Forgotten clitoris
• Sexual Health
With 8,000 nerve fibres at its tip the clitoris has more fibres than any other part of the human body including the tongue or, in men, the penis. As writer Natalie Angier comments it is strange that women are often perceived as having a more muted sexuality or as experiencing penis envy when the clitoris is far more sensitive than the penis and enables many women to experience multiple orgasms an experience denied to men.
During the Middle Ages the importance of the clitoris was acknowledged, despite the churches distrust of pleasure, because it was believed it was involved in womens ability to conceive. Studies of the clitoris were made in the 16th and 17th centuries but then it disappeared from historical records until the 19th century. In 1875 it was shown that clitoris did not play any role in procreation.
In 1865 the head of the British Medical Society, Dr Baker Brown recommended the removal of the clitoris to cure epilepsy, hysteria and madness. His work was eventually rejected and he lost his position but because of his theories hundreds of women were mutilated up until the 1920s.
Comments
Posted by: fred | January 30, 2004 01:12 AM
Posted by: Grandma Scrotum | February 2, 2004 04:16 AM