The Clitoris: Much More Than the Tip of the Iceberg

By: Dr. Denise Renye

Cisgendered men’s pleasure has always occupied the spotlight in sexuality focus and research. Women’s pleasure as a topic of focus has come second, if at all (pun definitely intended). In a previous blog, we mentioned that orgasm for people with clitorises is nuanced. That’s because these orgasms are often classified as arising due to vaginal stimulation or clitoral stimulation, but the reality is. . .they’re both clitoral orgasms. The clitoris is like an iceberg and it’s larger than you realize. When most people think about the clitoris (if they think about it at all), they imagine a pea-sized body part. But that’s only the glans, or in other words, the “tip of the iceberg.”

In actuality, the clitoris has two 4-inch roots or shafts called crura that reach down from the glans under the labia toward the vagina, mimicking a wishbone in shape. When the internal part of the clitoris is stimulated through vaginal penetration, it may cause an orgasm. But also, maybe not! Another fact about the clitoris: It’s common to hear that the clitoris acts as a small penis and fills with blood and lengthens when aroused. However, it’s more accurate to say the penis is a big clitoris because male development requires hormones to suppress female development and then more hormones to enhance male development. That means the female anatomy comes first and the penis is an enlarged clitoris.  

The clitoris is also more sensitive than the penis as it has approximately 10,000 nerve endings compared with the penis’s 4,000. Related: The clitoris is the only organ solely devoted to pleasure. Why don’t many people know the true extent of the clitoris? Similar to the orgasm gap, it comes down to sexism. The clitoris has experienced waves of praise and criticism throughout history but our modern era has only recently started to claw its way out of the damage done by Sigmund Freud and his neuroses, especially around women and sexuality.

In 1905, Freud wrote “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” and said vaginal orgasms were “mature” and “healthy” whereas clitoral orgasms were “immature,” “infantile” and pointed toward a mental disorder. It may sound ludicrous now, but at the time his theory was so popular that people sought out procedures to remove their clitorises! The most famous example is Princess Marie Bonaparte, the great-grandniece of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was convinced she was “sexually frigid” and was obsessed with orgasming “correctly.” She even conducted a study on clitoral-to-vaginal distance and sought to determine if there was a correlation with orgasming.

She proposed that women with a short distance, less than 1 cm, between the two organs were the most likely to achieve “mature” vaginal orgasms; women with a medium distance, 1 to 2.5 cm, mixed orgasms; and women with a lengthy distance, 2.5 cm, were unable to experience “mature” vaginal orgasms. Her findings were disproved but her research points toward a larger issue: The obsession many self-identified women have with doing things “right” as defined by men and that applies everywhere, even in the bedroom.

Freud codified orgasms for us and we’re still unraveling the effects, which not-so-coincidentally, serve the patriarchy. Patriarchy gives men power and takes power away from women, nonbinary folx, and “girly” men. Under patriarchy, one sort of orgasm is prized over another, and also under patriarchy, the female anatomy is studied less. A literature review for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found just 11 articles on anatomical dissection of the clitoris had been published worldwide since 1947. Eleven!

Also, it was only about 20 years ago that urologist Helen O’Connell comprehensively mapped the clitoris for the first time using microdissection and magnetic resonance imaging. It’s changing but by and large, medical textbooks are full of anatomical pictures of the penis while the clitoris barely gets any attention. And when there is mention of the clitoris, few get the anatomy right about how large it is.

This lack of focus and knowledge can create a lot of issues for those with clitorises.  Psychologically, there is a message put forth that there’s less importance on these bodies, that women overall are less important, and that can affect self-esteem, confidence, and a general sense of embodiment. This is changing but/and the change is so very slow. It’s important to talk about the issues for people with clitorises, understand it, and have deeper knowledge of the vulva, vagina, and clitoris. Normalizing pleasure is key to a sense of embodiment. Embodiment is on the other side of a continuum from dissociation. And when people are kept in a sense of dissociation, pleasure is a faraway experience. This has to change and we have to be the change agents.

To set up an appointment with me (Marin County Sex Therapist), click here.

References

Barbour, Morgan. “An Orgasmic Crisis.” Lady Science. October 8, 2020. https://www.ladyscience.com/features/orgasmic-crisis-marie-bonaparte-2020#:~:text=In%20his%201905%20%E2%80%9CThree%20Essays,evidence%20of%20a%20mental%20disorder.

Freud, Sigmund. “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905).” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VII (1901-1905): A Case of Hysteria, Three Essays on Sexuality and Other Works, 123-246.

O’Connell, Helen; DeLancey, John O.L. “Clitoral Anatomy In Nulliparous, Healthy, Premenopausal Volunteers Using Unenhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging.” The Journal of Urology. June 1, 2005. https://www.auajournals.org/doi/10.1097/01.ju.0000158446.21396.c0

Wahlquist, Calla. “The sole function of the clitoris is female orgasm. Is that why it’s ignored by medical science?” The Guardian. October 31, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/01/the-sole-function-of-the-clitoris-is-female-orgasm-is-that-why-its-ignored-by-medical-science

White, Franny. “Pleasure-producing human clitoris has more than 10,000 nerve fibers.” Oregon Health & Science University. October 27, 2022. https://news.ohsu.edu/2022/10/27/pleasure-producing-human-clitoris-has-more-than-10-000-nerve-fibers

Wood, Dr. Gary. “The Clitoris, the Penis, Political Correctness and Biological ‘Factness’” Psychcentral.wordpress.com. August 25, 2009. https://psycentral.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/the-clitoris-the-penis-political-correctness-and-biological-factness/