Photo: WeHeartIt
Like the penis, the clitoris comes in a large variety of sizes.
By Rebecca Jane Stokes — Written on Jan 20, 2017
I don't remember ever being taught in school about having a clitoris.
I learned all about my vagina and all the trouble it could get into if I let any ol' naked penis in there, but nobody ever said as much as "boo" when it came to discussing the clitoris.
I don't think this was a deliberate attempt to keep girls my age from understanding that pleasure could be found in sex, but I know that that's long been the tradition.
Men are allowed to like sex, and women aren't.
Sexual education is more straightforward for men, because their central reproductive organ is also their central pleasure organ.
Men learn sex is fun AND that it's for reproduction.
Girls, on the other hand, we learn how to sop up period blood from our vaginas, shave our legs, and fear getting pregnant.
Because of that, we hear a lot about average penis size, but we don't hear much about average clitoris size.
Yes, I said "average clitoris size"! They do come in different sizes.
The more women learn about their clitorises early on in their sexual education, the more likely they are to have a healthy, happy sex life full of orgasms!
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Average penis size
If you ask a roomful of men to speculate about the average size (flaccid and erect) of the typical male penis, they won't hesitate to give you a number.
I don't know when men start measuring their penis size, but it's something every guy has done, or at least eyeballed and rounded up.
Men are much more interested in the size of their penis then women are in the size of our clitoris.
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That's because, for men, the penis is something to be proud of!
Ask most women (minus the size queens) and you'll know the truth, penis size doesn't matter.
Penis skill is what it's all about.
There are all sorts of numbers that you can access if you want to research the average size of the male penis.
But have you ever given thought to your clitoris's size?
The answer, sadly, is probably not.
Here's what you need to know:
While the male penis has been the object of study for centuries, it wasn't until the book Our Bodies, Ourselves was released in 1971 that women began to learn more about the clitoris.
Up until then, many just viewed the clitoris as being a sort of prehensile penis.
But, along with research by Masters and Johnson, Our Bodies, Ourselves explained that the clitoris, in fact, had it own hood, glans and shaft, and extended up to 10 times in size beneath what is visible to the human eye.
(Bet you're regretting that clitoris piercing right about now, huh?)
Because of the practicalities of the female anatomy, we don't have the luxury of being able to measure our clitorises.
But that began to change with the advent of the MRI.
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The average clitoris size is recorded in volume, being between 1.5 and 5.5 milliliters when aroused.
When aroused, the clitoris more than DOUBLES in volume!
The most nerve-dense part of the clitoris is the glans, which averages between 0.09 inches and 0.17 inches in length.
So the next time you're filling out a dating profile and are eager to share your assets, you can just pop that stat in there!
So, can having a small clitoris make it harder to orgasm?
While having a small penis for men doesn't affect their ability to have an orgasm, science indicates that this isn't the same for women.
Women whose clitorises are on the smaller side of the scale report have fewer orgasms than women with larger clitorises.
So if you have a hard time having orgasms, it might actually be related to the size of your clitoris.
If you suspect that your clitoris is smaller than average and you're having a hard time reaching orgasm, one thing you can try is stimulating your interior clitoris.
This means paying attention to your labia and to the area of flesh above and surrounding your clitoris.
Experiment using your vibrator on these areas instead of directly on your clitoris.
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By focusing on the part of the clitoris that you CAN'T see, you are actually increasing your chances of having a more powerful orgasm.
When it comes to our bodies, ignorance is more than just not knowing something, it's dangerous.
If women were taught about their sexual organs in the same detail that men were taught about there's, then many women would be able to embrace a healthy sex life with greater success earlier on.
