Female anatomy is actually not a mystery. It’s not complicated. The vagina refers to the main hole (separate and quite different from the urethra), and the outer, visible portion we often call the vagina is the vulva. The clitoris sits at the top of the vulva. It’s not hidden. There is nothing that needs to be “found,” and this isn’t a game of Where’s Waldo. It’s literally right there.
You’d think that, given the ease of locating the clitoris and vagina, more people would be able to identify them on a diagram. Yet, as a series of recent TikToks asking random men to locate these basic body parts demonstrates, the threat of shame and embarrassment isn’t enough for people to have a firm grasp on the reproductive system.
In early April, two viral videos emerged from @LAD TikTok and creator Victoria Hammett asking men to locate the clitoris and the vagina on illustrated diagrams of female sexual anatomy. While both were hopefully edited to show off only those who failed the test, both highlight handfuls of men who have absolutely no idea where either of these parts are. In the @LAD video, half a dozen men are shown thinking that the vaginal opening and urethra are the clitoris. One even seems to think the clitoris is located on the taint.
In Hammett’s video, men at bars are asked to point to the vagina in a diagram of the uterus. “Trick question, that’s not a vagina,” a guy says. “It’s at the very bottom,” says another in a promising start. “Actually, probably at the top,” he follows up, throwing himself way off course. Both videos appear to feature men of a variety of ages, spanning from their early 20s to early 60s — it’s not like we’re talking about 14-year-old boys here.
These videos basically hinge also on the same premise and conclusion: Men are fucking dumb and don’t know what they’re doing with women’s bodies. And sure, while it’s amusing to watch all these guys bumble their way around such images and publicly humiliate themselves, it’s also really not that funny. The “men can’t find the clit” joke is ancient, and dead in the water at this point. It’s ludicrous that men keep telling on themselves like this, saying that they’re so absolutely lazy and careless that not even the threat of disgracing themselves in front of millions of people is enough for them to know their shit.
By now we should all be acting as though someone on the street could approach us with a camera and force us to identify the clitoris or the vagina at any time. Nevermind having a firm grasp of simple biology or being sexually literate for the sake of pleasing a partner — at least know this stuff in the event a TikToker approaches you at a bar and you’re buzzed enough to agree to participate.
Frankly, this is true regardless of gender or sexuality, though. While these TikToks only showed men (and didn’t identify their sexual preferences), there are plenty of women with vaginas of their own who don’t have a solid understanding of the body, either. And sure, we can blame inadequate sex education in schools, but as adults with unfettered internet access, we really have no excuse. There’s no calculus to be done, no formulas to concoct or complicated history to understand. It’s a matter of looking at a simple picture. If men can’t find the clit, it’s because they don’t want to.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
