|
Where and what is the Clitoris?
The clitoris is, to the outward appearance, a tiny organ which even the woman to whom it belongs may find difficulty in seeing, unless with the aid of a mirror (unless she is very flexible). It may be so concealed as only to come into view when the labia majora or outer lips of the vagina are separated. Located above the vaginal and urethral openings, it is structurally connected to the labia minora or inner lips of the vagina. The visible glans of the clitoris, which is hooded by a prepuce formed by the meeting of the labia minora, is, however, only the outward and visible manifestation of much more extensive structures of erectile tissue, which form a padding over the pubic bone. These concealed parts are anatomically continuous with and functionally linked to the vagina. The whole structure is densely packed with nerve endings: although there are a similar number to those of the penis, they are much more concentrated and closer together. It may be noted that although anatomically speaking, the clitoris is homologous to the penis, the female genitalia are far more differentiated than those of the male: instead of one organ which conveys sperm, urine and is the source of sexual pleasure, a woman has three different parts for these distinct purposes. When erotically stimulated the clitoris becomes engorged and erectile; when a high degree of arousal is reached it retracts, with the effect that it appears to have reduced in size. Vaginal lubrication takes place along with the engorgement of the outer part of the vagina. When sexual excitement reaches its peak orgasm takes place with rhythmic contractions of the clitoris and vagina. Unlike men, women have the capacity for multiple orgasm without an intervening refractory period.
How big is the Clitoris?
Helen O'Connell, a urology surgeon at Melbourne, has discovered recently (1998) that the clitoris is far larger and more complex than doctors previously thought. Most of it is buried beneath layers of fat and shielded by pelvic bone, which perhaps accounts for why it has never been found before!
This is vitally important because until now any urinary tract or gynecological surgery may well have cut important nerves or blood vessels that run to the clitoris. Medical knowledge has just not been good enough to ensure that doctors can protect the sexual function of the women on whom they are operating.
The glans of the clitoris, the part that most people know about, is just the external part of the much larger body underneath. In fact, the shaft of the clitoris lays vertically along the body's midline, covered and never seen, just beneath a layer of fat and skin. It reaches down towards the vagina and then splits to each side.
The August 1998 issue of New Scientist magazine describes it like this:
"The 'body' of the clitoris, which connects to the glans, is about as big as the first joint of your thumb. It has two arms up to 9 centimeters long that flare backwards into the body, lying just a few millimeters from the ends of the muscles that run up the inside of the thigh. Also extending from the body of the clitoris, and filling the space between its arms, are two bulbs, one on each side of the vaginal cavity."
These bulbs had previously been thought to be part of the vaginal structure but they are in fact part of the erectile tissue of the clitoris. They seem to have a couple of uses. They transmit pressure from the mouth of the vagina to the nerve structure of the clitoris, and they help clamp the urethra shut during arousal, which may help to prevent bacteria entering the urinary tract during sex.
Who first discovered the Clitoris?
Renaldus Columbus was a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy. In 1559 he published a book called De re anatomica in which he described the "seat of woman's delight." He concluded, "since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."
Columbus's claim was later disputed Gabriel Fallopius (gave his name to another part of the female reproductive system), who said he was the first to discover the clitoris. A 17th century Danish anatomist named Kasper Bartholin later dismissed both claims saying the clitoris had been widely known since the second century.
Since antiquity there had been a powerful belief that mutual orgasm was necessary for conception, which suggests that, though unnamed, the clitoris was known to be there. So any claim to have discovered this organ is erroneous. The only real claim that can be made is to giving it a name.
The Clitoris in History
The role of the clitoris in orgasm has been the subject of very heated controversy. Although for centuries it had been known by medical and religious authorities in Europe that titillating the clitoris had a beneficial effect on conjugal relations, rendering them more pleasant and more likely to be fertile, from the later eighteenth century this information apparently became increasingly hidden. Popular handbooks which went on being reprinted in the nineteenth century underwent expurgation and referred, if at all, much more generally to the necessity of mutual caresses and pleasure between the married couple. However, although the arousing role of the clitoris had been recognised, and even that a woman might bring about an orgasm by self-stimulation if her husband failed to give her an orgasm through intercourse, the assumption was very persistent that if women masturbated, they did so with a dildo in order to mimic penetrative intercourse. (Even today, although most women employ vibrators for clitoral stimulation, a large number of the models available vary in shape from the generally phallic to the hyper-realistically penile.) This supposition extended to the idea of women having sex with one another, conceived of as either impossible or else involving this substitution. There are some grounds, however, for believing that there may well have been an oral, mainly women's culture, which, if it could not scientifically name and describe the clitoris, nevertheless knew about its significance. This, however, was increasingly eroded by the rise of a print culture privileging published writings, the vast majority of which were by men, and a variety of other social changes including increasing levels of privacy and class separation.
A new ethos of mutual sexual pleasure in marriage arose during the early twentieth century: though shared pleasure had been an ideal in the Victorian era, repression and ignorance meant that it had not always been achieved even with the best intentions. Authors of marriage manuals emphasised the important contribution of the clitoris to the sexual arousal and satisfaction of the woman, even going so far as to suggest, in some cases, that the bridegroom should give his wife her first orgasm by manual stimulation before proceeding to defloration. Even so, clitoral stimulation was seen as something ancillary to penetrative heterosexual intercourse, which was defined as the central conjugal act.
Sigmund Freud and Vaginal Orgasms
Sigmund Freud downgraded the importance of the Clitoris in female orgasm by proposing that clitoral stimulation was immature and masculine in its nature , and to be truly women, women needed to abandon clitoral pleasures and effect a transfer to achieving orgasm vaginally.
The idea of a superior Vaginal Orgasm was later debunked by Masters and Johnson who observed sexual interactions in a laboratory setting, and on the basis of these observations, which involved various technological devices to measure arousal and orgasm, they concluded that orgasm was always clitoral: even if the clitoris was not being directly stimulated indirect stimulation was taking place as a result of friction from the pulling on the labia caused by penile thrusting during intercourse. Vaginal contractions were one manifestation of the orgasm produced by the clitoris.
The G Spot
There are many that dispute the propersition that only a clitoral orgasm exists. In The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality, (by Alice Ladas, and others) the authors state that as early as 1944, German obstetrician and gynecologist Ernst Grafenberg (thus the G Spot ) described a zone of erogenous feeling that was located along the sub urethral surface of the anterior vaginal wall. Grafenberg also concluded that an erotic zone could always be demonstrated on the anterior wall of the vagina along the course of the urethra, which seems to be surrounded by erectile tissue like the corpora cavernosa of the penis. In the course of sexual stimulation, the female urethra begins to enlarge and can be easily felt. It swells out greatly at the end of orgasm. The most stimulating part is located at the posterior urethra, where it arises from the neck of the bladder.
G spot stimulation sometimes produces an initial feeling of a need to urinate, which may last up to a minute. This is because the G spot is so close to the bladder. And sometimes G spot simulation can feel painful to start with. It's part of the emotional and spiritual center of a woman's sexuality, so lots of old emotional and physical hurts can resurface when you first touch it. For the unaware, the results can be surprising - tears, anger, rage, joy, laughter - but these responses are normal and natural in shedding the superficial layers of emotional garbage and reaching the more profound sexual experience that lies beneath. There is a temptation to stop stimulation because its thought that urination is required. This feeling will change to a highly sexual pleasurable feeling, and the orgasm that follows is apparently much deeper and more profound than a clitoral orgasm.
Female Mutilation
Here at The Horny Big Clit we love and worship the clit but did you know there places where they actually remove it from Femals. They try to call it Female Circumcision but its really mutilation. More on the disgusting practice of Female Mutilation
|
