THE BIG CLITORIS COVER-UP. Consciously and unconsciously, many societies uphold taboos against depicting, and even discussing, genitalia. Sometimes the taboos extend to the actual mutilation or elimination of certain genitalia. Such is the case with the clitoris.

This week, Dan Savage answered a letter from a woman concerned about the size of her clitoris. In doing so, he drew attention to the possibility that, even today, doctors perform procedures on the clitoris without understanding how it functions.

Also this week, there was much reporting on a study linking female genital mutilation to increased mortality for women and newborns.

Here is the Wikipedia article on the clitoris. (Beware the link to the dubious Vagina Institute.) In case you want practice locating the organ, you can play "find the clitoris" here.