One of the most fascinating parts of the body is the clitoris. Actually, I’d have to say, as a proud owner of one, it is the most fascinating part of the body and something I’m pretty happy to have. Granted, I’ve yet to find a partner who can totally handle it, but maybe that’s part of why it’s so fascinating — it’s a mystery that not many can unlock. In addition to its mystery, the clitoris is essential to pleasure — it's the most important part of a women’s body in that regard. Studies have found that stimulating the clit is absolutely paramount for most women to reach climax and 75 percent of women can’t get off by just intercourse alone — they need their clit stimulated in one way or another to have an orgasm.
But the thing with clits is that, as women, we don’t know as much about them as we should. A 2005 study of undergraduate students by the University of Wisconsin found that the women were no more knowledgeable about the clitoris than the male participants and both had a really hard time trying to locate it on a diagram. This, of course, is a tragedy. Every woman should know where her clit is and how it works. Because it so essential and it’s likely to make your sex life so much better once you really understand it, here are seven things you should really know about your clit.
1. It’s Way Bigger Than You Think It Is
While we often think our clitoris is just that little pleasure button that dons a hood and protrudes a bit from the upper part of our vagina, there’s more to it than just that. The clit actually extends a whole nine centimeters into the body, is shaped like a wishbone, and that little nub we love so much is only about one quarter of its entire size.
2. It’s Far More Sensitive Than A Penis
Although men love to run around thinking they corner the market on pleasure because they have penises, the clit actually has twice as many nerve endings than the head of a penis. The penis has 4,000, which is definitely a lot, but the clitoris has 8,000. No wonder some of us can’t stop touching it… I’m not talking about myself, obviously.
3. It Gets Bigger With Age
The thing with a penis is once it reaches its adult size it stays that way (unless the owner of it does some surgical enhancements of sorts.) But a clit just keeps on growing throughout a woman’s entire life. By time a woman reaches 32, her clitoris is four times the size it was during puberty and after menopause, it’s seven times the size it was when she was born — not that size matters all that much for a clit.
4. It Gets Hard When You’re Turned On
Similarly to a penis, the clit gets engorged with blood with you’re turned on. While it may not spew anything out of it (it doesn’t have the means to after all), after you reach orgasm, it relaxes, the hardness disappears, and it’s business as usual down there.
5. Researchers Didn’t Really Have An Understanding Of It Until The 1990s
Just adding to the complexity of being a woman, doctors and researchers have always marveled at the clitoris. In 1559, an anatomist named Realdo Colombo claimed to have “discovered” the clit, but his claim was never substantiated. Then in the 1950s it was apparently “rediscovered” by Kinsey, because apparently clits are masters of disguise, and just come and go as they please.
But that nonsense a side, it took a female urologist, Helen O’Connell, from Australia to finally put the pieces together to really understand the clitoris with MRI scans. That was in 1998.
6. Its Location Can Determine Orgasms
While the size of a clitoris has nothing to do with whether or not you’ll come, the distance it is from your vagina does. According to a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, women who have a distance between their clit and vagina that is five to six millimeters in length have a harder time achieving orgasm. This isn’t to say that it won’t ever happen, but it does suggest that these women might need a bit more effort.
7. It's 100% About Pleasure
The only purpose of a clitoris is to provide pleasure to a woman. That is it. That’s the only reason it exists. While the penis provides pleasure for a man, it has another purpose and that’s reproducing. The clit, on the other hand, isn’t necessary for reproduction — it really is just there to give women pleasure and is the only organ in the entire human body that serves that one intensely satisfying purpose. In other words, we totally hit the jackpot, ladies.
Images: Pexels; Giphy(7)
