Page 33 - AVN Intimate Fall 2018

RIGHT THERE!
As technology advances,
toymakers find new ways to hit the C-spot
≥ BY SHERRI L. SHAULIS
THE CLITORIS. It’s baffled men (and women) for
centuries—from learned physicians to frustrated
housewives trying to find pleasure with their
bodies. It’s been dismissed (Dr. Charles Mayo
Goss omitted it from the 25th edition of Gray’s
Anatomy in 1947), and even deemed immature
and infantile (thanks, Dr. Sigmund Freud).
The clitoris has had an interesting journey
through the years, to say the least. Some of the
earliest mentions of the clitoris come from 130
A.D. to 200 A.D., when Roman Empire physician
Claudius Galen theorized women’s bodies had
the same parts as men’s bodies, just on the
inside; hence, the clitoris was the female version
of the penis. In the 1400s, an engorged clitoris
was considered a sure sign the woman was
involved in witchcraft. The first dissection of the
clitoris took place in 1545 by Charles Estienne,
yet he referred to it as woman’s “shameful
member.” It wasn’t until the 1600s the clitoris
started to get any serious positive recognition:
On 1672 Regnier De Graaf expressed surprise his
colleagues did not seem to mention the clitoris,
so he wrote the most comprehensive report on
clitoral anatomy to date. But it took almost 300
years for Alfred Kinsey to point out “the clitoris is
the center of female pleasure.”
FALL 2018 | INTIMATE | 33