Why Everyone’s So Afraid of the Clitoris?
French philosopher Catherine Malabou argues that the clitoris has long been marginalized and misunderstood in Western thought. She shows that, until recently, people “didn’t know exactly what this organ was for” – it was “slow to be anatomically discovered and objectively described,” which encouraged myths and misconceptions. Early medical writers (even Freud) depicted the clitoris as a “castrated…miniature penis,” implying it was vestigial or “devoid…of use” and sensation. Thus the clitoris was often treated as either a source of dangerous “hypersexuality” (as with the caricature of the nymphomaniac) or simply an irrelevant leftover (so-called “labia” or nymphs in French).
Figure: Anatomical diagram of the clitoris (glans, body, crura, bulbs). Much of the clitoris is internal, a complexity that was overlooked for centuries.
The medical neglect of the clitoris had real consequences. For centuries Western medicine and culture ignored its true structure and function. Malabou notes that because the clitoris is “only devoted to pleasure,” it became “a kind of enemy to reproduction”. In a society that values productivity and reproduction, an organ with no reproductive role was deemed “useless” or even subversive. For example, she points out that some non‑capitalist cultures practice female genital mutilation so that women can only be “deflowered by their husbands,” reflecting a view of women as objects whose sexuality must be controlled. In short, an organ dedicated solely to female pleasure threatened traditional roles of women as mothers and wives, reinforcing taboos around it.
Feminist Reframing and Autonomy
Recent feminist thinkers have reclaimed the clitoris as a symbol of autonomy. Malabou cites Carla Lonzi, who famously defined being “clitoridean” as thinking in the first person. The clitoris, Lonzi argued, “doesn’t depend only on men to attain…orgasm,” so awareness of it symbolizes a woman’s control over her own body and pleasure. Malabou agrees: bodily and intellectual autonomy are linked. One “cannot have intellectual or mental autonomy without having bodily autonomy, without being the author of your own eroticism”. In her own life, Malabou describes how escaping fear and “finding her own erotic emancipation” went hand‑in‑hand with realizing her future need not be defined solely by motherhood.
In contrast to empowering views, Malabou criticizes some comparisons of the clitoris to the penis. She argues that equating them (for example, citing nerve counts or supposed “power”) simply forces a masculine framework onto female sexuality. Such comparisons “transform the clitoris into something like a masculine organ – that is, power, wealth, energy, etc., denial or negation of this zone of non-power of the clitoris”. Instead, she celebrates the clitoris as inherently rebellous and anarchic. Malabou writes that the clitoris is not “an organ of power…but an autonomous organ…an incarnation…of the world of anarchism”. It “acts in a body as someone who doesn’t want to obey, that only wants to obey itself,” a “zone of non-power” that defies patriarchal expectations. She envisions a feminist ideal of women who “affirm themselves without becoming…women of power” in the traditional sense, encouraging more “anarchist rebels” rather than mimicking male power structures.
Contemporary Implications
Today’s political climate underscores how critical clitoral awareness is to bodily autonomy. Malabou calls the rollback of reproductive rights (such as abortion bans) “a total catastrophe” for women’s autonomy. If women are forced into unwanted motherhood, they lose fundamental control over their bodies – echoing how the clitoris itself has been controlled or erased through history. To counter this, Malabou urges open education and dialogue. She points out that, astonishingly, many people – men and women – still “don’t even know what the clitoris is.” Therefore, she insists, it “has to be taught in school…as much as possible” and normalized in culture. This reflects a broader call for sex education that fully acknowledges female anatomy and pleasure, breaking longstanding taboos.
Sources: Catherine Malabou, Pleasure Erased: The Clitoris Unthought