In 1947, Dr. Charles Mayo Goss erased the clitoris.
Not from the actual human body, of course, but from the anatomical diagrams that purported to represent it.
Goss was the esteemed editor of the 25th edition of the seminal classic Gray’s Anatomy. Internationally lauded as the authority on all things anatomical, Gray’s Anatomy had been considered essential for any would-be physician to own since it was first published in London in 1858. It was written by Dr. Henry Gray and illustrated by Henry Vandyke Carter.
Goss’ appointment as editor was not entirely surprising. He had already established himself as a leader in the field, publishing extensively in academic journals and holding faculty posts at the medical schools of Yale and Columbia. Goss had long revered the work of Gray — once telling his medical students that Gray’s Anatomy was one of the three “finest examples of English prose,” alongside the King James version of the Bible and A Tale Of Two Cities.
“I think one of the reasons that we know so little about the clit as a general population is because it was information that no one thought was important enough for us to have.”
Jenny Block
Sex educator, Writer, Author of O Wow: Discovering Your Ultimate Orgasm
Goss, like the editors who came before him, endeavored to stay as close to the original text of Gray’s Anatomy as possible — making alterations only to include new medical findings and correct previous inaccuracies. But he made one significant change that went largely unnoticed by the medical community: he erased the clitoris.
Dr. Carmine D. Clemente, the editor who followed Goss, is in his 80s. In a phone interview, he said that in his experience with Lea & Febiger, Gray’s storied American publisher, the editor of each edition was granted full editorial autonomy. In other words, the decision to eliminate the clitoris in the 25th edition was likely made by Goss alone.
Graphic by Kate Widdows
While Clemente admitted he found the omission befuddling, he didn’t have any insight as to why Goss might have made that choice to begin with — leaving only room for educated speculation. It’s entirely possible he drew on the teachings of Dr. Sigmund Freud, whose theories on psychosexual behavior ruled the day. Freud believed that the clitoral orgasm was immature and infantile.
“Elimination of clitoral sexuality is a necessary precondition for the development of femininity,” Freud opined, “since it is immature and masculine in its nature.”
Perhaps the learned Goss took Freud’s request for “elimination” a little too literally — or perhaps the entire incident was just a fluke.
But whether the clitoris disappeared because of Freud’s popular teachings, because Goss had an agenda or simply because someone made a clerical error remains a mystery.
Regardless of the reasoning, it was far from the first time that the clitoris had been casually erased from the tomes of medicine. The tale of Dr. Goss is not one of a villainous anatomist or even an ill-intentioned editor. It stands instead as an example of how easily cultural constructs can skew and distort something as seemingly straightforward as science.
The Clitoris Through The Years
130
2014
Claudius Galen. Credit: Universal History Archive / Getty Images
130 to 200
Claudius Galen Guesses At It
Perhaps the most famous doctor to come out of the Roman empire, Claudius Galen acknowledges the clitoris and theorizes that “all the parts, then, that men have, women have too, the difference between them lying in only one thing, namely, that in women the parts are within, whereas in men they are outside.” The male body is viewed as the ultimate ideal, and there’s an overarching belief that women are simply men with imperfect bodies. With this in mind, it is not difficult to understand why the Greeks and Romans were more comfortable with the clitoris than nearly any culture that would follow. They saw it as the female body’s failed attempt at a penis — and the language Galen uses when writing about the clitoris speaks to that.
Cover of the Malleus Maleficarum. Credit: Wellcome Images
1486
Malleus Maleficarum Calls The Clit “The Devil’s Teat”
The Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witches’ Hammer, is published as a treatise on the persecution of witches. For over two centuries, it serves as the definitive guide to catching, identifying, torturing and killing witches. The treatise identifies the aroused and thus engorged clitoris as “the devil’s teat,” and claims it as evidence of dealings with the devil, or witchcraft.
Image of a female anatomy dissection from Dissection Des Parties Du Corps Humain by Charles Estienne. Credit: National Library of France
1545
Charles Estienne Does First Dissection Of The Clitoris
A French author and anatomist, Charles Estienne undertakes anatomical dissection on a massive scale. He publishes all of his findings in his book Dissection Des Parties Du Corps Humain, which translates to Dissection Of The Parts Of The Human Body. Estienne’s findings in regard to the clitoris are anatomically incorrect and fundamentally flawed. He refers to the clitoris as the woman’s “shameful member.”
A portrait of Renaldus Columbus that hangs in the University of Padua in Italy. Credit: University of Padua
1559
Renaldus Columbus “Discovers” The Clit
But he doesn’t exactly call it the “clitoris.” Instead Columbus opts to name it “the love or sweetness of Venus,” determining that it was “pre-eminently the seat of women’s delight.” He further observes that it functions quite similarly to a penis in that “if you touch it, you will find it rendered a little harder.” He was one of the first to hint at the erectile tissue that makes up much of the internal and external clitoris.
The cover of Jane Sharp’s book Midwifery Mastered.. Credit: Wellcome Images
1671
Midwife Masters Anatomy
Over the course of her work as a midwife in England, Jane Sharp notes that “the clitoris will stand and fall as the yard doth and makes women lustful and take delight in copulation.” In her writing, she later dubs the clitoris “the female penis.”
The female genito-urinary system by Regnier De Graaf in 1672. Credit: Wellcome Images
1672
Anatomist Regnier De Graaf Finds The Clit, Chastises His Colleagues And Predecessors For Missing The Mark
“We are extremely surprised that some anatomists make no more mention of this part than if it did not exist at all in the universe of nature,” states Regnier De Graaf, a Dutch physician and anatomist. “In every cadaver we have so far dissected we have found it quite perceptible to sight and touch.” De Graaf’s surprise leads him to craft the most comprehensive report on clitoral anatomy yet.
Illustrations of the clitoris by George Ludwig Kobelt circa 1844. Credit: BIU Health Paris
1844
Underdog Anatomists Call Foul
George Ludwig Kobelt, a German anatomist, conducts a study of the clitoris. He wants to demonstrate through his findings that “the female possesses a structure that in all its separate parts is entirely analogous to the male.” Kobelt is the first to draw detailed anatomies of both the internal and external clitoris.
Sigmund Freud. Credit: Universal History Archive / Getty Images
1904
Freud Starts Calling The Clitoral Orgasm Names
World renowned Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud introduces his theory on psychosexual development, which asserts that there is an immature clitoral orgasm and a mature vaginal orgasm. He states that the clitoris is the site for pre-pubescent orgasms but upon reaching puberty, healthy women should begin having vaginal orgasms instead. “With the change to femininity the clitoris should wholly or in part hand over its sensitivity, and at the same time its importance, to the vagina,” Freud writes. This false conclusion is nearly universally adopted, and although it has been since debunked, it still informs the culture of sex and sexuality throughout the Western world.
Princess Marie Bonaparte, a French author and psychoanalyst who is closely linked with Sigmund Freud. Credit: Universal History Archive / Getty Images
1924
Princess Marie Bonaparte Resorts To A Ruler
In France, sexually dissatisfied Princess Marie Bonaparte, a psychoanalyst and a great-grand-niece of Napoleon, is frustrated with her inability to orgasm during penetration and seeks out a solution. Bonaparte theorizes that her clitoris is simply too far away from her vagina, and to prove it, she undertakes a study of her own. Aided by friends who were doctors, she measures the distance between the clitoris and vagina of 243 different women — and publishes her findings under the pen name A.E. Narjani in a medical journal called Bruxelles-Medical. Her findings demonstrate that women whose clitorises are farther from their vaginas have a more difficult time orgasming during vaginal penetration and those whose clitorises are closer have a much easier time.
While Gray’s Anatomy had been the authority on human anatomy since the publication of its first edition in 1858 in London, the 25th edition, printed in 1948, is relevant because it quietly erases the clitoris. The 24th edition might not have given the clitoris a full and accurate treatment, but it at least contained references to the organ in anatomical illustrations. In the 25th, the clitoris is nowhere to be found.
Sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey. Credit: Arthur Siegel / LIFE Images / Getty Images
1953
The Kinsey Report Pulls Back the Hood
On the heels of his 1948 book, Sexual Behavior In The Human Male, American biologist Alfred Kinsey publishes a companion edition, titled Sexual Behavior In The Human Female. In this second volume, Kinsey makes a particularly bold and theretofore unexplored assertion, writing, “Intercourse is not the best means of pleasure for women … the clitoris is the center of female pleasure.”
Dr. William H. Masters and Mrs. Virginia E. Johnson in May 1970. Credit: Bettman / Corbis
1966
Masters And Johnson Mention The Clitoris
Sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson seizes on Kinsey’s conclusion, which was based upon self-reported sexual histories from thousands of women. They seek to put the clitoral and vaginal orgasms to the test in their laboratory, where they had made a name for themselves by observing sex acts in the flesh. In their published research, Masters and Johnson conclude that the vaginal orgasm was analogous to the clitoral orgasm in terms of sexual response — not exactly a ringing endorsement for Kinsey’s theory that the clitoris was king, but certainly a decisive way of putting the myth of mature and immature orgasms to bed.
A sketch from Dr. Helen O’Connell’s “Anatomy of the Clitoris” report. Credit: Dr. Helen O’Connell
1998
Helen O’Connell Unveils True Anatomy Of The Clitoris
Australian urologist Helen O’Connell publishes findings that challenge nearly every belief about clitoral anatomy to date. Through dissection, O’Connell manages to map out the clitoris in its external AND internal entirety, demonstrating not only its immense size but its sizable stock of nerve-endings. The clitoris has two to three times more nerve endings than the penis.
2009
Pierre Foldes Performs First 3D Ultrasound Of The Clitoris
In his quest to reverse the devastating effects of female genital mutiliation, pioneering surgeon Dr. Pierre Foldes, together with Dr. Odille Buisson, produces the first 3D ultrasound of the clitoris. Foldes also invents the first successful female genital mutilation reversal surgery, wherein he removes scar tissue from the vulva and exposes some of the internal clitoris, returning sexual sensation to many of his patients.
2014
New Study Says That The Vaginal Orgasm Is A Myth
A controversial study published by Italian research team Puppo+Puppo in The Journal Of Clinical Anatomy asserts that both the vaginal orgasm and the G-spot are, in fact, myths.
