(First published in 2022)
The Elusive Snake Clitoris
Let's start by examining my use of the term "elusive." Although the word doesn't actually appear in a rather odd New York Times article, "Scientists Overlooked the Snake Clitoris, Until Now," I'm at least partly justified because the author, Alex Fox, used the word "overlooked" in the title.
Overlooked or elusive? Clearly, this discovery doesn't measure up to, let's say, the long-time quest for nuclear fusion. That has been elusive by any measure (1). On the other hand, snakes have been on Earth for 128 million years, and their clitorides (2) have been known for a mere month. So, I guess it's fair to say that "potentially interesting" is more accurate because "elusive" would only be technically correct had someone been feverishly looking for the damn thing in the first place.
Highlights from the Times article
Fox writes: "In a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists provide the first proper scientific description of the hemiclitores, or a bifurcated clitoris in female snakes."
And you're about to read the first decidedly improper scientific description.
Quickly, it goes woke. Sexual bias was emphasized in the Times article and by the four women who published the study. Men, presumably because of a "gender-based lack of interest" in the topic, have not discovered the hemiclitoris. I kid you not...
"The study also challenges a longstanding bias in biology — linked to cultural attitudes and a dearth of women in the field — that has left female sexual anatomy woefully understudied in many species."
"The cantil viper [has] the largest hemiclitores at 1.2 inches long and 0.7 inches wide and the Guatemalan milk snake at just 0.1 inches long and 0.06 inches wide."
A good cocktail party icebreaker, if ever there were one. And you never know when this information might come in handy...
“This discovery could really change how we understand mating in snakes...and it just shows how much we’ve been missing by largely ignoring female anatomy.”
As a man, I must strenuously object! Ask any guy on the beach. We do not ignore female anatomy—quite the opposite. We study it with fervent devotion. And we pay the price for our studious attention. The current price is a beach chair over the head.
Let's close with an old but still amusing joke.
Q: What's the difference between Alaska and a clitoris?
A: Men can find Alaska.
NOTES:
(1) Scientists have been studying nuclear fusion for a century as a possibly unlimited source of energy. There has been a recent mini-discovery.
(2) Both clitorides and clitorises are grammatically correct. See that? You learned something.
(3) Asking a man to find, let alone discover, a clitoris is like asking women to explain the infield fly rule. There are certain things that we are just incapable of.
Josh Bloom
Dr. Jonathan (Josh) Bloom, ACSH's Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. During his 20-plus years in drug discovery at Wyeth, his research group discovered the antibiotic Tygacil®, approved in 2005. He holds 25 issued patents and has authored 35 academic papers. Since joining ACSH in 2010, he has written more than 2,000 articles and dozens of op-eds for major newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune.
