Fun fact: the clitoris of female snakes (also) has so far been overlooked by science

When it comes to the clitoris, women and females get the same treatment from scientists. Understand that they don’t care. If the clitoris in humans appeared in school books for the first time in 2017, the clitoris of female snakes was described for the first time on Wednesday 13 December. The study, reported by AFP in the Anglo-Saxon media, was conducted by a team of researchers led by (oh surprise!) a woman, and published in the English journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“ The huge taboo on female genitalia »

Scientists have known since the 1800s that male snakes have two penises, called hemipenes. But it wasn’t until 1995 that the scientific community discovered that female snakes have two clitorises, called hemiclitoris. A discovery that evidently they have not tried to investigate, for reasons identical to those that explain the delay of science regarding the clitoris of women: modesty and disinterest. This is in any case the opinion (shared) of the researchers of this study on the clitoris of female snakes.

” Female genitalia are noticeably neglected compared to their male counterpartswhich limits our understanding of sexual reproduction in vertebrate lineages,” they write. ” the huge taboo around the female genitalia » it may also explain why snake clitorises have not been described before. ” I think it’s both not knowing what to look for and not wanting to do it,” she said.

And why not for fun?

Thanks to the study conducted by Megan Folwell, we now know that the two clitorises of female snakes are located on the top of the tail, hidden by the skin. They are also known to consist of erectile tissue which can swell with blood flow. It now remains to determine their function. According to this study they could have a role in reproduction, in particular that of sending a signal to the vagina to cause it to relax and lubricate it. One way perhaps to prevent damage to the coupling, due to the hooks and thorns on the hemipenis… nice.

The hemiclitoris could also be used to signal the ovaries that it is time to ovulate and to initiate sperm storage. Finally, scientists do not exclude that they can also be used for the sexual pleasure of female snakes. One last fun fact for the road: Megan Folwell found out the clitoris of the death adder, which as the name suggests is one of the most venomous snake species in the world, is heart-shaped. Clit-style romance is beautiful.

A photo credit: viewbug via Canva.