I like the idea of an awareness week. I don't think it's like a huge everyone-and-her-mama-knows-about-it thing, but it was featured in the Huffington post, and I saw a few Facebook posts about it from people in my feed who weren't necessarily sex or feminist advocates, so I think it picked up a little notoriety. Clitoraid created this event. They are a humanitarian organization dedicated to surgically repairing clitorises for female genital mutilation [FGM] victims. However, they created this first annual International Clitoris Awareness Week to focus on the positive. Nadine Gary, the Clitoraid spokes person says:
It’s been ignored, vilified, made taboo, and considered sinful and shameful for centuries because of patriarchal religious values,” Gary said. “It’s time to give this beautiful organ the attention it deserves. It’s the only human organ with an exclusive sexual pleasure function!Agreed. I'm all for anything that gives the clit more spotlight. I know it's not an invisible word, but it's also not part of our verbal culture the way it should be. It's rarely a part of our sexual education in schools. It's not the dominate word we ladies use to discuss our genitals - even though it's the part that gives us our pleasure. It is way under-used in porn, and sadly, in women's magazines that give sex advice, where the focus is all too often vaginal penetration. The clit is the organ of female sexual pleasure just as the penis is the organ of male sexual pleasure, but little girls probably don't learn the word until they are already headed into puberty if not much later. When we do learn it, it's probably not because our parents or other trusted adults identify the clit as a part of our body the way penises are identified for tiny boys, but more likely it's because we snuck a peak of the word in a book or magazine, and if we're lucky, as a passing label on a picture in sex ed. It's a word most of us don't hear our parents and teachers say.
More clit in our culture is good for the Orgasm Equality Movement, and so I thank Clitoraid, and I appreciate the challenge for activism they put out on their site:
For International Clitoris Awareness Week, Clitoraid is inviting women to organize special events.Challenge accepted. I'm going to use my blog, but I hope some other readers will accept the challenge in their own way. Go Team Clit!
“Whether through educational lectures, art exhibits, songs and dance, or a ‘girl’s night’ of sharing, each woman can celebrate sexual beauty the way she chooses,” Gary said. “Sexual expression brings self-esteem and inner balance, so let's revere the clitoris in all its glory while completely free of shame and guilt!”
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