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Relationships August 13, 2018
Go from literate to "cliterate."
If you’re looking at the drawing below and can’t figure out what it represents, then you need a crash course in cliteracy.
In other words, you need to improve your understanding and appreciation of the female clitoris.
And this hot-button topic involves more than just biology. It’s also a case study in the marginalization of women’s sexuality.
If you’re still confused—and maybe a little taken aback—don’t worry. You’re not the only one who needs a refresher. Pretty much the whole world, women included, could use a crash course on cliteracy. After all, the clitoris has been found and then lost several times throughout history (or should I say, clit-story).
So, whether you have a clit or not, here’s a crash course that will start you on your journey from literate to cliterate.
First, you must acknowledge that the clitoris is the most “misrepresented, misunderstood, disregarded, dissed and disappeared” body part in history. This quote comes from Wednesday Martin, Ph.D., author of the audiobook “The Button.” Martin is also the New York Times bestselling author of “Primates of Park Avenue” and wrote for the Atlantic and Harper’s Bazaar.
Talk about a cheap date: “The Button” costs less than two bucks, or no money at all if you have an Audible account or Kindle Unlimited. Also, its running time is just over an hour. That’s like, one episode of “Game of Thrones.” And it’s just as titillating.
Even though other longer works on the clitoris are out there, the book contains interesting anecdotes that make it an accessible entry point for the un-cliterate and cliterate alike. Here are some takeaways that can spark your curiosity (or shall we say, clit-orosity), and why they matter.
Martin begins the book with her quest to see spider monkeys in the Costa Rica jungle. That’s because the female spider monkey has a clitoris of legendary proportions, according to the New England Primate Conservatory. For a visual, see the middle monkey in the picture below.
As she observed the monkeys in the wild “unselfconsciously letting it all hang down,” Martin began to wonder “how women’s lives would be different if our own clits were so obvious and outward-facing.”
After monkey clitorides—yes, that’s the plural—sparked Martin’s interest in the topic, she began delving into the long history, or her-story, of this body part. Far from a dry topic, the story of the clitoris is an important puzzle piece that explains how some of the harmful misconceptions, stigmas and stereotypes about women’s sexuality came about. Here are just three of the mind-blowing examples she discovered.
The Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher Galen (AD 129 – 216) believed that women’s bodies’ were inferior to men’s because male genitals protruded outside the body. He believed this phenomenon had to do with body heat: “The female is more imperfect than the male. The first reason is that she is colder. If, among animals, the warmer ones are more active, it follows that the colder ones must be more imperfect…”
He even believed that the concept of female imperfection was “wisely imagined by the Creator.” His writings on anatomy were the mainstay of European medieval medicine, and some of his ideas remained influential until well into the 17th century.
For centuries, society persecuted women as witches, as many believed they were responsible for natural disasters, famine and plagues.
The “Malleus Maleficarum,” a 1486 guide for witch identification, wrote that witchcraft came from lust, which originated in the clitoris. The book called the clitoris the “Devil’s teat,” because the author believed that this was how the Devil sucked out his victim’s soul.
According to the book, a swollen or well-developed clitoris was a sign of witchiness. It is estimated that this particular “test” justified the Inquisition’s elimination of 9,000,000 women during its 250-year reign.
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, declared in 1905 that healthy, mature women had vaginal orgasms, whereas clitoral orgasms were a sign of undeveloped female sexuality. In fact, many women do not routinely and reliably experience an orgasm solely from sexual intercourse. Yet, Freud’s ideas have remained influential in modern psychology, and only recently has new research debunked them.
So now that we know just a few of the ways the clitoris has been man-handled (pun intended) for millennia, let’s discuss what it actually looks like. It turns out that what famous novelist Gertrude Stein called a “tender button” is only the beginning. Here’s a Halloween costume to demonstrate:
Australian urologist Dr. Helen O’Connell wrote ground-breaking papers in 1998 and 2005 that forced the medical profession to re-write their textbooks and re-evaluate their training. By imaging the pelvises of healthy humans, rather than dissecting dead ones, she found that the clitoris is even larger than originally thought. Spoiler alert: the long-misunderstood internal clitoris is comparable in size to the spider monkey’s, except it’s on the inside.
Here are some other cliteracy facts:
The journey to cliteracy and clitoral apprecation doesn’t need to stop here. For example, you can follow @yescliteracy on Instagram for conceptual and object art by Sophia Wallace. According to her Instagram, she built “the first anatomically accurate sculpture of the clitoris.”
You can also follow @clitorosity on Instagram. It was created by Laura Kingsley, a software developer who crafts culturally relevant messages with local activists, draws internal clits with sidewalk chalk and engages with pedestrians.
You can even buy a “Clitoring” by artist Penelopi Jones. Even Gloria Steinem has one.
Finally, there are plenty of other reading materials to explore, ranging from the scientific to the poetic. For example, check out these articles from Everyday Feminism for a range of content, and make sure to read through the entirety of Martin’s “The Button.”
Have fun with your newfound cliteracy! Use it for good.