The Clitoris: A Recent Discovery in Human Anatomy (NSFW)

[JackRiddler]

The truer-than-he-knows punchline indicates to me that maybe you should contact Mr. Tomorrow!

[Project Willow]

That's a good one.

[Twyla LaSarc]

Gods, i wish we has a "like" button on this board. That one is so true.

I read an (older) article the other day about female sexuality that spoke briefly about how hard it was to get the clitoris mentioned. Vaginas are iffy, yet must be acknowledged. Clits? Even more taboo. I'll give you the article PW, I think you'll get a kick from it. The 1900's are turning out to be so quaint...

[Project Willow]

Well, I did indeed take the time to write to Tom Tomorrow. I've always liked his work.

---

Twyla, yes, and it's just so... universal.

We had a kerfuffle in the art world here of late over the Seattle Erotic Art festival. Did any one single person, outside of myself, mention the clit project? Nope. My clit and I are restored to our usual invisible status. Everyone is safe again.



Whatever.

Next on the agenda is posting a kickstarter or Indie Gogo so that I can re-make the inflatable in pink and supply it with a portable fan unit in order to take part in our various local parades next year, and/or perhaps a few out of town shows.

Though if anyone can spot me about 3.5 large, I can have it professionally made.

You have to be relatively wealthy to be an artist, you know.

[Twyla LaSarc]

I got some possible sketches for the 'Clit Dancers' costume floating in the 'wings' if it gets that far. I found the Fremont Parade to be somewhat inspiring...

[Project Willow]

I got some possible sketches for the 'Clit Dancers' costume floating in the 'wings' if it gets that far. I found the Fremont Parade to be somewhat inspiring...

Awesome. We must do it!

[Joe Hillshoist]

Well, I did indeed take the time to write to Tom Tomorrow. I've always liked his work.

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Did you tell him he stole my line?

[Project Willow]

Joe, I think that's every man's line at some point.

Apparently some young feminist writers have similar wrong headed ideas.
http://jezebel.com/5921451/i-dont-care-about-your-stupid-vulva-its-all-vagina-to-me

Unless of course it was all satire, in which case my response was completely useless and silly. At my age, I'm getting used to that.

I respectfully do not agree. Be bold, Ms. West, be the leader of the new vulvolution! Vulvolujah! Which reminds me, I clitored up my place today, it needs some editing.

[JackRiddler]

:bigsmile
Joe, I think that's every man's line at some point.

Hey! I'm a professional, here. Failure is not an option.

[Project Willow]

From the now flaccid thread.

I look foward to your findings.

I got some conflicting and inaccurate information, and one response that echoed the Darby comparison, which I think is a misogynistic screed supported by blatant cherry picking.

Anyway, the source that lead me to making the nerve ending comparison is respected researcher, Rebecca Chalker.

The clitoris is a powerful organ of sexual pleasure. The tip or glans alone has more than 8,000 sensory nerve endings-more than any other part of the human body.

When I first read this I thought surely she means in terms of concentration, as other anatomists had remarked, but later read that this referred to a total number comparison between the male and female homologous glans.

The way it's phrased it may be more about politics than anatomy, and all of it rather reductive, or misleading. In the humble opinion of this casual reader/layperson, it goes back to the big we don't know yet, if indeed any such direct comparisons can be made between the two systems.

If I had a dollar for every time I've read "little is known about...", or "only one study has been done..." It seems we know relatively little about the function of our sexual organs, the clitoral system far less than the penis. Most people, and apparently many professionals are operating on highly politicized and/or bad or incomplete information. As I've mentioned before, a few of the statements in this very OP are inaccurate, and the labels on the drawings I re-posted from another source are wrong. There is still much contention and work to be done.

On that note, here's bit on female erections and glans.

Because the shaft and the glans of the clitoris have no subalbugineal layer between the erectile tissue and the tunica albuginea the organ becomes tumescent or swollen with effective sexual stimulation but does not become erect or rigid. Nevertheless, human clitoral erectile tissue has the capacity to develop drug-induced priapism which responds by detumescing following administration of a-adrenergic agonists. The earliest attempt to characterise the possible mechanism(s) by which the crura and vestibular bulbs changed from the flaccid to the tumescent state was published first in diagrammatic form by Danesino & Martella in Italian. Their working hypothesis, based on the early mechanisms suggested for penile erection, was that during sexual excitement smooth muscle polsters (“cushions”) in the arteries supplying the two vestibular bodies became relaxed. Those polsters in the draining veins became contracted as did those in the a-v anastomoses. This diverted blood into the lacunae, filling them and creating tumescence. For detumescence, the arterial polsters contracted while those in the veins and a-v anastomoses relaxed, reducing the flow to the lacunae and allowing the blood restricted in them to flow away. Despite this mechanism being published in English for over 23 years, no independent confirmation of either the mechanism or the polsters in the female arteries and veins have yet appeared. It must be regarded as a speculative working hypothesis.

.....

Unlike the clitoral glans the male glans is pierced by the urethra. It has been suggested that there are really two glans in the female, a clitoral glans) and a glans that surrounds the urethra (periurethral glans). The periurethral glans is defined as the triangular area of mucous membrane surrounding the urethral meatus from the clitoral glans to the vaginal upper rim or caruncle. The periurethral glans is mobile and has been shown to be pushed into and pulled out of the vagina by penile thrusting during coitus.

[Burnt Hill]

Hi and thanks for following up Project Willow.
- the foreskin nerve edings were calculated by many on a per square inch basis, with 3x5 considered the standard size, so it will vary.
I am certain that the clitoral tip is profoundly more sensorial than the foreskin and or the glans of the penis, including the frenulum or not. My thinking was that if you take away the foreskin and glans, including the frenulum, than the males erotogenic nerve endings are void. With FGM I am supposing that there are still erotogenic nerves remaining internally. I could be wrong, and am only looking at it scientifically, and at this point not considering the real physical and psychological effects either procedure entails. Which of course do need to be considered for humane reasons.
I think and hope the main point for any of us would be that we want the whole package to get where we want to go, even if alternative routes may be satisfactory for some.

[semper occultus]

[ida pingala]

Willow,

So, this means your avatar and Jack's avatar both contain the clitoris maxima?

Forgive me if I'm a little slow. That's would be because I'm a little slow.

[Project Willow]

Semper, those are great!

Ida, yes, as it is for the time being anyway. The infamous G-spot may be renamed and included in the clitoral system over the next few years in which case I'll need to revise the drawing.

If you want a quick review, go here: http://afterdinnerparty.com

[ida pingala]

Thanks for that.

I've often wondered if the source for the name of the G-spot has anything to do with musical notation.