. Yeah, he it wasn't anatomist, and he
did provide these really detailed drawings based on human dissection
of the clitterests, and he was one of the first
to describe its physiological properties. And although he did think
(05:16):
that it produced a type of female sperm, and he did,
he wasn't really a big fan of the clitterest. He
called it the more venerous, meaning like the mound of love.
So he was also very much focused on the pleasurable
aspects of the clitterest. So although Colombo did mistakenly claim
(05:40):
that he was the first one there, at least he
liked it. Yes, not everybody can say that he liked it,
but I mean, I think his whole person well, he
was far from the only person who thought or positive
that the clators produced some type of female sperm or
or played some role in procreation. Um, But I think
he's unique in the fact that he also really dug it. Yeah,
(06:02):
other other medical or scientific writers at the time we're like, well,
we think that it could produce spiram and contribute to procreation,
but we don't like it. Well, if you go way
back before Colombo to say Aristotle, they I mean he
wasn't really talking all that much about the clitterest, but really,
(06:23):
this is when you have the idea of women being
just mutilated. Men are clitterist. Is really just a vestige
of what should be a penis. Yeah, it makes me
think of that song from a Little Mermaid, Poor unfortunate Souls,
Like that's kind of how Aristotle and Hippocrates saw women.
So yeah, Aristotle just thought that there were adverse uterine
(06:46):
conditions that basically turned what should have become a beautiful,
functional penis into an underdeveloped and sterile stump of a clitterest.
And Hippocrates, the old Greek father of medicine, disc drived
women's genitalia on the whole is just our shameful parts,
So thanks a lot, And he acknowledged that the clitterest existed,
(07:09):
but he just thought it was a random protrusion. He
referred to it as the colamela or the uvula, possibly
because it resembles the uvula in our throats, a little
punching bag and you see if you open open your mouth.
Well obviously, I mean, the uvula definitely doesn't contribute to
(07:30):
sex or procreation, so why would this tiny protrusion have
anything to do with it either. Um. Greek physician Serranos
of Ephesus also does acknowledge the clitterest exists. Um. He
has a different description for it, other than the shameful parts,
thank god. Uh. He says, this small formation is called
(07:51):
the nymph because it is hidden underneath the laby is,
such as young brides under their veil. Well, isn't that precious,
so precious little nymph? Yes? But I think it should
be noted though, that while these guys, essentially we're seeing
women as sort of the mutilated men we we should
we we could have had gorgeous penises, but instead we
(08:12):
ended up with gining nymph siding under veils. Because it
wasn't until in fact, the eighteenth century the European scientists
started seeing men and women as distinct sexes. This was
really just the line of thought that like, Okay, we
have a guy here, so we're going to figure out
women based on what she doesn't have, based on his body.
(08:36):
But then, I mean, things also got pretty intense in
the Middle Ages, understandably because it is the Middle Ages, right,
A lot of superstition flying around, and you know, despite
the relative and and minor advances and understanding what this
nymph is. During the preceding centuries, the physicians in the
(08:56):
Middle Ages relied more on fear and superstition. Uh. They
did also think that it was responsible for creating female sperm.
But in fourteen eighties six, the Malleus Maleficarum, which was
a guide to finding and detecting witches, called the clitterest
quote the Devil's teet through which the devil sucked out
(09:18):
his victim's soul. So, yeah, we are women are just
no matter what we do, just being aligned with witchcraft
and evil and the devil's teet. I don't even I
When I read that, Caroline, and preparing for this episode,
I just had to stop for a moment because the
images coming to my mind were quite intense. But moving
(09:40):
out of the Middle Ages and into the nineteenth century,
we were in one of the history books that we
read focusing on the history of the Clitterest the author wrote,
the nineteenth century really should have been the clitterests century,
and that the clitterest century. I'm not making it up.
(10:00):
That is a direct quote. Because in eighteen forty four
we have this German guy G. L co Belt draw
a detailed clitter lists not just the external clitteriest but
also the internal structure of well as well, which included
the erectile tissues that we'll talk about more in a
little bit. And this was probably the very first accurate
(10:25):
depiction of what the clitterests in total looks like. But
it turns out that the nineteenth century and moving into
the Victorian era was not such a great time for
the clitter is well. I mean, you also had to
grapple with the general fear that people had about women
in general, specifically and especially women's sexuality, because God forbid
(10:45):
a woman actually want, crave, or enjoy any type of
sexual behavior. So it was also kind of just assumed
that in general women were passionless, they didn't have a
sex drive, they were just basically sperm vessels, um, and
that if a woman did have a sex drive, she
was considered hysterical and she'd't have to go to see
(11:07):
a doctor and get treatment, and that treatment was a vibrator. Yeah,
the the vibrator technology started to take off in the
eighteen fifties and in extreme cases of nymphamania, wherein you
have a woman who actually enjoys sex and might even masturbate.
From time to time, you would have doctors cauterizing or
(11:30):
removing the clitterest entirely. There were a lot of methods
out there for curing in quotes, hysteria through clitter ectomys. Yeah,
I mean, I think that's such a scary but very
clear illustration of how women's sexuality was viewed. The fact
that it's like it's so abnormal for a woman to
(11:51):
like or want sex that it's like if she does, oh,
we better take off the parts that make or enjoy
it well. And there are still there's still clar ectomies
that are going on as well in different parts of
the world. You hear about this when people talk about
female genital mutilation or female circumcision. This was also we
we we usually today probably in the US, think about
(12:13):
it happening in far away countries such as Sadan, but
this was happening also in Victorian era America, right. But
during this period some people were all about the clatorus.
They understood that it served a great purpose. In eighteen
fifty two, for instance, Dr Jules Guio wrote a book
about sexuality that wasn't actually published until eighteen eighty eight,
(12:35):
ten years after his death because it was so scandalous,
and he wrote that there exists an immense number of ignorant, egoistic,
brutal men who do not bother to study the instrument
that God has entrusted to them well. And one of
those arguably egoistic and brutal men was likely Dr Isaac
(12:56):
Baker Brown, who was president of the Medical Society of
London in the eighteen sixties, and in eighteen sixty five
he published what became a widely circulated medical book that
put forth his ideas for curing insanity, epilepsy, hysteria, and
(13:16):
catalepsy all through clitter ectomys. Yeah, and it's interesting to
to read about people's views from this time period because
we have Dr Pierre Garnier in one who was definitely
not a fan uh and didn't believe that the clitter
is could or should contribute to any type of like
(13:39):
sex life between people or solo sex lives at that
He said that to claim that this minuscule apparatus, which
is most often an insensitive little button, so long as
it has not been touched or artificially manipulated, is the
most active erogenous center is to implicitly accuse all girls
(14:00):
of once having resorted to masturbation or of one day
becoming debauched. So I mean, right there, you have this
doctor who's basically saying, like the fact that you were
even insinuating that it is part of sex, part of
sexual activity can make someone enjoy sex. That's implying that
our beautiful, fragile, angelic nymph like women that they're debauched. Well,
(14:25):
it's telling to that that quote came in eighteen ninety one,
which is a few years after something really important happened
in the history the medical history of the clitterest, because
in eighteen eighty four, doctors were able to see procreation
the sperm fertilizing the egg on a microscopic level for
(14:48):
the very first time, and they realized that, Okay, there
is no such thing as female sperm. Like the lubricant
in a woman's vaginal a canal has nothing to do
really with uh, it doesn't have any kind of fertilizing qualities,
and it doesn't come from the clitterest. And oh my god,
(15:10):
the clitterest has absolutely nothing actively to do with reproduction.
So why should we even care about it? Well, why
should we care about it, but also, oh god, you
mean women have something on their bodies that is just
for sexual pleasures exactly. And so not only did they
(15:32):
demonize it because that means if you're messing around with
your clitterest, that is because it gives you sexual pleasure.
Therefore you are debauched, as Guarnier wrote, and then also
medically they were like, oh well, we don't really even
need to study it because it is it's useless. It's
like the appendix of the vagina. Thank god, it can't
(15:55):
explode um ideas about women's sexuality there. It's not like
they were so much better. When we get into the
twentieth century um around World War One, there was this
case of a dancer named maud Allen who was essentially
attacked for existing outside social norms sexual norms, and of
(16:15):
course by that I just mean you know, she had
sexuality and danced. She was an exotic dancer who attracted
a lot of attention because during this period that was
very scandalous. It also so happened that she was a lesbian,
and this sensational libel trial in Britain exploded around maud
(16:36):
Allen when she brought a libel suit against this guy
named Noel Pemberton Billing, who was an editor of a
right wing journal, The Imperialist, and the Imperialist was claiming
that there was this black book of forty seven thousand
(16:57):
World War One British turn coats who had been turned
gay by the Germans. And since maud Allen was a
lesbian and was also performing in Oscar Wilde salam Ay,
there was this item in The Imperialist about if you
went to see maud Allen, dancer highly erotic at the time,
(17:20):
dances in this production of salom A, that you would
be among some of those British turncoats. And he headlined
this little news item, the cult of the clitteris yeah,
which is funny to see this anxiety, the steep deep
anxiety which I get. Social norms, gender norms, wore all
of this good stuff going on. It's quite a melting
(17:42):
pot of of you know, all these things getting stirred up.
But she, maud Allen, was so popular that they had
to continue adding shows. And she was so popular, and
not just with gentlemen who were coming to watch her
dance in such a seductive fashion, I mean women, socialites,
others were bringing their daughters to see this woman perform
(18:02):
with their own set of binoculars to further examine her dances. So,
I mean that's got to be anxiety inducing for a
guy like Pemberton Billing who you know, he's like, oh
my gosh, society is changing, women are going to see
women dance. Well, it's interesting too that in this five
day trial that ensues a lot of Britain's didn't even
(18:27):
know what clitterists meant, right, because he assumed that when
he made that headline, the Cult of the clitterest, and
he was right, you know, not a lot of people
would know what it meant. But if you did know
what clitterists meant, then that meant he would deviant, right,
And so Billings actually cited Alan's familiarity with the term
clitterests as evidence that she was a deviant. He said
(18:51):
that it's an organ that, when unduly excited, possessed the
most dreadful influence on any woman. And so just this
combination in his mind of her being a as being
an exotic dancer and someone with knowledge of such an
esoteric term as glitterest, she's got to be a sexual
deviant and she's got to be somehow in cahoots with
the Germans. Well, and if we step back a little
(19:13):
bit to nineteen o five, we have Sigmund Freud coming
in dealing yet another blow to the clitter ist, because
this is when he puts forth the idea that if
you are a woman who is having clitteral as opposed
to vaginal orgasms, then that means that you are not developed,
(19:39):
that you're like stuck in adolescence. Yeah. He was one
of many physicians and clinicians and psychologists who didn't deny
the existence of the clitteral orgasm, but said that that
is something that adolescence do children do adult mature women
only have vaginal or jasms, and um, a woman who
(20:02):
could not orgasm through vaginal intercourse was obviously frigid. And
that frigid was a term. It wasn't just like an
insult thrown around. I mean that was a term used
to describe a whole slew of women. Yeah. And there
is a paper that we were looking at called Waking
Sleeping Beauty, the pre Marital Pelvic Exam and Heterosexuality during
(20:24):
the Cold War, and it talked a lot about how
doctors at this time, I mean leading all the way
up to you know, and during the Cold War, as
the title of the paper implies, vaginal orgasms were considered
to be the hallmark in the bedroom of a stable
marriage and thus of a secure community. Yeah. So more,
(20:47):
you know, just more norms, norms everywhere, Kristen. So, now
that we are into the Cold War, by way of
this paper that Kristen decided, we obviously have to bring
up famed sex researcher Alfred Kinzie, who in nineteen fifty
three publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, in which
he dismissed the vaginal orgasm and pointed to the clitterest
(21:10):
as the source of pleasure. He wrote that the vagina
walls are quite insensitive to the great majority of females.
There's no evidence that the vagina is ever the sole
source of arousal, or even the primary source of erotic
arousal in any female, which is groundbreaking. Yeah, and then
Masters of Sex fans might be aware of William Masters
(21:32):
and Virginia Johnson's research that happens in the mid to
late nineteen sixties. And it's in sixties six that they
published their work on the phases of sexual stimulation, and
they observed that both vaginal and clitteral orgasms had the
same stages of physical response, and argued that clteral stimulation
(21:53):
was the primary source of both kinds of orgasms. So finally, finally,
we have people saying, you know what, the clitteriest is
not so bad. In fact, it is in many ways good.
It isn't many ways good. And then two years later,
(22:14):
in nineteen sixty eight, radical feminist and Coat writes the
myth of the vaginal orgasm and say what right was
it mean? Caroline? She basically attacked as fraudulent the idea
that women could only orgasm through vaginal intercourse. She said
that the idea that idea created psychological problems for women,
(22:38):
and it served as a critique of heterosexuality in general.
And she said that sex had been defined for so
long from purely a male fellow centric perspective. And it's
not that she's necessarily wrong, but I think Masters and
Johnson were way more on the nose as far as
how orgasms work, because so is writing that, you know,
(23:01):
the vaginal orgasm is a total myth that never happens,
whereas before people like Freud were saying vaginal orgasms are
the only way to go when in reality, if we
start talking about anatomy, which we will hear in a second,
there's a whole beautiful, complicated, wonderful internal c literal structure
that is stimulated by a vaginal intercourse. So it's really
(23:25):
not either or, and you, guys, we don't have to
fight about it. We don't have to fight about it.
But I will say that it is worth considering. And
I think that this is a lot of what codes
theory is getting at in terms of the fellow centrism
that for so long and even today, just the word sex.
When you think of sex, it is implied that it
is a penis going into a vagina. And so, in
(23:48):
say Freudian terms, in order for a woman to be
you know, healthy and adjusted in the correct psychoanalytic phase
or whatever of her adulthood, that requires her achieving orgasm
through vaginal penetration with a penis with a penis. So
then things are coming around to say, oh, well, penis
(24:11):
not necessarily required, but there are, like Caroline said, there
is a lot more to it on the inside, which
we're going to talk about in glorious, glorious detail. When
we come right back from a quick break. All right,
(24:31):
So Kristen and I hinted at the well, didn't hand
We told you flat out that there is there's a
fabulous internal structure going on with your clitterest. And you know,
I my my whole attitude reading about this, the history
of of the study of the clitterest, in the in
the history of the science of it, I just I'm
(24:52):
like this, this poor this poor body part. It gets
no attention. And it's really not until the late twentieth
century that people even start going should should we look
inside there? Should we? Should we figure out what's going
on up in there? Because it turns out that all
we see on the outside with the hood and the glands,
(25:15):
that's gland. Not gland with a d is, but the
tip of an iceberg inside of us. Although iceberg might
not be iceberg kind of lens itself to fridgid, so
that might not be the best analogy. It's the tip
of something fabulous about that, that's right. So in the
(25:38):
nineteen nineties, researchers performed an mri I that revealed a
very elaborate structure to the clearest most of which is internal.
Andrologist Helen O'Connell described the quote clteral complex, the important
internal clteral structures and their dimensions in a groundbreaking Journal
of Urology paper. And it should be noted too that
(26:01):
there had already been m r s of the internal
structures of penises that had been done in the seventies. Finally,
O'Connell's like, oh, can we please apply the same technology
to look inside the vaginal structures to see what's in there? Because,
oh surprise, there's all of this stuff. Yeah. And in
(26:24):
a two thousand five paper, O'Connell criticized typical textbook descriptions
and illustrations, saying that there is no way that you
can give an accurate portrayal of all of the amazing
things that are going inside going on inside a woman
in their clural structures by just showing a single plane.
You know, you've seen this in textbooks. It's just like
(26:44):
the side cut of like here's the uterism, here in
the oraason, there's the vagina in the butthole. But there's
I mean, there's a whole like amazing sculptural structure going
on inside us. Who knew? And to give you an
idea of the scope of this clitteral complex of Caroline
and I are about to jump out of our seats
with excitement discussing it contains at least eighteen distinct interacting
(27:09):
functional parts comprised of muscular, erectile, and sensitive tissues. And
this is what in eight eight four g l Co
Belt had drawn. But it took from then until the
late nineties, in the early two thousands for us to
(27:30):
come back around to it and really give it its
due right. And adding to this modern science of the
clitter ist, in two thousand nine, surgeons O'Dell Boissan and
Pierre full Days produced the first complete three dimensional scenography
of a stimulated clitters Because this is important too, because
there's different stages of our genitalia, if we are aroused
(27:53):
or not, or having intercourse or not. Things don't always
look the same in one stage or another. So they
actually did this research over a couple of years without
any major funding. So that should tell you about how
people view the clitter lists and women's sexuality and genitalia
today as well. Any who, They were actually going in
search of this g spot you might have heard of,
(28:15):
and they ended up just finding all of this other
beautiful stuff. During the search. Yeah, and it turns out,
based on what we now know about the structure of
the clitteral complex, which will go into more detail in
just a second, but the g spot might simply be
where the anterior vaginal wall makes contact with the internal
(28:38):
clitter lists. It's not necessarily this magical spot one spot,
and and and and that's it, sort of in that
two dimensional way that we often think of, but rather
it's the convergence of all of this stuff. I wish
I had a more elegant word than stuff to describe
it going on inside of us. Yeah, so let's talk
(29:00):
a little bit about that stuff. So we have the
glands s glands s, which is what you see on
the outside. It's what people call a button, but which
is really like an iceberg, but not an iceberg because
we're not frigid. It's our little hill. It's our little hill.
That's right, the ticula. But so okay, here's here's basically
a rundown. We're going to do our best to describe
(29:21):
this with words, but I recommend that you look it
up for an image. Go to stuff Mom Never Told
You dot com. There is a blog post up called
a Brief History of the clitterest and it contains a
picture of exactly what we're talking about, and it is
safe for work, so excellent. Yes, Well, because the structure
kind of looks like an awesome little inner tube with
some shoots coming off of it that's around the vaginal canal.
(29:43):
It reminds me of an airplane neck pillow. Perfect when
you blow it up. Yeah, it's inflatable. Yeah. So the glands,
which is what you see on the outside, is attached
to that internal structure which we're just crazy about. And
internal structure is made up of two corpora cavernosa, which
(30:04):
is a rectile tissue that encircles the vaginal canal. The
corpora cavernosa then splits to form to what are called crura,
or it's more erectile tissue that forms a wishbone shape,
and at rest they point toward woman's thighs and when
erect they stretch back toward the spine. And then near
(30:27):
each of the crura on either side of the vaginal
opening are the clitteral vestibules and they're actually up under
the labia majora, so inside the labia majora, and when engorged,
they cause the vulva to expand outward. Yeah, And so
you know, this is all a bunch of erectile tissue
(30:49):
that does swell when you get aroused, and that basically
cuffs the vagina so that a vaginal orgasm is more
like an internal clitteral orgasm them. And then we can
all join hands and be friends and no longer debate
a clitteral orgasm versus a vaginal one, because they're all
sort of different types of the same thing. It's just
(31:11):
different methods to stimulate the same structure. And I do
really like how this wrapping around of the structure is
often described when it becomes engorged as it giving us
a hug. And what a hug, A very giving hug,
such a hug. I love that and a lot of
(31:32):
people there are a lot of artists, activists, people out
there talking about the clitterists and women's genitalia in general
to sort of bring awareness that hey, we're sexual beings
to your genitals, aren't gross, Get in touch with your sexuality,
and that the whole reason behind this push to sort
of make more women aware of their anatomy is that
(31:54):
so many women report having trouble orgasm NG. Yeah, about
one in three women and an average has trouble reaching
orgasm with a partner. About one intent has never reached orgasm,
whether alone or with a partner. And what often makes
it a challenge is this shame often associated with our
(32:15):
bodies and with our genitals. There are women that I
have known, in fact, who are adults who have never masturbated. Um.
There are women who have never looked at their own vaginas,
or they looked once and they were so weirded out
by what they saw because they didn't know what to expect,
or it didn't look like what they saw in pornography
(32:36):
that they assumed that it is wrong and it's not
the way it's supposed to look, and that's that's not
the case at all. Right. There was a study study
in the Psychology of Women quarterly that looked at undergrad
college women's attitudes towards their bodies and their genitals that
found that greater dissatisfaction with genital appearance was associated with
(33:00):
things like higher genital image, self consciousness during physical intimacy,
which in turn was associated with lower sexual self esteem,
sexual satisfaction, and motivation to avoid risky sexual behavior. So basically,
if you think that this important part of yourself is awful, ugly, dirty, shameful,
or you're afraid of it, then how can you possibly
(33:21):
enjoy sex? And not surprisingly, the researchers concluded that there
is a strong relationship between in enhancing the satisfaction with
the natural appearance of genitalia, with the development of a
healthy self concept and long term benefits of sexual safety
(33:43):
and satisfaction, because a lot of times when that sort
of insecurity over your genitalia happens or you don't think
it looks right like usually tends to affect you in
the bedroom in the sense of putting the their person's
sexual needs and desires over your own. And so, not surprisingly,
(34:07):
the researchers and in concluded that if you enhance that satisfaction,
if women are more comfortable and accepting of what their
vaginas and volvas and clitterestas look like, then it usually
relates to a more satisfying sex life and also just
a healthier sexual self esteem. Right exactly. And one person
(34:30):
who's pushing what she calls cultural c literacy is Susan
Ekberg Spirits, who wrote a paper in for the Berkeley
Journal of Gender Law and Justice, and she talks about
how cultural cliteracy is this thing that denotes what an
adequately educated person should know about the clitterest, which we
hope we're contributing to right now. But she talks about
(34:52):
how the clitterest is quote a despised body part because
it is an obdurate reminder of women's independence and power
and supports women's liberation. And she talks about how society's
shape versions of what is proper adult sexuality conforming with
values that exist in that society, and she says, quote, unfortunately,
(35:13):
for women, Western culture equates being human with being male. Accordingly,
Western culture considers sex proper when it is confined to
actions needed to produce children. Yeah, And I mean, I
just think that there is a basic gap and understanding,
I mean, clearly, as we've talked about in this podcast
between simply how female sexual pleasure even works and how
(35:37):
girls are educated in that regard versus boys, and how
a lot of times our concept of what sex is
and what sexual pleasure is usually is based around the
model of vaginal intercourse. Not that there's anything wrong with
vaginal intercourse, it's just also important for girls and women
(35:59):
to under stan that we have this part of our
bodies that has, like you said, nothing to do with
reproduction whatsoever. It is there purely to facilitate pleasure and
that's nothing to be ashamed of. And being curious about
it is nothing to be ashamed of, and exploring it
is nothing to be ashamed of either. And if you
(36:20):
want to check out the ways that maybe other women
are trying to raise cultural cliteracy awareness, uh, you should
check out New York artist Sophia Wallace who in launched
a multimedia project called Cliteracy and it includes all sorts
of art installations and even a clip rodeo where you
(36:41):
can ride like like a bucking bull at some sort
of honky tonk bar, you can ride a giant golden
clitteris yeah, And so I do wonder if anybody's actually
seen that, like gone to it and participated in this
art movement to ride the glitter to the well. And also,
I mean that looking at that, this might sound crass,
(37:03):
thinking of, oh we writing the clitter is what what
of that? But the sculpture that she created for this,
of that engorged internal structure will give you a sense
of the extent of the size of it as well. Um,
I mean I mean, it's not the the external glands
is so diminutive compared to it's a nymph. Yeah, it
(37:26):
is rather a nymph compared to the powerhouse that is
inside of us. So, I mean, if we sound like
we're super high on clitter clitter list knowledge, we are
because it's incredible to learn about these things inside of
us that really it's taken us this long to really
(37:48):
begin to figure out. Right, Well, I feel like there's
just such a general societal fear of and always has been,
of women's sexuality and and independent sexuality and a desire
to want to have sex and enjoy it um. And
I feel like that is definitely contributed to sort of
men being afraid of learning more or knowing more or
(38:11):
caring about women's both both their physical structures and their
their sexual excitement. But it's also contributed to plenty of
women being afraid to learn more about it. And so
I definitely I'm glad we could talk about it. Yeah,
And I just wanted to add one final note about
that surgeon Peerful Days that we mentioned who in two
(38:31):
thousand nine, along with his research partner Odeal Bissan, producer's
first three d ultrasounds of the clitterest. He pioneered a
surgery using this research to treat women who had undergone
female genital circumcision, and by understanding this internal structure of
(38:54):
the clitterest, he's been able to perform more than three
thousand restorative surgeries to give these patients back sexual pleasure
that had been taken from them through the clitter ectomys
or other kinds of female circumcision techniques. So it's it's
it's about female pleasure and us knowing more about our bodies.
(39:18):
But it's also about this kind of healing as well,
very real physical healing for women around the world too.
So with that, let us know your thoughts. I'm curious
to know what people are thinking. Do you love your clitterests? Guys,
what do you think about the clitterests. There were a
lot of letters that we ran across in the process
(39:39):
of researching this too, from guys asking sex educators about
how to find the clitterest when what do you do?
And that's not a question that you should be ashamed of.
That's a great question for a straight guy to want
to know about his female partner. So and and also
side note to um when it comes to statistics about
(39:59):
women reaching orgasm. There was a recent study that found
that lesbians tend to achieve orgasm more regularly than straight women,
possibly because women might be a little more acquainted. Imagine that.
So with that, I have finally no more final thoughts.
Email us mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com.
(40:21):
You can also tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast and
messages on Facebook, and we have a couple of messages
to share with you right now. So we've got a
couple of letters here in response to our episode Mama's Boys.
This one is from Alex and she writes, I thought
(40:43):
I would chime in with some comments spout dating someone
who is very close to their mother as someone who's
friends with his parents. I understand and support being close
to your parents. However, there does come a point where
it goes too far. My best example of this going
too far would be after we had been dating for
well over a year. At this point, he was still
(41:04):
spending more of his free time and weekends with his
mother than he was with me. Yes, I know, great relationship.
So this one week, he was only going to be
free for one night on Friday, so after getting off
work four hours late, he finally makes it to my house.
Not more than five minutes after getting there, he gets
a call from his mother, so going into another room
(41:25):
to talk to her for fifteen minutes, he comes out
and says he has to go to his mom's house. Concerned.
I asked, what's wrong this being the one night we
will see each other for a week. Apparently his mother
had a bad date and his feeling insecure. I could
probably dredge up more stories on the same threat as
this one, but this is definitely a gem of a story,
(41:46):
especially since it hits both of your request for stories
about dating Mama's boys, bad stories about dating Mama's boys
and the stereotypical game Mama's Boys. Definitely enjoying the podcast
and keep up the good work, so thanks. I'll all right,
I have a letter here from Rachel. She says, my
primary partner, I'm polyamorous, is definitely a mama's boy, and
(42:09):
even though his mom and I don't really see eye
to eye, I'm really glad for his less macho leanings.
My partner's mom fled Europe to get away from his
dad and raise my partner and his brother as a
single mom and immigrant, as should be expected. Both my
partner and his brother have a lot of love and
respect for their mom. One thing I found to be
much more present in my partner and his brother is
(42:31):
a willingness to listen to women and an openness to femininity.
And they both tend to date strong willed women, which
is a part of why I butt heads with my
mother and thin she calls her anyway. I've never had
my partner's relationship with his mom get in the way
of his relationship with me, but his dad being back
in the picture has caused a little drama because his
(42:54):
dad doesn't appreciate the avoidance of machismo as much as
everyone else does. Of Course, true to form, my mother
and sin has managed to keep her husband in line,
and that makes me cackle a bit. So thanks Rachel,
and thanks to everybody who's written to us. Mom Stuff
at how stuffworks dot Com is our email address and
for links to all of our social media as well
(43:14):
as all of our blogs, videos, and podcasts, including this one,
which also includes all of our sources. So you can
follow along with us. Go to stuff Mom Never Told
You dot com for more on this and thousands of
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