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Helen King, Professor Emerita, Classical Studies, The Open University

The clitoris – a brief history

Christina Paliy/Shutterstock

“What’s the difference between a bar and clitoris? Most men have no trouble finding a bar.” In the world of humour, the clitoris remains a mystery: supposedly small, and so inevitably difficult to locate. “Which dinosaur will never be discovered? The Clitaurus.”

It sometimes seems medical science has been far more interested in the penis than the clitoris. Indeed, up until very recently the number of nerve endings thought to be on a woman’s clitoris was only an estimate and this was based upon research on cows.

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