What do you think? Do I look like an incredible sex organ or what? I'm a clitoris!

The clitoris is part of biosex female and some intersex reproductive systems. It's sensitive to touch, gets erections, and, when stimulated, can lead to orgasm.

If my face isn't illustrating things clearly, here's a diagram. This drawing is not to scale... scale- scale- scale- scale. On average, the clitoris is about three inches long and a quarter inch wide.

This is the clitoral glans, like my head. There's a clitoral hood that protects it, like my hoodie. Underneath the hood, or prepuce, is the clitoral shaft. The book Our Bodies, Ourselves describes the shaft as a hardish, rubbery, moveable cord right under the skin.

Below the inner and outer labia, the shaft separates into two crura that attach to the pelvic bone. Some anatomists suggest that they may even wrap around the vagina during arousal.

These are the bulbs of the vestibule, another part of the clit. When the body gets sexually excited, all this, except the head, fills up with more blood and becomes erect.

The shaft in particular engorges with blood, gets erect, then retracts the head under the hood. We're talking about the source of most biosex female orgasms. The "sweet spot," "love button," "pink pearl," the doorbell you ring before entering the vagina.

If you're having a difficult time finding the clit, there are three common explanations. 1) It may be covered entirely by the prepuce or foreskin. This could be permanent or from being turned on. Remember: engorge, erect, retract.

2) You might be looking with your eyes. Try finding it by touch and stet; carefully using one or two fingers to massage the area. Most often when you've located the clitoris, you get one of these reactions! Though not always.

Third explanation: an estimated 125-140 million women alive today are circumcised, meaning that part of their external genitals have been cut or cut off, including the clitoral glans and shaft. There are many organizations working very hard to criminalize the practice.

Let's go back to 400 BCE. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, had already figured clits out! "...once a woman is rubbed and her womb titillated, a lustful itch overwhelms her down by her clitoris, and the pleasurable feelings and warmth expand throughout the rest of her body." 

Dr. Alfred Kinsey found the same results in the 1940s and Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson found them again in the 1960s. The clitoris is the most significant organ for biosex female sexual response.

1991, even more research was conducted and published in a book called A New View of a Woman's Body. They described the clit having eighteen structures!

In the 90s people knew there was more to the clit than the head, and yet textbooks and anatomical models still leave out the internal parts? What?

Fortunately, in 2005, magnetic residence imaging, or MRI, confirmed the previous clitoris self-report and cadaver findings. Now we know how complexly the blood vessels and nerve fibers connect to other sexual organs, why stimulating the urethra, vagina, and anus also stimulates the clitoris and visa versa.

We know the clitoris has twice as many nerve endings as the penis, even though they're made from the same embryonic tissues. And we know the clitoris is more sensitive than the tongue and fingertips, too.

So you're saying it's a good place to touch, then? Mmm, like this, using the hood to indirectly massage it, but probably not directly.

8,000 nerve endings!!

Some of you have probably already figured out, that would be like kicking me in the face. In the 1920s, a gynecologist, Dr. Helena Wright, learned from her patients that many women viewed sex as a matrimonial duty. They weren't even sure where they'd find pleasure in the act.

In response, Dr. Wright wrote multiple books giving instruction in female pleasure, including, of course, how to approach the clitoris! Noting, it's not enough to merely find the clitoris, you've got to rub it. In Wright's words, "...discover what happens when it is given the right kind of stimulus necessary to produce its full functioning."

How? These are two Sexplanation's most popular videos about that discovery process on hygiene, pleasure, masturbation.

Adam & Eve, the sponsor for this video, has over 80 clit stimulators that can help you out. Stimulators like this one... this one... and this one. There's a pretty sexy holiday coming up in February, and by going to adamandeve.com and entering promo code DOE at checkout, you can receive 50% off a clit-stimulating play thing for you or your friend that will be shipped for free if you're in the US.

Stay curious. (vibrator buzzing)

Ooh, purring.

Ahh, it's sucking. (sucking noises)