The Clitoris Myth

The wife found a gloriously high resolution anatomical chart here:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2008/11/anatomical-chart-from-cyclopaedia-1728.html

The HUGEMONDO vaguely NSFW version is here: http:// upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Anatomical_chart,_Cyclopaedia,_1728,_volume_1,_between_pages_84_and_85.jpg

She’s printed it out large to mount as a prop for halloween next year. The page describing it states it’s from 1798.

I noticed in passing that, dead center, is a large, detailed illustration of the female reproductive system…and illustrated, right where it should be, is the clitoris. I’m sure that it being called out as item ‘O’ is entirely coincidental.

But I thought the clitoris was only recently discovered in the 60’s, has it been known for centuries, but we didn’t know what it was for? :stuck_out_tongue:

Or is this another one of those ‘our ancestors were smarter than we give them credit for’ things?

What, do you really think nobody in the history of human civilization took a close-up look at some broad’s ladyparts before the 1960’s?

The clitoris was even a favorite topic of discussion amongst ancient Roman soldiers. I know because I saw that on TV.

The Master speaks.

The clitoris wasn’t “just” discovered in the 60s. True, there was a lot of research into human sexuality at that time, but the clitoris was known and described before that.

Robin

They knew it was there. What happened in the '60s was the refution of the Freudian theory that female sexual development was ultimately vagina centered, with clitoral orgasm an “immature” phase.

I’m going to go out on a limb and hazard a guess that no one who’s ever owned a clitoris has ever had any trouble figuring out that they have one, or what it’s for.

Seriously, I’ve never heard of the claim that people haven’t always known what clits are. Is it possible you’re confusing it with the Grafenberg spot?

It’s statements like this that keep me here.

Possibly. :slight_smile:

You’ve gotta be thinking of the G-spot. Not knowing that the clitoris exists would be as strange as not knowing you have thumbs.

I seem to think that if I had a clitoris even I could have found it no matter what time I existed in human history. I’ve been told, and CMIIW, that a lot of women have located their clitoris and utilized it for various purposes without the aid of GPS.

Wouldn’t it be great if this were true? If the clitoris was discovered as recently as the sixties, then maybe there are other sexual organs waiting to be discovered. At the very least, the research process will be fun.

Well, I’d agree with you based on my own personal experience but there are females who have never felt the need to masturbate. So I suppose there must be people who have one who don’t figure it out.

The full extent of the clitoris has only been determined fairly recently though. It’s not just the small, external nub of flesh, but a much larger, y-shaped organ, with the axis of the Y being the G-spot. I believe advanced medical imaging like the MRI has helped establish this.

I discovered the clitoris in the sixties, but then, that’s when I was a teenager.

I have thumbs?!

I’m confused. I’m supposed to infer the existence of the clitoris from me having thumbs? :confused:

Why did you believe it was only recently “discovered”? Your own cite shows it was well known.

It may be hard for some to believe but our parents knew how to make babies.

I dunno, I can actually imagine female serfs or peasants of any pre-modern culture, scrapping out a chronically undernourished existence while perpetually pregnant or breastfeeding, conceiving through quick, furtive couplings in the same one-room hut with their children and livestock sleeping nearby–I can see very easily women in such a situation never figuring out about the clitoris.

“Own” a clitoris? I am not sure that is the right word but, anyway, I prefer to rent them by the hour. The cost of ownership would be too high, I think.

Genitilia Positioning System?

Ever hear of dissection? At any rate, Gray’s Anatomy (1901 edition) was aware that there is much more to a clit than the glans.

This idea is extremely charming. I vow to do my duty for science!

Actually, owning a clitoris is less expensive than you’d think. They’re maintenance- and trouble-free. Of course, the rest of the equipment is more trouble than it’s worth, but owning a clit is easy!

Robin