First of all, you are correct- apes are not the only mammals to have clitorises. You know which mammals have them? ALL OF THEM! CLITORISES FOR EVERYBODY!
That’s right- EVERY female mammal has a clitoris, even the really weird ones like platypi and echidnas. Not only that, there are quite a few remarkable clits out there. Squirrel monkeys have erectile clitorises which they use in dominance displays. Elephant clitorises are about 18 inches (45 cm) long! Galagos actually pee through their clits! And we all know about spotted hyenas, right?
Indeed, in the same manner that many mammal males have a bone in their penis (the baculum) the females of that same species actually have bones in their clits (the baubellum)!
And guess what, just like mammals aren’t the only ones to have evolved penis-like organs, they also aren’t the only ones to have evolved clitoris-like organs. Ostriches, ducks, and crocodilians have extendable clitorises (in fact, the genitals of male and female crocodiles look confusingly similar when extruded). Squamate reptiles have hemiclitores- that’s two clitorises on one lizard!
(I bet you weren’t expecting them to be bright orange.)
It is likely true, in fact, that many other non-mammals have clitorises that we simply don’t know about. Why? Because despite the literal oceans of research into penises and penis-type things, the clitoris gets barely a paragraph or two of mumbled speculation in any reproductive anatomy textbook. In fact, the aforementioned hemiclitores were only named in 1995– scientists were dissecting lizards long before then.
The fact of the matter is that there is no real consensus on why the clitoris evolved because nobody is studying it. And why? This seems like a big deal! If all mammals and even some non-mammals have them, wouldn’t you say it’s something that’s been conserved for a reason?
Some scientists say no, the clitoris is just an artifact of an unformed penis: a leftover, vestigial organ in females like male nipples. Certainly the clitoris derives from the same developmental pathway that the penis does, and has many of the same features on the smaller scale. Yet for something that is supposedly vestigial, the clit is pretty well-maintained. It’s surrounded by spongy erectile tissue in mammals and full of nerves- in fact, more than the penis has. And the human clit is not just a tiny penis, though this was only recently discovered: it is actually just the tip of a large submerged organ that extends laterally around the vaginal walls. It’s known that at least mice have this submerged version of the clit as well, and probably all other mammals.
Most scientists now will begrudgingly agree that the function of the clit is, above all else, to provide sexual pleasure, but few agree entirely on why the sensitive tip of the pleasure center is located (in many cases) externally when fertilization takes place internally. Here is a grab bag of theories:
Females are more likely to mate more frequently if orgasm (via clitoris) is harder to reach
How well a male stimulates the clitoris tells a female something about his genetic desirability
The clitoris is a specific adaptation for human face-to-face sex
Obviously that last one is bunk, since we now know that clits are literally everywhere, all around us. And the other two are weakly supported at best, though there is good evidence that, at least in primates, larger clits indicate a more polyandrous lifestyle.
But the fact of the matter is that the topic has been barely touched in the scientific literature. And so any conclusions at this point don’t have the evidence behind them to go beyond mere speculation.
Speaking for myself, I wonder why female masturbation doesn’t figure more often into these theories: female animals do, in fact, masturbate, just like the males do. Furthermore, female sexual pleasure is often masked in animals because their arousal tends to be less obvious than an erect penis. (Or, when it occurs, it’s deliberately ignored because it’s ~embarassing~.) Could a dog licking her vulva be experiencing sexual pleasure? Well, studies have shown that cats, rabbits, and mice become aroused by pressure on the clitoris, so the answer is yeah- probably! If there’s a theory that male masturbation helps clean out the penis (there is) why not one for female masturbation?
Of course, this all hinges on the idea that there needs to be an evolutionary reason beyond the ability to have pleasurable sex for the clitoris. Perhaps we’re too quick to dismiss the power of pleasure as a motivator- particularly in animals.
Final thoughts: the male chicken’s “non-intromissive phallus” is arguably a clitoris. (Does that convince you more that it has an important function?)
I had totally accepted the whole “the clit is just a vestigial penis” thing basically until this post! But it is really its own thing, and I feel there is a lot more opportunity for research on the clitoris between species. It’s ridiculous how many misconceptions I and many other clit-folk have absorbed about our bodies– I didn’t even know women could orgasm until I was a senior in high school (and of course due to my own research), and some folks never find out.
Clit-havers have a sex drive, we want to be stimulated, and the clit is more than just a failed penis.
um. I don’t think it is fair to describe a vestigial penis as a “failed penis” and I… feel sort of uncomfortable about the connection that last sentence is making between why things evolved and what is normative to do with them? Like, if Evolution God came down from heaven and said “the clit is a vestigial penis!”, I don’t think that ought to lead us to any conclusions about the importance of the female orgasm; the female orgasm is important because orgasms are fun, not because of any evolutionary benefit it may or may not have had.
If your argument can be boiled down to “well, the *real world* won’t treat you with kindness, compassion, or understanding, so I shouldn’t either” than… the problem is you.
The “real world” does not have to be a cold, cruel, place that requires thick skin, armor, and no weakness ever. That’s the just world you insist on making for yourself. I wish you joy of it.
Aang is about the strike the final blow and kill Ozai while in the Avatar state, and all the past Avatars of all the Four Nations are speaking through him, but he stops, and the glow fades from his tattoos
and the fire and the water and the earth drops away, and all he’s left with is Air, his native element, the element of a people that were wiped out, and the air surrounds him with this simple grace and dignity
and it’s like, even with all the power in the world, Aang remembers who he is, he remembers what he learned from the monks, he remembers his heritage, and he stays true to it. It’s no accident that Air is the element he’s left with when all the others fall away, that it’s Air he’s surrounded by when he comes out of the Avatar state and decides to spare Ozai’s life.
The Air Nomads were wiped out by ambush because they had no military power, Aang was brutalized in his fight with Ozai because of his mercy, and everyone, including his friends and past lives, were urging the necessity of killing OzaI. Ozai himself taunts Aang “your people didn’t deserve to exist in this world, in MY world”. But against all this, Aang refuses to let go of the ideals of compassion and mercy. He refuses to believe that power and violence are the only ways. Aang sparing Ozai was the last, bittersweet stand of the Air Nomads: not vengeance but true justice, an affirmation of the power of their beliefs, an assertion that the ways of peace, freedom and forgiveness are vital for the world.
I mean, how much courage does that take, when your entire culture has been wiped out by a violent world, to still say “No. What my people believed has value, has strength.”
At a recent practice, I overheard a bit of snark from some newer bro-type students about how our instructor is big on defense and utility, and only occasionally teaches “cool stuff” (spinning back anything, cartwheel kicks, superman punch etc). Every student who overheard those comments was like, ……… Seriously, I would much rather know how to NOT take hard knees to the body than try to perfect some flashy-ass move that I’d have almost no chance of landing in a real fight anyways.
Listen, I need you to know why I’m hurting you. It’s not just the boy. I’m doing this ‘cause I enjoy it.
On one hand, it’s great Matt finally has some body armor so he doesn’t end up beaten every other episode. On the other, this might mean there’ll be no shots of him in that very tight black shirt and probably way fewer of him bleeding or shirtless while getting stitched up in the next season, which is a tragedy 😦
Omphaloskeptomai 