Cultural Cliteracy: Exposing the Contexts of Women's Not Coming

Abstract

Cultural cliteracy denotes what an adequately educated person should know about the clitoris. This paper elaborates three ways to enlarge understandings of the clitoris. The first looks at the clitoris as a target of male aggression, a significant and persistent theme in Western history. The second describes an expanded anatomy of the clitoris, one which makes it as large and significant as the penis. The third connects consciousness of clitoral facts with empowerment beyond genital satisfaction and demonstrates that cultural cliteracy can improve readings of women's texts. To conclude, cultural cliteracy is shown to fuel growth, creativity, and individuation and to help women find and express personal power. This claim implies that integrating better understandings of and attitudes towards the clitoris into other academic and professional discourses could help women come into their own. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives.