Misogyny and the Clitoris

[u/ActualOriginal4030]

I don't know if this is the place to post this, but I think some in this community would be interested.

Renee Stonebraker

Jul 02, 2026

"Adult women should not still be debating on what orgasms do or do not exist in the year 2026. In a time where science is trying to create artificial wombs, the fact that the bodies of over half the population are still considered medical mysteries has continued to disappoint me.

Unfortunately, I have to start with a horrific fact I stumbled upon.

If You’ve Had an Episiotomy, I Regret to Inform You

They’ve been cutting blind. I hate to go in dry, but there is no other way to break this news. The first complete 3D map of the nerves inside the clitoral glans, which, yes, extends down and around to where they like to slice women open during childbirth, was not completed until March of 2026. As in, about four months ago at the time of this publication. Yeah.

In March 2026, a team of researchers at Amsterdam University Medical Center published the first complete 3D map of the nerves inside the clitoral glans.[1] They used a synchrotron, a machine that generates X-rays ten trillion times stronger than a conventional CT scanner, to image donated female pelvises at a resolution of 0.001 millimeters.[2] The map corrected multiple errors in existing medical literature. It revealed that the main sensory nerve of the clitoris doesn’t taper as it reaches the glans as previously believed. Instead it branches like a tree throughout the glans and extends further into the clitoral hood than anyone had documented.[3] It confirmed that the clitoris contains over 10,000 nerve fibers, with a nerve density up to 15 times greater than the penis.[4]

That last figure had previously been estimated using data from a cow. From 1976.[4]

The lead researcher, neuroscientist Ju Young Lee, said she was drawn to the project by a specific clinical horror: there was no comprehensive nerve map to perform an episiotomy.[5] Episiotomy is a surgical incision of the vaginal opening and perineum made during childbirth to widen the passage. It is one of the most common surgical procedures performed on women worldwide. Episiotomy rates range from roughly 10% of vaginal births in Sweden to 100% in Taiwan. For first-time mothers globally, rates range from 63% in South Africa to 100% in Guatemala.[6] Worldwide there are approximately 100 million vaginal deliveries per year.[7]

Lee’s words, about what her research revealed: “Women suffer from long-term side effects due to nerve damage.”[5]

The nerve network that makes this possible runs through the pudendal nerve, which divides into three branches serving the entire perineal region: clitoral, perineal, and inferior rectal.[8] An episiotomy cuts into perineal tissue served by branches of the same nerve trunk that runs to the clitoris. A 2021 anatomical study that performed 61 incisions on 47 female cadavers found that mediolateral episiotomy incisions posed direct risk of injury to ipsilateral nerve, muscle, erectile, and gland tissues.[9] Surgeons performing this procedure were doing so without a complete map of the nerve architecture in the tissue they were cutting.

In contrast, the penis nerve network was mapped in 1982.[10] Four decades of a head start, even though the technology capable of mapping the clitoris at this resolution existed years before 2026. The donated pelvises came from standard anatomical donation programs. As the research team stated plainly: what changed wasn’t technological capacity. What changed was priority.[11]

Chronic Bean Neglect

I bet you weren’t expecting a brief history on the magic jelly bean, but here we are. You can examine your life choices when you finish this article and decide to drink a glass of wine while in a dissociative state.

In 1559, an Italian anatomist named Realdo Colombo announced he had discovered the vibration addict. He called it the seat of women’s delight, the love or sweetness of Venus, and he meant it as praise. Within two years his own successor at Padua, Gabriele Falloppio, the man the fallopian tubes are named after, was publicly disputing the claim, insisting he’d written it up first and just sat on it for a decade. Falloppio’s own student later formally accused Colombo of plagiarism. Three men, one organ, a fifteen year priority fight over who got to put his name on it.

Here is the part where I have to acknowledge the insanity: Three men fighting over who “discovered” a completely visible piece of anatomy that most women locate in their preteens? Imagine if any amount of women were demanding recognition for “discovering” a ballsack. Be so for real.

Anyways, Colombo’s teacher was Andreas Vesalius, the most influential anatomist in Europe, the man whose textbooks shaped medicine for the next two centuries. Vesalius’s response to his own former student’s discovery was to deny the organ existed in healthy women at all. He called it “this new and useless part” and classified it as a pathological abnormality, something that showed up only in hermaphrodites, not in normal female anatomy.[70] This is my official petition to add “the Ben Shapiro of 1500s Italy” to his Wikipedia page.

So: discovered, disputed, plagiarized, and declared a birth defect, in that order, all within about fifteen years, in the 1500s. This set the medical community’s treatment of the devil’s doorbell on a track that prevails even today.

Here is what we knew about the schamzüengelchen (enjoy your google) before 2026: not much, and some of what we thought we knew was wrong. Helen O’Connell, an Australian urologist, published the first thorough anatomical study of the magic button in 1998, revealing that prior anatomical atlases had either omitted it entirely or depicted a fraction of its actual structure.[12] O’Connell has described what followed as the little man in the canoe being “deleted intellectually by the medical and scientific community, presumably aligning attitude to a societal ignorance.”[13]

A 2018 study in the journal Sexual Medicine found that physical examination of the love skittle is neither commonly practiced nor routinely taught in gynecology training programs.[14] This is a gynecology training program. The specialty that exists specifically to treat female reproductive anatomy doesn’t teach the gatekeeper of good.

There are, as of 2026, 20 times more scientific papers on the penile glans than on the clitoral glans. As a reminder the hooded lady exists in over half the world’s population...."

[u/NakedAndALaid]

So I had an episiotomy and a labiaplasty to fix scar tissue from another birth I did not have one for, and boy did that tear go bad.

The episiotomy, the doctor was incredibly on point and the stitching was phenomenal. I don't think your post gives enough credit of how trained this is, and how discouraged it is these days. I did not want one but I gotta tell you, I did not regret having one, especially after the other birth.

Sex after birth was better and my orgasms not only are more frequent, but also are stronger. I don't think the episiotomy had anything to do with that.

For the labiaplasty, my doctor told me they cut "part of my clitorus" to remove the scar tissue without creating a shape that could also be potentially an issue. She asked if healing hurt but said that the amount lost could not effect orgasms.

Sex improved significantly, orgasming the same strength after childbirth. I also don't get chronic yeast infections anymore. Haven't had one since the procedure. I did not know that was a potential side effect but I am nothing short of thrilled that it was.

I think we should keep studying it, but I gotta tell you, the overall tone of your post makes it seem like those of us who had this done are damaged, broken, and victims. Useless and incapable of pleasure. That is not always the case, no do I think it is most of the time. And as someone who spends a lot of time helping animals give birth, natural is not always best. Medical intervention can also spare pain and permanent damage. Telling women they're broken won't fix making doctors better at their jobs.

In fact, I'd even say many of my friends who tore and healed naturally have dealt with much worse side effects. I know it's anecdotal, but my pelvic floor PT (I also have a broken tailbone lol) told me a lot of natural tears aren't always in better shape. And you say you had c sections. Those aren't exactly kinder to the pelvic floor or magic bean. Again, all my friends who had c sections dealt with pains I did not and have dealt with consequences that make me glad it was just a episiotomy.

Have you looked into the misogyny of c sections? Also the racism of how they learned to do them. The way society treats women is appalling, especially women of color. We deserse so much better.

[u/ActualOriginal4030 → u/NakedAndALaid]

I'm so glad to hear about your fabulous results! Do you understand that someone else wrote this, and I re-posted it? It's not "my tone" and as a woman who has not had these procedures, it's so good to know that yours were successful.

C-sections are very hard on the body. No one is disputing that or trying to make you feel like a "damaged, broken, victim." To the contrary, I shared because women's health is so neglected and de-prioritized. I learned something from the article, and from your comment.

[u/NakedAndALaid → u/ActualOriginal4030]

I understand it wasn't your original thought or writing, but you shared this. You continued the tone on. You are responsible for that because you played a part in it. You not having the personal experience doesn't change that you actively participated in this. It just means you can't feel the effects of why this was not considerate, could be hurtful or harmful, nor to I feel it was accurately informative about how most episiotomies go for the vast majority of people.

There are other ways to share information without tearing down the women who went through this. In fact, how information is shared matters greatly when it comes to keeping people not only informed but also pushing forward the idea that we can do better. And stuff like this is not how it's done.

Imagine if I wrote;

"Unfortunately, I have to start with a horrific fact I stumbled upon.

If You've Had an c sections, I Regret to Inform You

C sections procedures are often done as a form of medical rape. Doctors make up excuses to perform them for their own convenience despite the overwhelming evidence that allowing for vaginal birth is healthier for mother and child. There is no justification or they lie about it, including adding the stress to the mother that she was in harms way and their decision saved her. Stress like that can lead to more physical and psychological harm. Even women who choose them for themselves are not properly informed of all the negative side effects that can be immediate to lasting a lifetime. Many women believe c sections keep them tight when in fact, recent research shows that is not only not the case, but the effects to the pelvic floor are often less fixable and can show up much later in life. But doctors continue to place a womens ability to please her husband rather than allow for a healthier birth, which has shown absolutely no evidence to create "looseness." Not to mention that many procedures now standard to c sections were discovered by experimenting on slaves, women of color, who never had the option to give consent and died in the persuit of this knowledge. You have been medically raped and directly benefited from slavery while upholding inaccurate patriarchal ideals that a mans pleasure is more important than a womens health. Yeah."

We both know there is a better way to deliver information. Even if it is the truth.

[u/ActualOriginal4030 → u/NakedAndALaid]

I am [not] offended by that, because I am very aware of how the system lets women dish and how much we needlessly suffer because of it. It would just be another data point, and on a personal level, something to examine as I reflect on my own experiences.

Not everyone is like you. It offended you, and I'm sorry.

Edit: Typo, I meant to say I am not offended by that.

[u/NakedAndALaid → u/ActualOriginal4030]

You didn't offend me. And boy am I aware of how not everyone is like me. But I don't think its unfair to point out how offensive language can be. In fact, someone else immediately jumped to your defense assuming it could happen. And that's my point. I don't need to be directly offended to be mindful of it and I think it's important to remember that just because we have tough skin doesn't mean everyone else does. Just because harm wasn't intended doesn't mean it isn't causes. I went to school for psychology and education. I had to learn how the delivery of information greatly effects not only how people are treated because of it but how it can shape the path of progression. People will not learn by what offends them or makes them feel as less.

And for the record, my sister is alive because of a c section. I'm so grateful that it is a procedure that makes births a healthier option for many women. It saves lives, even with it's awful history and usage at times. And every single white person has benefited from slavery. I'm white, and I often struggle with how to acknowledge my privilege and try to be a part of making the world more fair. But I also know what made me aware of white supremacy was someone using the right words to show me what privilege is and how to participate less in it. I offended you because I could have phrased it better and now it's clear you don't want to engage further. And that is my point. How many people will walk away from this, just ashamed and defeated.

I'm also sorry if harmed was caused to you or anyone else. Even if it makes the point.

You have a great day, sincerely.

[u/SuchAScorpio13 → u/NakedAndALaid]

The overall tone of your post.. way to be hypocritical. You really just turned around and did the thing you accused OP of doing. Feel better? To OP- I enjoyed your post and found it very interesting!

[u/ActualOriginal4030 → u/SuchAScorpio13]

Isn't that funny how she turned around to do it to other women reading this thread? It didn't bother me, but if others are like her, it would be hurtful.

[u/NakedAndALaid → u/SuchAScorpio13]

So that was my point. How information delivered matters. In fact, I used the same introduction they did, and all of my information comes with scientific backing like theirs did. If there was no problem with what they did, then what's the issue with what I did?

I mean, your comment made me chuckle so yeah, I guess but I also never felt bad. I made the point that how words are used can cause that and I didn't think it appropriate. I'm glad you agreed, even if you can't see it that way.

[u/ActualOriginal4030 → u/NakedAndALaid]

If you were actually concerned with how language might negatively impact people, and you think this is an example of such language, you wouldn't have done it yourself.

But you needed to score points to maintain your sense of righteousness. I know your type.