HEALTH:
You and & Your Joy Button
homologues of each other. This means that each part in the one finds it's counterpart in the other."
The penis and the clitoris are the only parts we can see. But the underlying structures which which cause these organs to enlarge and perience orgasm when stimulated are, like the underwater part of the iceberg, the largest part of the system and they are the same in size and strength in men and women.
Urethral opening -Glans
are the main functions of the clitoral system. The experience we call sexual arousal or excitement is "vasocongestion" or the blood swollen condition of the veins of the pelvic region. What we experience as orgasm is the spasmodic emptying of the veins when muscles contract all over the pelvic region. If prolonged vasocongestion is experienced often and not relived by orgasm, serious medical problems can result including lower back pain, varicose veins and blood clots. The clitoris brings about the contractions in some manner not yet understood.
It is still up to each one of us to make ourselves aware of our own anatomy and the way we function. Embarrassment and disgust will die out along with these sexual myths.
This is still a time for self discovery and self awareness. Women in the health professions today are talking about the clitoris. Some of the recent work in anthropology, biology, medicine and sociology has shattered many myths about this small organ.
The primary myth was that the clitoris was a "vestigial organ" like the apendix-some small shrunken leftover from our primitive past. Or even a tiny useless penis which shriveled up when women differentiated from men and had no use for a penis. Because of these myths, which make out the clitoris to be a useless and rather disgusting deformity, the clitoris was ignored by researchers and educators for centuries.
In fact, it would be no exaggeration to state that many of us do not know what a "clitoris" is, where it is, or what it does. Any knowledge we have about it was probably self-taught and untutored.
What about the myths of the "disgusting deformity" and the "rudimentary penis"? We now know, first of all, that the "adam's rib" theory of female origin does not apply to human embryological development.
Female embryos do not develop from male embryos and therefore have useless shriveled penises. Dr. Sherfey, in her history-making book The Nature and Evolution of Female Sexuelity states: "The early embryo is not undifferentiated; it is a female. In the beginning we were all created females; and if this were not so, we would not be here at all."
49.0 mm
Glans Genital tubercle
Urogenital slit
Urethral folds Labioscrotal swelling
Anus
Female external genitalia, 49 mm, embryo, around 7 weeks. Reproduced from illustration after Spalding from Van Wyk, J. and Grumbach, N. N. in Textbook of Endecrinology by Williams, R. W., fourth edition, Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders, 1968.
The Penis as an Overdeveloped Clitoris
In fact it would be more scientifically accurate to say that the penis is an overdeveloped clitoris. Actually, according to Dr. Sherfey, "The penile and clitoral systems are exact
Corpus spongiosum (displaced)
Corpus
cavernosum
Female
lower pubic bone
Clitoral shaft
Crus of clitoris
Bulb of vestibule
Male lower pubic bone
Embryonic groove of bulb
Superimposition of sexual structures of female over those of male, showing greater diameter of female pelvis with greater room for expansion of cryptic structures.
The Nature and Evolution of Female Sexuality
The Clitoris as an Evolutionary Advancement The difference between the clitoris and the penis is not that one is deformed, shrunken and and useless while the other is so large and important that it rivals that other misunderstood organ, the male brain. According to Dr. Sherfey the clitoris seems to have evolved specially to allow live birth and therefore better survival for human infants. The penis, on the other hand, retains the same function it probably had for dinosaurs, who laid eggs and died out as a species. That, briefly stated, is Dr. Sherfey's theory of clitoral evolution.
No More Vaginal Orgasms
The second exposed myth is the "vaginal orgasm". Ever since Freud decided that "vaginal orgasms" represented maturity while "clitoral orgasms" represented neurotic immaturity, we have been practicing fake orgasms (heavy breathing, thrashing around) in order to convince ourselves and our partners that we are having mature "vaginal orgasms". Doctors in mental hospitals even went so far as to cut off clitorises in order to improve their patient's mental health-or so they said.
Research by Drs. Masters and Johnson has proven that there is no vaginal orgasm. If the clitoris does not experience orgasm, neither can the vagina. If the clitoris is not properly stimulated there can be no orgasm at all. Creating orgasm and maintaining sexual arousal
WHAT and WHERE IS IT?
To find it you may need a mirror since it is very tiny and tucked up and out of the way. Trace your finger down your midline from your belly button through the pubic hair to the divide where the lips of the vagina (the labia majora) branch off. The lips, or labia, are large and have hair on them too. If you continue your finger past this point a little bit you'll find it. Probably you will have to pull the skin back which is the "labia minora" and find where it is hiding because when you are excited the clitoris retracts.
What is it? It is a tiny gland, actually, with a mucous membrane covering it, packed with specialized nerve endings and some capillaries (tiny blood vessels). It responds to touch or to nerve messages from the brain or spinal cord. In other words, it reacts to fantasy-like the penis does.
Minor Leblum
1.
Shaft Diameter Increase
IL. EXCITEMENT PHASE
Clitoral Shaft
Clitoral Hood
Clitoral
UNSTIMULATED BASELINE
Glans,
-Tumescent Reaction
Retraction Reaction, Glans and Shaft
Labial
Engorgement
III. PLATEAU
PHASE
Clitoral Hood
Labial
Engorgement
Figure 7. Retraction of the clitoris. From Masters and Johnson, "The Sexual Response Cycle of the Human Female. III. The Clitoris: Anatomic and Clinical Considerations." Western Journal of Surgery Obstetrics & Gynecology. (46) Reproduced in Human Sexual Response, Boston: Little, Brown, 1966.
The Nature and Evolution of Female Sexuality
For more information consult, The Nature and Evolution of Female Sexuality, by Mary Jane Sherfey, M.D.; a Vintage Books paperback at $1.95
page 3/What She Wants/November, 1974