Hitting the Spot – What is the Clitoris?

Most women know what the clitoris is. As a teenager, you probably went on a voyage of discovery to find your “man in a boat”. People with vulvas know a lot about the function of the clitoris, but is there more to it?

A clitoris is more than a small, bean- or pea-sized lump of flesh somewhere between your labia. As much as you think you know about this place that gives you so much pleasure, there’s going to be more you don’t know.

To help you understand the female pleasure center and general anatomy so you improve your sex life, we’re going to look at:

• Exactly what the clitoris is
• Where in your body the clitoris is
• Ways to get joy from the clitoris

So you can be informed, educated, and maybe get even better orgasms.

What exactly is the clitoris?

You will know your clitoris as the little lump of flesh above your pee hole – science calls it the urethra. It’s usually around the size of a pea or bean, but can be bigger and there’s no normal.

Whatever you know it as:

• Clit
• Bean
• Devil’s doorbell
• Man in a boat
• Love button
• Love bud

Scientists call that bit the “clitoral glans”. It’s only about 20% of your whole clit, but it’s the only bit we se, so tends to get all the attention.

There’s no real reason that we have a clit, except to cum – which is surely reason enough?

One theory goes that, in other animals the hormones that flow after a female orgasm release an egg ready to be fertilised. Us humans have developed monthly-ish periods so we don’t have a practical purpose; it’s all about the fun now.

Seems as humans we’ve known for years how important the clitoris is; the word seems to come from the Ancient Greek word kleis, which means key. The key to a woman’s heart can be a lot of things – a good orgasm is definitely one of them.

Where is the clitoris?

Not where a lot of men seem to think it is! Most people in the world don’t get good sex education, and even when they do, it generally focuses on function. You won’t find many high-schoolers being taught that sex can be super-fun, so the clitoris gets ignored.

Time for some anatomy:

The clit that we all know and love sits above the hole where your pee comes from. It gets a little bit covered by the “clitoral hood”, which is where your two inner lips, or labia, join together.

That’s what we all know, but things go much deeper than that.

Your clit reaches back towards your pubic bone and splits in two, think about the wishbone in a chicken. It looks a little like that. These are like legs for your clit and hold the structure in place around your vulva.

Between that comes the “vestibular bulb”. We don’t have a less sciencey name for this bit yet, since we can’t see it and it was only discovered in 2009.

The bulbs sit either side of the entrance of your vagina and when you’re aroused, they fill with blood and get super sensitive. Think about how a penis works with blood rushing there in excitement; this happens to your vestibular bulbs, too.

How does the clitoris create an orgasm?

Only about 18% of women report being able to orgasm through penis-in-vagina sex. It’s probably still down to the clitoris, though. Them bulbs we’ve got going on wrap around your tunnel of fun so when a dick hits the right bits – think the g-spot – that’s actually your clit getting it’s fun.

There are somewhere between 8-15,000 nerve endings in your clit. When they get stimulated, your body reacts by releasing hormones and doing all that cool stuff that feels so good.

How do I make a woman cum through the clitoris?

Roughly speaking, there are about 3.95 billion women in the world and there are 3.95 billion plus one ways to give a woman an orgasm.

Most women will have learned how to orgasm when they started masturbating. If you’re a woman who’s never given herself an orgasm – go and give it a go. The best way for a sexual partner to learn how to please you is by you teaching them.

There are lots of different tools you can use to provide a clitoral orgasm, using things like:

• A finger, or multiple fingers from one or both hands
• Lips and tongue, or tongues if you’re have a threesome or more
• Clitoris-focused vibrating sex toys
• Dildos of different textures
• The penis
• Clean food items
• The flowing head of a shower

As long as it’s clean and/or protected by a condom, pretty much anything can be used to explore a clitoris.

In terms or technique – there are plenty of them, too. You can try direct pressure, flicking, swirls, circular motions, sucking; pretty much anything is possible and there’s no right answer.

What is super important is to check the person you’re trying to give an orgasm to is actually enjoying it. “That good?” “you like that?”, things like that will make sure you’re hitting the spot, literally and figuratively.

What is the clitoris?

The clit is the sexual pleasure center of the vulva and where attention should be focused when aiming to provide an orgasm for a woman.

It goes much deeper than what we can see, and is likely responsible for what we think of as vaginal orgasms – it reaches all around the edges of the vagina and realllly enjoys being stimulated.

Now you know the answer to “what is the clitoris?”, go forth and experiment with ways to make it happy.