âThe Clitoris is not a Button, it is an Iceberg. Welcome to my TED Talk.â
âHow is it possible that we landed on the moon before we figured out the anatomy of the clitoris?â
Itâs not surprising that most men havenât a clue about the female sexual organâthe clitorisâŠmost women donât either. Today the word vagina is used for that general region of our lady bits, but as Sophia Wallace states,
ââVaginaââthe single most misused word in the English language. This is one of the laws of Cliteracy. Itâs intentionally hyperbolic. âVaginaâ is a Latin word. It means âsword holderâ. Vagina, medically, technically, only includes the opening. This term is used almost universally in doctorâs offices. Itâs also used in feminism to sort of advocate. But itâs a term that ignores the clitoris, which is the female sexual organ.â
I donât remember having âthe talkâ growing up, other than the often-heard, âdonât get pregnant!â shame-filled accusation thrown at me before every school dance. In school, we had a few vague conversations about periods, but mostly these talks centered around what not to do on your period. The female body was only discussed when we talked about where babies come from and never about female pleasure. I babysat for a young couple who had an interesting library of books and thatâs where I first read The Joy of Sex, and then that other classic, Our Bodies, Ourselves. This book introduced me to all sorts of new worlds and I still have my vintage copy.
What weâre taught about our bodies extends to equality in the world.
âIn sex education it is taught that boys are both sexual and reproductive, boys have erections, boys have wet dreams, boys ejaculate, and then the semen fertilizes the egg. Girls, weâre taught, have reproductive organs, they menstruate, menstruation is painful. Girls should not get pregnant if they donât mean to. Girls should not get sexually transmitted diseases. We never learn about the clitoris. We never learn that girls have desire, that this is natural, that girls have sexual dreams, that girls have fantasies.â
Clearly some better sex education is needed for teens but also for everyone. Thereâs no real excuse to not know more about our bodies. LikeâŠabout the clitoris, did you know that inside that âicebergâ it is actually shaped almost like a penis? That only what we see on the outside is the âtip of that iceberg.â I didnât, but so much makes sense now.
Check out this image, itâs basically a hidden droopy penis with balls (not the actual medical term):
Mind. Blown. Life makes a bit more sense, no? Iâve known so many powerful women âwith ballsâ and now itâs true. Science! And maybe if we start to know more about our powerful bodies, weâll stop using female anatomy references as a way to put down men? We should be rising up, erect and powerful, and showing the world that we are not just âempty voidsâ for male pleasure.
Sexual organs, of women at least, are still steeped in mystery. Case in point, I live as an expat in Turkey and the first nine years here, I was living in a rather small village where patriarchy was (and still is) the way of the land. It is not uncommon in the rural areas to have men and women completely separated in daily life. After being annoyed one day about needing to move my seat on the bus because an older man didnât want me (a woman not his wife, daughter, or sister) in the aisle seat across from himâŠyes there was an aisle separating usâŠone good, local friend of mine (male, university educated, mid-30s) explained the logic like this, âWomen have special powers downstairs. Men are unable to resist these powers and so the woman needs to move otherwise the man cannot be blamed for his actions.â YeahâŠsome Deuteronomy-style rape logic but it made a lot of sense of how things were arranged as a society. After he said that (and basically agreed with that way of thinking), a good friend of mine (also an expat) and I would make jokes about our special âhooha laser beamsâ that shoot out as we make âpew, pewâ noises with hands shaped like pistols whenever a guy annoyed us. I might just need to send that illustration to a few guys there now, or at least to their wives.
About that video: this TED Talk kept surfacing to my âwatch laterâ list, hope it makes you also feel a little more empowered to know more about your body. May it be of benefit:
End note: I also loved that she mentioned FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) as part of the awareness of the clitoris:
âAll bodies are entitled to experience the pleasure that they are capable of. This is a core pillar of cliteracy. In making this work, I had to say that the clitoris, first, as an organ, has a right to being, and that this right is not just about not being cut off. Sadly, to this day, over a 140 million women have had their external clitorises cut off. This doesnât make it into the news very often, and this doesnât come up in foreign policy discussion. So number one, the clitoris has a right to exist, free of harm, like any other organ.â
Elizabeth Turner Selfies
Elizabeth Turner (Age 27) is a real-world model and an Instagram model. Her stunning figure and interesting looks came to play, as she got signed by LA Models. With rising popularity, she captivated the audience on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. She has more than a million followers on Instagram. She was in a relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio, while she was still into his age-range!