Snakes have cl*toris: scientist overcome major a taboo around female genitalia’

“The scientists say previous research had mistaken the organs as scent glands or underdeveloped versions of penises”.

That’s kind of suggestive.

There is shockingly little attention paid to the clitoris (ahem). The number of nerve endings is much larger than the penis, but nobody bothered to count it until last month[1]. It wasn't "discovered" until the 17th century -- a pretty big thing to go unnoticed by anatomists.

It's emblematic of the fact that female bodies are woefully under-studied. There still aren't any treatments for menstrual cramps; all you get is ordinary painkillers. Women are routinely excluded from studies, partly to protect their fertility (as if men aren't also fertile) and partly to remove a variable -- and the results will be applied to women without ever studying that variable[2].

So yeah, getting somebody to study the evolutionary history of the clitoris is kind of a big feminist deal. It is political, because women have been excluded in so many ways for so long.

[1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-is-the-clit-so...

[2] https://www.womenshealth.gov/30-achievements/04