This kind of article makes me think what other medical and scientific discoveries we have suppressed or ignored even to this day because there is so much western country prudishness at play? Since we've been so afraid (at the cultural level in the US but also in other judaeo-christian countries) of female sexuality, female independence, gay people, anal sex, what are we missing here?
In terms of evolutionary origin and adaptation and natural selection (mutation, crossover, selection),
all amniotes (reptiles, amphibians, mammals) have a clitoris.
This article feels like it's full of no big mystery being unlocked other than the clitoris non-sexual stimulation being used as pain treatment during labor, but I'm sure not as effective as just some potent pain killer.
I find it a mystery why so many nerves are there, as well as why they were positively selected for. Enough so that human women have them with huge variation in shapes and sizes but they are there.
The idea of it being a pain killer for birth but requiring a vibrator is interesting, because I don’t think any culture developed clitoris stimulation as a child birth helper. If it did help I would expect it to change birth outcomes and thus being a source of positive selection.
The only thing that bothered me is that gender affirming is in fact an amputation, because they gave their clitorises to science. It even took me a while to understand what the term “gender affirming surgery” meant.
The explanation I was once given (by an elderly female librarian at a bar, long story) is that all the nerves in the clitoris are just there to provide the same pro-mating pleasure signals as all the nerves in the male penis. But if they were spread throughout the entire ring of the vagina, (as they are throughout the penis) they would be extra painful during childbirth when the whole opening is stretched and torn. Extra nerves mean more exquisite pain signals (think paper cuts on the fingertips vs elsewhere.) It might even damage them long-term. Concentrating all the most sensitive nerves in a tiny spot at the top makes them available for pleasure during sex but minimizes damage and pain during childbirth.
I thought that the clitoris contains all the nerve endings that would be in the male penis, just in the smaller area vs being spread out over the entire penis and penis nerves are selected for to encourage male mating.
In a penis the nerve endings are also mostly in the glans (head) so the difference isn't that big. Most of the parts of these two organs match somehow, just shifted around a bit.
Good point on the first paragraphs. The why seems to be that it’s mostly about pleasure.
Although not essential for survival, pleasure seems to be programmed in us as a species, so the body evolving this to give women the balance of a complex pleasure organ to make up for the pain — in so many levels — they go through during birth.
So maybe nature was like “they suffer a lot during birth and pregnancy, let’s give them a clitoris that gives them REALLY good pleasure that the male counterpart won’t be able to ever experience or comprehend.”
I’ve thought this in the past but then there are fish that go through either a mass spawning that involves no physical contact or salmon that force themselves through agonies to return to a spawning place.
Also there is rape.
So pleasure is definitely not required for procreation.
I think you’d be surprised by how many people just see the vagina as a whole you stick a penis in. But agree with this not being a big mystery being unlocked.
The erectile penis and clitoris cells both develop from the same embryonic tissues. I suspect that the itch from these organs incentivises the owners into reproductive behaviors.
This kind of article makes me think what other medical and scientific discoveries we have suppressed or ignored even to this day because there is so much western country prudishness at play? Since we've been so afraid (at the cultural level in the US but also in other judaeo-christian countries) of female sexuality, female independence, gay people, anal sex, what are we missing here?
Smooth muscle contractions involve the same nerves and muscles in orgasm as in childbirth contractions.
Uterine contraction > Labour and pregnancy, In orgasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uterine_contraction
Birthgasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthgasm
In terms of evolutionary origin and adaptation and natural selection (mutation, crossover, selection), all amniotes (reptiles, amphibians, mammals) have a clitoris.
Animal clitoris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_clitoris
https://archive.is/msDIE
This article feels like it's full of no big mystery being unlocked other than the clitoris non-sexual stimulation being used as pain treatment during labor, but I'm sure not as effective as just some potent pain killer.
I find it a mystery why so many nerves are there, as well as why they were positively selected for. Enough so that human women have them with huge variation in shapes and sizes but they are there.
The idea of it being a pain killer for birth but requiring a vibrator is interesting, because I don’t think any culture developed clitoris stimulation as a child birth helper. If it did help I would expect it to change birth outcomes and thus being a source of positive selection.
The only thing that bothered me is that gender affirming is in fact an amputation, because they gave their clitorises to science. It even took me a while to understand what the term “gender affirming surgery” meant.
The explanation I was once given (by an elderly female librarian at a bar, long story) is that all the nerves in the clitoris are just there to provide the same pro-mating pleasure signals as all the nerves in the male penis. But if they were spread throughout the entire ring of the vagina, (as they are throughout the penis) they would be extra painful during childbirth when the whole opening is stretched and torn. Extra nerves mean more exquisite pain signals (think paper cuts on the fingertips vs elsewhere.) It might even damage them long-term. Concentrating all the most sensitive nerves in a tiny spot at the top makes them available for pleasure during sex but minimizes damage and pain during childbirth.
I thought that the clitoris contains all the nerve endings that would be in the male penis, just in the smaller area vs being spread out over the entire penis and penis nerves are selected for to encourage male mating.
In a penis the nerve endings are also mostly in the glans (head) so the difference isn't that big. Most of the parts of these two organs match somehow, just shifted around a bit.
Good point on the first paragraphs. The why seems to be that it’s mostly about pleasure.
Although not essential for survival, pleasure seems to be programmed in us as a species, so the body evolving this to give women the balance of a complex pleasure organ to make up for the pain — in so many levels — they go through during birth.
So maybe nature was like “they suffer a lot during birth and pregnancy, let’s give them a clitoris that gives them REALLY good pleasure that the male counterpart won’t be able to ever experience or comprehend.”
Pleasure is essential for - generational - survival. Species would've died out already if there was no upfront benefit to sex.
I’ve thought this in the past but then there are fish that go through either a mass spawning that involves no physical contact or salmon that force themselves through agonies to return to a spawning place.
Also there is rape.
So pleasure is definitely not required for procreation.
Why use meds when there's a natural alternative?
“Fuck those kids, they’re hurting us!”
Right, mostly it's about how there are a bunch of nerves and stimulating those nerves leads to orgasm. Who doesn't know that?
I think you’d be surprised by how many people just see the vagina as a whole you stick a penis in. But agree with this not being a big mystery being unlocked.
> I'm sure not as effective as just some potent pain killer.
Don’t be sure.
The erectile penis and clitoris cells both develop from the same embryonic tissues. I suspect that the itch from these organs incentivises the owners into reproductive behaviors.
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I think that there are maybe more slang words for clitoris than there is for penis but I'm probably wrong. Maybe someone can list them all?