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Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

theguardian.com

41–50 of 189 posts

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds plausible at least, but I think the question isn't necessarily making a valid assumption. Why do men have to have nipples? Why is our retina installed backwards? Why do sinuses drain upwards? It's just a path evolution took, it doesn't jump to some optimal design.

Asking “why” questions about our body / evolution often (not always) gives informative answers. As in the example you gave: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-purpose-of-ou...

Interesting finding, though it doesn't explain animals with properly-wired retinas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_eye

(Scientific American is throwing up a paywall even though they're only republishing https://theconversation.com/look-your-eyes-are-wired-backwar... At least they link to the original.)

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Male genital mutilation is very common

Respectfully, this article is not about the male experience, it's okay to talk about women without putting men in the story.

No, it's important context, and attempting to suppress it does everyone a disservice. Without taking these kinds of points of comparison into consideration, one becomes susceptible to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy , and may become convinced about supposed bias where the evidence doesn't support the claim, contradicts it or even shows the opposite.

Another classic example is the discourse around "missing and murdered Indigenous women" in Canadian politics. It was popular enough around a decade ago to be more or less a set phrase. To listen to politicians and wonks discussing the matter, you would imagine that Indigenous men didn't ever get kidnapped or murdered. As a matter of fact, the statistics showed that it happened to them at over twice the rate of the women. (They also showed that it was not an alarmingly high rate compared to other Canadian populations, and that the perpetrators were usually themselves Indigenous — as you'd expect for generally fairly isolated communities.) But you would get silenced in many places (e.g., banned from the Canada subreddit) for pointing to those statistics.

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#45

Dumb question, why do “sensitive” spots on the body need more nerves? Couldn’t you just have the normal touch-sensing nerves and map signals from specific spots on the body to stronger/pleasurable qualia in the brain?

> Dumb question, why do “sensitive” spots on the body need more nerves? Couldn’t you just have the normal touch-sensing nerves and map signals from specific spots on the body to stronger/pleasurable qualia in the brain?

Think of a television. What gives you a better picture, quadrupling the number of pixels or making the existing pixels 4x as intense?

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Male genital mutilation is very common

Respectfully, this article is not about the male experience, it's okay to talk about women without putting men in the story.

Respectfully, if we didn’t shutter men all the time, maybe there would be paradoxically more time for women. Unless we make it a zero-sum game where we’re all extremists who would lose if it makes the opponent lose too.

Mixed school is a bane for men, for example. I’m full on with the Mollahs on this one.

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, this article is not about the male experience, it's okay to talk about women without putting men in the story.

Respectfully, if we didn’t shutter men all the time, maybe there would be paradoxically more time for women. Unless we make it a zero-sum game where we’re all extremists who would lose if it makes the opponent lose too. Mixed school is a bane for men, for example. I’m full on with the Mollahs on this one.

> Respectfully, if we didn’t shutter men all the time,

Respectfully, what are you talking about?

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Male genital mutilation is very common

Respectfully, this article is not about the male experience, it's okay to talk about women without putting men in the story.

To someone who is shocked at the prevalence of female genital mutilation in other cultures, the widespread acceptance of other types of genital mutilation in (probably) their own culture is an important piece of context, I'd say.

Re: Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

#50
post #15

Dumb question, why do “sensitive” spots on the body need more nerves? Couldn’t you just have the normal touch-sensing nerves and map signals from specific spots on the body to stronger/pleasurable qualia in the brain?

Fingers, for instance, not only have higher sensitivity, but also much higher spatial resolution due to the more dense nerve network. I can't tell why other areas may have needed higher spatial resolution; maybe it was evolutionary important in the past, and remains today. Or maybe just adding more nerves due to a random mutation correlated with better reproductive outcomes due to a stronger signal, or higher sensiti…

Wait, so what you’re saying is, we can use our genitals in a pinch that could be as good as fingers for finesse?
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