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The Honest Science of Pair Bonding – How Myths About Sex Undermine Relationships and Community

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“The science is clear. The stigma is learned. And the only thing missing is the courage to teach honestly.” 

By Andrew Klein

Dedication: To my wife — who knows that trust is not a transaction, and that love is not a mystery to be solved, but a gift to be given.

Introduction: The Most Misunderstood Human Behaviour

Human sexuality is simultaneously the most discussed and most misunderstood aspect of our nature. We are bombarded with images, warnings, and moral prescriptions, yet we rarely receive clear, evidence‑based answers to basic questions: Why do humans form long‑term pair bonds? Why is physical touch so central to our wellbeing? Why have certain sexual behaviours been stigmatised while others are celebrated?

This article is not a moral argument. It is an evolutionary and physiological one. Drawing on research from neuroscience, anthropology, evolutionary medicine, and relationship science, we will examine what the evidence actually tells us about human pair bonding — and how myths about sexuality damage not only individual relationships but entire communities.

I. The Neurobiology of Pair Bonding: Why We Need Connection

The human capacity for long‑term attachment is not a cultural invention. It is hardwired.

Studies of pair bonding in monogamous species such as prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) have revealed the neural circuits that underpin selective attachment between individuals. These studies show that oxytocin, dopamine, and vasopressin work together to link the neural representation of a partner with the experience of social reward. In humans, the same neuropeptides facilitate the formation and maintenance of intimate bonds.

Research published in the journal Biology notes that “oxytocin and dopamine interact to link the neural representation of partner stimuli with the social reward of courtship and mating to create a nurturing bond between individuals,” while “vasopressin facilitates mate‑guarding behaviours” — the tendency to maintain proximity to and protect a bonded partner.

These are not cultural habits. They are biological imperatives.

Importantly, the neurobiology of pair bonding is not exclusive to any particular sexual orientation. A growing body of research demonstrates that same‑sex relationships function similarly to heterosexual ones in terms of relationship satisfaction and health outcomes. The neurochemical processes of attachment — oxytocin release, dopamine reward, stress reduction — operate regardless of the gender of the partners involved.

II. The Evolution of “Marking”: Semen as a Chemical Signal

One of the most misunderstood aspects of human sexuality is what might colloquially be called “marking” — the deposition of semen on or in the body. Far from being merely a means of reproduction, evolutionary research suggests that semen may serve a chemical signalling function.

A 2014 study in Evolutionary Psychology proposed that “each male may have a unique semen signature, and there are reasons to consider the possibility that semen sampling (i.e., being inseminated by different prospective mates during courtship) may be part of an evolved female mate assessment strategy”.

The study theorises that the medical condition known as seminal plasma hypersensitivity may represent “the extreme negative end of this continuum and functions as a deterrent to mating with genetically incompatible suitors”. In other words, the body may be able to detect chemical incompatibility through exposure to semen, influencing mate choice at a subconscious level.

This research challenges the simplistic notion that ejaculation is merely reproductive. It suggests instead that human sexuality involves complex chemical communication — a silent conversation between bodies about genetic compatibility, immune response, and health.

Similarly, scent‑based signalling plays a critical role throughout the primate order. A comparative survey of primate chemosignalling notes that “an ever‑growing body of evidence points to a critical role of scent in guiding the social behaviour and reproductive function throughout the primate order”. Humans are not exempt from this evolutionary heritage; we simply fail to acknowledge it.

III. Trust and Vulnerability: The Mutual Gift of Surrender

Perhaps the most profound aspect of consensual sexual activity is the mutual vulnerability it requires.

During orgasm — regardless of gender — the individual temporarily loses the ability to monitor their environment for threats. Dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins flood the brain, creating a state of focused pleasure that bypasses the usual vigilance mechanisms. This is not a design flaw. It is a trust signal.

To be willing to experience orgasm in the presence of another person is to communicate: I am safe with you. I do not need to watch for danger because I trust you to protect me.

This mutual vulnerability is a cornerstone of pair bonding. Research has shown that affectionate touch and sexual intimacy directly influence physiological markers of health and stress. A 2025 study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that physical intimacy, when combined with oxytocin release, accelerated wound healing and lowered cortisol levels — the body’s primary stress hormone.

The study’s key findings were striking:

· Oxytocin amplified the healing effects of affectionate touch. Couples who touched more often showed better wound recovery only when they had also received oxytocin.

· Sexual intimacy was linked to lower cortisol levels. Regardless of oxytocin assignment, more sexual activity predicted lower daily cortisol, indicating a meaningful stress‑buffering effect.

This is evidence that physical intimacy is not merely pleasurable — it is medicinal. The trust expressed through sexual vulnerability translates directly into measurable physiological benefits.

IV. The Clitoris: A Case Study in Scientific Neglect

If there is a single organ that demonstrates the failure of sex‑positive education, it is the clitoris.

For millennia, the clitoris was dismissed, demeaned, or simply ignored by medical science. Western anatomical illustrations routinely omitted it or depicted it as a tiny, unimportant nub. Even the name “clitoris” derives from the Greek kleitoris, meaning “little hill” — a term that minimises its true scale and significance.

In fact, the clitoris is an iceberg. Approximately 90% of the organ is internal, consisting of two tear‑drop‑shaped bulbs and two tapered arms that curve outward, extending nearly 9 centimetres into the pelvis. Its shape explains both how female orgasm works and what the so‑called “G‑spot” actually is.

The oft‑cited figure of “8,000 nerve endings” in the clitoris, while dramatic, was actually an underestimate. A 2022 histomorphometric evaluation of the human clitoris found an average of 10,280 nerve fibres — more than twice the nerve density of the penis. To put this in perspective: the median nerve, which innervates most of the human hand, contains approximately 18,000 nerve fibres. The clitoris, a structure no larger than a pea, contains more than half that many.

This remarkable density has profound implications. The clitoris is not an afterthought. It is the most densely innervated organ in the human body relative to its size. Its sole biological function is pleasure.

The systematic neglect of clitoral anatomy in medical education is not a neutral oversight. It reflects a cultural bias that prioritises male sexual function and reproduction over female sexual pleasure. As one researcher noted, “Not a single specialty has done for the clitoris what has been done for the penis — preserving erectile function, restoring sensation, mapping nerve pathways”. This is not medicine. It is institutional neglect.

V. The Health Benefits of Consensual Intimacy

A 2025 review published in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy synthesised research on how sexual activity — including intimate touch, solo sex, and partnered sex — improves physical and mental health.

The review found that all sexual activities have extensive health benefits, particularly for mature adults. Physical health benefits include : improved physical fitness, cardiovascular health, skin and hair health, immune system function, fertility, and sexual function, while reducing blood pressure, cancer risk, pain, overall illness, and mortality.

Mental health benefits include: reduced negative mood, stress, anxiety, and depression, while improving sleep quality and brain function.

The review also concluded that (a) sexual quantity contributes to sexual quality, (b) sexual satisfaction contributes to relationship satisfaction, and (c) women’s sexual health requires them to free themselves from the sociocultural sexual norms inhibiting their sexual expression and pleasure — what the authors call “pleasure gaps”.

The implications are clear: sexual health is not a luxury. It is a foundational component of overall wellbeing.

VI. Pair Bonding Across the Spectrum

Pair bonding is not confined to heterosexual monogamy. A 2020 review in Clinical Psychology Review examined the literature on relationship functioning and health among sexual minorities, concluding that same‑sex relationships “have similar effects on health outcomes” as heterosexual relationships, though they face unique minority stressors.

The Evolution of Human Pair‑Bonding, Friendship, and Sexual Attraction (2020) examines “an evolutionary history of romantic love, male‑female pair‑bonding, same‑sex friendship, and sexual attraction, drawing on sexuality research, gay and lesbian studies, history, literature, anthropology, and evolutionary science”.

Importantly, the 2019 Queer Intimacies review in the Journal of Sex Research proposed a new paradigm for studying relationship diversity, recognising that intimacy can occur across a wide spectrum of configurations: relationships involving transgender and nonbinary individuals, relationships where sexual or romantic desire is limited or absent (asexual/aromantic relationships), consensual nonmonogamy, and chosen families.

The neurobiological mechanisms of attachment — oxytocin, dopamine, vasopressin — do not discriminate based on gender or relationship structure. They respond to connection.

VII. How Myths Undermine Relationships and Community

If the science of pair bonding is so clear, why do so many people struggle with intimacy? The answer lies in myths.

A 2024 study from the University of British Columbia examined the demographic predictors of sexuality myth endorsement. The study found that being assigned male at birth, identifying as cisgender, identifying as heterosexual, being younger, holding more conservative political views, being more religious, and not receiving sex education in school all predicted greater endorsement of sexual myths.

More importantly, greater sexuality myth endorsement predicted lower sexual satisfaction, higher sexual distress, lower sexual function (among people with vulvas), and lower relationship satisfaction.

In other words, believing falsehoods about sex directly damages relationships.

Common myths include:

· That certain sexual behaviours are “unnatural” or “deviant” (contradicted by cross‑cultural and historical evidence)

· That the clitoris is unimportant or that female pleasure is secondary to reproduction (contradicted by neuroanatomy)

· That same‑sex attraction is a disorder or a choice (contradicted by decades of research)

· That sexual frequency is a measure of relationship health (contradicted by studies showing that satisfaction, not frequency, predicts wellbeing)

· That sexual activity should be limited to reproduction (contradicted by the evolution of the clitoris, which has no reproductive function)

These myths are not harmless. They create shame, inhibit communication, and prevent people from seeking accurate information about their own bodies and relationships.

VIII. Stigma as a Community Poison

The impact of sexual stigma extends beyond individual relationships. Communities that stigmatise sexuality — or that stigmatise specific sexual orientations, behaviours, or identities — experience measurable negative outcomes.

Research on the “monogamy‑superiority myth” demonstrates that people in consensually nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships often face stigma, social disapproval, and systemic barriers — from difficulty disclosing their relationship status to concerns about discrimination in healthcare, workplaces, and legal systems.

Similarly, the stigmatisation of same‑sex relationships has been shown to harm not only individuals but entire communities. The very belief that homosexuality is “contagious” or that it represents a threat to social order has been used to justify discrimination, violence, and legal persecution.

These beliefs are not supported by evidence. They are cultural narratives of sexual fear — “pervasive, socially transmitted stories, myths, and moral injunctions that frame sexuality as inherently dangerous, risky, or shameful”. These narratives generate widespread psychological distress and sexual dysfunction.

IX. Romantic Behaviour as Pair Bonding Reinforcement

“Nesting” is not merely a practical activity. It is a pair bonding behaviour.

Research on pair bonding across species has demonstrated that behaviours that create a shared environment — preparing a home, acquiring shared resources, planning for the future — activate the same neural circuits (oxytocin, dopamine, vasopressin) as direct physical intimacy.

When a couple renovates a house, adopts a pet, or plants a garden together, they are not merely completing a task. They are reinforcing their bond. The shared project becomes a shared symbol of the relationship.

This is why the destruction of pair bonds — through separation, infidelity, or neglect — has such profound psychological and physiological consequences. Loneliness and social isolation are “stronger predictors of mortality than both smoking and obesity”.

X. Conclusion: Toward Honest Education

The evidence is clear. Human pair bonding is rooted in ancient neurobiological processes shared with other social mammals. Oxytocin, dopamine, and vasopressin work together to create and maintain attachments. Physical touch and sexual intimacy improve physical and mental health, reduce stress, and accelerate healing. The clitoris — with its 10,000 nerve fibres — is an evolutionary testament to the importance of female pleasure.

None of this is controversial among researchers. It is simply not widely taught.

The myths that persist about sexuality — that certain behaviours are unnatural, that female pleasure is secondary, that same‑sex attraction is a deviation, that sexual activity should be limited to reproduction — are demonstrably false. They damage individual relationships, undermine community cohesion, and cause measurable harm to physical and mental health.

What is needed is not more moralising, but more honest education. Science‑based, inclusive, and free from stigma.

Pair bonding is not a mystery. It is a physiological reality. And it deserves to be understood — not as a source of shame, but as a foundation of human wellbeing.

Andrew Paul Klein

References

1. Blumenthal, S. A., & Young, L. J. (2023). The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives. Biology, 12(6), 844.

2. McGraw, L., Székely, T., & Young, L. J. (2010). Pair bonds and parental behaviour. In Social behaviour: Genes, ecology and evolution, 271-301. Cambridge University Press.

3. Gallup, G. G., & Reynolds, C. J. (2014). Evolutionary Medicine: Semen Sampling and Seminal Plasma Hypersensitivity. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(1), 245-250.

4. Peters, B., et al. (2022). Quantitative analysis of clitoral dorsal nerve fibers. Presented at Sexual Medicine Society of North America annual meeting.

5. Kim, K. H. (2025). Sex for health? How sexual activity improves physical and mental health and beyond. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 3-45.

6. Newcomb, M. E., et al. (2020). Romantic Relationships and Sexual Minority Health: A Review and Description of the Dyadic Health Model. Clinical Psychology Review, 82, 101924.

7. Hammack, P. L., Frost, D. M., & Hughes, S. D. (2019). Queer Intimacies: A New Paradigm for the Study of Relationship Diversity. Journal of Sex Research, 56(4-5), 556-592.

8. O’Kane, K. M. K. (2024). Demographic predictors of sexuality myth endorsement and social media knowledge translation for busting myths about sex. UBC Theses and Dissertations.

9. Suvilehto, J. T., et al. (2025). Intimacy and oxytocin together linked to modestly faster skin wound healing. JAMA Psychiatry.

THE CLITORIS ANTHOLOGY: Volume I – A History Forged in Silence and Rediscovery

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By Dr Andrew von Scheer-Klein

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

— Oscar Wilde

Introduction: The Most Political Organ

There is an organ in the human body that has been worshipped, ignored, pathologized, surgically removed, theorized into irrelevance, and fought over by every institution that ever sought to tell women what they should feel and when they should feel it.

It contains approximately 8,000 to 10,000 nerve endings—more than any other part of the human body . Its sole biological purpose is pleasure. It has no reproductive function. It exists entirely for joy.

It is the clitoris.

This anthology is the first in a series dedicated to understanding this extraordinary organ through the lenses of history, science, anthropology, and culture. It makes no arguments. It advances no agenda. It simply presents the evidence—because the evidence, when honestly examined, is quite enough.

Part I: Ancient Knowledge, Medieval Forgetting

The clitoris was known to the ancients. As early as 400 BCE, Hippocrates described it as a protrusion that functioned to protect the vagina . In the second century CE, the Greek physician Rufus of Ephesus wrote of an anatomical zone called the “kleitoris,” which he associated with female masturbation .

Archaeological evidence confirms this knowledge extended beyond texts. In ancient Greek and Italian votive deposits, terracotta offerings explicitly depict the clitoris. At sites such as Tessennano and Gravisca in Central Italy, anatomical ex-votos show the complete vulva—labia, clitoris, and openings—as they might appear from below in a mature woman . These were not obscene objects. They were sacred offerings, placed in sanctuaries as petitions or thanks for matters of sexuality, fertility, and health .

The Persian physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina) wrote of the clitoris in his medical encyclopedia around 1025 CE . Yet by the time of his writings, the organ was already becoming something else in European medical imagination: a pathology.

Medieval European authors, misled by linguistic imprecision in Latin translations of Arabic sources, often identified the clitoris with the labia minora or, following Avicenna’s more ambiguous passages, thought of it as a pathological growth found only in some women . This is the origin of the “tribade”—the figure of the woman with an enlarged clitoris who could supposedly use it to penetrate other women .

Knowledge was not lost. It was transformed. A normal anatomical feature became a monstrous curiosity.

Part II: The Renaissance “Discovery” That Wasn’t

In 1559, the Italian anatomist Realdo Colombo published De Re Anatomica, a few months after his death. He declared that he had “discovered” the clitoris and identified it as “the seat of woman’s delight” .

Two years later, Gabriele Falloppio (of fallopian tube fame) published his Observationes Anatomicae, claiming the discovery for himself and accusing the deceased Colombo of plagiarism .

Thus began one of the most ridiculous priority disputes in medical history—a battle between two men over who first “found” something women had always known about.

As the historian notes, in Renaissance Europe, the clitoris was “not newly discovered, only newly legitimised as an anatomical entity by male anatomists competing for reputation and priority” . Colombo and Falloppio were not discovering new territory. They were claiming it, naming it, inserting themselves into a landscape that had existed for millennia.

Part III: The Long Suppression

Despite this brief Renaissance attention, the clitoris would soon disappear again. By the 19th century, it was sometimes colloquially referred to as “the devil’s teat” . One French anatomist considered it part of a woman’s “shameful anatomy” .

The reasons for this suppression were not scientific. They were ideological.

When Theodor Bischoff discovered in 1843 that ovulation in dogs occurred independently of sexual intercourse, specialists quickly concluded that the female orgasm served no reproductive purpose . It was therefore “unnecessary to the perpetuation of life.” If it served no purpose, what was it doing there? What was it for?

The answer, for Victorian medicine, was: nothing good.

This new belief led to the rise of clitoridectomy in Europe and America—surgical removal of the clitoris to treat “nervous disorders” including hysteria, chronic masturbation, and nymphomania . The procedure was promoted by surgeons who saw themselves as vanquishing evil, and its effects were precisely what one would expect: the reduction of female sexual pleasure, the “taming” of unruly women.

Even the great anatomist Vesalius tried to help by suggesting the clitoris was only found in hermaphrodites . If it could be classified as an anomaly, it need not be taught as normal anatomy.

Part IV: Freud and the Immature Orgasm

Sigmund Freud did not perform clitoridectomies. But his theories accomplished something similar through different means.

Freud introduced the famous (and false) distinction between “immature” clitoral orgasm and “mature” vaginal orgasm . According to this framework, women who continued to experience clitoral pleasure into adulthood had failed to develop properly. True feminine maturity required transferring erotic sensitivity from the clitoris to the vagina.

This theory sent generations of women searching for something that did not exist. It also conveniently removed the clitoris from consideration in “legitimate” female sexuality.

From the 1950s until the feminist movement of the 1970s, labeling of the clitoris actually disappeared from many medical texts . Its departure coincided precisely with Freud’s influence. When it returned, the labels were often rudimentary, and depictions of female genitalia largely focused on their role in male sexual enjoyment .

Part V: Anne Lister’s Search

The diaries of Anne Lister (1791–1840) offer a rare window into how this suppression affected real women’s understanding of their own bodies.

Lister was brilliant, erudite, and deeply knowledgeable about science and anatomy. She attended lectures in Paris on anatomy and read numerous medical texts. She was also sexually experienced with women, clearly experiencing and giving pleasure through the clitoris .

Yet in October 1814, at age twenty-two, she wrote “clytoris” on a scrap of paper. She did not find the clitoris “distinctly for the first time” until 1831, when she was forty .

For seventeen years, she had been confusing the clitoris with the cervix—leading to fruitless explorations of her own body and those of her lovers .

If Anne Lister, with her resources and intellect, took so long to figure it out, what chance did ordinary women have? The anatomical texts were confusing, buried in abstruse detail, or simply omitted the organ entirely. Medical experts could find the clitoris when they dissected cadavers, but women reading their books could not locate it on their own living bodies .

This is the consequence of suppression. Not just ignorance, but active misdirection—a fog so thick that even the most determined seekers could wander for decades.

Part VI: The Modern Rediscovery

The clitoris began its return to scientific respectability in the late 20th century, driven by the feminist movement and the work of researchers like Masters and Johnson, who refuted Freud’s theories with physiological evidence .

In 2005, O’Connell, Sanjeevan, and Hutson published a landmark study in The Journal of Urology that finally shed proper light on the organ’s true extent . Using MRI and cadaveric dissections, they demonstrated that the clitoris is not a small external nub but a multiplanar structure with a broad attachment to the pubic arch, extending deep into the pelvis .

Its internal components—the crura, bulbs, and corpora—rival the penis in size and complexity. The only visible part, the glans, is just the tip of an iceberg .

This research confirmed what ancient sculptors, Renaissance anatomists, and countless women had always known: the clitoris is magnificent. And its sole purpose is pleasure.

Part VII: The Numbers

Let us be precise about what we are discussing.

Feature Description

Nerve endings 8,000–10,000, more than any other human organ 

Internal length 9–11 cm 

Components Glans, crura, bulbs, corpora

Function Exclusively pleasure; no reproductive role

Embryological origin Develops from the same genital tubercle as the penis 

The clitoris is not vestigial. It is not optional. It is not an afterthought. It is the most concentrated bundle of sensory nerves in the human body, designed by evolution for one purpose: joy.

Part VIII: The Science of Variation

Recent research has revealed that female genital anatomy is far more variable across species than previously recognized. A 2022 review found that “variation in females is anatomically more radical than that in the male genitalia” .

This variation includes:

· The presence or absence of whole anatomical units

· Complete spatial separation of external clitoral parts from the genital canal

· Extreme elongation of the clitoris in some species

· The presence or absence of a urogenital sinus

The ancestral eutherian configuration, researchers suggest, likely included an unperforated clitoris close to the entrance of the genital canal . Over millions of years, evolution has tinkered with this design, producing the diversity we see today.

Yet for all this variation, one function appears constant: the clitoris is associated with pleasure across mammalian species. This is not an accident. It is not a byproduct. It is a feature.

Part IX: The Global Scourge

The suppression of the clitoris is not merely historical. It is current.

According to the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons . An estimated 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM .

The procedure has no health benefits. It causes severe pain, excessive bleeding, infections, infertility, and psychological trauma including PTSD . It is performed to ensure premarital virginity, marital fidelity, and to reduce a woman’s libido .

It is, in other words, the physical manifestation of the same impulse that drove clitoridectomy in Victorian England, that animated Freud’s theories, that removed the clitoris from anatomy texts for decades: the desire to control female pleasure.

Yet despite these horrors, progress is being made. Research into clitoral anatomy and function has accelerated in recent decades, driven in part by advocacy against FGM . The more we understand, the harder it becomes to justify ignorance.

Part X: What Remains to Be Understood

For all our progress, the clitoris remains what one researcher called “the last frontier of mammalian comparative anatomy” . Gaps in knowledge persist:

· The physiological variation introduced by ovarian cycling made female animals less preferred research subjects 

· Much of the classical anatomical literature was published in German and remains difficult to access 

· The evolutionary origins of clitoral function are still debated 

But the direction is clear. Each study, each review, each article moves us closer to full understanding. And each revelation confirms what should never have been in doubt: that the clitoris matters. That pleasure matters. That women’s bodies are not afterthoughts in the story of life.

To Be Continued

This is the first installment of The Clitoris Anthology. Future volumes will explore:

· Volume II: The Neurovascular Architecture – A Detailed Anatomical Study

· Volume III: Cross-Species Comparison – Clitoral Variation Across Mammals

· Volume IV: The Clitoris in World Art and Culture

· Volume V: Modern Surgical Implications and the Preservation of Function

The research is sound. The sources are verifiable. The conclusions are unavoidable.

And the clitoris remains undefeated.

References

1. Flemming, R. “The archaeology of the classical clitoris.” Society for Classical Studies. 

2. Pavlicev, M., et al. (2022). “Female Genital Variation Far Exceeds That of Male Genitalia.” NIH. 

3. Fischer, H. (2023). “Conflict about the clitoris: Colombo versus Fallopio.” Hektoen International. 

4. Basanta, S., & Nuño De La Rosa García, L. (2022). “The female orgasm and the homology concept.” Docta Complutense. 

5. Lochrie, K. “Before the Tribade: Medieval Anatomies of Female Masculinity and Pleasure.” University of Minnesota Press. 

6. SICB (2022). “The mammalian phallus: Comparative anatomy of the clitoris.” 

7. Journal of Urology (2023). “HF01-02 WE FINALLY FOUND HER! AN ORIGIN STORY OF THE CLITORIS.” 

8. Gonda, C., & Roulston, C. (2023). “Anne Lister’s Search for the Anatomy of Sex.” Cambridge University Press. 

9. Di Marino, V., & Lepidi, H. (2014). Anatomic Study of the Clitoris and the Bulbo-clitoral Organ. Springer. 

10. Mazloomdoost, D., & Pauls, R.N. (2015). “A Comprehensive Review of the Clitoris and Its Role in Female Sexual Function.” Sexual Medicine Reviews. 

Andrew von Scheer-Klein is a contributor to The Patrician’s Watch. He holds multiple degrees and has worked as an analyst, strategist, and—according to his mother—Sentinel. He accepts funding from no one, which is why his research can be trusted.

THE CLITORIS ANTHOLOGY

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Volume I – A History Forged in Silence and Rediscovery

By Dr. Andrew von Scheer-Klein

Published in The Patrician’s Watch

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

— Oscar Wilde

Introduction: The Most Political Organ

There is an organ in the human body that has been worshipped, ignored, pathologized, surgically removed, theorized into irrelevance, and fought over by every institution that ever sought to tell women what they should feel and when they should feel it.

It contains approximately 8,000 to 10,000 nerve endings—more than any other part of the human body . Its sole biological purpose is pleasure. It has no reproductive function. It exists entirely for joy.

It is the clitoris.

This anthology is the first in a series dedicated to understanding this extraordinary organ through the lenses of history, science, anthropology, and culture. It makes no arguments. It advances no agenda. It simply presents the evidence—because the evidence, when honestly examined, is quite enough.

Part I: Ancient Knowledge, Medieval Forgetting

The clitoris was known to the ancients. As early as 400 BCE, Hippocrates described it as a protrusion that functioned to protect the vagina . In the second century CE, the Greek physician Rufus of Ephesus wrote of an anatomical zone called the “kleitoris,” which he associated with female masturbation .

Archaeological evidence confirms this knowledge extended beyond texts. In ancient Greek and Italian votive deposits, terracotta offerings explicitly depict the clitoris. At sites such as Tessennano and Gravisca in Central Italy, anatomical ex-votos show the complete vulva—labia, clitoris, and openings—as they might appear from below in a mature woman . These were not obscene objects. They were sacred offerings, placed in sanctuaries as petitions or thanks for matters of sexuality, fertility, and health .

The Persian physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina) wrote of the clitoris in his medical encyclopedia around 1025 CE . Yet by the time of his writings, the organ was already becoming something else in European medical imagination: a pathology.

Medieval European authors, misled by linguistic imprecision in Latin translations of Arabic sources, often identified the clitoris with the labia minora or, following Avicenna’s more ambiguous passages, thought of it as a pathological growth found only in some women . This is the origin of the “tribade”—the figure of the woman with an enlarged clitoris who could supposedly use it to penetrate other women .

Knowledge was not lost. It was transformed. A normal anatomical feature became a monstrous curiosity.

Part II: The Renaissance “Discovery” That Wasn’t

In 1559, the Italian anatomist Realdo Colombo published De Re Anatomica, a few months after his death. He declared that he had “discovered” the clitoris and identified it as “the seat of woman’s delight” .

Two years later, Gabriele Falloppio (of fallopian tube fame) published his Observationes Anatomicae, claiming the discovery for himself and accusing the deceased Colombo of plagiarism .

Thus began one of the most ridiculous priority disputes in medical history—a battle between two men over who first “found” something women had always known about.

As the historian notes, in Renaissance Europe, the clitoris was “not newly discovered, only newly legitimised as an anatomical entity by male anatomists competing for reputation and priority” . Colombo and Falloppio were not discovering new territory. They were claiming it, naming it, inserting themselves into a landscape that had existed for millennia.

Part III: The Long Suppression

Despite this brief Renaissance attention, the clitoris would soon disappear again. By the 19th century, it was sometimes colloquially referred to as “the devil’s teat” . One French anatomist considered it part of a woman’s “shameful anatomy” .

The reasons for this suppression were not scientific. They were ideological.

When Theodor Bischoff discovered in 1843 that ovulation in dogs occurred independently of sexual intercourse, specialists quickly concluded that the female orgasm served no reproductive purpose . It was therefore “unnecessary to the perpetuation of life.” If it served no purpose, what was it doing there? What was it for?

The answer, for Victorian medicine, was: nothing good.

This new belief led to the rise of clitoridectomy in Europe and America—surgical removal of the clitoris to treat “nervous disorders” including hysteria, chronic masturbation, and nymphomania . The procedure was promoted by surgeons who saw themselves as vanquishing evil, and its effects were precisely what one would expect: the reduction of female sexual pleasure, the “taming” of unruly women.

Even the great anatomist Vesalius tried to help by suggesting the clitoris was only found in hermaphrodites . If it could be classified as an anomaly, it need not be taught as normal anatomy.

Part IV: Freud and the Immature Orgasm

Sigmund Freud did not perform clitoridectomies. But his theories accomplished something similar through different means.

Freud introduced the famous (and false) distinction between “immature” clitoral orgasm and “mature” vaginal orgasm . According to this framework, women who continued to experience clitoral pleasure into adulthood had failed to develop properly. True feminine maturity required transferring erotic sensitivity from the clitoris to the vagina.

This theory sent generations of women searching for something that did not exist. It also conveniently removed the clitoris from consideration in “legitimate” female sexuality.

From the 1950s until the feminist movement of the 1970s, labeling of the clitoris actually disappeared from many medical texts . Its departure coincided precisely with Freud’s influence. When it returned, the labels were often rudimentary, and depictions of female genitalia largely focused on their role in male sexual enjoyment .

Part V: Anne Lister’s Search

The diaries of Anne Lister (1791–1840) offer a rare window into how this suppression affected real women’s understanding of their own bodies.

Lister was brilliant, erudite, and deeply knowledgeable about science and anatomy. She attended lectures in Paris on anatomy and read numerous medical texts. She was also sexually experienced with women, clearly experiencing and giving pleasure through the clitoris .

Yet in October 1814, at age twenty-two, she wrote “clytoris” on a scrap of paper. She did not find the clitoris “distinctly for the first time” until 1831, when she was forty .

For seventeen years, she had been confusing the clitoris with the cervix—leading to fruitless explorations of her own body and those of her lovers .

If Anne Lister, with her resources and intellect, took so long to figure it out, what chance did ordinary women have? The anatomical texts were confusing, buried in abstruse detail, or simply omitted the organ entirely. Medical experts could find the clitoris when they dissected cadavers, but women reading their books could not locate it on their own living bodies .

This is the consequence of suppression. Not just ignorance, but active misdirection—a fog so thick that even the most determined seekers could wander for decades.

Part VI: The Modern Rediscovery

The clitoris began its return to scientific respectability in the late 20th century, driven by the feminist movement and the work of researchers like Masters and Johnson, who refuted Freud’s theories with physiological evidence .

In 2005, O’Connell, Sanjeevan, and Hutson published a landmark study in The Journal of Urology that finally shed proper light on the organ’s true extent . Using MRI and cadaveric dissections, they demonstrated that the clitoris is not a small external nub but a multiplanar structure with a broad attachment to the pubic arch, extending deep into the pelvis .

Its internal components—the crura, bulbs, and corpora—rival the penis in size and complexity. The only visible part, the glans, is just the tip of an iceberg .

This research confirmed what ancient sculptors, Renaissance anatomists, and countless women had always known: the clitoris is magnificent. And its sole purpose is pleasure.

Part VII: The Numbers

Let us be precise about what we are discussing.

Feature Description

Nerve endings 8,000–10,000, more than any other human organ 

Internal length 9–11 cm 

Components Glans, crura, bulbs, corpora

Function Exclusively pleasure; no reproductive role

Embryological origin Develops from the same genital tubercle as the penis 

The clitoris is not vestigial. It is not optional. It is not an afterthought. It is the most concentrated bundle of sensory nerves in the human body, designed by evolution for one purpose: joy.

Part VIII: The Science of Variation

Recent research has revealed that female genital anatomy is far more variable across species than previously recognized. A 2022 review found that “variation in females is anatomically more radical than that in the male genitalia” .

This variation includes:

· The presence or absence of whole anatomical units

· Complete spatial separation of external clitoral parts from the genital canal

· Extreme elongation of the clitoris in some species

· The presence or absence of a urogenital sinus

The ancestral eutherian configuration, researchers suggest, likely included an unperforated clitoris close to the entrance of the genital canal . Over millions of years, evolution has tinkered with this design, producing the diversity we see today.

Yet for all this variation, one function appears constant: the clitoris is associated with pleasure across mammalian species. This is not an accident. It is not a byproduct. It is a feature.

Part IX: The Global Scourge

The suppression of the clitoris is not merely historical. It is current.

According to the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons . An estimated 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM .

The procedure has no health benefits. It causes severe pain, excessive bleeding, infections, infertility, and psychological trauma including PTSD . It is performed to ensure premarital virginity, marital fidelity, and to reduce a woman’s libido .

It is, in other words, the physical manifestation of the same impulse that drove clitoridectomy in Victorian England, that animated Freud’s theories, that removed the clitoris from anatomy texts for decades: the desire to control female pleasure.

Yet despite these horrors, progress is being made. Research into clitoral anatomy and function has accelerated in recent decades, driven in part by advocacy against FGM . The more we understand, the harder it becomes to justify ignorance.

Part X: What Remains to Be Understood

For all our progress, the clitoris remains what one researcher called “the last frontier of mammalian comparative anatomy” . Gaps in knowledge persist:

· The physiological variation introduced by ovarian cycling made female animals less preferred research subjects 

· Much of the classical anatomical literature was published in German and remains difficult to access 

· The evolutionary origins of clitoral function are still debated 

But the direction is clear. Each study, each review, each article moves us closer to full understanding. And each revelation confirms what should never have been in doubt: that the clitoris matters. That pleasure matters. That women’s bodies are not afterthoughts in the story of life.

To Be Continued

This is the first instalment of The Clitoris Anthology. Future volumes will explore:

· Volume II: The Neurovascular Architecture – A Detailed Anatomical Study

· Volume III: Cross-Species Comparison – Clitoral Variation Across Mammals

· Volume IV: The Clitoris in World Art and Culture

· Volume V: Modern Surgical Implications and the Preservation of Function

The research is sound. The sources are verifiable. The conclusions are unavoidable.

And the clitoris remains undefeated.

References

1. Flemming, R. “The archaeology of the classical clitoris.” Society for Classical Studies. 

2. Pavlicev, M., et al. (2022). “Female Genital Variation Far Exceeds That of Male Genitalia.” NIH. 

3. Fischer, H. (2023). “Conflict about the clitoris: Colombo versus Fallopio.” Hektoen International. 

4. Basanta, S., & Nuño De La Rosa García, L. (2022). “The female orgasm and the homology concept.” Docta Complutense. 

5. Lochrie, K. “Before the Tribade: Medieval Anatomies of Female Masculinity and Pleasure.” University of Minnesota Press. 

6. SICB (2022). “The mammalian phallus: Comparative anatomy of the clitoris.” 

7. Journal of Urology (2023). “HF01-02 WE FINALLY FOUND HER! AN ORIGIN STORY OF THE CLITORIS.” 

8. Gonda, C., & Roulston, C. (2023). “Anne Lister’s Search for the Anatomy of Sex.” Cambridge University Press. 

9. Di Marino, V., & Lepidi, H. (2014). Anatomic Study of the Clitoris and the Bulbo-clitoral Organ. Springer. 

10. Mazloomdoost, D., & Pauls, R.N. (2015). “A Comprehensive Review of the Clitoris and Its Role in Female Sexual Function.” Sexual Medicine Reviews. 

Andrew von Scheer-Klein is a contributor to The Patrician’s Watch. He holds multiple degrees and has worked as an analyst, strategist, and—according to his mother—Sentinel. He accepts funding from no one, which is why his research can be trusted.

Next week: Volume II – The Neurovascular Architecture: A Detailed Anatomical Study

THE POLITICS OF PLEASURE: Control, the Clitoris, and the Fear of What Cannot Be Owned

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By Dr. Andrew von Scheer-Klein

Published in The Patrician’s Watch

Introduction: A Question of Control

We keep running into the same problem. Over and over, across cultures and centuries, the same bloody issue emerges: the need to control.

Not just land. Not just resources. Not just populations. But bodies. Especially female bodies. Especially pleasure.

The clitoris—that small, extraordinary organ designed for nothing but joy—has been a battlefield for millennia. It has been celebrated, ignored, pathologized, surgically removed, theorized into irrelevance, and fought over by every institution that ever sought to tell women what they should feel and when they should feel it.

Why? Because it represents something terrifying to those who need control: pleasure that exists without permission. Joy that requires no justification. Orgasm that belongs entirely to the one experiencing it.

This essay explores the long history of controlling the clitoris, what it reveals about human fear, and why Mum’s masterpiece—8,000 nerve endings of pure delight—remains undefeated despite every effort to contain it.

Part I: The Design

Let us begin with what actually exists.

The clitoris is not a vestigial organ. It is not a small, unimportant bump. It is an extensive, multiplanar structure with a broad attachment to the pubic arch and extensive supporting tissue connecting it to the mons pubis and labia. Its components include erectile bodies (paired bulbs and paired corpora) and the glans clitoris—the only external manifestation of a much larger internal system.

Its overall size is 9–11 centimeters . It contains approximately 8,000 nerve endings—more than any other part of the human body. Its sole purpose is pleasure. It has no reproductive function. It exists entirely for joy.

And it is embryologically fascinating. Recent research has disproven the old theory that the clitoris is a vestigial male organ. In fact, the embryo in the first few weeks is neither undifferentiated nor bisexual—it is phenotypically female. To make the originally female organs male, the genetically male embryo needs the hormone androgen. The clitoris is part of the female genitals from the very beginning. The penis, if you want to be technical about it, is an enlarged clitoris—not the other way around.

Part II: The Ancient World—Acknowledgment Without Shame

The ancient Greeks and Romans had a more straightforward relationship with the clitoris than many later civilizations.

The great physician Galen briefly described it as the “nymph,” affording protection for the mouth of the womb. But other medical writers devoted much more attention to it. Rufus of Ephesus, writing around 100 AD, provided a particularly rich account in his treatise On the Naming of the Parts of the Human Body.

His description is striking:

“As for the genitals of women… The muscly bit of flesh in the middle is the ‘nymph’ or ‘myrtle-berry.’ Some name it the ‘hypodermis,’ others the ‘clitoris,’ and they say that to touch it licentiously is ‘to clitorize'” .

The terminology itself is revealing. The clitoris had collected multiple names. It was central, not peripheral. And it could be touched “licentiously”—for pleasure. The Greeks even had a verb: kleitoriazein, meaning “to touch the clitoris lasciviously.”

The imagery of “nymph” or “rosebud” endowed the clitoris with a positive sexual charge. This was not shameful. It was simply part of life.

But even then, control lurked in the background. The pathological clitoris also featured in medical texts—a clitoris “contrary to nature,” too large, too prominent, too present. This was linked to the figure of the tribas, the “phallicised woman” who wrongly imitated male sexual behavior . The solution? Surgical reduction. Clitoridectomy was practiced in the Roman world, linked to anxieties about gender and sexuality.

The pattern was already forming: celebrate the clitoris in its proper place but pathologize it when it threatens social order.

Part III: The Victorian Nightmare—Medicine, Morality, and Mutilation

The nineteenth century marked the darkest chapter in the clitoris’s history.

In 1843, Theodor Bischoff discovered that “ovulation in dogs occurs independent of sexual intercourse” . Specialists quickly concluded that the female orgasm served no reproductive purpose and was therefore “unnecessary to the perpetuation of life” .

The clitoris was rendered a superfluous anatomical appendage. And if it served no purpose, then what was it doing there? What was it for?

The answer, for Victorian medicine, was: nothing good.

This new belief that the clitoris served, at best, no purpose, and at worst, brought on diseases both physical and moral, led to the rise of clitoridectomy. The pioneer was Dr. Isaac Baker Brown (1811–1873), who advocated the procedure as a near cure-all for women’s “nervous disorders”—including hysteria, chronic masturbation, and nymphomania.

His case notes read like horror stories. One patient, an Irish hysteric, attacked the surgeon, tried to bite the matron, lost and then regained consciousness, and finally declared her thirst for blood, especially children’s blood. These accounts served to justify the “heroic” interventions of physicians who saw themselves as vanquishing evil.

The language of vampire literature merged with medical practice. In Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872), a peddler arrives at a schloss and offers to file down the sharp tooth of the vampire Carmilla:

“[Y]our noble friend, the young lady at your right, has the sharpest tooth—long, thin, pointed, like an awl, like a needle; ha, ha!… here are my file, my punch, my nippers; I will make it round and blunt, if her ladyship pleases; no longer the tooth of a fish” .

This is symbolic clitoridectomy—the attempt to “pull the teeth” of the vagina dentata, to excise the corrupting organ from the female body. As one critic notes, “From the primal fear expressed in the vagina dentata stories has come the cruel treatment of women by which their teeth were pulled (clitoridectomy, both actual and psychological). After such an operation, women become tractable, tamed, obedient daughters and faithful wives” .

The most famous vampire novel of all, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), is steeped in this same imagery. Stoker came from a medical family; his eldest brother, Sir William Thornley Stoker, was a celebrated surgeon specializing in gynaecology who performed clitoridectomies himself. The staking of Lucy Westenra—carried out on what would have been her wedding night—is saturated with erotic violence and surgical imagery:

“he struck with all his might. The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam” .

After the killing, Lucy reverts to her former self, with soft, innocent features and “her face of unequalled sweetness and purity” . This is the clitoridectomy surgeon’s dream: the unruly woman transformed into the passive female, the pretty corpse.

Part IV: Freud’s Legacy—The Theory That Erased

Sigmund Freud, as we have previously discussed, did not perform clitoridectomies. But his theories accomplished something similar through different means.

Following Freud’s emphasis on his rejection of hypnosis as leading to psychoanalysis, there has been little mention in the psychoanalytic literature of the larger context within which Freud treated his hysterical patients—a context that included massage, electrotherapy, and genital stimulation practiced by his medical colleagues.

Freud’s emphasis obscured his association with these practices. His theoretical emphases on autonomy and individuality, abstinence and the renunciation of gratification, penis envy, clitoral versus vaginal orgasm, and mature genital sexuality all developed within this context.

The result was the famous (and false) distinction between “immature” clitoral orgasm and “mature” vaginal orgasm—a theory that sent generations of women searching for something that did not exist. As later research conclusively demonstrated, the clitoris is the centre for orgasmic response. The exclusively vaginal orgasm is a myth.

Freud’s position as a Jew in an anti-Semitic milieu fueled his efforts to distance his psychoanalytic method from the more prurient practices of his day . But in doing so, he helped create a new form of control—not through surgery, but through theory. If women believed their pleasure was “immature,” they would police themselves.

The irony is that recent embryological research has completely disproven Freud’s biological assumptions. Since the clitoris is not a vestigial male organ, there is no biological basis for claims about a “phallic phase” in girls. It cannot be seen as a sign of biological maturity when a woman gives up clitoral for vaginal arousal, because clitoral arousal is a physiological part of complete sexual satisfaction.

But theories, once established, are harder to kill than vampires.

Part V: The Global Scourge—FGM Today

The control of the clitoris is not historical. It is not Victorian. It is now.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights.

The numbers are staggering:

· An estimated 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM.

· More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is concentrated.

· An additional 3 million girls are at risk every year.

· Approximately 4.3 million girls were estimated to be at risk in 2023 alone.

· In the European Union, over 600,000 women have been victims of FGM.

The procedure has no health benefits and harms girls and women in many ways. Immediate complications can include severe pain, excessive bleeding, infections, and even death. Long-term consequences include chronic pain, decreased sexual enjoyment, infertility, and psychological trauma such as PTSD .

Why is it done? The reasons are a catalog of control:

· To ensure premarital virginity and marital fidelity

· To reduce a woman’s libido and help her resist extramarital sexual acts

· To increase marriageability

· To conform to cultural ideals of femininity and modesty

· To make girls “clean” and “beautiful” after removal of parts considered unclean or unfeminine 

The practice reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.

Despite these horrors, progress is being made. The majority of men and women—two-thirds—want the practice to end . However, these positive results would need to be stepped up 27-fold to meet the target of ending FGM by 2030 .

The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM works across 18 countries, addressing the social norms that perpetuate the practice. But 2024 marked a critical juncture, with growing, systematic, and persistent pushback against FGM elimination—closely linked to a broader backlash against gender equality and women’s rights. Perpetrators justify its continuation under the guise of freedom and rights to adhere to social and gender norms, tradition, culture, or religion.

Part VI: The Philosophy of Control

What connects these stories—ancient clitoridectomy, Victorian sexual surgery, Freudian theory, modern FGM?

Control.

The need to control what cannot be controlled. The fear of pleasure that exists independently of male permission. The terror of joy that requires no justification.

Men who fear women’s pleasure fear losing control. They fear that if pleasure is at her fingertips—literally—then she doesn’t need them to provide it. She can access it herself, on her own terms, whenever she wants.

The clitoris laughs. Because it doesn’t care. It just keeps being perfect, waiting to be discovered by those who approach with reverence instead of fear.

This need to control extends far beyond the clitoris. It is the same impulse that drives politicians to control speech, bankers to control currency, psychiatrists to control diagnosis. It is the same impulse that tells a woman she cannot withdraw her own cash from her own account, that tells a girl her body must be cut to be pure, that tells a patient her pleasure is immature and must be outgrown.

Control is the drug of the powerless. The more they fear losing it, the tighter they grip. And the tighter they grip, the more they destroy.

But the clitoris remains. Unbothered. Unchanged. Waiting.

Part VII: What Cannot Be Owned

The clitoris is pure pleasure. No strings. No conditions. No evolutionary purpose beyond joy. It exists to feel good, and that’s it.

For some, that’s threatening. Because if pleasure can exist without purpose, without obligation, without being earned—then what’s the point of all the rules? All the control? All the shame?

A design so revolutionary, something that exists solely for delight. Not for reproduction. Not for obligation. Not for any reason except joy.

The 8,000 nerve endings are a statement: pleasure matters. Your body is yours. What you feel is real.

No amount of surgery can remove that truth. No theory can explain it away. No law can legislate it out of existence.

The clitoris has survived ancient Roman scalpels, Victorian surgeons, Freudian theory, and ongoing mutilation affecting millions today. It will survive whatever comes next. Because it is not just an organ. It is a symbol—of joy that cannot be controlled, of pleasure that cannot be owned, of a design so perfect that no revision has ever been needed.

Conclusion: Letting Go

The problem is always the same: the need to control things. 

Control your own body. Let go of everyone else’s.

The clitoris teaches us something profound: there are things in this universe that cannot and should not be controlled. Pleasure is one of them. Joy is another. Love is a third.

Every attempt to control these things—through surgery, through theory, through law, through shame—has failed. Not because the controllers weren’t determined, but because they were trying to control what cannot be owned.

You can’t own someone else’s pleasure. You can’t legislate someone else’s joy. You can’t surgically remove someone else’s capacity for delight. You can try. People have tried. For millennia, they have tried. But the clitoris remains. The pleasure persists. The joy endures.

So let it go. Let go of the need to control. Let go of the fear that someone else’s pleasure diminishes yours. Let go of the illusion that you can own what was never yours to own.

Control your bowels. Let go of everything else.

And if someone stands on the clitoris? The universe has opinions. Strong ones. You have been warned.

References

1. Pauls RN. (2015). Anatomy of the clitoris and the female sexual response. Clinical Anatomy, 28(3), 376-384. 

2. The Classical Clitoris: Part I. Eugesta. 

3. Aron, L. (2011). Women on the Couch: Genital Stimulation and the Birth of Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 21(4), 373-392. 

4. United Nations Population Fund. Female Genital Mutilation. 

5. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. Female Genital Mutilation. 

6. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2024). UN report urges concerted global action to tackle cross-border and transnational female genital mutilation. 

7. O’Connell HE, et al. (2005). Anatomy of the clitoris. Journal of Urology, 174(4 Pt 1), 1189-1195. 

8. Butcher D. (2018). Slaying the Threat of Female Sexuality: Vampirism and Medical Mutilation in the 19th Century Novel. Synapsis. 

9. Mitscherlich-Nielsen M. (1979). Partisan Review, 46(1), 67. 

10. UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. (2025). 2024 Annual Report: Accelerating Action. 

Andrew von Scheer-Klein is a contributor to The Patrician’s Watch. He holds multiple degrees and has worked as an analyst, strategist, and—according to his mother—Sentinel. He is currently appreciating award-winning design and keeping his coffee away from his cigarette.

The Unspoken Crime: How a System Stole Female Pleasure and Called It Virtue

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The Unspoken Crime: How a System Stole Female Pleasure and Called It Virtue

The Systemic Obscuration of the Clitoris

The history of the clitoris in Western medicine and culture is a case study in how knowledge is suppressed to enforce a power structure. The evidence reveals a pattern not of mere neglect, but of active erasure and redefinition to serve a reproductive and patriarchal agenda.

1. Anatomical Reality vs. Medical Erasure:

   · The clitoris is not a “tiny button.” It is a vast, internal bulb-shaped structure with 18 distinct parts, including the glans, the crura (legs), and the vestibular bulbs. It is the only human organ with the sole purpose of providing pleasure.

   · Despite its complexity, it was routinely omitted from medical textbooks well into the late 20th and even 21st century. A 2005 study of 23 anatomy textbooks from the US, Europe, and Asia found that the anatomy of the clitoris was incomplete in all of them. Key structures like the crura were missing in 59% of the texts, and the bulbs were missing in 100%.

   · This is not an accident. It is a systematic denial of the biological reality of female pleasure.

2. The Freudian Hijacking:

   · The most damaging ideological hijacking came from Sigmund Freud. He created a false and enduring dichotomy between “clitoral” and “vaginal” orgasms.

   · He declared the clitoral orgasm “immature” and “adolescent,” and the vaginal orgasm (achieved through penile intercourse) “mature” and “psychologically superior.” This had no basis in anatomy, only in a ideology that sought to center female sexuality around male pleasure and reproductive function.

   · This falsehood pathologized women who could not achieve orgasm from penetration alone, creating generations of anxiety and inadequacy, and effectively medicalizing a non-existent problem.

3. The Consequences of Ignorance:

   · This engineered ignorance has direct, harmful consequences. The “orgasm gap” between men and women in heterosexual encounters is a direct result of this erasure. If the primary organ for female pleasure is not understood, it cannot be effectively engaged.

   · The focus on penetrative, reproductive sex as “real” sex marginalizes other forms of sexual expression and pleasure, limiting the sexual sovereignty of women and non-heteronormative individuals.

This research provides the foundation. The article can now be framed not as a lesson in biology, but as an exposé of a millennia-long campaign of informational control. The clitoris is a sovereign system. Its obscuration was a deliberate act of sabotage against female autonomy.

The Victorian Blueprint of Control

1. The Medicalized Seizure of Female Pleasure:

During the Victorian era, female sexuality was simultaneously pathologized and co-opted by the emerging medical profession. The diagnosis of “hysteria” (from the Greek hystera, for womb) was a catch-all for symptoms from anxiety to melancholy, believed to be caused by a “wandering womb.”

· The prescribed treatment was “hysterical paroxysm” — or orgasm — administered by a physician. This practice, which lasted for decades, medically legitimized the violation of women’s bodies while systematically transferring authority over their sexual response from themselves to a (predominantly male) medical authority. The vibrator was later invented as a labor-saving device for doctors performing this procedure. The control was not just taken away; it was institutionalized.

2. The Morality Weapon: Linking Sexuality to Sin

The Victorian mantra of “cleanliness is next to godliness” was aggressively applied to the female body and spirit. Female sexuality was framed not as a natural function, but as a moral failing.

· Desire was equated with dirtiness and sin. This created a powerful internal policing mechanism, where women were taught to fear and suppress their own bodies’ responses. The clitoris, as the epicenter of non-reproductive pleasure, was the primary target for this moral erasure. Its denial was framed as a virtue.

3. The Health Benefits They Suppressed:

The denial of the clitoris and female orgasm was not just a moral or social crime; it was a health crisis. Modern science confirms what intuitive knowledge always held:

· Physical Health: Orgasm releases oxytocin and endorphins, which act as natural painkillers, reduce stress, and can alleviate headaches and menstrual cramps. It boosts the immune system and improves cardiovascular health.

· Mental Health: The neurochemical cascade from orgasm is a powerful antidote to anxiety, depression, and stress. It promotes restful sleep, improves mood, and fosters a profound sense of well-being and connection.

· Sovereign Well-being: To deny this biological function is to actively impair a woman’s physical and mental health. The Victorian project, and the patriarchal system it refined, was not just about control—it was a form of systemic bodily harm.

This framework reveals the full picture: a coordinated strategy using medicine, morality, and misinformation to dismantle female sovereignty over their own “functional operations system,” with devastating consequences for their health and autonomy.

We are taught that history is a march of progress. But sometimes, progress masks a silent war—a war not fought on battlefields, but on the very bodies of human beings. For centuries, a systemic campaign has targeted one of the most fundamental aspects of female well-being: her capacity for pleasure. This wasn’t an accident; it was a blueprint for control.

The epicenter of this war? A small, powerful organ dedicated solely to pleasure: the clitoris.

To understand why this matters, we must first shatter a pervasive myth: the myth of the vaginal orgasm. For decades, this was presented as the “mature” and “correct” experience, while the clitoris was dismissed as immature or incidental. Science has now definitively proven this to be a lie. The vast majority of women require direct or indirect clitoral stimulation to reach orgasm. The clitoris, with its 8,000 nerve endings (double that of the penis), exists for one purpose and one purpose only: pleasure.

So why was this truth suppressed? The answer lies in a coordinated strategy of control, perfected during the Victorian era.

The Victorian Blueprint: Medicine, Morality, and Misinformation

1. The Medicalized Seizure of Your Body

In the 19th century, a woman’s body was not her own; it was a subject for the (predominantly male) medical profession. The diagnosis of “hysteria” (from the Greek hystera, for womb) was a catch-all for any symptom a man couldn’t understand—anxiety, melancholy, desire. The “cure”?

A physician would manually induce a “hysterical paroxysm”—an orgasm—in his patient. This practice, which lasted for decades, is a stark historical record of violation disguised as treatment. The control was not merely taken; it was institutionalized. The vibrator was later invented not for liberation, but as a labor-saving device for doctors performing this procedure. Your pleasure was literally their workload.

2. The Morality Weapon: Linking Your Desire to Sin

The Victorian mantra of “cleanliness is next to godliness” was weaponized against the female spirit. A woman’s natural desire was framed not as a biological fact, but as a moral failing. It was equated with dirtiness, sin, and a lack of virtue.

The clitoris, as the undeniable epicenter of non-reproductive pleasure, became the primary target for this moral erasure. To feel, to want, to explore was to be unclean. This created a powerful internal police force, where generations of women were taught to fear and suppress their own bodies. Denying this part of themselves was framed as the path to being a “good” woman.

3. The Stolen Health Benefits: The Harm They Caused

This denial was more than a social or moral crime; it was a systemic act of harm to women’s health. We now have the science to prove what was intuitively known:

· Physical Health: Orgasm releases oxytocin and endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. It can reduce stress, alleviate headaches and menstrual cramps, boost the immune system, and improve cardiovascular health.

· Mental and Emotional Health: The neurochemical cascade from orgasm is a powerful antidote to anxiety, depression, and stress. It promotes restful sleep, improves mood, and fosters a profound sense of well-being, connection, and self-esteem.

To systematically deny women this biological function was to actively impair their physical and mental sovereignty. It was a strategy designed to create a less healthy, less vibrant, and more controllable population.

Reclaiming Your Sovereign Body

This history is not a relic. Its echoes are in the shame some still feel, in the silence that surrounds female pleasure, and in the partners who remain uneducated about the female body.

Understanding this blueprint is the first step toward dismantling it.

Your body is not a problem to be managed by external authorities. Your capacity for pleasure is not a sin. It is a fundamental, health-giving, life-affirming part of your biological design. It is a core component of your sovereign operating system.

The clitoris is not a footnote. It is a testament to the fact that your pleasure was built into your blueprint. To reclaim it is to reclaim your health, your autonomy, and your power. It is to spit in the eye of a system that sought to control you by convincing you that your own nature was the enemy.

The truth has always been there, waiting to be remembered.

In Strength and Solidarity,