The Clitoris: A Recent Discovery in Human Anatomy (NSFW)

[Allegro]

After Dinner Party is in negotiations with a UK television production company to supply them with visual models of the clitoris. Cross your fingers, and stay tuned..

For those who don't know... I shipped my giant inflatable clitoris sculpture, and a selection of drawings to the production company for use in their documentary on female orgasm. The drawings were used on a set. No word yet as to what they've done with the inflatable. The documentary will appear on UK's Channel 4.

Great, PW! Here's to the unfolding of it all.

[Project Willow]

The latest clitoris inspired creation on view beginning Thursday in a group show called "Lady Parts" in Seattle.



Goldstein, vinyl and fabric soft sculpture. Flying penis print by Su Job.

[Allegro]

Celebration time!

[Perelandra]

Very cool, PW! I'm sure we'll hear more eventually about the docu.
Also hoping to be able to visit and see "Lady Parts" later this month.

[Project Willow]

Okay, I just got word that the TV production company lost my clitoris in transport. It will be alright, I'll be compensated. The giggles definitely help.

News article headline fun...

Pardon me London, but where is my Clitoris?

Yank's Clitoris Lost in London

London, what have you done with my Clitoris?

[Pele'sDaughter]

Oh, that's terrible. The loss, that is, not your jokes about it. Glad you can laugh at the situation, and I hope they find your lady parts soon.

[crikkett]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/2 ... 23983.html

Aptly entitled "Cliteracy," the project, which is ongoing, includes [New York artist Susan] Wallace's "100 Laws of Cliteracy," street art about the organ, as well as a "clit rodeo" that involves an interactive installment of a giant golden clitoris.

Awesome

[Project Willow]

Revel in it, dear crikkett, revel. May you celebrate my death as well.

[Pele'sDaughter]

This showed up on my news feed on Facebook.

http://clitoraid.org/news.php?extend.169

LAS VEGAS, May 4 – “Today, we’re launching our second annual International Clitoris Awareness Week, May 4-11,” said Nadine Gary, Clitoraid spokesperson. “We invite women worldwide to defend, explore and rejoice in their right to sexual pleasure.”

Although Clitoraid focuses on clitoral repair surgery for women suffering effects of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), its central mission is to raise public awareness.

"In some African countries, 98 percent of the women have had their sexual organs mutilated,” Gary said. “They will never experience sexual pleasure unless they have the surgery that Clitoraid is offering to do right now for free in Burkina Faso, and soon in many other countries. But there is also a mental mutilation component, one that almost all women worldwide suffer from after being told for centuries that sensuality and sexuality are dirty.”

Clitoraid was the vision of Rael, founder and spiritual head of the Raelian Movement.

“He wrote 'Sensual Meditation,' a book emphasizing the importance of pleasure for men and women, and he pointed out that repression of sexual pleasure is damaging to our fulfillment as human beings,” Gary said, adding that women have born the brunt of that repression.

“The clitoris is a magnificent organ that has been ignored, vilified, made taboo, and even considered sinful through antiquated, patriarchal religious teachings,” she explained. “It’s time to give it the attention it deserves as the only organ with an exclusive sexual pleasure function!”

Gary said it’s easy to see why Western women still experience sexual guilt.“Not that long ago, 'nymphomania' was considered a disease, and masturbation was thought to cause blindness and premature death,” she pointed out. Doctors even believed that sexual arousal destroys a woman’s mental balance!”

The clitoris, boasting the most nerve endings of any human organ (8,000, against 5,000 in the penis), was declared the source of the purported problems.

“In 1865, the president of the British Medical Society recommended clitoral excision to cure illnesses like epilepsy and hysteria,” Gary said.” And scientists didn’t fully research the clitoris until recently. Dr. Helen O’Connell, an Australian urologist, mapped it completely 8 years ago, using an MRI device.”

Clitoraid is inviting women to organize special events this week. “They should celebrate their sexual beauty,” Gary said. “Sexual expression brings self-esteem and inner balance, so let's celebrate the clitoris without shame or guilt!”

The most joyful celebration is expected to take place in Burkina Faso, West Africa, where a group of FGM victims is celebrating surgically restored clitorises this week, thanks to Clitoraid. “They’re experiencing sexual pleasure sensations for the first time!” Gary exclaimed, adding that the woman had the free surgery 2 months ago under

Clitoraid volunteer surgeons Dr. Marci Bowers and Dr. Harold Henning, who flew to Burkina Faso for our first medical humanitarian mission there.

[LilyPatToo]

Very nearly on-topic: a Japanese vagina artist arrested. I hadn't realized that Japan had a penis fixation, but tries to suppress models of female anatomy, but it doesn't surprise me.

LilyPat

[Pele'sDaughter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/0 ... n&ir=Women



Nearly Half Of Young Women In The U.K. Don't Know Where Their Vagina Is

Nearly half of young women in the United Kingdom aren’t sure where their vaginas are located, according to a new survey.

The surprising statistic comes at the beginning of Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month, from women’s cancer research charity The Eve Appeal. Given a simple diagram and asked to identify the womb, cervix, ovaries, vagina, and vulva -- five areas that can be affected by gynecological cancer -- only half of women aged 26-35 were able to accurately identify the vagina. (Hint: it's identified in the graphic below.)

That statistic stands in sharp contrast to the knowledge of older women: 80 percent of respondents between the ages of 66 and 75 could correctly label the ovaries, and 90 percent identified the womb, according to The Eve Appeal.

What’s more, “less than a quarter [of young women 16-25] said they felt confident that they were well informed about gynecological health issues, compared to over 42 percent of women aged 66-75,” the survey revealed.

Each year in the U.K., 20,000 new cases of gynecological cancers are documented and over 7,600 deaths reported, according to The Eve Appeal. In the United States, it was estimated by the American Cancer Society that 91,730 new cases of gynecological cancers would be diagnosed in 2013, with such cancers causing approximately 28,080 deaths.

The Eve appeal found that a lack of anatomical knowledge isn't the only barrier: young women also lack comfort with the terminology of reproductive health.

According to the study, 65 percent of young women between 16 and 25 said they had issues using the words "vagina" or "vulva," resorting instead to monikers like "lady parts" or "women’s bits" when discussing their reproductive health.

“These cancers have some of the worst outcomes for women, with a 40 percent mortality rate," said Helena Morrissey, chairwoman of The Eve Appeal, in a statement. "Understanding the symptoms will save lives, which is why we are urging women this Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month to talk more openly about these life-saving issues.”

The survey, which queried women of all ages, was conducted in July 2014. For more information about symptoms of gynecological cancer and treatment, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's gynecological cancer page.

[82_28]

I have this very dear friend (who just had a baby) who brought up to me last year:

"Isn't it weird that I just have this hole that is open to the world? Just this hole that everyone knows I have." (She's married, don't worry)

All I could say is yeah that is pretty weird when you get down to it. But it is natural in the sense of "what are you going to do?" you're born the way you are.

All I can say is that I went to a festival the other day and young females are basically exposing where their clitorises are as apparently tight hugging short shorts are in. Like I was saying to others, "jesus they make Daisy Duke look like a motherfucking Puritan." But they're all in synch as far as dress. Every single young girl there was wearing something approaching "camel toe" emergency. Of course I noticed and was like "damn", but I kept my eyes off them. Which is weird because the very style is for them to get looked at/stared at by creeps. So let's look at the creep angle.

As a man, who has met many a dirty man, I have to say these clothes are not safe for teenagers given the various environments. As a non female I cannot imagine what happens in your heads as far as fashion and competition with one another and don't know a thing about the fabled clitoris. Just not safe. Men tend to wear jeans, canvas shit, a t-shirt, ball cap and grow beards etc. Men I think, look at being "over or under dressed" as being a sign of a "douchebag" which is a term I actually hate because we all know what a douche is supposed to do.

Lastly, I watch the news or at least have it on in the background. Yet, I have noted recently that commercials love to use the term "vagina" all the fucking time, yet, they never mention the actual word "penis". It's ED this and ED that with idyllic couples holding hands on beaches and shit. YET!!! You can't say "what a cunt" on TV but you can say "what a dick" without being bleeped out.

Deffo not a male rights guy or whatever the fuck they call themselves. But what's up with that?

[Project Willow]

I see the outlines of penises through pants all of the time. Indeed, the lovely bulges are not safe from my wandering eyes, but the failure of men to properly camouflage the shape of their genitals with their clothing does not constitute tacit permission for me to sexually violate them. I wholly and fully reject the idea that certain sights can cause men to loose control of their behavior. I think men are better than that. What kind of behavior is permitted by our culture, and who is assigned responsibility for it, is the problem.

While we're on anatomy, I do believe you mean labia, 82, not clitoris. The labia majora and minora are what form the camel toe (hate that phrase) shape.

............

I'm not surprised about the article. My neighbor made a clit hat for me to wear during our street fair event. I took the opportunity to explain in detail what it was to anyone who asked. The majority had no idea of the extent of the organ, including a number of women my age and far older. I wonder when that channel 4 doc is coming out, maybe that will help.

[Twyla LaSarc]

The euphemisms for women's genitalia have always bothered me. I think they tie into the infantillzing of women in our culture (right up there with 'winnie the pooh' and other cartoon/disney wear that seems to infest our clothing choices). I've worked around some female cooks that would say the crudest cock/penis things, then turn around and talk about 'cooties' and 'hoo-hoos' as if they were too delicate to concieve of their anatomy in anything but the vague terms they no doubt used as/with children.

Then again, I know from experience that having a detailed grasp of one's own anatomical structure can still be a exercise in frustration because 90% or so of doctors still won't acknowlege that you might know what you are talking about and ignore you anyway.

[Elvis]

Very nearly on-topic: a Japanese vagina artist arrested. I hadn't realized that Japan had a penis fixation, but tries to suppress models of female anatomy, but it doesn't surprise me.

LilyPat

Japanese condom maker Fuji Latex's headquarters building: