The amazing internal anatomy of the clitoris is a mystery that has surfaced and vanished in history, coming into focus in 2005 (!), when Royal Melbourne Hospital urologist Helen O’Connell published her groundbreaking MRI studies.
Now, a French sociomedical researcher named Odile Fillod has sculpted a detailed anatomical model of the clitoris and all its structures, which is available to be 3D printed and used as a classroom aid in French classrooms. An anti-sexist web TV production company called V.Ideaux has worked with Fillod on the project, which was realised on the machines in Paris’s Fab Lab.
Fillod’s 3D clit has come in the nick of time. This June, Haut Conseil à l’Egalité, a government body monitoring gender equality in public life, published a damning report on the state of sex ed in France. The report revealed that sex education is rife with sexism. Current official guidelines state that young boys are more “focused on genital sexuality”, while girls “attach more importance to love”.Clitoris activism is hot in France right now. The feminist group Osez Le Féminisme has been vocal in combatting the silence around it since 2011. While in Nice, a group of sex-positive feminists, Les Infemmes, has created a “sensual counter culture” fanzine called L’Antisèche du Clito or The Idiot’s Guide to the Clit. There are funny drawings of “Punk Clit,” “Dracula Clit” and “Freud Clit”, as well as facts about the organ.
How a 3D clitoris will help teach French schoolchildren about sex
[Stephanie Theobald/The Guardian]