I think it’s more of a “time-share” kind of deal.
Back to the OP … I recall the phrase “Discovered the clitoris in the 1960s” was a popular trope in the 60s-70s.
But it didn’t mean literally discover, as in notice for the first time in human history.
It was a wry feminist statement that for the first time in history a) Women who masturbated were OK. And b) Men who included clitoral stimulation in their routine were mainstream, not weirdos. In other words, “There is more to sex than the ol’ in-and-out in the dark, followed by he comes in 90 seconds & you get pregnant. Like Who Knew??”
It is very hard for anyone much under age 60 to really understand the sexual Dark Ages which were in effect in the USA pre 1960-ish. Between ignorant religion mislabeled as “morals”, rigid gender roles, and lack of effective birth control, it was a world almost completely foreign to a current 20 year old.
Well, to be fair, it shows nothing of the kind. The cite shows that it was known by the same sort of people who like to draw and study detailed anatomical drawings, ie, doctors and anatomists. That sort of information used to be very expensive and hard to get if you were Joe the Farmer. He might certainly know that touching that bit there on Mrs. Farmer made her a happy woman, but I question whether he would have called it a clitoris until the rise of literacy and cheap printing.
While the clitoris was probably known by most average adults of sexually active age by the sixties, it sure was not - at least by name - known by most housewives in 1850, and probably not for a 100 year span on either side of it. The word “nipple” was scarely known and never used in polite company, much less clitoris.
But I do possess a copy of The Hygiene of Marriage by Millard Everett, copyright 1932, one of the first which is truly science based yet written for the mainstream. It’s predecessors were either pornography or medical manuals for physicians; this is one of the first educational texts for people without medical training. It was scandalous in its day for using medical terms like *clitoris *and vagina.
The second paragraph illustrates the oft-misunderstood Freudian theory. It’s not that Freud thought the clitoris should be *abandoned *in sexual maturity, it’s that he thought that the vagina should be included, along with stimulation of the clitoris and vulva. This misunderstanding led to some truly shitty sex.
I suspect that many straight men were unaware of the prostate as a sexual organ until the sixties, when people started talking more openly about gay sex.
I do not understand your point. The OP said
How can something which was already known long time ago be “recently discovered”? It makes no sense. Have we recently discovered reading and writing because most people of old were illiterate? I don’t think so.
I wasn’t arguing the “recently discovered” claim. I was arguing against your claim that the OP’s link supported your contention that the clitoris was “well known” at the time of that drawing. To me, “well known” connotes that something is part of general knowledge, not specialized knowledge. The drawing indicates that it was “known”, I agree, but not that is was “well known”.
Another point, Merriam-Webster claims the Enlish word “clitoris” dates from as early as 1615. They wouldn’t have named it if they hadn’t known about it.
How could it possibly not have been known by anybody that had one?
We have extensive erotic art from all kinds of cultures in antiquity. Included in that art is cunnilingus and lesbian sex. We even have dildoes. That pretty much settles the question of whether people knew what a clit was right there.
Dissection shows tissue just fine, but does not reveal the blood flow in erectile tissue. Doing MRIs of a woman in various stages of sexual excitation has revealed the far greater percentage of erectile tissue. For instance, an MRI of vaginal, face to face intercourse revealed a completely different position for the male and female organs than previously thought. Even Leonardo got it wrong.
You can’t dissect an erection.
I do not think “well known” means “well known by the majority of the population” but rather “well known by those who want to know it”, i.e: the information was available.
I would say today the function of the liver is “well-known” even though the great majority of the public does not know it. I think I can say well-known if the knowledge exists for those who want to acquire it and use “not well known” when the knowledge is not anywhere to be found.
In any case, the premise of the OP is that he thought the clitoris was only discovered on the 60s and that is what gives context to the rest. The clitoris was NOT discovered in the 1960s and was certainly well known long before that.
I have read doctors were recommending dildos and masturbation to women under the euphemisms of “calming the nervous system” and other such things long before the 1960s.
What I would like to know is where the OP got the notion and what evidence is there to support it that “the clitoris was discovered in the 1960s”.
Indeed. Back in the Victorian era, it was referred to as “hysteria”.
Basically, you’d go to the doctor, and he’d “get you off”, with a dildo, and then later on, with the advent of electricity, a vibrator.
I’m with Diogenes-I’m guessing he’s confusing it with the G-spot.
Did you mean a basic dildo design, for vaginal penetration, or the deluxe model with an added clit stimulator? Actually, the vibrator was invented in the 1880s for the purpose of assisting doctors to get women off. Freud would have been familiar with this practice, and that the vibrator worked on the clit, even though he claimed it was inferior to orgasm through vaginal penetration. And why wouldn’t a man want to persuade himself that his dick was indispensable to a woman’s pleasure? And hoodwink women into believing that?
Ibn Sina wrote about the clitoris in the 10th century, and this was quoted in Gabriele Falloppio’s anatomy in the 16th century–
So nothing new under the sun. LSLGuy and WhyNot have already answered the OP by pointing out that the “discovery” of the clitoris in the 1960s was sarcasm for the fall of Freudian phallocentrism.
Thank you. Looking at the posts after mine & WhyNot’s, I’d begun to wonder if I’d accidentally posted using the special invisible electrons I reserve for secret messages.
I can vouch for the fact that not all gay guys knew about it either.
Wait… Women have a clitoris?
I think the point I was making (and not too clearly) was how our current views are that we only just ‘sexually woke up’ since Kinsey and the Free Love/Sexual Equality period of the 60’s. (and you’re right, I may have been thinking about the discovery of the G spot) I was surprised that there was clinical knowledge of the Clitoris as a separate organ as recent as my original cite.
It was also an excuse to share a pretty nifty piece of artwork.
One only need to look at the ‘female ejaculation’ videos on the usual website lately to find stuff I wasn’t aware of as recently as 10 years ago. So evidently research is still ‘ongoing’.
I know this story. You were sitting in a coffee shop in North Hollywood and told her,“Clitty Baby, I can make you a star!”
Naw, that was [Seinfeld]Dolores[/Seinfeld].
People, people! We’re missing the most important thing here.
What the hell kind of Halloween parties do you people have???
The clitoris is real.
The female orgasm, that’s the myth.