3D printed clitoris brings gender equality to French classrooms: Next month, French schoolchildren are going to become much more Knowledgeable about the structure and function of the clitoris, thanks to 3D printing.
A full-scale clitoris printed out of polylactic acid (PLA) is currently on display at the Fab Lab in the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, the largest science museum in Europe. It was initially created for a video, produced with the support of the national Ministry of Education, designed to assist educators in achieving gender equality in the classroom. The goal is to show the anatomical and physiological foundations of sexual pleasure as it pertains to women, and not just men, according to the Fab Lab website. The plastic clitoris also will be used in sex education classes in French primary and secondary schools starting in September.
Sociomedical researcher Odile Fillod embarked on this project, she says, because the clitoris is often ignored in sex education manuals and, in the rare instances when it is discussed, is poorly represented.
“From Fillod’s sculpture, pupils will learn that the clitoris is made up of the same tissue as the penis,” writes the Guardian. “That it is divided into crura or legs, bulbs, foreskin and a head. That the only difference between a clitoris and a penis is that most of the female erectile tissue is internal, and that it’s often longer, at around 8 inches. ‘Women get erections when they’re excited, only you can’t see them because most of the clitoris is internal. I wanted to show that men and women are not fundamentally different,’ ” Fillod told the Guardian.
After doing extensive research on the structure of the clitoris—which was rife with inconsistencies even in scientific literatu1re, she notes—Fillod created a 3D model using Blender open-source software. Fillod currently prints with PLA, but ultimately would like to use a more flexible material to provide a more accurate anatomical representation of the organ.
*********************************************
About Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie
